I'm really surprised to hear this about Willie Boats and especially Rod. Willie's has always treated their customers like family, once you purchased a boat from them, they will always treat you right. Rod is a great guy a takes time to get to know you and spend time with you to make sure you get what you want.
If you are choosing a glass boat over a aluminum boat, especially a Willie's, you are making a mistake. Especially if it's based on not getting to talk to one rep and then talking with the other. Go back, introduce yourself to Rod or any other Willie's rep, you'll never regret it.

Kev

Went Fri afternoon. Was there 5 hrs. Did'nt have enough time. Did'nt spend enough money. Goin back today with the wife and have her look at a couple of dogs. She picks out the best hunters.
I have a driftboat. I NEED a sled too. She is the one who can keep me in line.

Kev, I know Willie builds an awesome boat thats why I've narrowed my choice to either a Willie or Clack, that being said, Clack also builds a great boat. I owned 1 for 7-8 years and put it through hell (it was the boat I learned how to row in) and it never let me down. It often slid over shallow riffles while I passed guys in alum. boats dragging theres, they come with the best warranty in the business and the thing that really sealed the deal for me was that guides can exchange their boats for a new boat every year for $700, does Willie offer that? maybe, but I couldn't seem to get the reps attention to ask him, maybe Rod can answer that here for me?

Big shows like this can be tough for floor reps to get to everybody, especially when they're there for eight or nine hours a day.

In my experience, Rod has gone out of his way to help me out. I asked awhile back about getting a bra for my Willie's. (I bought it used a couple years ago and it's got a nice black paint job.)

He went out of his way to pick one up at the Portland show for me and brought it back up here and put up with my messed up schedule and time constraints to get it from him. And it ended up costing a lot less than what I would have paid had I gone through anybody else.

Long story short - he didn't have to do any of that considering he barely knew me.

BTW...this Willie's is my third boat after rowing two previous glass boats (one a homemade tank and the other a Clack). Glass boats may have their advantages in some situations, especially if you can pick one up for a steal.

But dollar for dollar, you can't beat a Willie's. That's especially true if you do any amount of plugging. On that front it really is like night and day.

If you're going to get a new drift boat, now's not really the time to do it anyway. Wait till May-Summer when you'll find more on the market as people are wrapping up the steelhead season and upgrading or moving on.

I bought mine direct from Willie's in late summer. It was formerly a guide boat who traded it in for a bigger one after one year and was in beautiful shape. They move a lot of boats through there over the summer under similar circumstances. Ones that never make it to the website or any ads.

Bruce

Great fun at the show - lots of booths - some money spent on tackle stock up - good company both days I went - in fact, I've got nothing bad to say. And living in Wenatchee, traveling to the show in Monroe instead of Puyallup was awesome!

JK

I went last Thursday. Saw a good seminar by Terry Rudnick on salmon jigging. I need to change a few things there.

I liked the multiple tent/building set-up much better that the Seattle exibition hall - it seemed more "country". The beer tent was cool with the new PBR guide boat inside.

The funny part was that it was raining pretty hard and a small lake had formed in front of the entrance to the fishing boat tent. They had a sump-pump going, but you still couldn't get in without your xtra-tuffs. It was about 6" deep.

One thing I pretty much decided to buy was the "ArmorThane" sprayed-on truck bed liner done by on outfit in Marysville for $295. Does anyone have any experience with this product?