WANTED: Guide Fishing (Benwahh)
 

Just saw this in the wanted section....."There isn't anything I love more than catching fish, I'm 19 yrs old been on the water for 18 1/2 years, fishing for 17 years. I've thought about attempting to become a guide however my dad (fisherman as well) is telling me the guide life is a hard life. I would appreciate any advice or words of experience from guides or captains that live this life. I would really like an opportunity to work or intern for a guide service and really get a feel for the behind the scenes fun"..


The best advice I can give you is.....never make your hobby a job....then you have no hobby you have a job.....this is not a snap ya finger and your a guide type life....tons of lake time and the patience of Jobe are some requirements to start working on if your serious about this.....Oh and pick a good "Sea School"....<---this won't be fun if you pick the wrong one....

This guy and his dad fished the Redfish tournament Saturday.
Him and his dad seemed like real nice folks.

First off thank you for you're advice. I understand it's competitive field however we fish 7/8 weekends, no matter what the conditions are. I understand that's only 2/7 days a week but we work for our fish.. I have other hobbies that allow me to escape.. Is a degree required in order in to become a guide or is it just preferred?

No degree is required . 90% of the guides pass the required test and the rest of the knowledge they have came from years on the water.
If you are serious and want to guide for a living .make sure and learn Multiple areas well.
That way if your main area gets hammered by a hurricane or fouled by an oil spill ,you are not sitting there w/ no where to take clients.

The best way to learn is to try and get on with a big guide service that runs alot of boats. You will learn a lot from the other guides and will always force you to fish as hard as you can to keep up with them so you don't look so bad when everyone comes back to the dock. Most every new guide will struggle to keep up with the rest their first year. You will either learn quick or be looking for another job. And it's not nearly as easy as peole think, most of the time you will have people on your boat that have no fishing experince at all. Main thing is you gotta figure out how to get a fish on the end of their line.

Capt. B is right, if it is a hobby you love then it is no longer a hobby. It becomes a job. I only guide part time for just a few months out of the year, and it is hard work. I absolutely love to trout fish and it is fun being on the lake and catching fish all the time, but there are definitely those days that are just plain tough-and they are even tougher when you have clients that are expecting to catch fish. I don't know that I could do it every single day. It is very rewarding to go out and put people on fish and have them tell you that they had the best trip of their lifetime though. I love seeing the smiles on people's faces after a good day. Guiding is a lot of fun but there is a lot of hard work and knowledge that is required as well. Like I said before, its not a full time deal for me so I find it extremely enjoyable, but it seems like it would be very tough doing it every single day. It's just like anything else in life though - if you want to make a living out of something and be successful, you have to love it and be dedicated to it. Ditto about the sea school as well. Pick a good one. I went to Capt. Roy's in Seabrook, TX and they did a great job and were reasonably priced.

P.S. It is helpful to have some entertaining stories in your back pocket for those days that you just can't make the fish bite! Lol

All I can say is you wont know if you dont try. Better to try and not like it ,than spend the rest of your life wondering what it would have been like.

Like the others have said its gonna be tuff at times and gonna be great at times ,but it is a job .

Capt. Roy's has a captains school a couple times a year here in Lake Charles.
I think it is 3 weekends, instead of a full week like at his place in Texas.

I went through Capt Roy's. Good school

Listen to this guy

Captain Roy knows how to teach....you will know the material when your done thats for sure....Capt Roy is an avid sailor and was employed by NASA....very sharp fella as you will see if you attend one of his courses. Sea Academy is another option for Sea School.

Man you are young, you got your whole life ahead of you! I say go for it ,do like boss hog said n try n get on with a big guide outfit when someone may be willing to take u under their wing and if not lIke he said seeing the others catch fish will help motivate u if you are tge competitive type. Better to do it now and realize u hate it and find another gig before u have churns!

Thank you thank you thank you
 

Capt. Roy will be in town in a few weeks however not sure if I can afford it.. but will definitely check in to it asap. as far as learning new water, we discovered some new water this past saturday and will be looking more into it next weekend. I'm cometetive however new to the fishing tournament world, trying to be involved in as many as possible for experience. I'm gonna ask around at the guide charters for either a side job or intern of some sort. I appreciate everyone's advice and words of wisdom.

I say you go for it. I wanted to guide out west when I was young and never did it. I really wish now I had done it as I am sure it would have been a wonderful adventure filled with good times and bad. The thing is, as other have told you, I will never know now what I missed....you know why, because I let people tell me it was a crazy dream and listened to them when they told me to go do something practical. You have the rest of your life to get a 9 to 5 job, do what you want to do when you are young and you will never regret it. As Morgan Freeman said in Shawshank Redemption "get busy livin or get busy dying."

The best thing to do is try it out and see if you can handle it. Then after a year do it part time while going to school. I started guiding when I was 18 and went to school also. It is a really good job while going through college

I know this guy personally,he has been taught well.He has the drive and dedication to do this.Him and his father are on the water every weekend,no matter what the conditions are.They don't quit till they find fish!!!! They always figure the fish out. GOOD LUCK BENWAHH!!

Do it, You can get a job as a deck on a charter, be ready to clean some boats and do the dirty work.

good luck with that, I don't have the patience to teach someone how to fish when there biting, and I'd have a hard time putting a pole down too. Only time I put my pole down is to grab the net for someone catching a big one! I've brought friends fishing and taught them how how to cast, and have told them where to cast and have had successful trips but had to apologize for getting rough with them while they were learning. Its just always easier to fish with someone who fishes often.

Go for it man!! Like some said, you'll never know until you try. Good luck!!

Ok, what kind of "guide" do you want to be? On Big Lake, there won't be a deckhand or intern. It is one guide on a boat with 3 customers. If you want to guide big water, then they do have a deckhand, but you need to be in Venice or somewhere like that.

It is not an easy life. There are good days and bad days. There are good customers and some are total butt's.

When someone pays you to fish, you are out there whether you want to be or not. It is not about you going out and catching fish, it is about your client's having a "good" day on the water. And, each group is different and you have to figure that out.

If you guide on Big Lake, you need at least a 22' boat, a USCG license and a LDWF license.

yall are very convincing, just got me off my butt to start this adventure today.

Oh I hear that, the net for big ones and a drink of coffee on a cold day is the only two things I'm puttin the rod down for.. but if someone starts paying me well that's different story. I couldn't agree more it's easier to fish with an experienced angler, I've had a little practice showing kids how to cast, but throw in a grumpy adult that doesn't want to listen I don't know how I'm gonna handle it but like slidellkid said -
You have the rest of your life to get a 9 to 5 job, do what you want to do when you are young and you will never regret it

Just sat me back down..
I'm 19yrs old... a 22' boat really? I don't know big lake.. Is that the only way to guide in southwest Louisiana?

talk to some guides that have been in the buss.for a long time....there are ones that love their job and continue to grow their buss. and ones that just do it because its a job....100% is what it takes all the time to make a successful career of it....Honesty loyalty and trust makes repetitive customers .....a bad experience travels 7x faster than good buss...good luck.

If you fish all the time, where do you fish at?

If you know the marsh and can specialize in red fishing maybe. Then you can down size boats.

I guided for 5 years. Planned on retiring and doing it full-time. Health issues killed that.

What did you have in mind?

I am not telling you not to do it, you just need to know what you are getting into.

We land in Vinton and specialize in reds.
I don't have much of a plan, I just know I want to fish for living.
trying to expand my knowledge of the water as much as possible.

I got cha man, I appreciate you telling me the side of guiding I don't know it's very helpful

I will send my wife fishing for 1/2 a day with you.
If you don't throw her in, you can be a guide.
She gripes cause she don't catch anything.
When I tell her what she is doing wrong, she tells
me to shut up.
When she asks for help, I show her, then she goes
back to doing what she wants.
When I tell her she is doing wrong, again, she tells
me to shut up.
When she don't catch anything, she says it's my
fault, even though I tell her she is doing it wrong.

She is not doing anything Saturday.

I would have to talk with my dad first, he's gonna wanna go fishing sat and we only have 1 boat.. I appreciate the opportunity and would love the challenge of putting her on fish, just need to run it by him

Guiding just for reds in black bayou won't be very successful business in my opinion

I agree with you 100% We used to fish black bayou for bass.. and since 2000 and all the posted water we don't even fish it but maybe 1 once a season for old times sake..

This is the reason I no longer take mine, too much trouble.:spineyes:
Guiding is not as much about killing or catching as it is taking care of the people that are paying you. You need to be level headed,honest,extraverted,and sure of yourself (some would call it cocky). Nobody wants to spend money with a doubting Thomas. I hate fishing with close friends because of the pressure I put on myself to find fish for them. Can't imagine how stressful it would be with folks I only met hours prior knowing they Expect fish blood on the deck.

Sounds like you need to do some research. You have a laundry list of things to do before you are even legal to take someone out. Check into all those things first and then start thinking about guiding. You are looking to spend between 1500 and 2000 dollars just to have the chance to call yourself a guide. These expenses don't include insurance, gas, boat notes, days on the water to find fish, gear, a truck to pull the boat, business cards, website, marketing, an llc... (you get the point). Enjoy your youth and spend time with your dad, fishing. Get yourself a job you can make money at and start saving. Actually, better yet, go to college. You DO have the rest of your life, so don't jump into things so quickly. Your time would be well spent getting yourself out there and known by all the guides in your area. This business is all about networking and if you are on the outside looking in you are not going to make it. If it gives you any indication how intense this is, I do it part-time!

I was just joking about sending her. The point was what you would have to deal with as a guide. Not all are like her. Most are people from outta town that want to fish Big Lake and actually catch.
You don't know how many people come to Big Lake with their own boat and scratch. They think it is easy to catch fish here, but when they get here, they don't know where to go, or what to look for.
Some are smart and hire a guide, and catch fish. Some are cheap and get a hotel, spend money on gas to get here and in boat, and scratch, or don't do well.

If I were you, I'd go to a good school and get an associates degree in process, instrumentation or electronics, where you can work in a plant/refinery or offshore so you can have more time off than a regular 9 to 5 job. Then fish fish fish until you figure it out. After that, start working on your licenses.

You fished this past Saturday right? Imagine having 4 people (paying customers) on your boat this past Saturday and none are really fishermen. You tell them it is gonna be tough because a cold front pushed through and it would be better not to come this weekend, but they are coming regardless. They hear Big Lake this and Big Lake that and expect to bring home an ice chest full of fillets. They don't know that it is very difficult in those conditions, on top of that they are all hungover, they don't know how to cast, their lines stay tangled up in the wind, you can't go to the weirs to catch the easy fish because it is closed, the water is muddy up and down the lake, and... etc.

Good luck with whatever you pursue though. You will never know if you don't try it

I did, just my dad and I in the boat, caught over 15 reds not one under 22".. artificial only.. I have no experience outside of fishing with him therefore I don't know what it's like to watch fish bust yet no one hook up.. or a group of random hungover people that have never fished before. thanks for luck and advice. I will be putting my all in to this dream, it may not work out but when its all said and done I can say I tried..

:) Thats the spirit

Like I said, at your age the only way to get started is with a big guide service, most will provide everything you need besides the license. You just gotta pass the interview which will probably be you guiding the boss on a fishing trip

any suggestions? as of now I'm going to talk to
creole fin and feather
hackberry guide service
big lake guide service Capts. Jeff & Mary Poe
bayou charter service Capt. Steven Bono
Calcasieu Charter service Capt. Erik Rue
Corbello's guide service