Fishing Guides Responsibility
 

Been out with a good number of guides all around the country, fresh and salt, some were good some were not.

What do you think a guides responsibility is?

Personally I dont care for a guide to treat me like a child and take my fish off etc.. I fish with guides when I fish big lake bc I don't know it well, don't feel like hauling a boat 3.5 hours each way. If it's a different method of fishing than I am used to, show me the new method and leave me alone.

The last one I took spent more time fishing than helping my wife so I spent more time helping my wife i could have been fishing but I was too busy helping my wife.

More than anything, I am paying a guide to learn from him and make me a better fisherman.

I want him to talk, answer my questions, and teach me some things. I'm not interested in filling the box quickly and getting back to the dock.

I would hope he'd be willing to put me on some sheepies and some flatties and tell me why he picked the spots he picked. I want to learn new techniques I can share with my kids and help catch fish at different times of year, not just the day of the trip.

If everyone thought like this I bet guiding would actually be enjoyable..

Helping the person who needs the help the most. But the customer has responsibility to let him know this and not just assume the guide will pick up on it.

A short explanation to everybody who cares to listen when pulling up on a spot regarding what we're to be doing is very helpful.

Fully explaining the technique to be used is obviously very important. But I do understand how frustrating it must be to the guide is the person who needs help the most is playing on their phone or simply not listening to the instruction that's offered.

I think communication is key. Let the guide know what you are looking for before you book. If the guide agrees to provide what you are looking for, then the guide should deliver on that.

I think you nailed it MathGeek. I'd be willing to bet the vast majority of guides started out with that mentality, then were "ruined" by sports who only fish once or twice a year and want to catch as many fish as possible and couldn't be bothered by learning the how and why. I'd be curious to hear from the guides on this.

Hmmm...here I go again, the odd man out I suppose. I have never hired, or even been with a guide, so maybe I'm just a bit naive on the subject. I didn't think it was a guide's duty to teach paying customers the tricks of the trade...or how, when or why a certain spot. Things that help him make his living. After all...wouldn't that be biting off the hand that feeds him?

So is getting you on fish a first priority ?

What if that doesn't happen ?

Safety of the passengers, first and foremost.

Had a guide in Perdido Bay try to run down a channel marker / piling in the dark. We ended up ripping up the side of the boat pretty good. Had I not yelled to turn I might not be here today.

Had a good trip either way. 😀

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We're talking about Big Lake, not some lousy NC reservoir.

If a guide can't put you on fish in Big Lake 99 days out of 100, he sucks.

I like to explain what I want up front, and if the guide is unwilling to deliver, I hope he is honest enough to pass.

I doubt I'd ever remember enough to cut into his business, and I tend to be more interested in learning about a variety of species than just specks or specks and slot reds.

Improving my skills catching flatties, sheepies, and yes, even a few more specks is not going to break anyone's business. But odds are good, I'll remember the guy and recommend him to friends.

That's why I feel like open communication is the key. If the client asks for that and the guide isn't willing, then the client can look elsewhere. I would think a charter guide would want to know what the clients expectations are so that he can do his level best to meet them.

1 ) safety 2) have fun. So just go have a good time and everything else will fall in place

Agreed.

It's probably a good idea for both parties to clearly know expectations and goals for the day.

A good guide, if he wants to stay a guide, is concerned about satisfying his customers. Finding out what they want is a big part of that.

I can't think of any other occupation that provides (sells) a service to customers...at the same time, is expected to show those customers the hows, whens, whys and wheres of that service he's providing. Strange.

The odd man out can't figure out why others have these expectations. Drop a few hundred on a guide that only pilots a boat. Doesn't give pointers and is in a hurry to get back to the dock. Just an FYI most people that book trips are looking for more than a quick limit. Even the best guide can't teach years of experience and technique in a trip or two.

Every guide worth his salt looks at clients as a base for repeat business and referrals. (Like it or not it's a sales job). I don't think many customers are trying to steal the trade from the guide they are wanting to maximize the experience.

Guide should also show them the nature and the beauty that's is around them during the trip. A little history about the area never hurts and in our particular area should always talk about coastal erosion.

And of course most importantly SAFETY FIRST.

I dunno. When I hired consulting foresters, I walked around with them, asked lots of questions, and wanted to learn how they did what they did. Likewise when I hired an arborist, and an appraiser.

Since I am a consulting scientist, I often get the same request and offer the same service to my clients: I teach them how to do the same thing I am doing. Sure, there are times when they just want me to find the answer and put it in a report. But there are times when they want to roll up their sleeves and work with me in the lab every step of the way and see and learn what I am doing. I just estimate how much this may slow things down and communicate that. I'm not worried about future business, because they will never be as good as I am. But I am always eager to teach them what they are willing to learn, because an informed client is a better client.

Several years ago, we consulted on a historic legal case in ballistics. This was the first case in history where the law enforcement agency was penalized by the federal court for spoliation of evidence. But when we did our ballistic testing for the case (long before the penalty and multi-million dollar settlement), the attorneys and the plaintiff were right there in the lab with us discussing the design and execution of every test, taking pictures, trying to understand the implications of the results for trial, etc. It was fortuitous for the clients that the law enforcement agency destroyed the evidence and subsequently settled, because the forensic case was not as strong as the clients were hoping it would be. But knowing that first hand may be why they accepted the settlement rather than pressing for trial.

Now I don't tend to make the same request for car and boat repairs, because I'm not really trying to learn those skills. But I do tend to on home repairs and things I am trying to improve on. And especially the doctor. I don't just want the doctor to fix it, I want to know all the whats, wheres, whys, and hows of the diagnosis, medication, and improvement plan.

I also see guiding as being the fishing pro analogous to being a tennis pro or a golf pro.

Easy cheezy...not looking for an argument here, but you only see things from one direction. It stands to reason, the more a person learns from the guide...the less he needs a guide. No? Just seems counter productive from a guide's standpoint. Those that are good at fishing, and know the "spots", aren't hiring guides. Bottom line is...if a guide puts me on the fish that I hired him for, he's done his job IMO.

If I'm in a boat for several hours with a guide who I do not know from Adam, I would assume the topic of conversation would largely revolve around the obvious common denominator between the two of us..... FISHING. If he is a guide, it would stand to reason that he is a professional at his trade and would have a lot to talk about on the subject.

This is not true the best of us have bad days and fish don't eat everyday either.
Also guiding is not like buddy fishing your level of experience is a huge factor on the number of fish that hit the cooler that day .
Some days I don't cast a line out
You basically have two types of trips
Business ones where it multiple boats paying for their customers who just want to fish and catch fish and really don't care much about surrounding or techniques etc.

Then you have guys who want to learn and know everything you can teach them in that short time .


1st thing is to establish a relationship with customers and let them enjoy the trip . My main goal is to make sure they are getting all my attention because you want them to come back. Successful business is built off repeat customers and that is where successful guides make a living . You don't have to load the boat to have a successful fishing every day .
People have to like the person they fishing with.

All very good points. I have been on lots of guided trips offshore with the same guy. Some better than others fish wise, but I have never felt like he didn't try his best to put us on fish and It's always fun.

Honestly Im batting at about 25% success rate with guides, and this ranges from Alaska to the Gulf to the Keys to mid country lakes and rivers. Every year I do 2 guided trips, my fall trip is coming up and this got me to thinking, my success rate has'nt been to good so I thought I would ask what is the general consensus on a guides responsibility.

And for the record "MY" interpretation of success rate is more then one or two fish (depending on species) but does not have to be a bagged limit either. If Im having a good time and catching a few with what I am learning GREAT. If Im not catching, Im not learning, well maybe learning what NOT to do.

Sry swamp I shouldn't have come across that way.

My point is. Take a guide trip. You might be the best fisherman west of the MS but I garuntee we all have something to learn.

Do some homework first. I generally check reviews and talk with the guide to make sure what kind of trip I'm booking. (I don't want to fish cut bait by last island and catch bull reds).

I book guides when I'm outside of my comfort zone. Weather it be a different place or a species.

Perhaps this is the case if you limit your target to one species (specks) or one technique (artificials).

But if you are willing to expand your target species (sheepies, drum, flatties, gafftops, bull reds) and methods (soaking bait), you should almost always be able to put your guests on fish.

I let my guides know ahead of time that I'm not an elitist, and I expect to be able to resort to using bait and targeting "nontraditional" species if the day isn't serving up specks or slot reds easily.

I'm a rank amateur, and we almost always bring home a bunch of fish when fishing from a boat in coastal LA. The fishing here is just too good for excuses.

Guides should practice some of these phrases for customers:

Would you like to try for some bull reds?

Would you mind trying some bait?

How do you feel about sheepies?

I know where we can get on the drum.

This is not looking good for specks today, I think we can fill the cooler with gafftops in a spot I know.

Well I can promise you 1 thing no where on my website says gaftops lol

I will never offer that to anyone because I'm not cleaning gaftop period !

I get that. I've had to offer to clean the gafftops and drum for guides to keep them for us. I'm cool with it.

Time to update your website, gaftops is where it's at :D :spineyes:

I think most all businesses that succeed and flourish tell their customers what they do and how they do it, how else would you maintain their business and trust?

I don't eat popcorn and drink beer inside while my A/C guy bangs around outside, and if he doesn't talk about what he will do and how I can go forward with my system in a way that will have me less downtime and cost me less money then he is t my A/C man. Same goes for a mechanic or anyone else I pay for a service.

Businesses and service providers don't make money by looking and and just doing the job like everyone else on the block, you have to know (as the customer) what is separating this person from the next guy. All in all it boils down to about the same thing.

You're acting like the requirement is for the guide to give the sport a copy of his yearly fishing log and the chip out of his GPS.