Opinion on epicly bad guide trip
 

I got invited as a third to fill out a guided trip with a guide group I've never been with before. The guide was a great guy and tried hard but never changed tactics.... just went from one reef to another, chasing scraps from other guides. In 7 hours we didn't catch a single fish. Having fished the lake and knowing sometimes the trout just are hard to find and catch in April. I mentioned going after red or sheep's head or drums and got blown off as not an option.

I know it's fishing and not catching but how can a guide take people out and not do whatever it takes to put the customer on fish even if it's the B or C choice of fish to catch. I've had bad days personally and with guides but I've never had one just not really try or do whatever to make it happen. To add insult to injury ther owner of the guide service didn't even speak to us just ignored that we had a terrible trip, but they sure took the full rate.

Just can't decide if I'm having unreasonable expectations or not.

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If you asked to go after redfish then he should have done it. Regardless if he likes it or not.

honestly ive heard others having similar problems. but since I wasn't there cant comment. he should have went for reds. if I were a guide right now I would recommend it. u know tell them it will take some luck to find trout right now. I honestly feel I could go catch 5 reds on just about any day and right now they are biting good so I don't get it. I respect the fact u left his name out. I would just take it as a bad day fishing but got to go to the lake and I'm sure some of the things he did were successful at other times. First thing I told my friend while we were on the water Thursday is this is a good example why I would not want to guide. ive never seen this much of the lake messed up at same time. they lost ur business. I have 2 friends and I distant relative recently quick guiding. I know its been tough. to answer ur question he absolutely should have tried to put yall on redfish. just my opinion though, u know.

Pros should have other options than chasing specks from one reef to another when it's known to be a tough month. Once the customer asks to chase other species, a guide should be able to accomodate that.

How much did you tip him???

Quiet well actually

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Clarifying expectations should be done ahead of time.

The guide probably figured the next reef contained the mother load but it never happened. If I were a guide and you said you wanted to go catch big stingrays and nothing else was biting I would say well let’s go. Sorry you had a bad fishing trip.

Tough conditions, tough to find a bite. Guide was probably determined to put y'all in the trout. But it's fishing not catching.

Now if you said flat out we want to catch reds instead and he refused thats not cool. But, if you maybe mentioned it and he was still sure he could put y'all in trout it's a bit different.

None of us were on the boat, so none of us can really say. Don't think I'd blow the guy up online about it, but you have the $ and theres always other guides to hire if he was not 100 percent your cup of tea.

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As I guide I will give you my take on it ..

Yes April is a tough month and fishing has sucked for most part and really challenging .

I agree guide should of at least made an attempt to look for Redfish .

I know one thing that is a fact , 80% guides who work for other guide services or people never put out 110%

This is one reason I only use a small group of guides I can trust and know they will fish like it?s their people .
If you took cell phones from every guide on the lake 80% would not have a clue of what to do .
Cell phones and social media has made fishing easy .
Crumbsnatchers who just live off other good fisherman bites .
Get told where to fish and how to fish .

I had 3 boats out this weekend both days
and they had to get what they could and that meant looking for Redfish also .
They caught trout later in day and chased reds in between bites .

I turn down 7-10 boats a weekend because I?m not going to put people with lazy and cell phone bandits



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Thanks for the input guys.

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I don't like redfish and most days would rather strike out on trout then go mess with them. (I don't fish near as much as I used to so I'm not as snooty about them anymore!) But that's why I'm not a guide. If I didn't have a fish in the box after a few hours, and one of my customers actually requested we go look for them, we would be chasing redfish.

This is the answer. You need to communicate beforehand that way the expectations are known up front. My first marriage would have worked out had I done this.

I?m straight up with my customers
Here is how my fishing goes
Jan
1st Redfish 2nd Trout
Feb
1st Redfish 2nd Trout
March
1st Trout 2nd Spring flounder Run
3rd Redfish
April
1st Trout 2nd spring bull red run
May
1st Trout , 2nd Redfish
June
Trout
July
Trout
August
Trout
Sept
1st Trout 2nd Flounder
Oct
1st Trout 2nd Flounder
Nov
1st Flounder 2nd Trout
Dec
1st Redfish 2nd Trout


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Of course she failed to mention she was banging a crabber

Did you at least get crabs out of the deal?....

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I feel your pain. We had a tuna guide tell us after not seeing a tuna hit the deck that if we chose to catch chicken dolphin he would not clean them.

Not the good kind

Someone said he appreciated keeping the guide's name out of it-why? So the same can happen to the next unsuspecting clients? I don't think so. Wether it's a mechanic, landscaper, plumber, carpenter-if that guy has been providing a less than desired product for my hard earned money-I would want to know about it. Throw on top of that, an owner that seemed unresponsive and ungrateful. I don't really blame the guide himself. Maybe he was young and inexperienced. The owners attitude would have been the clincher for me.

u were part of a group, did the whole group want to change tactics and fish for reds or was it just u. The guide did put 7 hard hours of trying to find specs. I know lots of people
who have boats but go on guided trips to learn new tactics or spots and not concerned with bringing any fish home.