Impromptu poll (kinda) regarding guides

krayfish2

krayfish2

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Since the topic of tipping guides has come up several times of the last couple of years AND there have been so many reasons to or not to tip a guide..... it got me thinking.


IF you have or were to hire a fly fishing guide, what is important to you? Please select your top three choices from the list below. If you select “other”, please elaborate.

When or if I hire a fly fishing guide……….

* The most important thing is for me to catch a lot of fish

* The most important thing is for me to catch big fish

* The quality of my trip is determined by what type of cheeses the guide provides for lunch

* It is important for my guide to have the latest high end gear
for me to tinker with

* He / she better have a flat brim and a strong social media game

* I really look forward to learning history about the place we are fishing

* Hope to pick up some tips / tricks that will help me when fishing on my own

* Look forward to funny stories and the personality of my guide

* I want casting instruction

* I expect them to put me on fish, tie my knots and apply floatant. Strictly business

* It’s basically done to pick up access points and techniques for a new body of water. I’ll come back and figure out the rest on my own

* Love to have them point out the little things that I miss because I’m so focused on what I’m doing (a mink hopping on the bank, doe and fawn sneaking to the waters edge for a drink or pointing out a hidden hatch that I hadn’t even noticed

* Other (please elaborate)

I'll be really interested to see what the responses are.
 
Other -- I don't own a boat and want to float a section of river.

Of the things you mentioned, history and pointing out things I missed are nice bonuses.

Of course, cheese is always important. :lol:
 
I have hired 2 flats boat guides in FL and LA and I basically just needed them to take me to the fish and give me a little local knowledge of how to catch the fish I was after. They were basically just hired to drive me around. I hired a water Uber I guess you could say . . .





 
krayfish2 wrote:
Since the topic of tipping guides has come up several times of the last couple of years AND there have been so many reasons to or not to tip a guide..... it got me thinking.


IF you have or were to hire a fly fishing guide, what is important to you? Please select your top three choices from the list below. If you select “other”, please elaborate.

When or if I hire a fly fishing guide……….

* The most important thing is for me to catch a lot of fish

* The most important thing is for me to catch big fish

* The quality of my trip is determined by what type of cheeses the guide provides for lunch

* It is important for my guide to have the latest high end gear
for me to tinker with

* He / she better have a flat brim and a strong social media game

* I really look forward to learning history about the place we are fishing

* Hope to pick up some tips / tricks that will help me when fishing on my own

* Look forward to funny stories and the personality of my guide

* I want casting instruction

* I expect them to put me on fish, tie my knots and apply floatant. Strictly business

* It’s basically done to pick up access points and techniques for a new body of water. I’ll come back and figure out the rest on my own

* Love to have them point out the little things that I miss because I’m so focused on what I’m doing (a mink hopping on the bank, doe and fawn sneaking to the waters edge for a drink or pointing out a hidden hatch that I hadn’t even noticed

* Other (please elaborate)

I'll be really interested to see what the responses are.
Click to expand...

Hey Andy,

As a guide, I would ask your clients when they book with you, what they are looking for, and be able to provide any or all things you listed above. Every angler has different expectations for booking a fishing trip. As a guide, the most important thing is to work hard to fulfill those expectations and the rest will take car of itself.

 
I want to learn. How to get a better drift. How to read the water better. What am I doing wrong with my cast. Those kinds of things.
 
Depends. I’m usually upfront with any potential guide about what I want in a trip. Mostly I tend to hire freshwater guides just for getting to learn new water, learn specific tactics/rigs/etc. Saltwater is totally different though. I hire SW guides for their ability to find fish and have the boats to get me to those fish.
 
hey, CRAYFISH2, 570-757-7971. come fishing with the maxima12. it's all yours, well go cheap.

come on a lifetime adventure.

I will take care of all.

we will all be in it together as a one.

nothing more beautiful than sharing what I know and what you need to know.

central and northern pa. lot's you never heard of and lot's you will never forget.

if your legit, johnfaveoutdoors@gmail.com. bring along some pals, I have contacts through a lifetime of friendships.


people love the Maxima12.


set a date, let me know. I am retired, to do this right, take 10 days.


I will show you the world. need to know in advance. set up is very important.


Maxima12
 
I hire guides when I am traveling far from home and wish to float a particular water. Also, fishing far from home, I cannot know what is happening on a particular river at all times. A guide with a boat is a fast track to exploring large rivers and not wasting time doing things that don't work. I have limited time and means to take big fishing trips every year. While I can generally figure out walk-in and wade fishing on my own, a guide with a boat is neccessary, IMO to fish certain water effectively or to escape crowded access points. It is just something I want to do in certain waters.

With that said, I do not expect miracles from my guides. I expect them to suggest and instruct me on location specific techniques and tricks, but it is still a roll of the dice as to how good the fishing is. I am paying for their knowledge of the river and their ability to handle a boat, not for a body count. They can't control me being tired, and hung over, and missing strikes, they can't make the wind stop blowing, they can't make a hatch start.

I just want a good effort, someone who is confident in their knowledge, can handle the boat well, and is good company.
 
The options should be numbered (if you want, I'll edit the thread),
DW
 
I'm almost reluctant to say this but. . .

-Having the guide show me new water so I can learn the area better would be among the higher things on this list.

-Funny stories and local history.

-Other: the guide has a boat or otherwise can get me to a spot or river section I can't otherwise access or successfully float. I often hire a guide because I am being accompanied by a friend or family member who is not an advanced fishermen and the guide has a nice raft or drift boat and can take care of all the logistical matters so that my friend and I can focus on fishing.
 
Dave,
No shame in the answer. Honesty is good.

Tom,
I have had frank phone conversations with any clients prior to the meeting. I ask their preferred method of fishing, what they are open to, skill level, etc. I've had every angler put fish in the next.... except one. The only skunking was a former Delaware River guide who was also the most skilled angler in my boat last season. Several had their biggest fish during the trip. Think I did well. I was curious to see the responses ask to what people felt was important to them.
 
krayfish2 wrote:
Dave,
No shame in the answer. Honesty is good.

Tom,
I have had frank phone conversations with any clients prior to the meeting. I ask their preferred method of fishing, what they are open to, skill level, etc. I've had every angler put fish in the next.... except one. The only skunking was a former Delaware River guide who was also the most skilled angler in my boat last season. Several had their biggest fish during the trip. Think I did well. I was curious to see the responses ask to what people felt was important to them.
Click to expand...

I have no doubt you are a good guide and would recommend you any time. Everyone has a different agenda, and you do the right thing by just asking them what they want / expect out of the trip and doing your best to make it happen.

When guides don't ask a lot of questions about what I expect from a trip, my skill level and preference for fishing up front before a trip, I find that to be a red flag for me. All that info should play into how and where to fish. Not asking (or caring) tells me the guide is likely on automatic pilot and just wants to get the day over and cash out.
 
Even though I do love to try new cheeses ...

* It’s basically done to pick up access points and techniques for a new body of water. I’ll come back and figure out the rest on my own

* I really look forward to learning history about the place we are fishing

* Hope to pick up some tips / tricks that will help me when fishing on my own


The funny stories and personality option is a close fourth. It seems most successful guides have this trait inherently - who wants to fish with someone that's not enjoyable to be around?

 
The first guide and float I hired was on Delaware , the guide was all business and really didn’t venture into conversation much. He did know the river very well and put me in position to catch large fish- and I did land probably my biggest wild brown.

I have floated with two other guides in WA and WY- WA guide had much more paddling and tactics to go over which resulted in success. The WY float on the green was pretty easy fishing just throwing attractors to the banks- easy row and for guide.

1. Get me ( usually row me ) into Fish with the local tactics.


2. 1 makes 2 much easier - having fun, taking about local area etc

On WA floats I was exhausted after hundreds of cast and caught enough where we just floated for an hour and looked at eagles and seals.

Been fortunate to have floated for free numerous times in MT with guide friend who wanted to fish- Yellowstone and Bighorn. Funny is he still worked me like a paying client. Hah. Probably can’t help it.
 
I only ask one thing from a guide, put me on some fish. I've had guides in Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska and haven't had a bad experience yet. The float trip on the Kenai in Alaska wasn't very productive because the river was high but it was the first time my wife fly fished with me. My son guided me in Montana, probally my best day fishing and didn't have to pay anything but a Cheeseburger and fries with a couple of Moose Droll beer.

I caught the biggest fish while in Alaska Salmon fishing out of Skagway taking a float plane to the stream. One guide and six anglers but there were so many Salmon all he did was land fish.
 
I don't have a lot of experience with guides but here are the stories

One of my roommates back in the mid-80's guided on the middle Delaware River from Trenton, NJ which is where the middle section ends and the tidal section begins upstream to the New Hope wing dam.

There were five of us living in a post-college frat house in Yardley, PA. Bill, the guide was much older(42), and he taught cooking at the Bucks County Vo-Tech school where he ran a lunch time restaurant. This was great for the rest of us recent college grads since we now always had food in the fridge instead of just beer.

Bill's primary focus was on the seasonal migratory shad and striped bass, but he did want to know everything about other species in that section of river.

Since I wasn't a client, and didn't need to catch fish, most of what we did was explore and experiment. Catching fish was a bonus. I was the other guy in the boat to help Bill learn more so when he had paying clients he had more information under his belt to make him a better guide for his paying clients.

Up next was guided trip to Lake Fork in east Texas. This was the first and only time that my father and I ever fished with bait casting tackle with lures like plastic worms, buzz baits, and spinner baits. We really ph*cked up those reels with backlash "bird's nests." The guide was very patient and understanding, and he could easily untangle a casting mess. I did catch two 5 lb. large mouth bass.

Learning how to cast was very important to me with unfamiliar tackle and those were the two largest bass I ever caught.

The next story is the Akwe River in Alaska. There was only one guide on this very remote river and he was very honest about not knowing anything about fly fishing but he did have a jet boat and said that he would stop at any place on the river that we wanted to explore. Great time, and I did see the backing on my fly reel several times.

Up next was my trip to the Elk River in WV. I went fishing with Squaretail from this board. I spent an evening with the guide at the resort. We are friends from another message board and both of us are from the Harrisburg area.

This was very different fishing from anything I had ever done before. Tiny #32 dries on top and the same size nymph underneath on 9X tippet. It worked and I obviously didn't land very big trout, but I had a lot of fun, and got some casting coaching.

My last two guided trips were on the Frying Pan River in CO. This was a birthday present to me by my father who was fishing with me. Since the guide knew my father, he knew how important it was that he could stand on the bank and not wade and risk falling in. It worked out great.

Later on the guide took me to the trophy water. I didn't catch any large trout, but both my nymph fishing and dry fly casting improved.

My last guided trip was also on the Frying Pan River. Nymph fishing. I caught 11 in a half day.

I want to catch a lot of fish, and also some bigger fish, but most importantly, I want the guide to improve my casting and technique so that I am a better fisherman when I am out there by myself.



 
Dear kray,

Maybe I'm different, but when I fish with a guide I want to LEARN something.

By that I don't mean secret spots or where to stand or things like that. I want to learn something I didn't know before I went on my guided trip.

Not counting saltwater boat charters I've been on maybe 6 or 8 guided trips. I can tell you without question that I learned something on each and every one of those trips.

Four of those trips were with an old guy from Middletown who used to guide for smallies. If you didn't learn something from him you weren't paying attention.

The rest of the trips were in the Western US where I fished with guides that were much older than me at the time. They took the time to assess my abilities and then proceeded to help me get better. It might have been a casting tip, or a suggestion on where to cast in a particular run, but they made me better.

Fishing success by numbers or size is no way to rate a guide for this kid. And BTW that is just a manner of speech for I am no longer a kid.

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
 
Other - Row the boat. Stop where I ask you to stop. Be patient. Provide a decent lunch and provide soft drinks. Be sociable but don't tell me about any perceived casting flaws.
 
I've only gone on one guided trip, and only went on that one because I didn't have to pay for it. It was a slow day, probably because the weather was cold. Only a very few fish were caught.

Both my fishing buddy and I were experienced flyfishers and we've had slow days before as well as good days and knew that slow days come with the territory.

So, I would have been happy to just methodically drift standard nymph patterns through good looking runs and just relax, enjoying being out on the beautiful river (the Delaware) and maybe you get a strike and maybe not.

But the guide was very intent on "getting us into fish." I understand that is what they do, and probably what most clients want. But he was getting pretty manic: changing flies, cast over here, no over there, now mend your line, and changing locations, etc.

We weren't putting pressure on the guide to "get us into fish." It was more like the pressure was coming from him. So, it felt kind of stressful.

I would have preferred if he would have just chilled out a bit. But many clients might have felt differently about it, and appreciated all the efforts he went to "get them into fish."

So, different people want different things. The guide has to be able to try to figure that out. Not an easy thing to do.
 
I once had a guy call me on the phone and ask me to guide him here in mid-state PA.

He said he wanted:

1) To catch big fish.

2) Only on dry flies. No dredging the water with nymphs.

3) Not walk very far from the car.

Then he told me about the huge trout they catch on their club pond in New Jersey.

I said thanks for the offer, but no can do.


 
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