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| I would like to start fishing the tournament trail and guiding on southern Wi lakes. Can you give me some advice on what is the best way to go about this. What things do I need to consider, is sponsorship something I should look into, and what problems can arise in guiding clients. If you can advise me in this area I would be very greatful.
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| Hey Dave,
As far as guiding is concerned, one thing you definitely have to have is patience, and a lot of it. I guide roughly 200 trips a year between Kinkaid and up north, and I see a wide variety of clients. Some have never casted a baitcast reel before, and others are highly experienced, and like to tell you that. Patience is the key though!!! As far as the PMTT is concerned, it may be difficult to get sponsors for it if you aren't doing any guiding yet or fished the trail before. I fished the trail the first year it came out, and was fortunate enough to get a local restaurant, a brewery (yes, I did say brewery, but that doesn't mean I'm an alcoholic), and a tackle company to sponsor me and pay for all my expenses. We did qualify for the invitational, but choked in the end!! The only reason I got the restaurant and the brewery to sponsor me was because I have been going there with my clients for years now, so it was pretty easy to get, and we did consume a few of those beers I mentioned too. You might need to fork out the money for the first year, but hopefully down the road you can get sponsors. Good luck, and if you have any other specific questions, you can email me at [email protected].
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| Dave my advise being a former guide in SE Wisconsin is to promote with a booth in sport shows. You will never do as many days as say Chad Cain..infact you cant.. we only have 212 possible muskie fishing days anyway. But if you promote yourself.. stick some cash into it. you can do 50 days a year. The best I ever did was 74 days. and that is more then most of the local guides. The guides that dont promote.. only guide 4-5 days a year. You will never do well just guiding out of a sport shop. In the Milw metro area... there are 21 muskie guides. Thats lots of compition.
We dont have the wilderness areas so its much harder to get clients that are not on vacation. Look for angles to build your client base, they are there, you just have to be a salesmen to get them. Then you have to give them an awesome time on top of that.
As far as Sponsers.... The industry amazing to most.. is not very rich... If you want a sponser, you are going to have to work for them, and that is more then saying your going to use there bait. Writing, TV, seminars and this site is a good place to work.
There are too many guides with there hand out.. you just have to show why YOU are better. and HONESTY... is the best place to start. | |
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| Dave,
I wrote an article for http://www.lake-link.com titled "So you want to be a guide????"
It was the January article, you'll have to go to the archives to find it, but I think that you'll find it interesting reading. Many people read it and replied to me regarding the article. Check it out.
Steve @ G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods. http://www.herefishyfishy.com | |
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Advice from the Pros