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Posts: 8781
| Actually this is a question for those who hire them as well...
What does it take to be a guide?
Obvious angling knowledge and skill aside, what sort of PERSON do you need to be in order to be a "good" guide??
Or perhaps more importantly, what sort of personality attributes do NOT lend themselves well to guiding?
For those of you who fish with guides, what is it that keeps you going back, and what things have happened that made you decide NOT to hire a particular guide again?
No names, please...
I may as well share my 2 cents:
1. The ability of the guide to asess my skills/knowledge as an angler and teach me at a level I can appreciate... If I feel like I am learning something valuable, I will hire you again.
2. Personality... If I like you, I'll hire you again.
I had a guide look at me once and say "Jeez... What do you think we should do?"
I was 50% honored that he would ask and 50% "what the %^*&*, aren't YOU supposed to know?"
Edited by esoxaddict 11/16/2006 2:39 PM
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | ive hired alot of guides and love fishing with guides they are another great tool for catching and learning about muskies....unfortunetly in todays day and age the "guide" has become watered down. everyone with a boat now days all of a sudden becomes "a guide"...well if your paying for a guide service i say do your homework well check with local bait and tackle shops check out interent websites, get personal referals ...look into how many years a guy has been doing it, how many days a guide is on the water, how many fish does the guide catch, how many fish do his clients catch. when on the water can you learn from this person or is he just "taking you fishing". even if you dont boat a fish can you take things from that day and apply them down the road. just because you dont boat a fish doesnt mean the guide is not doing his job! i say the biggest key nowdays is doing your homework ahead of time, if you do that you probablly wont be dissapointed on the water!
Edited by muskihntr 11/16/2006 3:19 PM
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Posts: 24
| I am sure there are some better guides then me out there... but from the stance of being a lodge owner, and doing some guide work with customers. The number one thing is a friendly and outgoing personality. You have to be on your game every time out. You have to smile, be pleasant, helpful, teach, be patient, and above all make each trip out a great day for that customer.
You cannot control the fish or the weather... you can control customer service.
Remember, when you are guiding, it is not your fishing trip. It is your customers fishing trip. Some people will think its fine if you fish with them. Others may not be so thrilled. Especially if you the guide are catching fish, and the customers have nothing. Your first goal is to put them on fish. Some will say.. hey guide, why not throw a line in the water. Then ok. But for the most part the focus is on them first.
Some days it will be easy. The fish are biting, everyone is catching fish, and everyone is thrilled with the day. But you will also run into those days, where nothing seems to work. Thats where personality comes into play. Be prepared to go for other fish. Some people go to a musky guide thinking "hey, I can fish for musky all day, no problem" but after 6 hours you can likely tell a good amount of frustration has kicked in. If you know the lake well enough, you can always offer to do some other fishing before the day is done. Can say hey, the musky are not on... but I know a spot where the walleye have been hitting... interested in taking a quick shot at them? Guess what I am rambling about here is... have some other abilities to draw from.
Anyway... hope some of this helps... any questions let me know.
All the best, |
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Posts: 2112
Location: The Sportsman, home, or out on the water | 1#: Personality
2#: Ability to teach
3#: Knowledge to back it up
4#: Boat/ equipment.
That having been said, here is who I would hire, not in any order, whether they still guide or not, because they are all world class folks:
Howie Meyer
Lunker Lou Eich
Steve Worral
Rodger Sabota
Norm Wild
Steve Heiting
Any of the guys that were in "the old masters of musky Fishing" video, alive or dead (history rocks!) |
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