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| Message Subject: Guide Rates | |||
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| What do you think is reasonable for a full day (8-10 hours)on the water? | |||
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| I think muskie guides must charge a bit more for their services than, say, bass or panfishers. The equipment needed for big fish: big lures, big rods & reels, tough lines - are much more costly than for other species. Lose a guide's crankbait fishing for bass, maybe tip him an extra five bucks; lost muskie baits can incur serious debt. I'll not give a dollar figure to your question - a lot depends on the water you fish, the competition's prices for your area, your equipment and boat, your years of experience, and reputation. If someone choses your service by price alone, either they have a lot to learn or you do.[:bigsmile:] m | |||
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| I charge $300 a day, two anglers, sun up to sun down.[:bigsmile:] | |||
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| My rates are based on what I feel I bring to the client. Experience, what I feel I can do for the client from an educational standpoint, my ability to put them on fish. All based on the fact that I do not make a living guiding but am trying to build a reputation/client base for semi-retirement. Considering my investment in boat, tackle, insurance, etc. I should be charging more but don't want to price myself out of the reach of the common working man either. All that being said I am currently at $200/8hrs fishing time. $75 for weekday evening trips 4-5 hrs. fishing time. Now if I was hiring a well known/expereienced guide with a reputation for teaching his/her clients something and having a good chance at a "trophy" fish based on the water I was fishing I would be willing to pay upwards of $250-300 day. Keeping in mind this person may be making their living guiding...well worth the money. Mark www.muskyadventures.com | |||
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| $300.00 is very reasonable if the guide is good...what I mean by good is if he can put up w/ me for that long, likes certain snacks, can tolerate story telling in the middle of a figure 8 while a fish is sitting there at boatside listening + above all enjoy a day on the water, fish or no fish!! You can tell if the guide is willing to help you...+ deserves a nice tip at days end even if no fish are caught. I fished w/ Crash Mullins a couple of yrs ago + we were both burned out, tired + sore...most of the day we spent eating snacks + Motrin! I still had a great time because we have fun even if he catches all the fish. Guides like Doug Johson etc. could I would think charge more, + I'd pay it just to fish w/ them for the experience + put them in retirement![;)] [:sun:] | |||
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| I charge $200.00 an 8 hour day for two people, $125.00 for 4 hours. This is fishing time of course. If we decide to change lakes I do not count travel time into the 8 hours. Longer days can be arranged for a slightly higher rate. Hope this helps with your question. | |||
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| I think that if you charge cheap for guiding people will look at you as a guide who isn't one of the better people for the job. I think $300 is reasonable and with reputation that goes up. Even if I didn't know the guide I was taking out, I'd rather be with a guide who's charging $300 to one thats guiding for a lot cheaper. This is just me and not everyone else, | |||
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| The price that a guide charges is based on many things. Experience, reputation, expenses, locale, competition etc. I have my rates set at $175 for a half day (4-5 hours), $225 for a full day (pick up between 7 and 8, fish till dusk). I've been told that I should charge more, but I don't want to price myself out of the reach of the average guy. I don't want to only guide lawyers, doctors and big$$$ business types, I like fishing with construction workers, truck drivers and assorted working type joes. If you're picking your guide solely based on price, you might be in for a rude awakening. There are a lot of guys out there with a boat and some spare time that are calling themselves guides. What type of equipment do they have, how many years have they been in business, are they willing to provide references, what is included in the package? These are things that should be asked as well as price. At least that's the way that I look at it. Steve @ G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods. http://www.herefishyfishy.com | |||
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| Brett: I'll charge you $450, but you bring lunch.[:bigsmile:] Steve @ GS: Exactly. Price can be a useful indicator of quality when you are shopping for home electronics, but for guiding? I dunno. Too many variables. I fished with a guide once, just myself and I thought the rate was either $250, but at the end of the day he asked for $225 and I'm pretty sure I tipped it up to $250 because 1) I learned SO much, and 2) that's what I had been expecting, so it was relatively pain free. With the just me myself and I thing, it was still significant cash out of pocket, and it would have been tough for me to start going above the $250 mark. But like I said, I was tickled pink, and I felt good being able to toss him an extra $25. With two people, it would have been easy. It would have been less money out of pocket from the get go for each, and I don't think that a $300 total would have been out of the realm of possibility. Now all that said, I wouldn't necessarily charge different for 1 vs. 2, but it's a bit of food for thought for how things work. If I was gonna hire a $300 guide, I'd pretty much have to be splitting it with another guy, which means I'd have to track down another guy and coordinate schedules, which just serves to decrease my odds of actually getting out there. | |||
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| I think that rates depend alot on the water you choose to fish and if the guide is doing this parttime verus fulltime. I dont like to pay big dollars to guides who fish a lake once or twice a year and call themselves pros on the lake. Another pet peeve, and maybe this is another topic, is when i fish a full day, want to fish sunup-sundown. Guides who stare at their watches drive me nuts. | |||
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| Anything around $225 to $300 would be a fair price for a full day and $150 to $200 for a 1/2 day. In the fall if the guide brings the sucker up to $350 would be fair. | |||
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| Don't get me wrong guys, I've fished with guides that were around $175 but all the guides I've been with that were priced high(250 and up) did a great job and deserved every penny of the cost. I wasn't trying to start an arguement, I was just stating my opinion. Normally, when asking locals about what guide to take out.....they always seem to say the guide that is the most expensive. Is that because they know him? I don't know, but the guides that did charge $175 never had as good of equipment to use as what the $300 guide has. Not saying any of you don't, but the next time I go musky fishing I don't want to have 3 people in a 14' aluminum boat casting for muskies. Can you say crammed? | |||
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