Strange Email

[Bill Babler]

Got an email form a gent this morning, wondering what is the difference in him following the guide boats and everyone following the tournament pro's when they come to a lake.

He said like the other folks, he just wants to see locations and tecniques, from the professional fishing guides. He was not using their equipment, bait, tackle, or gas, and as far as he knew, the guides didn't own the water they were fishing on, and he was not tresspasing on private property.

I guess I'm out of the loop. Looking at Don and Eric's post from the last several days, it seems we are having a non-authorized tag boats issue????

Well, it all adds up with the calls we are getting and everything else, I guess it was just inevitable, that this would start.

Stuff, and Crap, always comes in buntches.

Did not return his email yet, and don't know if he looks at the forum, but bet he does.

What is your thoughts?

The Guides have not spent 100's, but thousands of hours, most just looking, fishing and working to gain a better understanding of the lake, not to mention, years of trial and error. For me 35 years of fishing this lake to get the locations I have and also to acculate the megar ammount of knowledge I have of it.

Following the Pro's when they are here is just seeing a pattern that a guy finds successful for 3 days. It can and I gaurantee it does change very quickly after they leave, really just fun to watch them, not a whole lot you are going to gain as far as locations, except in the fall on the deep trees, if you mark them.

Following the Professional Guides on this pond as they fish their seasonal pattern, and locations, is quite another deal. These locations pay big, but it is funny. Lots of folks think we throw the gear in and go catch fish without ever having to work for it.

Here is a capsul of my day yesterday:

Met Scott 5:45 at the Knob.

First Location Topwater deep point with huge dock. 1 small K

2nd location long bluff poiint zip

3rd location deep drop channel swing off a major lake flat 1 on a jig 1 on a rig both spat out the baits

4th location main channel long gravel point 1 on a jig 1 on a flutter spoon, but jumped and threw the baits

5th location midlake hump about a dozen fish on a spoon and a dropshot

6th location another dozen on a spoon, long gravel runout

7th location 2 spoon similar location

8th location 1 spoon similar location

9th. deep dock zip

10. deep dock zip

11 bluffend 5 nice fish

12 bluffend best K of the day and a short

6 hrs. from Shell Knob to Big M to Campbell Point

REally, over 2 hrs on the water before we got into fish.

This is usually pretty much how my days go, I feel very fortunate if I jump right on them, seldom happens, most often, I have to work just like the rest of you.

Let me know your thoughts about following the guides

Thanks Bill

[KCRIVERRAT]

I would never follow a guide, and if I ever happened to hire one... I sure as heck wouldn't be fishing his or hers spots the next day either.

[Fishrman]

I agree with your evaluation of the pros vs. guides Bill. I know I used to think that it would be neat if I could follow a guide and see all of their spots. Never did it though. Did happen to see guides a few times on certain areas and remembered them for later. Stopped later whether it was that day or another and never did any good. Probably because I am not as good as them and probably that is the KARMA I deserved. I followed Robbbie Dodson around last year for about an hour, watching techniques and how he handled himself. Pretty neat, left and went and started to duplicate what he was doing and was successful. No big deal there in my opinion, since I traveled on to locations quite a distance from him, and never saw him the rest of the day.

The way I understand it, a person can pay a tag boat fee and follow. I think that is big of the guide and a nice gesture for future clients. I think if someone is following probably nothing can be done, but it could eventually hurt some of the upcoming guide trips and I think that is very unfair to the people paying and to the guide. I know this was way too long, but just trying to add a non-guide perspective.

Thanks Bill

[back2roots]

Everyone wants success NOW! They don't want to take the time to learn for themselves. They want to blow-in....blow-up and blow-out! Kind of like the little girl in Willie Wonka.....I WANT IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They don't call it fishing...they want to call it Catching!

[denjac]

I guess not much you could do about it other than an exchange of words. Someone that would do that has very low self esteem and lazy. Whats it cost for a tag boat $75? Cheap in my opinion. But istnt a tag boat usually buddies of the folks in the guide boat?

[rps]

Like other professions, guiding is one where the time, advice, and knowledge are the commodity for sale. Tagging without paying a fee is theft, plain and simple.

My problem is that even if I pay the tag fee, I can't keep up. 90 hp on a fat bottom boat. Great boat for my purposes but not a guide or tournament boat. If I tried to duplicate Bill's route yesterday I would still be on the lake.

[sfiser]

Bill, thanks again for the great day yesterday. Ripped some lips and picked up alot of good tips from you. Probably would have to rank it in my "top 5 favorite fishing days ever". We will be doing it again soon.

Thanks again, Scott

[Sam]

Seems to me that some guys have let this get 'way too serious, and they've forgotten that fishing is supposed to be FUN.

A couple of years ago I fished in a crappie tournament at Watts Bar lake in eastern TN. Yes, there are crappie tournaments - and unlike bass tournaments the weigh-ins are followed by a big FISH FRY, enjoyed by all.

The two-day tourney was at a resort on the lake where we all rented cabins and left our boats in the dock overnight. My partner and I found a honey hole the first day, and boy we caught some slabs. At the end of the first day weigh-in we were ahead in total weight and we had the big fish.

It was real funny that evening after the fish fry watching other fishermen kinda casually walk down to that dock. They'd stroll stroll along the dock looking at the lake and the sky, and just kinda, sorta glance in our boat to see what lures we had tied on our poles.

Just for fun, I'd brought along a couple of albacore jigs I used to use in the Pacific Ocean, and we'd both tied those on our crappie rods and left them in the boat that way - highly visible. These lures are about 10" long in wild, bright colors and they weigh about half a pound! We got a big kick out of our competitors snooping and seeing those things tied on.

But c'mon, that's what fishing's all about - having fun. It's not about snooping on somebody else's methods and fishing spots.

[Bird Watcher]

90 hp on a fat bottom boat.

Got some junk in the trunk, eh?

J/k. I think it was probably a typo, it just made me chuckle.

[hoglaw]

I guess if I were making my living off of my knowledge of the lake, I'd be pissed about people following me too. But it happens. During the white bass run this year, I went canoeing with my little brother on the White/Richland confluence. It was the tail end of the run and we got skunked. However, I saw a boat with four non-english speaking guys anchored where mill creek dumps into Richland. This is no secret spot, it's an obvious feeder creek in a deep hole. As we trolled past them, all four were hooked up! I sat back and watched for a while, and these guys were jerking whites, hybrids, stripers, spots, largemouth, and cats just as fast as they could re-bait with minnows.

The next day I drove over the bridge and saw the hole empty. Would I have any reservations about hitting it up? I'd have done it in a heartbeat if I was fishing that day.

On my one guided freshwater trip, I went to Texoma with my uncle and a striper guide. This guy was great. We were catching 10lb stripers on 3/4oz spinnerbaits with monster trailing grubs. We got in a spot and started doubling and trippling up until another boat saw our action and rolled in. Now, this guy was obviously piggybacking us, but he wasn't exactly fishing right on top of us. Our guide flipped out and gave them an earfull. After some harsh words, they fired up their engine and floored it out of there, pretty much scattering the bait and killing our fishing. If our guide would have had a gun, I think he would have put a hole in their boat. I understood his frustration. If I'm trying to generate repeat business and making my living solely off of my own work product (which is exactly what I do in my professional life), I'd be pissed about people piggy backing off of me too.