Do Guides Fish While On A Paid Trip?

[Brian K. Shaffer]

I agree with Zack and Al / especially when it comes to trout and more to the point, fly fishing guides.

( I admit I know nothing of hiring or being guided by a bass fishing guide )

If a fly fishing trout guide intends to fish with clients he is not much of a guide in my book. He is poaching the clients fish and getting paid to do it.

That being said, near 100% of all guide trips I've ever done, the clients have always asked me to fish toward the end of the trip. All in fun, just as Zack pointed out.

I also wanted to say that I was never one to cast for my clients. I was hired to help them fly fish and learning to cast is part of the gig. It can even turn into more fun than actually catching fish, as in how it is for myself. I prefer to have a great day flycasting to a bad day of flyfishing.

One time in Colorado I was shown a 'guides hook' made by Partidge. It was a standard dry fly hook with a regular eye to tie your tippet to. Similar bend as in all hooks - but where the point should have been, there was another eye! He gave me a couple to try out and I found it fun to hook a fish and lose it every time, no matter what. You just couldnt hang onto them at all. I have some I'll dig out if anyone wants to see.

best fishes, Brian

[ness]

I've only fished with trout guides, and none of them ever fished though I have suggested it on a few occasions. The guide's job is to get you into fish, help you catch them and take care of you. If his fishing in any way helps you -- through demonstrating a technique, or clarifying something he's trying to show you, I think that's within the parameters of the job. If he's fishing because he wants to catch fish, he's fishing, not guiding.

I think a top guide would sorta 'rise above' the temptation to fish, and reinforce with the client that it's HIS day on the water. I suspect that would be universally appreciated by clients, translate into bigger tips at the end of the day, and make for better word-of-mouth advertising for future business.

Snagged -- that guy wasn't a guide. He was a guy charging people for boat rides.

[ozark trout fisher]

If I had to pay someone to show me how to fish, well, I would probably shoot something off of my body and call it quits.

No offense to the guides on here, I am a Do It Yourself Sort of Person. Mumble thru and learn thru your mistakes. Most good guides are teachers and you should learn something from your experience. Learning how well they fish is not one of them.

I see your point, but I look at this a different way.

If I'm going to be fishing a certain river or lake for 5 days or so that is known to be tough, I like to hire a good guide for the first day if I have some extra money. It helps learn things about the river that I would never find out for myself in 5 days, or if I did, it would occur to me late enough in the trip that it wouldn't matter. And then there are the cases, like fishing a drop- off 50 miles out to sea, where if you don't have a guide, you simply can't get to the water you need to fish.

[patfish]

SIO3, I think in the future you should ask ahead of time if the guide plans on fishing. The handful of times I've had a guide some have fished with us. I didn't mind, especially if it was new water and new techniques. The one time I had a guide on TRL with the Mrs I told the guide ahead of time on the phone that I didn't really care if I caught any fish but wanted the little Mrs to get into a good sized one. He delivered and was slick in doing so.... he hooked a good sized smallie, then acted like something was wrong with the Mrs rig and said "here, let me trade you rods" She had no idea there was even a fish on the rod he handed her. She had a blast fighting and landing that thing. That day I was glad he fished. We all had a blast and to this day the Mrs asks when are we going to do that again. So it was a win big time for me.

[techo]

It always gets me that some folks take a weeks vacation, pay for gas, resort or motel and food for a week at a challenging lake like Table Rock and not hire a guide for a half day. If you have already spent that much money on a fishing trip/vacation....why not make it more successful with some advice from people in the know? It would be like going to a really nice beach and wearing jeans and a t-shirt and not bringing a swimsuit.

A guide just helps teach you the areas to look for and the techniques on that particular lake at that time of the year.

I used to guide a bit on Rainy Lake and I never fished. I would at times use a spoon to get the fish chasing or hungry and then stop. Up there we used live bait for clients though.

When I get a guide to take me nowdays....it is a different deal for me. I consider them friends or associates and want them to fish with me. The two I have used recently..I asked them to fish and to talk me through what they were doing.

I do see jdmidwest's point about it being fun to figure things out on your own. I do have a great day when I figure out a pattern. I just like to have it based on some sort of education like what I received from a guide in the past. It would take me way too long to do the trial and error thing on Table Rock. I do wish I was brighter most days!

[troutfiend1985]

I know I'm late to this. I've only had trout guides, and never once did they fish with me. SIO3, I think you made the right call to not pay the guide and ask him to take back. If a guide intends to fish, I would think from a business standpoint it should be on him to inform his customers of this. I've just hired a guide for Yellowstone, and I would probably have a problem if things were going rough and he started fishing. If things were great and he wanted to fish a little at the end, that would be fine with me. OR if things were really great and you catch a rare hatch, the salmon fly, I would probably tell guide to pick up a darn rod and fish.

You hire a guide to learn an area quickly. I understand the do-it yourself mentalitites, but if you're on a once in a life time trip, I think it would be foolish to ignore a guide. Especially, I least I think, if you're going to a place you've never been before, the sole purpose is to fish and the place has a ton of hatches or the fish are spooky.

[crazy4fishin]

I have to throw my 2 cents in here - I agree with Techo when I come to TL or Taney I usually hire a guide to show me the patterns etc. since I only get down once or twice a year.

I also dont mind if the guide wants to fish - I am always in the learning mode and I want to watch his techniques, pick his brain as to how he views the water etc. And being somewhat competitive I like to see if I can out fish the guide. This has resulted in great memories and friendships even to this day.

I think the main theme here is to communicate to the guide what you are expecting right from the beginning and no one will be disappointed.

C4F