Striper Guide Advice

[KHAWK]

My family will be vacationing on Beaver the week of July 3rd thru July 10th. I am thinking of booking a guided half day Striper trip for my son and I. This will be our first time at Beaver and I am wondering with it being the 4th of July weekend and the lake being so busy if it would affect the Striper bite. Also would like recommendations of a good guide service.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[J-Doc]

I'd bet money it will affect the bite. Night bite would be best and there are enough fireworks shows going on that creates some hazardous traffic before and after.

Last year looked like D-Day storming a beach with water craft before the show at Ventris. :-). Not to mention the intoxicated boaters driving away at night.

Sorry to be a downer but that's something you need to be aware of. Now if you can get a trip up near the dam at night, you'd have some good chances at some good quality fish. Otherwise the water churners will have it so waked up that a day trip will push the fish deep.

However, an early morning trip before sunrise could be good trip. Guides typically do the early morning trips before sunrise that time of year. There are lots of guides and Hook Line & Sinker bait shop can point you finances recommended guides I'm the area and contact information.

[Ron Burgundy]

Check Don out.....beaverfeverguides.com

For some reason the word "Guide" offends some in this forum.

[Feathers and Fins]

KHAWK, That is a bad time like Doc said and for the reasons he said. If you can make it down prior to school being out and not on a holiday weekend you will find the fishing much more enjoyable especially if your son is younger. To be honest I will be guiding this year but that is one week I wont I want my clients to have an enjoyable trip and part of being a good guide IMO is to know when not to take people out.

[mjk86]

Ya, the 4th seems like a rough weekend. That said, I hired Gene Chapman (dont know if he even guides still) for a half day, several years ago. We had a pretty good day, including a 28lb fish. Nice guy.

[KHAWK]

Thanks for the info. I will have to schedule a seperate trip to fish.

[Ranger Dave]

I have used Don at Beaverfeverguides.com twice. The first time was great. We limited out within 1 hour and he kept us out on the lake for the remainder of our time to see if we could catch a big one. However, the second time I used him I was rather disappointed. He took us to the exact same place he took us the previous time (Big Clifty) and there were no fish. After trolling around for about 2 hours with no bites or indications, Don looked at us and said, "what do you want to do?" I asked him if he thought it would get better if we stayed and he said no. I thought he was supposed to be the guide. How would I know what do? He ended up taking us to the Rocky Branch area where we were also skunked. If we are not catching fish and he don't think we will catch any in this area shouldn't the guide be trying to "find" us some fish. We were in a group of 3 and we did not catch any fish. Now I realize that some days are just like that but if you pay a guy $400 to take you fishing for a half day I kinda expect him to at least try to find some some fish. I will use a different guide next time.

[fishinwrench]

I have used Don at Beaverfeverguides.com twice. The first time was great. We limited out within 1 hour and he kept us out on the lake for the remainder of our time to see if we could catch a big one. However, the second time I used him I was rather disappointed. He took us to the exact same place he took us the previous time (Big Clifty) and there were no fish. After trolling around for about 2 hours with no bites or indications, Don looked at us and said, "what do you want to do?" I asked him if he thought it would get better if we stayed and he said no. I thought he was supposed to be the guide. How would I know what do? He ended up taking us to the Rocky Branch area where we were also skunked. If we are not catching fish and he don't think we will catch any in this area shouldn't the guide be trying to "find" us some fish. We were in a group of 3 and we did not catch any fish. Now I realize that some days are just like that but if you pay a guy $400 to take you fishing for a half day I kinda expect him to at least try to find some some fish. I will use a different guide next time.

Sounds like the only thing he did wrong was answer your question honestly.

If he had said "yeah they could turn on at any minute and this area stands a better chance than any other place I know of". Then you would not have ended the day upset at your guide.

Or he could have just taken y'all on a boat ride to some random point and told you some made up "day before yesterday" tale.

Me, in the face of an obviously junk day I would have kept trolling, handed you all a beer and started telling jokes. Cuz on tough days, as the guide, success comes from making your clients smile.

Leave the long grueling days of hard serious work for only a few bites to the Tournament guys.

[J-Doc]

Well stated wrench. :-)

[Champ188]

Yup, well said Wrench, per usual.