Fishing Guides - Making money on tax dollars?

[WettinLine]

Your an idiot and need to find something productive to do. You must be some kind of bored to troll a fishing report website. I would imagine there are way more fun people to piss off than old fisherman.

Hey MJK, I posted under general discussion, not fishing reports. I wanted to see what people thought about guides making money on tax dollars, I'm not "idiot" that went on a tangent. Out of everyone who posted and stuck to the subject thanks your values are well received, the rest are guys are like you who want to change status with more wasted posting "Golden Shiner"!

[Phil Lilley]

State you all's case(s) and keep the personal jabs and foul language out.

Re read the rules you all checked "agreed" before you all registered on this site.

[MOPanfisher]

I personally have no problem with guides being paid to provide a service, whether that service be guiding for a state stocked species, or merely a state managed species. And honestly I don't see what the fuss is all about. Imagine the impossibility of enforcing something like a separate fee/license for guiding for stocked species, if you are guiding for bass and accidentally catch a walleye, a wiper, or say a muskie (stocked by MDC), would you be in violation or just lucky. What about species like the Walleye, some are stocked and some reproduce naturally. I fully support making things as less complicated as possible not more, and I have never guided a day in my life nor do I intend to, don't want to make a job out of something fun.

[rps]

I'm sorry I opened this thread, then I couldn't leave. It was like watching a slow train wreck. Good Bye.

[ozark trout fisher]

I'm sorry I opened this thread, then I couldn't leave. It was like watching a slow train wreck. Good Bye.

I'm not sure about the slow part...

[Roaring River Veteran]

Okay, I have lurked in the shadows long enough. I'm fine with Guides making money off of lakes/streams that all of our tax dollars including theirs, support. With that being said, I would also make the argument that being a guide means that you spend a lot more time on the water than a normal person and you should be able to stay on fish better than a guy like me that is lucky to fish once a week. or some guy from out of state that comes in once a year. So here is the next question in this thread... In that case should a client be able to keep a limit since they are not the ones finding the fish? I would like to see it be changed to let the guides make money but don't let clients keep fish on guided trips....

[MOPanfisher]

Interesting, I know a few retired guys that in the spring are on the water nearly every day, they enjoy taking out friends or family to fish. They know exactly where the fish are and what they are hitting on, however they are not paid, should the friends/family of the retired guy be prohibited from keeping fish too? I would think prohibiting the keeping of fish on guided tips would either kill the business or drive it completely underground. I have been fishing many a time with folks who were on the fish, but just because I was in some cases standing right next to them didn't mean I could catch the dang things too.

[Feathers and Fins]

Okay, I have lurked in the shadows long enough. I'm fine with Guides making money off of lakes/streams that all of our tax dollars including theirs, support. With that being said, I would also make the argument that being a guide means that you spend a lot more time on the water than a normal person and you should be able to stay on fish better than a guy like me that is lucky to fish once a week. or some guy from out of state that comes in once a year. So here is the next question in this thread... In that case should a client be able to keep a limit since they are not the ones finding the fish? I would like to see it be changed to let the guides make money but don't let clients keep fish on guided trips....

I can see all the trout in Roaring River, Should I not be able to keep them because I see them?

I can do the Taney shuffle and catch trout, Should I not be able to keep them because a guy walked past me and I threw right there?

I can talk to the guy at the bait shop and he tells me where the fish are and what they are biting on, Should I not be able to keep them because he told me exactly where to go and what to use?

I write a report on the web for the lake telling people what and where, should everyone not keep the fish they caught based off that?

THERE IS NEVER A GUARANTEE when dealing with living creatures they will bite or be where they are suppose to be or everyone would fill all their deer and turkey tags and no one would ever get skunked fishing.

[Al Agnew]

The guide is no different than a fishing report, a magazine or book on fishing, or this website, except that the guide is probably more effective at helping people catch fish. There are a lot of things that help people catch fish, though, including all those things I mentioned above.

Other than that, it all boils down to ethics. Personally, I would never hire a guide who advertised guaranteed limits or even emphasized keeping fish. Not that I'm totally against keeping fish, it's just that I think that the better you are at catching them, the more of a conservation ethic you should have, and theoretically the guide is better at it than his clients, and should treat the resource as if HE is the one using it. The trout and smallmouth guides I know either strongly encourage catch and release or require their clients to catch and release with the possible exception of a true trophy to mount. In my opinion, with the relative scarcity of walleye in the Ozarks, walleye guides should do the same. Spoonbill? Well, that's one of those sports where the snag and kill ethic is so firmly engrained that I don't see it changing.

[Roaring River Veteran]

This thread is not talking about taking a family member or friend out it is about guides accepting money for fishing assistance. I am assuming of course that you are an amateur fisherman. I would consider anyone being paid for that service to be a professional. and yes you can read a report or talk to a guy but that is still different from someone accepting $300+ to take me out and put me on fish.

True RR is full of fish. however unless there has been a law change that I am unaware of you can not guide in RR. Anyone can catch fish there. my 8 year old can catch a limit there pretty well anytime she wants.

As far as the Taney Shuffle goes... if you are there without a guide and you have the ethics or lack there of that allows you to feel that is okay then all I can do is talk bad about you for doing it. If guide teaches it to you then that is another topic to discuss.