performance anxiety when fishing with guides.

[Darth-Baiter]

On 8/16/2023 at 7:34 PM, flyfisher said:

oh..sorry about your troubles. 

 

i'm get anxious around guides.  i boner would be a step in the wrong direction. i would be more nervous.  then he might judge!!!

 

edit...a better response would be.  "hey you do you, but that isnt the kind of fishing guide i am looking for". 

[Zcoker]

Down here in south Florida the guide service is off the charts for both fresh and salt, like all over the waterways and getting bigger daily. They comin out the woodwork, one day catching a few fish and then next day advertising themselves as the end all guide service. Has completely softened the market by just having so many to choose from. Lotta the experienced guides have thrown in the towel or have gotten buried under the stampede. Takes some skills other than fishing to be a good guide!

[dave]

My fishing partner and I are (were) both guides.  We drove to Houma, LA to fish for reds with a guide.  We stopped on the way and way home to fish Guntersville with a guide. (fairly famous at the time and shall remain nameless).  At each spot, he stopped the boat, bounded out of the seat, grabbed his rod, deployed the trolling motor went to casting.  We were left to just stand behind him and fish behind him.   In our boats, we run remote control trolling motors.  We stand in the back of the boat while clients fish.  BTW, the guide in Houma was fantastic.  We were all the same type of guides.  He drove and steered the boat while we fished.

[Capt Steve]

All the years I spent guiding I still never believed clients paid to watch me fish. Could I have brought in more fish if I "helped" them? Of course. 
These days there are so many guides that they must look good on Facebook in order to get customers. I know a bunch of them that catch 80-90% of the fish they bring in. I'm lucky I was guiding before it got so popular. I can't do that. 
My very first charter told me about his bass fishing trip with a guide. Said the guide caught 9 bass and he caught one. Then the guide bragged at the dock about "them" landing 10 bass! Before that I'd never thought about it. 
In saltwater, many customers (not all) can't make the necessary casts in all conditions. But I'd rather take in two fish that they caught than 10 that I caught. 
Unless a guide uses live bait I'm sure it's worse in FW since precise casts are necessary to catch bass with lures. 

But there's no need to be anxious while fishing with your guide. Just make him aware beforehand of what you can and cannot do.  If you don't fish 4-5 days a week nobody can expect you to skip a lure under a dock 3 times a minute. 

I got so tired of people telling me they were all "experienced fisherman ". Then they held their reels upside down!  

Id rather them tell me they have no clue how to fish. Then I knew what I'm working with.  
I also think it's appropriate to tell your guide if you don't want him to fish. I've had customers tell me that when they booked. 
Sorry for the long rant. It's a subject near to me. 
 

[Swamp Girl]

@Capt Steve: Yours isn't a rant at all. It was informative. So, thanks. 

 

36 minutes ago, Capt Steve said:

Then they held their reels upside down!  

 

I cringe when I see ^this.^ Have they never watched a fishing video?

[geo g]

To me all the pressure is on the guide not the client.  His job is to find the fish and teach you on how to catch them that day.  Sometimes a tough job!

[MN Fisher]

3 minutes ago, geo g said:

To me all the pressure is on the guide not the client.  His job is to find the fish and teach you on how to catch them that day.  Sometimes a tough job!

That's exactly what Brit did with me on the guided trip I had earlier this year. She found spots that looked promising, suggested techniques and even color options. Still the best day of fishing I've had this year.

[TnRiver46]

Every person is a case study, I’ve had plenty of clients tell me to cast it out there and catch the trout myself after hours of floundering around helplessly. I can sit there and lean on my net and talk baseball while you miss fish all day long ? . Or if you want me pop a silly trout in the face I’ll do that too. 99% won’t set the hook fast enough. I always know what it takes to catch the fish and usually they can’t do it no matter what I say. But sometimes if they watch me do it live, they have a better shot 

 

whenever someone tells me before the trip even starts that they don’t want me to cast at all, I pretty much just check out and watch butterflies. I wasn’t planning on casting anyway, that’s just a waste of a bite. But now I know the angler is a little too worried and their fish karma is way off. Usually those clients try too hard and skunk 

 

there are no rules, play the person not the fish

[Functional]

On 8/22/2023 at 12:41 PM, Darth-Baiter said:

i'm get anxious around guides.  i boner would be a step in the wrong direction. i would be more nervous.  then he might judge!!!

 

You wont need his gear after the first backlash with these...just tell him its fine you brought your own pole. 

 

In all honesty I never thought about having to "perform" in front of a guide but now I'm nervous if I ever hire one ? Thanks DB.

[dave]

On 8/22/2023 at 9:19 PM, ol'crickety said:

@Capt Steve: Yours isn't a rant at all. It was informative. So, thanks. 

 

 

I cringe when I see ^this.^ Have they never watched a fishing video?

I had a client years ago that picked up his spinning rod and started casting...reel upside down.  I said, "hey John..."  he stopped me and said, "if you're going tell me about my reel, don't."   He could cast and reel as good as any.  He booked me another half dozen times for every species fished.  Good times.