Fishing charters

[jwo1124]

This may be moved to Everthing else, but I'll give it a shot here. Has anyone ever been out on a fishing charter with a guide? I'm not talking about deep sea fishing, more like a one on one deal. I love to fish, but there really isn;t any great bass fishing around my area. There are a lot of ponds, but not really any productive lakes. There is a great striper run throughout late spring into mid fall, but to really get at them you need a boat. being a college student, I don;t have alot of money, there for a boat is kind of out of the question. I have a 12' aluminum with an electric motor, but that can only do so much.

I will be graduating college in a couple years and getting into a career, so I will be able to start putting money away to increase the quality of my fishing endevor. I looked into a few different guides and to give an example most striper charters up here in Mass. run about $100 an hour. This may be zeal and inexperience and young age talking but I think paying $400 for a 4 or 5 hour fishing trip with a guide, out on a boat fishing places I could never get to, and a guarentee to catch keeper fish is worth the money for the experience. I know it is only a one time thing, but I look at the quality vs. quantity ratio. Obviously if a guy is going to charge me $100 he better be giving me a quality fishing trip.

If I wanted to get my own boat insure it, get a moaring, register it, maintain it, gas it, I am looking at a few thousand for an old used boat with these a good chance of things wrong with it(just like a used car). I think a once a year trip for $400-500 bucks will truly be worth a high quality, unforgetable fishing trip.

I am thinking as a sportfisher, what will be more rewarding: fishing on my own weekend warrior style beating my homewaters to death, or saving up and going on a couple charter trips each year, while still fishing recreationally around my homewaters as much as possible. I mean I could fish a whole summer off the rocks putting in a few 4-5 hour days fishing off the rocks for stripers and only get a small ration of fish....really doesn't sound too compelling. Or I could go on one really sweet guided trip one or two days out of the summer and really get my fix of Stripahz for that year.

I wait tables in the summer which is the busy season, and working a 12 hour days I can pull in over $200 bucks. So figure working two doubles(12 hour shift) I could pay for a 1/2 guided charter. If I saved all summer I could probably go on a few day expedition to mexico for peacock bass or El Salto largemouth.

When i think of all the money I would have to spend to get my own boat, loaded with fishing gear, and all the time I would have to put it to get the results I would get with a guide....it's unfathomable. I know being out in nature, using your own knowledge, and trying to hunt down the fish is half the fun, and what really makes you a better angler...But sometimes I just wanna feel that tug on the line, you know what I mean?

Any thoughts?

[jwo1124]

I should say that the charter I looked into was $500 for a 4 hour trip or $875 for an 8 hour day, but these rates are for groups up to six, so when it coems down to cost per person, this isn;t very much for a guided striper/bluefish charter. But then agian, that means you only hook up with 1/6 of the fish...is it worth the $$$  

[roadwarrior]

First of all, if you're just looking at a few trips per year, guided outings are a great value. No investment and if you select the right guide, you will probably catch some nice fish!

The cost should be more like $200-$350 for TWO people for a full day. (Plan to add a 10-20% tip, it's expected). My partner guides for smallmouth this time of year, but striper during the summer. For $300 he furnishes all equipment, bait, soft drinks and that includes gas!

[Chris at Tech]

I'd suggest doing more research on the guides and only book with one that comes with good recommendations.

I've heard some real horror stories about 'guided trips', so the research is well worth it.

[Tokyo Tony]

If you get a good guide, a guided trip is well worth the cost. Last summer I went down to Florida "for my cousin's wedding", but my brother and I looked at it more as a fishing trip (caught the Peacock bass spawn, went deep-sea fishing, LMB fishing, and backcountry fishing in the Everglades - and still caught the wedding). The highlight of the trip was a guided trip in the Everglades for snook/tarpon/redfish/seatrout. I think it was $500 for the day (plus a $100 discretionary tip), 7 am to 3 or 4 pm, and it was well worth the cost. We caught a bunch of fish of I think 7 or 8 species. But the point is that shelling out the 3-600 bucks a few times a year will be well worth it. I know that my brother and I will NEVER forget that trip, and we talk about it all the time and have some great photos to show for it.

I read a fishing story and I remember the author using the phrase "earning memories", which I thought was beautiful. Most memories can be earned, but they can also be bought ;D

By the way, the guide's name is Capt. Doug Lillard, and if you're in South Florida (he'll take you anywhere in that area you want to go), look him up.  Great guy, and he freakin' knows his stuff and will put you on a bunch of fish.

[jeremyt]

I'd suggest doing more research on the guides and only book with one that comes with good recommendations.

I've heard some real horror stories about 'guided trips', so the research is well worth it.

Best advice I think you could get.

Not real familar with bass charters, but living on the coast and getting to know a lot of guys who run charters. I will say this, you have guys who do it full and part time and have a passion for it, they are all about customer satisfaction ( knowing that somedays the fish just don't want to cooperate) they try to teach you and if you want let you do a lot on your own for the learning experience. Then you have the guys who bought a boat, took the course and have a charter business and just don't care about anything but the money they get.  Look in to it and get some references.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

1.  Mass. is loaded with productive lakes.

2. the 6 person charter does not break down like you think.  If a 6 person charter is $600, that does not mean that 2 of you can go for $200.  The boat needs the $600 to leave the dock, it will be $300 each if you want to go with just 2 guys, but that is saltwater.

3.  Come to Guntersville with us.

4. Going to El Salto, the cost runs in the thousands.

Just some points.

[jwo1124]

Yeah I know that most saltwater charters prices are heavy, and they are best if you go with a group of people so you can split the cost.

I know there are tons of ponds and lakes in MA, just none that are in my general vacinity. Plus that fact that I don;t own a decent fishing boat makes fishing frustrating at times.

I would never plan on going on a trip like El Salto until I was in my 30's or 40's and I have the money.

I recently saw a few sites for guides up in New Hampshire. A couple bass guides and a couple trout and salmon guides. Prices are around 250-375. I saw a nice salmon/trout charter that had great testimonials that was 375 for a 8 hour day, which I would pay in a heart beat.

It was just something that came to mind, I know I should do some research on the subject, but I just wanted to get some opinions.

I am thinking about a few in '08.

Early Spring: salmon/trout trolling up in NH Winnupasake

Early Summer:bass fishing up in NH

Mid-Late Summer: Striper/bluefish out of somewhere here in MA. Probably Glouster or Beverly

Those three trips will probably cost me around a $1000, I'll get (hopefully) three great memorable fishing trips. Catch alot of fish, get out on the water with knowledgeable anglers, hopefully learn a lot while I'm out there.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

The first one I would do is a smallie trip to Winnie, during the spawn, with a guide for the day.  If you had your own boat, I would say to do the 1/2 day and then go apply what you learned with your own boat but seeing as how you don't have one, do the whole day, you won't regret it.

[Branuss04]

I'd suggest doing more research on the guides and only book with one that comes with good recommendations.

I've heard some real horror stories about 'guided trips', so the research is well worth it.

Be sure to do lots of research.  Make sure the run is in full swing when you plan on going.  I went to alaska, and didn't do to much research on when the best time for the runs were, anyway we ended up going right in the middle of the two big runs.  Fishing wasn't great (We still ended up bringing close to 200 pounds of fillets back) but it could have been much better had we gone during the peak time.  Just do your research.  Especially being a college student, i'm sure you don't have a ton of money to blow, so you want this trip to be worth it.  Have fun