Hey everybody, Me and one of my fishing buddies are still in high school, but when we graduate or possibly sooner we would like to start guiding. We are have tons of knowledge about fishing steelhead. We have been fishing the west end since we were 3. Both of us can and allready have guided family down the Bogie, Hoh, and Sol Duc. Each time coming back with more than one fish. We still need a little help understanding what guides do. If anyone has any helpful tips please share them with us. THANKS, REYNEES.

Lucky for you, young man, that you've stumbled into the right place. I just so happen to be a "fishing guide" consultant. Normally what I do is spend the day fishing with a guide, he treats me like a regular customer, and then I appraise him at the end of the day noting his strengths and weaknesses.

Typically I charge a small modest fee for this service, but since you guys are just starting out I could waive that fee and let you take me fishing for free. Strictly for consulting purposes only, of course.

Just remember, the better job you do guiding me (putting me on fish), the better grade you'll receive at the end of the day.

So how's that sound for a bargain?

Depending on what type of boat you are planning to use will make a BIG difference in what your overhead will be!

If you are only planning to guide from a drift boat, your overhead may be fairly small. If you decide to guide from jet sleds, your overhead could be substantially larger. Most new guide boats in the 18-20 class will probably coast you about a thousand dollars afoot or better, depending on what extra's you order. You will probably need to get a cost guard license if you intend to use power on your boat. That may cost you another $1500 or so to get that. You will also need to get your state guide licenses for salmon and steelhead. That can cost another $200-600 dollars. And then you will need to get insured (both you and your boat), who knows what that will cost you?

After you get all of that taken care off, you need to outfit your boat (about $1000 or so). Next, you need to spend another 3-8 thousand dollars on rods, reels and tackle. Then you need a truck that will take you and your boat to wherever you need to go to fish, and that may cost you anywhere from $4000-$50,000.

And finally, you will probably need an attorney for the divorce papers that your wife will be serving on you in the next couple of years!

My personal advice to you…look for another type of job and just enjoy your sport of fishing for what it is!

Maybe Bob can add a few more things that I may have missed!

Cowlitzfisherman

Goharley

I have to admit, that was really a good one!

Cowlitzfisherman

I'm thinkin I'm probably your man over Go harley, I'm older an no doubt , you would have a better chance to test your skills.

As far as the tech. part of the deal I would suggest you check with Big Chalua (sp) re Post; Thanks Hook- em-Up (01/23/03) he seems to have the skinny on the regs. and the license requirements.

My consulting fees are lower priced, but of better quality than Go Harley's I'm sure since I've never met him, or layed eyes on him.

Good Luck!


herm <img border="0" alt="[wall]" title="" src="graemlins/wall.gif" />

Actually Renyees ... maybe you can help me

You sent in this report for 1/22 (yesterday) about the same time you registered:

Perhaps you can share your secrets of how to have such great day of fishing on a day the lower Hoh came up over two feet during the daylight hours?? I'd sure have to think those slides caused some vis problems with that much rise??

On the fishing end of guiding ... that's important ... maybe you got it!! Ya gotta be able to help your guests produce all the time, even under some of the worst conditions!

Insurance nowadays wil be between $1000-$2000 annually based on what / where you run. The state of Washington doesn't require it, but you'd be stupid to work without it.

Might be kinda tough to do with school ... you'll find that your day is hardly over when you get off the river. This time of year, I'm up at 4:30 for a 5:30 meet, usually fish until 3:30 or so ... and I usually get all the chores done about 8 or 9 in the evening. So that's about 16 hours/day in the winter. My summer hours are far worse ... especially when I run double trips.

Chores?? Yep, after you get home: you wash the boat, check all equipment, fix / swap out what is necessary, tie leaders if you haven't already spent all your days off getting them ready, get coffee ready for next day's client's thermos, check in with your group for two days out, field phone calls or emails for prospective trips, talk with other guides / anglers to get an idea of what is happening in the areas you did not fish today, have a little time set aside to play politics & conservation, have a little time set aside for accounting puropses ... oops, the Visa machine ran out of paper again, do your best to decipher weather forecasts so that your clients don't drive out unnecessarily, run down and check the ramp again to see just how much the river is coloring despite what the gauge on the web says, oh damn!, I forgot to grab shrimp on my way home, run back up town to grab shrimp for tomorrow, might as well get some gas too! You wake up in the morning and see that rain turned to snow and now you have 3" of wet sloppy stuff covering everything in the boat ... run outside in your PJ's and try to get a hose running on it to melt the snow the best you can, then you realize clients got drunk last night are are way late for breakfast so you start hunting them down at the local motel, you finally get them out to the river and are excited for a great day of fishing as they told you that they're gonna be easy to fish because they've done lots of this before ... the client then proceeds to take the spinning rod you gave him (the days of plugging all day are long gone fires one into the trees, you give 'em another ... decent cast this time, but now he starts reeling up with the spinning reel facing the sky ... oh my we have our work cut out for us today

BUT when you see the smile and twinkle in their eye whe they are succesful, it makes it all worth it!! You gotta ask yourself if the end reward outweighs the rest of it? Did they learn something today, did they get to see something they never have before?

Lots of of people have tried guiding (someone other than family / friends) and realized that it was far from what they expected.

Long hours, so-so pay for those that work really hard at it, lousy pay for those that don't ... it's not just going out fishing for a few hours each day!

Some may ask why then??

Good question, perhaps best answered by another question ... why would anybody in their right mind fish for winter steelhead anyhow

COST OF COAST GUARDE LICENSE AT THE SEATTLE MARITIME ACADEMY: $725

COST OF STATE FISH LICENSE: $180 STEELHEAD: $150 SALMON

COST OF INS. THRU THE BOAT INSURANCE CO. WITH $1MILL. UMBRELLA: APPX. $60 PER MONTH

COST OF FISHN FOR A LIVIN: PRICELESS

PS. BUY A DIESEL

Now there was some quality replys there
Thanks for the laugh

Read a mag article about being a fishin guide and have seen a couple of interviews with long time guides over the years. They all claimed that never before in their (fishin) life have they done less fishing as when they are actively working fulltime as a guide!!

I know there are a few guides n ex-guides on this board; would any of you care to comment?

Sincerely,
Roger

All I have to say is good luck. Specially using the board of the guy who guides the river you want to compete with. Just sounds funny to me.

Anyway I just booked a trip for me and my dad in October with Bob and had a hard time sleeping last night thinking about it. With his reply it looks like we are in good hands.

Man 9 months of being restless. Just like a little kid. More for my dad than me though. I want him to catch salmon since he is a TROUT fisherman by trade and I want to learn Bobs secrets because I live here and now have my first year under my belt.

BOB

I got tired just reading about your day