Ken I hope you don't mind but this seems like a good thread for me to add this what its worth--
First off there are quite a few great guides to fish with, many don't post up here as much as when I was new on the forum, that being said when they were posting they shared much knowledge to me and others--
There are many newer folks here now and certainly many others who help them get started into Bluecat fishing-

There are many here now who only know Tom as a guide.
I remember several YEARS where Tom would just openly invite folks from the forum to come fishing with him and not ask for anything in return except getting to see kids AND adults catching fish, and many times the biggest fish they had ever caught at the time--Many called Tom the PB machine because so many caught there "personal best" while fishing with Tom.
Myself included--
Tom took MANY people fishing that for what ever reason they wouldn't have been able to afford a guide, especially folks with kids-
I was very glad Tom was able to make the conversion to being a paid guide but I just wanted to let some you new folks know about the "pre-guide Tom".
I've thought many times I'd like to be like that part of Tom, but for various reasons I'm just not, and to me that just makes what he did more admirable to me.
When I first found the TFF I bounced around the different sections cause I just enjoyed fishing and didn't target any one species, After I took a trip with Tom
(one of those random, anybody off tomorrow and want to go fishing? post)
I was hooked on Catfishing--
Again, there are MANY good folk on here that have helped me and many others to fish better than we had before--
I just had time to type this up and though I would pass this on to any who cared to know-