As much as we love fishing does anyone make money doing it? I'm 24 and I love my job I have but it would be awesome to call work fishing. I'm have some plans to start something (which is better than not doing anything) to try to earn some money fishing.

Fishing for a living was never a job, but it was a lot of work. It was work that I enjoyed and put a lot of passion into, and yes, I did make a comfortable living. The easiest part of the entire job was actually the fishing part, because that is what I love to do, and it didn't take any effort to get really excited about going.

Assuming you are looking into becoming a guide, I want you to consider a few details that I learned along the way. The first being that the start up costs and obtaining a regular client base is going to be your biggest challenge. Buying a boat that the general public deems as a nice boat usually isn't cheap, and I can promise you that it will have mechanical issues at exactly the wrong time. Routine maintenance is essential, because no boat equals no pay.

The people you are going to take fishing are going to pay you a lot of money, assuming you are trying to pay your bills with this venture, so they expect you to perform on a daily basis. Should you be lucky enough to convince a stranger to pay you money for your service, you now have an allotted amount of time to overcome whatever Mother Nature throws at you, with a group of customers who will have a varying amount of fishing experience. Regardless of weather and regardless of your client's skill, you have to produce fish with a smile on your face or you don't get paid for that trip. That's the way I guided, anyways.

You'll also want to get a good insurance policy. When someone steps on your boat, you are now responsible for their safety. If they get hurt due to your negligence, you stand to lose a whole lot of money if they decide to press charges. Knock on wood that won't happen, but even good judgement can be thwarted by Mother Nature, especially during the spring.

I'm not trying to scare you, rather, I'm trying to reiterate the fact that once you fish full time for a living, it's not "just going fishing" anymore. If you run 180-200 SUCCESSFUL trips a year, assuming you get tipped, you should expect to make somewhere around 33-35k a year.

All I can say is "JUMP"

You will never know how successful your plan is until you put fourth the effort.

Hard work, dedication and passion are the key factors along with understanding the setbacks and failures as a learning tool.

Never give up!!

I'll add a couple more things to consider; retirement plan, health benefits. If you want either or both of these, you'll have to set those up for yourself with that guide money. Neither of these may be on your radar at your age, but I'd give very serious consideration to both. The price of individual health coverage is very expensive.
Seeing your location, not sure how good the catching opportunities are. Being able to put fish in the boat is a key requirement to building a returning clientele.
Since you have a job you love, keeping the hobby you love as your hobby might be a good alternative. Earn your way to retirement as quick as possible and then enjoy your hobby full time.

"shut-up-and-fish has given some good advice, either do it or quit talking about it. Lane has made it real and Ken has told you why most havent done it. There are many people that love to fish as much as you and dont love their job. If it were easy all of us would be doing it.
But if its in your blood and youve completely planned it out, go for it and we wish you nothing but the best. If youre successful, happy and reaching your dreams 5 years down the road, this board will be full of envious fishermen.

I'm going to do it but it's not going to be my focuse in going to let it go organically. I know nothing come easy lol but I'm not afraid to try something new I have a vision that if there is water I can fish it and get paid to do it. Social media is big and everyone is always looking for tips on fishing so the more I fish the more I learn. Everyone should be inspired to try to do what they love

I love my job but I love fishing more both are my passions

What lane said! He hit all the key points.

I have the luxury of being a 20 year law enforcement professional. I started my guide business now while I'm still working so that in 10 more years when I do retire I should have a great client base as well as an excellent retirement to supplement me. My best advise to you is start small and get your feet wet before you go all in. I wish you luck bud.

I'm just want to hear what other people have to say and there advice....thanks for all the advice but I'm definitely going to try

I am right there with you Tdot. I am 23 and also have a great job that I love. Crappie fishing is my passion! I love everything about it and the thought of being able to make a living off of it is really interesting to me. Having said that I have put thought into numerous ways to make money from the sport and am currently working on getting my feet wet in all of the areas. Guiding is something that I will definitely do at some point. I will talk about this last year for example. I dont have a boat so I was thinking of guiding from the bank on the creeks in the winter but there is one problem with that idea. Being able to guide on the creeks in the winter takes several things going my way all at once in order to be productive. The water level has to be right, it can't rain very much once you get on fish, it has to get and stay cold to catch limitable numbers and you have to have numerous spot and several creeks to rotate to and from when past clients return to your spots. This last year was the wettest on record for DFW and thus most of the creeks were flooded which didnt allow me to guide on them. While thinking more about it this winter I would have to agree with the above posts. Guiding in general is something that is not going to happen overnight, it is something that takes time to get on and stay on the fish and to build up a reliable clientele. Not to mention the upfront cost of starting up a guide service even from the bank is a pretty decent amount of money. I can also say to not be afraid to Think outside of the box when it comes to making money off of fishing in general. I hope this helps.

I would also say to make sure you have all your bases covered before you jump into anything. You would hate to spend a lot of money to get into something and then find something you didnt think about prevent you from making money, then all that money you just spent would have been wasted.

Plan on mother nature throwing you a curve ball at times. I lost 5 months of work due to Joe Pool Lake being closed because of flooding last year. Some lakes will close due to lack of water. Always a chance of a fish kill on certain lakes. With that being said the chances of things like this happening are small but always have a plan in place as if it was going to happen.

I think about doing this every single day. Every. Single. Day.

My problem is the money and also not wanting it to become something I regret doing. Fishing is fun right now, and I don't want it to become unenjoyable.

That being said, the FIRST thing I would do is go out with some great guides and see how they operate and treat people. I wouldn't go with anyone in your area because it would be wrong to try to get info from your competition. For me, being in deep east Texas, I would go on trips with some guys in the DFW area and see how they do things. Be totally upfront with them and I'm sure they'd be willing to share some knowledge if they know you won't be taking away customers. See what you liked/disliked and check out different equipment. Ask them how they formulate a game plan each day.

Then sink as much brush as humanly possible in as many locations/depths as possible.

I've also thought about just doing it in the summer time since I teach, but it may not be worth it. Although, I'd be out there anyway. Might as well have someone pay for the gas!