Jay Greishaw down at Falcon never grabbed a rod.... he literally sat on his cowling and drove the boat with the remote and told us where to cast. The best guide trip I've ever been on.

I do see the flip side of the coin too..... many clients need a casting lesson more than they need a guide trip so you risk coming in at the end of the day skunked because of the lack of skill of the clients. There's value in knowing the fish are there and that they are catchable even if it means getting front ended.

The one and only guided trip I ever went on, the guide didn't even own a rod and reel. He had a mason jar full of "hooks". I caught fish on almost every cast. I started to feel bad for the Inuit guy since he was removing my fish for me. I started to reel faster when I saw a smaller fish coming for my lure.

At the end of a 5 day trip I gave him a Team Lews Pro reel, a Shimano Stradic Ci4, and two browning three piece rods. He gave me an illegal "bird feather" that I was scared to death sneaking through customs.

Being the only guide I've ever had, I don't have a basis for comparison. But I think he was good. I won 5 Canadian Master angler awards in 5 days and he never held a rod in his hand. And he made my lunch every morning and packed it into the boat.

Curious as to what service you are looking for? Do you want to learn something, be shown spots, use a boat?
There is a lot more to a guide trip than the things I just asked about... if you doubt that - for a small fee - I will tell you some spots, tell you some baits to throw, tell you where you can rent a boat and I'll sit at home in the A/C while you go out and try to make what I've told you work.

I hired a guide a couple years back when I met my wife in Florida at a nursing conference she was attending. I flew down there and had all day while the wife was in class two days of the trip. I hired a guide because I had no boat and very little tackle with me and no one I knew in the area. I asked him to consider himself my partner for the day and fish and have fun. In other words I paid a guy with tackle and a boat to be my friend and partner for the day. We both had a great time as I basically chose my tackle, tied my baits, landed my fish, etc.. and he did the same. He got to fish for a day and I got the use of his stuff and knowledge of the lakes, win win big time for both of us!

I have also hired guides several times to take me out during times when I struggle like mid winter. I pick their brain, watch them make lure presentations, watch where and how they position the boat, study their lure choices for the situation, in other words take advantage of their TOW and experience and try to learn something so I can improve on my own.

I think many people go with guides with the attitude that they are going to catch more and bigger fish than they have ever caught and going to come back with a gps full of new spots and anything less is a disappointment. If you approach a guide trip with the attitude of I am going to school today to learn all I can from a professional your experience will be much more enjoyable!

I expect any guide I hire to fish, not front end me and catch every fish, but teach me and demonstrate to me what to do in a given situation. If they don't then I feel like I am missing a good portion of the class!!

To each their own opinions but after guiding novice friends and acquaintances from church or work for free on several occasions, I really respect what these guys do, it is work!

Sounds like you should save yourself and a guide a lot of grief and just not hire one.

A good guide does his job by putting you on fish and keeping your spirts high. Sometimes this can be done from the back of the boat with a remote, sometimes it requires him being up front to navigate stump fields or make precision casts. It's usually extremely apparent who's best interest they have in mind. I've never encountered one who was just out to hook fish himself. They wouldn't stay in business long. Nobody wants to get front ended all day, but it may be necessary for a short period to locate fish.

I THINK he's gettin it!!
Live and learn is what I say!!

Yep, I think you might be disappointed whether he fishes or not. If I'm gonna pay him $400 he dam better fish, that way I'll know for sure there are fish there and how to catch'em and I sure ain't interested in running the trolling motor.

If the guide doesn't get bit, chances are the client won't ither!

In my experiences the guide has usually fished using a different bait or technique until we really dialed in the bite for that day, then he stopped fishing or just continued to do something a little different to stay ahead of the ever changing pattern.

Here's a thought. A guide would be able to tell in an instant whether a guy could cast adequately and maybe had any sense of touch. If so he could tell him where to cast and what was down there, variations of how to work his lure and why they were fishing that spot at that particular time. If he wanted to run two different presentations on the same spot, he could fish as well. Or if the spot/ area was pretty big he could be searching along with his client to find them. If they had it dialed in he could back off to some degree and let the client catch the fish. The situation would be that he would educate verbally and by example, not that he could catch more fish fish than his client.
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I always want the guide to fish also.

I liked it better back when the trolling motor was attached to the stern and that's where the guide was as well. The last guided trip I was on had the guide fishing in the front, my brother in the middle and I was left to fish from the rear. They had a great day! Me, not so much.

WAS THAT A SHOT!!

another cheap minneesoda shot, you texans are all a bunch of wild animals.

On the other hand. We don't have people ask dumb questions like this up here.

[quote=Mark Perry]Sounds like you should save yourself and a guide a lot of grief and just not hire one. [/quote

maybe you should stick to video games and always wear your life jacket I'm worried about you.