I have fished with guides down through the years and even fished with Randy Wood at PK once after I retired. I always thought it was too much work for what most people would pay for it. I used to go up to Arkansas and get a full day trip on the Kings River for $150. With the gas and overhead expenses ( lost lures, new line , poles, guide License, car expenses, etc) I figure they lost money and worked really hard for it.

While guides get more at PK, I think professional guiding is still a tough gig even if you don't have to get up at 3 am to catch baits. The one good thing about trolling though is you don't have clients swinging treble hooks around your head all day. I guess with electric down riggers you can keep the rigs off the trees and not get hooked by clients. There's a video on youtube showing a guide demonstrating how to get treble hooks out of you. He just hooks his arm like it's nothing. You know this guy has been hooked a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgfpsupmu98

Some of the people I take out have never fished before or haven't fished with anything other than a zebco 202. I guess if you had a big center console with a place I could hide while they tossed lures and tried not to hook each other. I think it's better to bait their hook and watch them catch the fish, after I set the hook and reset the drag.

Other issues that make me appreciate fishing guides is they have to deal with all kinds of equipment issues. I watched Randy Wood pick a birds nest my fishing buddy made on a baitcaster that looked hopeless to me. Lots of reties as well as we broke off lures and baits a lot. He was like a one armed paper hanger running all over that boat and he only had two people. I cannot imagine how hard it must be to take out a bigger group. How this was done before the remote controlled trolling motor is beyond me.

Most of what you posted is very true. The only thing is I don�t have any downriggers. Lol I use weights to get my baits to the depths I want. That�s how I lost the 3 rigs experimenting with different weights line size and speed to get my baits where I want them so fish respond favorably.
The safest place to stand when folks are casting is right beside them and I don�t let them cast if more than 3 are on the boat.

Expensive is relative to a persons passion. I will spend several minutes trying to retrieve a single bait hook unless fish are all over us. The more costly the baits the more time I spend to get it back. When a whooping crane grabbed my topwater one morning I hesitated a bit deciding if I really wanted to fight him for it but it was my favorite topwater bait so he and I went around for a while till I won. The same thing happened with a cormarant who grabbed a slab at 26 ft one day. Both were released with sore throats where I had to grab them by hand to get my baits back. It�s sometimes scary when unhooking 4 or 5 fish from an umbrella rig with 9 jig hooks flying around. I always get one of the other hooks in me somewhere. It�s part of the experience.

The expressions on clients faces and gratitude when they have had a good day catching more and bigger fish than they have ever done on their own usually makes up the difference in expense vs income for me. I can and have caught many large fish and really enjoy helping others accomplish that goal at least once or twice especially when young kids are encouraged to continue to pursue the awesome sport we call fishing.

You can easily have a million dollars by becoming a PK fishing guide, all you have to do is start with 2 million. I don�t actualky do it for the money. I enjoy getting people on fish and the expressions are great. Just like Jeff stated.
No casting on my boat with more than 2 clients. Majority of the time I run 5+ peeps. So it�s vertical jigging or bait fishing. I do not troll.

Kerry you made me laugh with that.

Amen brother

RutRo....Jeff, I forgot to send the wigs and make up with your new Draggin' rigs!!! All that flash and forgot to add the dress up gear. Guess you have to fish the Big Rigs Nekid!!!! Nekid With Flash?? Wait till you see the Glitter Blast Jig heads....maybe Nekid ain't too bad????