Best guides will move lake to lake depending on where they are biting. They also prefish if they haven't had any trips in several days. Even with that there are times I've only picked up a few. Other times I've caught 20+ and we boated 60+. Check if they have a FB page and if they are posting quality fish close to your date. I mean, I know they can fake that too, but in that case I'd be super pissed. I use a guide 3-4 times a year mainly when I either want to learn something specific or I am taking a friend or client and I want to make sure we catch fish. My guide lets me change dates if he knows the fishing won't be good. He's just not going to take my money if we don't have a reasonable chance to catch fish. I'd ask.

As a guide I can tell you those days happen. I’ve yet to get skunked, but I have had some 3-10 fish days. Most of us work tirelessly to put clients on fish. I’m sorry you had a bad experience, but if you’re willing to give a guide another shot around Toledo or Rayburn, give me shout.👍

Josh Sikes

I hate that you had a bad experience, but guides are human , not miracle workers. I'd suggest that next time (IF) you hire another one. Have a up front discussion, that way, hopefully no one has bad feelings toward each other @ the end of the day. If I were guiding you, I would not expect or accept a tip for a day like that, on the other hand I may or may not offer a discounted future trip . But the trip in question would not be free either. Everybody has a turn at the dry livewell, I don't care how good you are, or think you are.

I hate how this sounds but if at the end of the day you feel the bite of spending guide money and not catching any or very little fish you shouldn’t use a guide.

ALL fishermen have bad days.

I learn a lot more from guides on bad days than good days.

I couldn't disagree more. His money was as good as anyone elses and he has the right to be upset. If you are going to guide and you can't put them on fish then offer something or maybe they shouldn't be a guide. I have used a few guides and had a good day. I have had guides and the fishing was bad but they worked at it hard and taught me some new things. I have had guides that couldn't put you on fish and could care less. I have had guides call and tell me that it is going to be tough before hand and give me the option of cancelling. Sometimes they think they are a guide because they bought a license but have no business running a service.

If you were getting no bites and wanted to fish a different way then the guide should give you his advise but accommodate you. Then, if you don't catch it is on you. The last guide that I used was on Okeechobee. He pushed to use live bait and when I wouldn't he had a swim jig tied on and that is all that he would give for us to use for the entire day. Wouldn't even change colors. I was pissed the entire way home for wasting my hard earned money on someone who really didn't try.

I hired a guide that advertised to be a professional guide service on that lake. He should have known a lot more than me about what the fish were currently doing. He had spawn pattern stuck in his head and could get off of it despite the lack of results. I agree everybody has a bad day sometimes, but in that situation I expect a guide to exhaust all options on patterns, lures, locations, etc. to earn the money that I’m paying them. I agree with Bobby. If they can’t stay current on the patterns and location of the fish they shouldn’t be guiding. I will hire a guide again, but I will be diligent in getting all expectations, prices, and discounts communicated beforehand next time. Thanks for your input guys.

I'm thinking you should just roast the guide here on this forum. He'll suffer the consequences of being a jackhole, and the quality guides out there can remain unscathed.
I always roast Joe Ford every chance I get.
Worst guide ever......drunk, late, sloppy, inattentive, and just plain stupid.
That is all.

To each his own I guess , I was trying to illustrate the gamble that it is using a guide.....like betting on red in Vegas.

I will stand by my advice if you feel the bite of the fee you shouldn’t use a guide. I’d be more bummed about my time than dollars.

I’m bummed about both, and the fact that we didn’t get any useful information to help us catch fish the rest of the week that we were there. Not to mention the fact that my Dad doesn’t get to fish much. That’s the main reason I hired the guide in the first place. I completely disagree with what you just said. Hiring a professional guide shouldn’t be that much of a gamble. Catching big fish or big numbers yes that’s a gamble. Getting put on fish or getting good information for later, no. That’s their job!!

Hey I am not disagreeing with what your point is.......but the reality is it is a gamble. Not at all saying it should be a gamble but it is one.

I’d suppose that more guys end up in your and your dad’s shoes than not.

I've got one better for you. I hired a guide on Falcon for last year to take my wife on our honeymoon. She wanted to catch a Falcon giant. I know, she's a keeper!! So I hired a guide and told him what we were more interested in quality not quantity. As it got closer to our scheduled date, he called and explained the lake wasn't fishing that great and we could cancel or reschedule if we wanted. I really appreciated his honesty and we decided to go anyways since my wife had never had the opportunity to fight a falcon bass. I had been down there probably 5-6 times over the past few years and always had pretty good success. We finally make it down there and start fishing. We're on the Mexico side catching a few decent bass when the guide sees a boat cruising our way. I noticed his change in demeanor and he says we need to make a move. We had been bouncing around from spot to spot for a while so my wife didn't really think much of it. I, on the other hand, felt a sence of urgency, grabbed the rods, buckled them down and pulled my wife in the seat. Our guide cranks up and we start out of the area. The boat behind us speeds up and starts chasing us. Thankfully the guide drops the hammer and we start moving, but the boat on our tail does too. They're maybe 40-50 yards behind us chasing us and we hear a gunshot and bullet fly by. It just got real. I pull my bride of 2 days down and kinda layed on top of her out of instinct. Luckily we're in a much faster boat than the bad guys and we head straight across the lake to Texas. I don't believe the Mexicans we're trying to kill us because they only shot once from what sounded like an AR15. I don't know if they wanted to rob us or just wanted us out of the area, but I sure am glad we didn't stick around to find out. So to the point of the story I guess, was it the guides fault for putting is in that situation? I don't believe it was. I had fished the Mexico side several times and never had an issue. I've talked to several people who fish the lake regularly and never had a problem. I don't blame the guide for it, in fact, I'm thankful for him getting us out of what could've been the worst day of our lives. I payed our agreed rate and said thanks for getting us back safe. Will I take my beautiful bride back to Mexico? Hell no, but I wouldn't hesitate to hire the same guide should I ever decide to return to catch a Falcon giant. A good guide should be honest with how the lake is fishing, bit it is up to you to communicate to him what you want out of the trip. For you to expect a free trip because you didn't catch a fish is a little unreasonable I believe. You should have been more upfront with your expectations and if you're a fisherman, you should know we all have our bad days

I didn’t expect this trip or a future one necessarily to be free. I know he has cost involved, and I’m glad to cover that. But full price for a half a** job doesn’t seem reasonable either. A discount would have been nice. Or at least an offer to make it up to us somehow.

Half [censored] job? A guide can’t force fish to bite, some days they just don’t bite at all and it’s not his fault. If he grinds it out all day long and made efforts to put you on fish the guy deserves to be paid. With him only catching two fish it doesn’t sound like he front ended you all day long and beat up fish.

Did you learn anything not catching lol, the op is right in the fact that there are a bunch of suck guides that are really no more than scammers out there. You can count on 2 hands the decent guides in the whole state. The rest are scammers more or less. Even some of the bigger names. This will be an unpopular post but its honest as it gets.