I've been fishing with a guide two times, both the same guide on the same lake. First time skunked. He wouldn't take his fee. Second time skunked again, he let me at least cover his fuel. He wasn't and isn't a bad guide, the 'fish gods' were against us both times as things went down. It happens. He treated me fairly, so I have no complaints. It was a lake I already had familiarity with and was hoping to pick-up additional insights. It just didn't happen, but it was an agreeable solution.

different but similar.
I used to guide in colorado, elk/mule deer/bear for an outfitter (you don't just get a license up there). what I learned over 15 yrs. I did it was that people often show up expecting the guide to automatically put them on game/fish. it just doesn't happen that way, mother nature changes their attitude with weather and season. like others have said, fish can be finicky and not bite at all, happens to me on fork often.

if a guide did their best but was still unable to put you on fish then why should they have to offer anything? the fact that most offer discounted trips, free trips etc. to make up for it is just going above and beyond, they put their time, money (fuel, boat etc) and effort into it, free should not even be a thought on the part of the client but most often is.
if the guide is a jackwagon then just don't hire them again and don't tip them for the day, if they tried and you realize it was probably not their fault that the fish weren't there then tip them and discuss the day and learn from it. if you thought they should have fished different depths, patterns etc. then you should have brought that up and let the guide explain why he was fishing the way he was.

making sure people have a good day, even on bad days, is part of guiding and is seldom easy. catching or not learn from it and go on with life.

Being a guide is a thankless job where you also don't make a ton of money. Almost everybody said it..."expectations". I can't tell you the number of times I would put people on fish on Fayette years ago with a specific bait that I knew caught fish and the customer insisted on trying other things in his tackle box that had a near zero chance of catching fish. (like pulling out a topwater at noon fishing open water in 20+feet of water while I'm actively catching spawning fish on a wacky worm in the shallows)
Being a long time photographer who teaches workshops, I've seen similar behavior. I'll set up and meter lights and give the settings to the customer only to have them decide that (their camera is different) they know better than me. Frankly if someone hires me for my expertise and then wants to pretend they're the expert, I'm always game to learn...however I get paid just the same.
From a guide perspective, I think it's a nice gesture to offer a "no fish money back guarantee" however you're hiring a guide for his expertise and like others have mentioned...there are those days when fish don't cooperate.

Painting with a pretty broad brush. After 37 years of guiding on Lake Fork, I’ve seen my share of very tough days. Sometimes it’s my fault, but lots of times fishing is simply tough. In a lot of cases, the ability and attitude of our clients makes it extremely difficult to put them on fish that they can catch.

I get your frustration, but it does seem like lack of communication. None of your posts say if you asked your guide why he was fishing the way he did. Or after the 4th it 5th hour of not catching a fish he could see it’s not working, why didn’t you ask him to soend the last 2 or 3 hours trying deeper spots? I mean your the paying customer. Do you think he would have told you no? Seems like there was not much communication between you and him other than just to sit there and chunk and wind. At the same time, weird he didn’t try anything different the whole day.

Me personally I've never gone on a guided trip, but I know some guides and they are all top tier.
First of all the guide should be up front with the customer and explain where he stands when it comes to putting the customer on fish and what will happen if he can't make the customer happy.
He should also lay out the plan if the weather is bad, and give the time line as to cancellation and refund or a rescheduled trip.

On the customer side, you need to tell the guide exactly what you expect from him and the results at the end of your day before you even show up at the ramp, and then verify it before you set foot on his boat.

Do those things and both of you will part ways happy!

I brought up the fact several times that the water temp was 55-58 degrees in the backs of the coves, and politely asked him if he thought it might be a little early to be back that deep pounding the bank. He said probably a couple times, and finally agreed and decided to try a different area, only to move to the back of another cove to pound the bank again. We fished our butts off all day everywhere he took us, and with every lure he suggested. We wanted to catch fish. We weren’t being difficult clients and I didn’t act like I knew more than him. We were in the situation to learn. By the end of the day it was pretty obvious that we chose the wrong person to learn from. My cousin was fishing the same lake and was texting me pictures of fish he was catching. He was fishing secondary points in 4-8 ft of water catching fish. I showed the guide that he was catching fish and told him where and he still kept pounding the bank in the backs of the coves. We drove past 100 places that looked amazing to get to the spots where we didn’t catch anything. I did pay him the full amount.

Lots of variables in these situations, guides can’t make the cast for you. I’ve fished with Dannie a few times, once we only caught one small fish. It never crossed my mind to ask for a discount or not pay him.

You definitely chose the wrong guy, but you should have learned from the experience!
I would not paint all guides with the same wide brush though, as with your opening comment.
Communication is key with any business dealing, and just because someone claims to be an expert and buys a guide license doesn't mean he is what he claims to be.
When things aren't working, even a guide should swallow a little pride and be open to suggestions
Both parties need to understand the ground rules and then go from there!

I took a guide trip with a young guide on Fork one day. Fishing was pretty tough and he was working really hard to put me on fish but we just were not having any success. During our conversations I explained that I had a tournament coming up later in the year so he started taking me around showing me area’s that might produce for me during tournament time. No only did I do decent in the tournament but a few of those spots ended up being places I have fished now many times over the years so that trip was almost like having multiple great trips in the end.

Spent 4500.00 on a trip at Cabo San Lucas, there were 6 of us on the boat, we caught one 15 pound durado all day, the guide had won the largest bill fish tourney a couple of times and was always in the money, sometimes the fish just don't give a damn.

That’s why it’s called fishing!

I've seen striper and sandbass guides that would discount or offer a free halfday trip if they don't catch. But I've never heard of a bass guide doing that. Bass are harder to catch and a lot of their customers don't have the skills to catch difficult fish.

You had your share of front ending us all day on a trip we took with you Mr. McCarty. You're one of the very few guides I have ever fished with that I would NOT go out with again. I've fished with Duplechain, Hollis Joiner, Mark Pack, just to name a few over 30 years of going to Fork. They produced some great days and so not so great days, but I always felt like they were on "my side" and trying to help me be the best fisherman I could be. You and a joke named Dennis States were the only two guides I ever had an issue with. I still paid AND tipped you by the way. You were an arrogant little boy. Hopefully you've matured.

I mean good on them but I don't see how guides make any money with all the gas they burn.