I wanted to share some of the lessons which I learned during the first few years of becoming a bass fishing guide on Lake Fork which is undoubtedly one of the most competitive if not the most competitive fishery in the world to build a successful fishing guide service on since there seems to be a large number of new guide businesses starting on Lake Fork and other fisheries over the past 3 years.  Some of these tips are going to be quite obvious things to do while others are solely based upon my personal experience while creating and building my successful guide business.  And please allow me to preface this post by being clear that this is soley written with the aim of helping new and future bass fishing guides be successful with their business as well as helping customers find the unique qualities of a guide whom deserves your future business.


PREPARING CLIENTS FOR THEIR TRIP:
Simply spending 5-10 minutes on the phone a day or two prior to your clients trip to discuss their skill level, their expectations, and make them aware of the fact that you will have room in your boat for them to bring extra warm weather gear or rain gear if needed is generally very much appreciated from your clients.  During these phone calls I will advise them on what types of clothing they should plan on wearing, letting them know the importance of having sunglasses and a hat which you should always keep spares of in your boat in case someone loses their own during the trip. I also like to let my clients know what our game plan will be for the day and arrange the time for meeting at the boat ramp.  In regards to meeting times have the attitude of that if you are not 10-15 minutes early, you are late. You always want to be there prior to your clients arrival, never leave the customers waiting on you as it is very unprofessional. Obviously if you are meeting at one location to have a meal then traveling to another boat ramp this does not apply.  I always have provided bottled waters for my customers so that they do not have to bring their own but will tell them to feel free in regards to bringing their own snacks. If you have children on your trip those snacks are going to go quite quickly and unfortunately you may have quite a bit of Doritos stomped onto the deck of your boat throughout the day but with time they will disappear, so no worries.  I will also always leave what time we head in lunch completely up to my customers, often times during the midday from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm most of the other guides and anglers are at lunch and the lake becomes quite empty which is very nice!  It is also very important to remind your customers the importance of having their fishing license because if they forget to obtain this before you meet on the day of your trip it can sometimes take quite a bit of time away from their experience on the water.  In addition always have enough life jackets for everyone on board and the legal essentials like your guide license, a non-expired fire extinguisher, and a throw cushion, small first aid kit, sunscreen, etc. depending on what fishery you're guiding on.


RODS AND LINE PREPARATION:
Some of your customers will prefer to use their own rods and reels which is just fine for me, just ensure that their rods are the proper lengths and actions for the lures and techniques you plan on using for the vast majority of the day.  Also let them know what type of line will be best to have on each of the rods they plan on bringing with them and regardless if they are bringing their own rods/reels have some extra rods you've prepared for them in the rod box as a backup.  If you want to be a great fishing guide make sure that you own a variety of rods and during your phone call prior to your trips make certain to ask you customers about their skill level. Ask them whether or not they are proficient in using a baitcaster, if not ask them how their skills with a spinning reel are.  Depending upon their answers you will have a general idea of which rods to rig up for their use during the day of their scheduled trip.  You might be able to easily teach some clients how to use a baitcast rod and reel especially when using lures heavier than 1/2 oz.  You can gradually loosen up both the magnetic and centrifugal brakes on the baitcasting reels as they become better at casting as making a long cast is often times very important to increasing their odds of catching a bass.  I recommend having at least 4-6 spinning rods for younger beginner anglers or even older inexperienced clients whom have difficulty learning how to use a baitcaster with success.  A spinning rod can be used for nearly all of the same lures which a baitcaster can, the rod length and actions just need to be changed to match the weight of whichever lures you are using. Half of your spinning rods can be medium action for finesse type techniques such as drop shots or casting lightweight lures like weightless Senkos or even pop-r style topwater baits.  The other half of your spinning rods should be either medium heavy or heavy action rods that can be used for throwing Carolina rigs, heavier swimbaits, jigs, and other lures that are generally heavier than 3/8 oz or rely on a very strong hookset such as a topwater frog.  On your spinning rods it is typically best to use braided line that is light colored so that your clients are easily able to see their fishing line. I personally prefer Berkley Nanofil attached to a 5 two 6-foot leader of 15-20 lb fluorocarbon or monofilament line using a triple surgeon's knot.  Whenever you are preparing your rods for the next days trip and connecting two different types of lines is very important to pull quite hard on either ends of the knot to ensure that it is tied correctly. More likely than not if it is incorrectly tied it will break quite easily in your hands while if it is correctly tied it will be very difficult to break without the line cutting into your hands.  Do your best to ensure that your customers line setups and amounts of a drag will give them the best opportunity of not breaking off a good fish which can make or break their day and focus on teaching them how to proficiently cast and set the hook without breaking the line or not hooking a bass well enough.  Unless I can tell that my clients are very skilled with using baitcast reels prior to our trip I will often times begin the day with their centrifugal brakes turned up to the maximum level and after their first few casts if they are not backlashing I will begin to and continue to turn off some of those brakes throughout the day so that they can cast further and avoid backlashing a reel beyond use on their first few casts of the day.  I also will never give a customer any lure that has treble hooks until I can see them in action for their first few casts.  The last thing you want is someone who continues to have 2'+ of line hanging down from their rod tip when they are throwing around a jerkbait.  Safety first!


MORNING BRIEFING:
I highly recommend showing your anglers around your boat before you leave the ramp.  Don't hesitate to tell them the "rules" of the boat for everyone's safety. Let them know where the cooler is located at so they can place their drinks/snacks there, make them aware of the dry boxes that they can use and strongly advise them to place their cell phones, wallets, and other valuables like their car keys into these dry boxes to ensure that if they do accidentally fall into the water they will not lose these items.  Personally I will always keep the stern storage box on the port side of the boat which is directly behind the passenger seat completely empty for their personal storage use. Before their trips advise them on what weather conditions you may be facing and always have 2-3 spare pairs of rain gear in your boat in case they forget to bring any of their own.  Being well prepared for the sake of your clients having a great day on the water is one of the things you can do to separate yourself from your competition in the guide business.  During any trips or you may experience some cooler temperatures I always tell my customers to dress warmer than expected since they can always take layers off but cannot add any layers on which they didn't bring.  I also will always have a towel in the very back box of my boat that I'll use as a shoe cleaning rug so that when you and your customers step aboard your boats they can wipe off all of the mud and dirt onto that towel as opposed to your boat carpet.  Having a dry bag that is full of clothing in case one of your customers falls into the water during a very cold day can be a very good thing to have not only to keep them comfortable but safe.  In regards to alcohol, I will allow it on my boat but not in glass bottles and will ask clients to please keep their alcohol consumption to a minimum.  This is something that guides will have to decide for have for themselves.


LAUNCHING YOUR BOAT:
The most professional thing to do is to already have your boat launched and waiting for your clients to arrive at the ramp if the circumstances allow for this.  Unless you have a repeat customer who is also an experience angler that you know can safely back you into the water and remember to lock up your tow vehicle I highly recommend asking your customers to hop aboard the boat and do this entire process yourself.   If you do have a new customer which you feel is knowledgeable and skilled enough to launch a bass boat I still will, after ensuring that my plug is in, lineup my boat and trailer on the ramp close to the waters edge so that my client will have a much easier time helping me launch the boat, just don't forget to remind them about your parking brake!  Excited fisherman early in the morning can make mistakes like we all at times do at times.  Before launching a boat I will also ask everyone whether or not they are able to swim, this is extremely important information to know if later in the day one of them ends up falling into the water.  If someone onboard my vessle for the day cannot swim I'll always keep my throw cushion out during our day on the water.  I will also offer a life jacket to everyone on board, unless they are children and it is the law I leave the decision to wear life jackets up to the clients but on cold days and especially when preparing to make a long run I always remind them that a life jacket, aside from the inflatable types, will keep them a bit warmer.  This next statement is a no-brainer, the safety of your clients should be your number one priority so always make sure that you are wearing your killswitch while operating your vessel.  I also will never drive over 45 or 50 miles per hour even in very calm conditions with great visibility as I would much rather accidentally hit a dislodged tree that is just beneath the surface travelling 45 mph as opposed to 70+ mph.  Driving at a lower speed will also obviously give you much more time to react to those types of rare occurring situations.  Unless I am fishing in a tournament or am trying to get away from a dangerous weather situation on the water I very rarely drive my boat over 50 mph.  Having said that customers who have never been in a bass boat before sometimes do want to experience your vessles top speed, just use good judgment in regards to where and when you decide to do this.


BEGINNING OF YOUR FISHING DAY:
One of the first things I do after meeting my guests for the day is to use their names so that I can begin to remember them, little things like this do not go unnoticed.  While idling towards the area we will begin fishing and prior to making our first cast of the day I will explain in great detail what lures we will be using with what rods and how to best retrieve those baits.  When I do cut my big engine and put the trolling motor into the water I will generally pick up one of the rods which is set up for my clients and depending on their experience I will show them how to best and safely cast the bait (as there's no reason to have two feet of line hanging between your rod tip and a lure with treble hooks), etc.  I'll take a couple of minutes to educate them as needed on how to not only properly cast / retrieve the bait but also how to set the hook depending on what type of rod and lure they are fishing with.  I very seldom will fish myself when I have customers in the boat unless they absolutely insist that I do so in which case I will tie on lures that are completely different from what I know has been productive and more or less be experimenting while casting in different areas that I believe most of the catchable fish are located at.  I like to save what I consider the best water for my customers to be able to fish through since the day is geared towards giving your paying customers a great experience.  On most of my trips the vast majority of clients will want me to fish along with them and if that's the case there's no shame in doing so.  On occasion I will also use one of my rods with the same lure they are using in the best areas of water in order to give them a visual example of exactly how to cast and retrieve a particular lure successfully.  This gives you an opportunity to possibly catch the first fish which will give them confidence that is always needed when on the water.  If I do hook a fish with my customers I will immediately tell someone to drop their rod (preferably with their reel in free spool) onto the deck and hand them mine so that they can reel that fish in.  The only time that I will not do this is if I know that there is a double-digit fish on the line since trying to hand off a rod/reel that has an angry fish hooked up especially on a lake full of submerged timber will often result in losing that fish, but sometimes it can be successful and most always appreciated by your customers.


THROUGHOUT THE FISHING DAY:
In order to be a good fishing guide you have to be much more than just an experienced angler, you must be a good teacher and at times an extremely patient teacher.  It is important to remind your customers that you are there to ensure they have a great experience on the water.  You can do this by not only putting them on some good fish but also by teaching them throughout the day, answering questions they may have in regards to their local fishery.  It's important to engage in good conversation amongst each other as catching a bass is never guaranteed, for this reason it is best to wait until you can catch at least one bass every time you go bass fishing before becoming a fishing guide.  Don't hesitate to help correct beginner anglers with bad fishing habits, continue to teach them how be a more proficient angler throughout the trip.  Throughout the day explain in detail why you may be changing locations, lures, depths, etc.  Do not hesitate to continue correcting them if they are making mistakes that may lead to them catching less fish unless they are an individual who which tells you they do not want any advice in which case I will let them do their thing short of damaging my gear.  Never turn your guide trips into a competition between yourself and your clients as that is a guaranteed tactic in which they will never hire you again.  The only reason that I mention this amongst other obvious silly things is because they have been done before. I've heard some pretty crazy stories from my customers.  Be patient and always be respectful, this goes a long ways and does not go unnoticed as well.  Having said that if you have told someone for the first 4 hours of the trip a simple retrieval tip that they continue to get wrong you sometimes have to realize that not everyone is teachable but fortunately most clients are extremely friendly and more than willing to listen in order to increase their odds at catching a bass.  After your client catches a fish ensure that prior to them continuing on that they do not have any damage to their line and if so take the time to quickly re-tie their lures.  Always make sure to pay much more attention to the variables that you can control rather than those you cannot.  For example always looking around to try and identify other guides boats or watch what other anglers are doing is unlikely to help you be successful.  It has always blown my mind in regards to how many Lake Fork locals and guides can recognize other guides vessels from a quarter mile away.  During my days guiding the only boats I have been able to recognize are those which are brightly wrapped. Unless you are being paid well for having your boat wrapped I advise against it as you will be attracting the attention of nearly all other anglers and as soon as you leave an area there is a very good chance another boat will be headed that way to see where the wrapped boat was fishing.  Paying attention to other anglers / variables which you cannot control will undoubtedly make you lose focus on giving your clients a great experience on the water.  It is also very important that your clients obtain great photos of their catches, generally it is easier to use your own cell phone and then text him / her the picture or have a professional DSLR camera in the boat which you can use to capture amazing photos and then email them to the customers that evening.  Likely your customer will prefer you to use their own cell phone or camera for fish catch photos.  I always make sure that they understand the fish need to be held in the water while I prepare to take the photo, often times I will tell my customers to grab the bottom jaw of the bass extremely tightly with 2 hands so that he cannot escape but is still able to breath in the water while I prepare the camera.  In order to play it even safer have one of your livewells 1/2 full of water so that you can temporarily place a fish in there while you maneuver your boat towards the best angle for a solid photo.  Try to have good lighting and quickly take multiple photos to capture a very memorable picture for your clients.


END OF YOUR FISHING TRIP:
Towards the last hour or so of my guided fishing trips I will always continue to try my best to put my customers on and in the best locations with the best lures that can produce fish catches.  If the day has been extremely tough I will usually offer to stay on the water for at least 1 extra hour at no additional charge since I want my customers to have a great experience on the water with me, sometimes you can turn a slow day into a great day on a single stretch of shoreline or on a single spot offshore.  Repeat business is huge in the equation of being a successful bass fishing guide.  More often than not if the fish are cooperating and you are friendly / informative guide, your customers will return for a second, third, and more fishing trips as well as begin to refer new clients your way.  At the same time, if you have had a very difficult day on the water when the fish are not wanting to bite anything and your customers do not catch many fish the odds of repeat business or referrals are highly unlikely.  If you can continue to remind yourself from start to finish during your guided trips that the day is all about your customer you'll generally be able to provide them with a very enjoyable time on the water.  The following shouldn't have to be said but it does happen.  Never expect and voice your expectations for a tip from your clients!  This is one of the most ridiculous things that does occur in the guide business.  If your customer feels that you deserve a tip you may get one but obviously just because you feel you deserve a tip does not mean you're entitled to one.  Be very grateful for whatever amount of tip you may or may not get, especially if you are the type of guide who wonders why you cannot get repeat clients. Another thing to always try and do after each trip is to write down notes about the day.  Write things about your clients you had in the boat with you so that you can remember them very well the next time you may meet.

EXTRA ADVICE:
Lake Fork is without question a world renowned fishery and the guide business on Fork can be quite cut throat.  I am speaking from years of personal experience in regards to this topic.  Prior to the widespread use of social media the most popular way to get into the guide business was either to already be a well known tournament angler or to become friends with an already established guide on the lake and take their overflow trips whom are generally clients who want a particular date that an established guide already has booked with another customer.  More often than not by solely relying on other guides to give you their overflow business you will be expected by those guides to stay off of certain areas of the lake since they feel that they have priority to particular spots, or you may even be expected to leave an area if that guide is also fishing with their clients there.  This is exactly how I began my first year of guiding on Lake Fork until I decided I was no longer going to be told where I could fish at and could not fish at.  Since I was no allowing myself to be told bullied by a particular guide in exchange for this persons overflow trips I was no longer given any trips by this guide who I was initially relying on for in order to get trips during my first year as a bass fishing guide.  In order to continue guiding and be successful by myself I needed to attract my own bookings through the use of social media, primarily YouTube as in 2010 there was very little Lake Fork YouTube Videos produced and the few that did exist online at the time all were poorly edited and not very informative.  I began to spend enormous amount of time dedicated to learning how to shoot, edit, and upload Lake Fork Bass Fishing Videos onto YouTube.  This required countless hours learning how to edit video using quite expensive software and camera equipment which took years to master.  Fortunately now most all cell phones cameras can capture great quality video. My focus was to teach viewers how to catch fish on the lake and share the currently productive fishing patterns. Within a matter of months I was receiving calls nearly everyday for springtime bass fishing guided trips and at the same time hearing word from friends about many other guides wanting me stop filming on Lake Fork immediately.  Negative rumors began to spread about me amongst some of the locals and guides which fueled my motivation even further.  From this experience I learned that as you begin to succeed in any business venture you will unfortunately meet grown men whom act like children, you will have people trying to bring you down the more you succeed.  Unfortunately this still does occur which is the reason I advise new guides to be cautious of forming partnerships with other established guides.  I imagine if done correctly you can benefit from partnering up with other guides whom you know well and trust but as one of the few guides who ran their business 100% solo I do not have a lot of suggestions to give in order to make those partnerships work well.  Let those who try to stop your success in this business fuel your work ethic and marketing creativity.  Let any negative experiences you encounter motivate you to come up with even more productive ways to promote your business and ultimately be as successful as possible.  Expect for keyboard jockeys to post negative things about you on occasion but rest assured they will not insult you in person, only behind the safety of their computers in their homes. This seems to come with being successful, some people will want to drag you down. Now with the power of social media and being able to show exactly what type of person you are through your willingness to share information on YouTube and other social media outlets the days of having to become friends and take the leftovers with other establish guides are over.  Even with Lake Fork being one of the most popular lakes in the world there is plenty of water for everyone to share.  As anglers who all love the same sport we can all do a better job at getting along with one another.  If there is someone on a particular fishing spot that you have been fishing for days and you really feel like you need to fish that spot in order to put your clients on a couple of fish don't hesitate to be polite and ask that fisherman if you can also share the area with them.  More often than not you would be surprised as to how often a little bit of kindness can go a long way on the water.  If you feel another boat is coming too close to you kindly ask them for some space rather than jumping to anger as many anglers frequently do.  There are many beginner bass fisherman, some of which own extremely nice bass boats and are just unaware of how much room to give to other anglers, more often than not they will appreciate you kindly educating them.  Another thing to avoid relying on too much is dock talk.  Just because you hear someone at the boat ramp or talk to someone at one of the marinas about how many fish they caught in a particular area on a certain lure does not mean you should chase after that.   On more than a few occasions when booking other guides to help with my group trips more than 3/4 of those other guides would have the same lures tied onto their rods.  The exact same lures were on the decks of these other guides whom I hired which I assume they rigged based on advice from other guides whom they directly worked with or spoke to in order to get advice on what techniques are currently working for the majority of the other guides.  I feel that this has the potential to greatly hinder your fishing abilities to become an exceptionally skilled angler since you are not having to figure out the top producing lures and patterns completely alone.  Fish your strengths and recognize your weaknesses as a bass fisherman.  Personally I am very confident fishing offshore, my weakness is probably shallow water fishing especially during the spawn.  Oftentimes you can learn things from some of your customers and being a fishing guide does force you to become an overall better angler, especially when you are not seeking out dock talk and figuring out the current fishing patterns by yourself.  Go above and beyond to set yourself apart from the competition as a fishing guide, take any copying of your marketing strategies or website material as a compliment.  If you can show your customers that you are willing to go the extra mile for them to have an enjoyable day on the water you will begin to build a successful business quite quickly.  Congratulations to all of you here on the TFF who are beginning to become fishing guides, plan on starting a fishing guide service in the future, or have already established yourself as one of the top guides on the lake.  Keep up the great work and continue practicing catch, photo, and release! Stay safe and good luck fishing.

Well written article!!

Good Stuff Stephen & well written!

The only thing I'll add is the benefit of cooperation between guides. When I guided the Hill Country (Bastrop, Fayette and Travis), several guides worked together. We shared spots, techniques and many times, each other's overflow. We kept our prices in line with each other and as a result, we all were much more successful than the competing guides who insisted on charging more (or less) and who tried to hoard "secret spots".

Very good write up. I do feel there's a lot of guides that are just part time. I have one guide I've used for years. He said it best that if you're not doing guide service as your full time job. Then you're not a guide. You should be on the water at least 25 out of 30 days every month. You need to know what the bass are doing as it can change daily.

A LOT to read but some really good info there. Your last section "extra advice" is definitely a Pandora's box of sorts. From 2006 - 2018, I've fished with numerous guides on Fork, some great, some good and 1 really bad one. One thing that absolutely stuck out in a big way was the "clique" nature of the entire guide community. There seemed to be 3 or 4 groups of well established guides that worked well together but they didn't work with the other groups, just the guides in their group. All the rest seemed to be lone wolfs unless they eventually got "accepted" into one of the groups. The old East side vs West side seemed to also be in play. I also noticed these same groups had loyalties to specific marinas, restaurants and/or hotels. Example is some guides would only do lunch at Tiffany's, while others only ate lunch at Oak Ridge. For me, choosing a guide was simple....Would I have fun? Could I learn something? Did I have a chance to have a good day of fishing? And in that exact order. The amount or quality of fish we caught was secondary to the fun or learning process of the day. So many people come to Fork expecting to catch a double digit, that it makes these guides job 10x harder than it needs to be.

Good luck to you Stephen as well as all the other guides out there.

This is great information. I agree with you on many of these points. I've been on guided tours where the guide was rigid, it made for a tough day. Then I've been on a trip where the guide was fun and entertaining. We caught more on the fun trip than the rigid trip, why? It's because I feel we weren't forced to do something we weren't comfortable with.

Excellent write up, Stephen. Too bad more of your brethren don't read/adhere to what you have written. I have been fortunate enough to have booked dozens of guides over 30+ years from Canada, US and Mexico. I would say that the majority commit many of the sins of which you speak. My absolute pet peeve is paying for someone to practice tournament fishing and back boating the client. Personally, I WANT my guide to fish because I learn even more by watching what they do than I do them telling me what to do. What I hate, is to have to fish all used water. For a weekend hack, I'm relatively decent, but there is no way I can keep up with someone who fishes 200 hundred days a year. Where he can pop in 100 casts, on a good day, I may make 75 to his 100. As an aside, one of the WORST guides I ever had was one that later went on to be a top pro. Good thing, because he absolutely sucked as a guide.

As to Fork, specifically, you are right. It's one of the most cut throat set of guides I've ever been around and I've used a fair number there. Back during the beginning of the spawn, I took a chance on a kid getting his feet wet on Fork. When I was at the marina loading up to leave, I got into a conversation with a well known, long term guide on Fork. We were exchanging pleasantries and got around to talking fishing. He couldn't wait to get around to telling me about the "problem" with guiding on Fork. In his opinion, it was "All these youngsters coming out with all their cameras and posting everything on the internet." I knew what he meant. I was in with a group that he viewed as competition and felt the need to slight their tactics. Well, even as a customer, I don't think you'll win many converts to your cause by insulting the guide you just booked. Plus, with the proliferation of better electronics, map reading, waypoint sharing, Google Earth study, etc, etc, even week-end hacks like myself can figure out a fair amount of how to approach the lake. I just don't buy the whole secret spot [censored]. In reality, IMO, there really aren't any. For me, hiring guides save me time, and I learn different things from each one. Including, who not to hire again.

Again, excellent write up, my man.

Good lord...What kind of trips you taking?

Solid Post!

The only time I take a guided trip is with customers and usually hire a big group. The only thing I want from a guide is to help the guys that can’t fish and put us on the bass. On a trip like that nothing else matters but being a guy that others enjoy hanging out with.

Thank you for reading and for all of the comments my friends. I hope this helps out some of the new and soon to be new bass fishing guides.

A++