From a customer’s standpoint, and I’ve been on a few trips, you only hire a guide because you NEED him. You want to learn a technique, or learn a little about a body of water, or you just want to catch more fish than you can on your own. I’ve probably been on six or seven trips with different guys and never, ever thought that I wasted my money. To a man they all worked hard to put me on fish and make the trip a success. Even if I had the knowledge, I wouldn’t do it for a living.

Guides work their tails off. Discounting is not good nor effective in any service industry, it cheapens the permanence of good guides. Most newby guides are wanna be guides and can't stay in the game for long ! They come in cut throat prices, can't pay their debts and bail out in short order. Most do not have the links from other guides due to price gouging and other species of fish anglers. i. e.. BB fishermen pointing out the Hybrids were caught on cranks in skinny water or on points of sand bars etc ..

IMO , if potential clients complain about the $ difference. Don't point at the established guides , suck it up, go less expensive & live with the results. Life has a learning curve , make the most of it !!

Ifor have fished lake texoma for over 45 years and .Ican tell you that .there are alot of fishing guides there but if you want a good one i would use captain steve barns or justin parker guide service,or mike blakely,s guide service.but if you have your own boat ,just deadstick them .theres shad over in eisenhouer marina if your launching out of preston pininsula or if your out west of the willis bridge boncombe bay marina . hope this helps you but i live on lake buchanan now and the fishing is fantastic here . formerly seventh heaven striper guide service. michael

sorry about the ty po guys .

Just my opinion, but if I wanted to fish everyday, and get paid for it, seems like a guide would be the job I would go for. Of course me personally, I wouldn't do anything customer service related that I wasn't absolutely sure I could sell the satisfaction. That being said, no matter the market, no matter the profession, you'll always have the guys that come in and ruin the margin of the entire market, by cutting corners, and offering low pricing. I came from the decorative concrete industry, and I would venture to say, it's one of the worst industries out there for this type of behavior.

It’s a job of passion not profit...I’ve been doing it for 27 years and I do it because I love it. I have had many opportunities over the years including two just recently to leave and make a lot more money doing other things but I always have to ask myself...would I love it? I charge $150 per angler and at times just wonder how guides make it who don’t charge more...motors alone are $$$!!

I can see the temptation of hiring a lower cost guide and it's totally up to you. There's no shame in looking for the lowest cost guide.

But generally agree with the others. You get what you pay for. Sometimes you pay extra for the experience and not necessarily the number of fish.

Personally, my time on the water is extremely limited so I'd rather pony up the extra cash.

Good luck to you sir!