I read on hear about guides fishing most of the time while guiding and see them stick big fish that the client could have caught. I can understand if the giude is teaching a newbie how to become a better fisherman but i see alot of guys who ty fish hire these guides also. I want to come down to fork next year for 4 days of fishing and would like to hire a guide the first day to steer me in the right path for a pattern but could get a little iritated if he is sticking big fish in the front of the boat. Now before any one rips me i am not trying to slam anyone i am just asking why? Heck me being me if catch 8-10lb or if we were pounding them i would tell him to grab a rod and start fishing.

It's one thing if you are with a guide and he is catching all the fish and you are not. I'm pretty sure in most cases the guide is going to put his stick down or position you on the fish. They fish all the time and I am sure they are there to make you happy and they are hoping you can spread good news about them and tip them at the end of the day.

Me personally, I would rather be with a guide that is going to fish until his arms hurt. Why? Because I am not only there to learn the structure and patterns to fish but I want to see how someone that fishing for a living works a jig, worm, etc, etc.

I would hate to be on a boat where the guide isn't fishing.

I would rather see my guide fishing and having fun, thats why he is in this business. I think every one on the boat should have fun. besides that i can learn by watching him and i feel more confident that we will be on fish if he is fishing.he will probly let you fish in the front of the boat with him if thats what it takes to put you on fish.

My last few trips have been with father and son's and I have'nt pick up a rod on thoses trips,hoping they would catch the fish.Also when I have 3 clients in the boat there is simply not enough room on the boat for me to be fishing along with them.However in the Spring with the rapid weather condition changes I do fish at times,simply trying to establish a fishing pattern that works.Your right though if I pull up to a place where I have been catching fish regularly and am the frist one to cast in the the area,chances are I will be the first to catch a fish.This should be discussed between you and your guide,letting him know what you exspect out of the trip.And there are times when I have people who want me to fish right along with them at times.This was a Great Topic ssbassman12,glad you brought it up!

If I'm hiring a guide it's to learn a specific technique or presentation. The only way to learn that is to be shown. Me personally I want my guide fishing the entire time we're out there. One it helps me to see what I'm doing wrong or need to be doing, and two I want them to enjoy the trip as much as I am. I want my day with a guide to be more along the lines of a couple of buddies hitting the lake together. except he gets my money and is way better at fishing than me. LOL.

Great question ssbassman12.... A lot of clients actually want the guide to fish so they can watch how to work a bait and learn different techniques. A particular type of bait,,,, say a spinnerbait,,,, that they hate to throw because they've never caught anything on it, may turn out to be a bait they learn to work properly and learn how to catch fish on it.

I also always throw out to the opposite side of the boat than what my clients are casting to when they want me to cast also.

Here's three of my trips for an example.

I told my clients one day what bait they were hiting. It was a square bill crankbait and I already had them tied on two rods for them. They threw it for 10 minutes and said they had rather throw a worm. I said, "okay, but this is what they're hiting here". They had the thought in their heads that you HAD to cast to the banks to get a fish. I had them positioned out quite some distance from the bank where they could cast to a ledge that the fish were holding on. But, they continued to cast as far as they could toward the bank. After about 10 minutes of them not getting a bite, I threw the crankbait out to the other side of the boat (to the ledge) and imediately hooked a 10-7. One of them got upset that I caught it and said they would have caught it if I hadn't thrown out. Remember, I threw to the complete opposite side of the boat that they were casting to. I told them I did that to show them that they hired me to teach them how to catch some good fish, but they weren't doing what they needed to do in order to have the best chance at catching them. I didn't make another cast all day and they still wouldn't throw the crankbait. They said they hated crankbaits and only wanted to throw plastics all day long. We can only try to help them.

Two other clients asked me to fish along with them. I told them that they didn't really want me to cast from the front of the boat, as I would have first shot at any feeding bass. They said they wanted to watch how I fished this crankbait, as they didn't fish crankbaits. I cast it out and on my first cast caught a 9 1/2. They were excited to just see a bass that big and were tickled to just hold it. They continued to insist that I fish along with them. I told them, "no way" after doing that! LOL They ended up catching some really nice fish, including a 9 3/4 on the crankbait.

Two customers were fishing a Carolina rig in a great spot that we had been catching them the past few days. After an hour of no bites and my explaining a different way to work it, I told them I needed to cast out and show them how to work it for the best bite. They agreed. I cast out, worked it a different way and imediately caught an 8 1/2. They then saw how I was doing it and caught two 8 1/2's and a 6 the next day by themselves from that spot.

If you watch a guide while he fishes, you can learn a lot about how to work a bait different than the conventional methods. It will definitely help you in the future.

Like Longhorn said, guide trips are supposed to be fun and everyone have a trip like old friends out fishing. I've made some great friends while we were out fishing together.

I want the guide fishing so I can learn how to be a better fisherman myself. When I fished with Lance Vick, he had us all throwing different baits, and once he got the first hit he handed me the rod to throw that bait at that particular spot. He turned around and picked up something else to try. It was obvious that he wanted us to get big fish and he was doing everything he could to find them and lead us to them. He caught a couple large fish (5-6lbs) and it was exciting to see him catch them. We had a great experience and my buddy even caught his personal best during that trip (8.00!). I was fishing next to LV at the bow and my buddy was fishing on the back. I wanted to be next to him to watch him and his technique.

Ryan

Good topic.

Be honest with your guide when you book him. Let him know that you are going to only pay him for one day of work but then you are going to fish the heck out of his spots for the next 3 days on your own. He will need to go fish some other location as you will be camped out on his spots. You probably should tip him in the neighborhood of say $600.00