I can't believe it! No, I've said that for years but not anymore on anything much less about fishing. Boat traffic coming back on lake with still not much common sense. But common sense, as my father said, is not common any more. Had a trip yesterday with 8 people and Matt helped me. Fish started late in the morning. Came in and remember we had 8 people. We had 6 gallon bags of fish. Customer walked up after lunch and said, I'm sorry Jimmy and Matt, only 3 people want fish, Do y'all want some? My point in 3 gallon bags of fish were going to go to waste. That's not going to happen with Jimmy Smith. Please think about practicing Catch and Release and using a little of that common sense so that we all will have fish to catch in the future.

Maybe you should ask who wants to keep fish before you start keeping them. Not being a smart @ss, but I always tell who I am fishing with before we start.

We all need to start releasing some because there more pressure on all the lakes. I live on the lake and I am seeing it the more #'s of fishermen

The guides expertise at catching fish is the biggest drain of the fishery. TP & W ought to charge more for a guide license to replenish the public resource by which they are making their living.

I'll be there Monday to pick up the rest of those Fillets thank ya:)

Oh and by the way congrats on your 23rd post

Jimmy, the only suggestion I can offer is to ask your clients at the start of the days fishing if they want to keep fish for the day. I know from reading other guides posts on here that a surprising number of clients just want catch & release.

I was out with FastGuy and fished next to Smitty. Yes people turn the Big Motor OFF, use the long skinny one on the front of your boat with the small prop!

Outstanding idea.
Although; if TPWD/TX. Implemented such an increase on Guide-Liscense.
It would-NOT, go into TPWD.
Revenue from such Increse. Would; as hunting and fishing liscene.
Go into Tx's General-Fund.

Should ask first.

The guides in my opinion are not the problem here. Lets face it , if we were all good enough to be a guide, we would do it. These guys have put in a countless # of hours on the water to perfect their skills of catching fish. If tp&w needs to do anything I think they should reduce the legal # of fish one can keep. I would like to believe that the "reputable" guides out there are only doing what everyone else does , and that is keep the legal # of fish they can. There is nothing stopping any of us others from going out with groups of friends and family and loading up on the legal limit of fish everyone in the boat can keep. The old saying of don't hate the player , hate the game kind of goes into effect here in my opinion.

Hey baotdude, next time you are driving down the road remember you are using a public resourse I helped pay for too. Have you read about the guides raising money to stock "your" resource for ya? I know you enjoy taking free shots at guides on here. Why so bitter? Its weird. Its kinda like someone hating electricians for using energy. Anyway, I'll pray for ya.

I used to keep everything legal we caught. We filet and bag them and put them in the freezer. But we never came close to eating all those fish. We gave most of them away. My Mom would trade them to her neighbor for back-yard grown vegetables. A friend would take frozen fish to his hair stylist to trade for his hair cuts. Some didn't get eaten in 2 or 3 years and got thrown out. So, I decided not to keep fish unless I was going to eat them later that day or the next. If a guest goes out with me, I'll ask if he/she wants to keep any. If not we just do catch and release, but keep it fun by keeping count of what we have caught. I tell people now, because I live on a lake, that the lake is my freezer, and, if I want fish for supper, we just go out and catch some.

Most customers want to keep fish and that's fine. Some eat fish more than others and fish out of lakes IMO taste better than farm raised.

I'm all for raising guides license fee's way on up there...just mean there would be less of them, And, if the $$$ went to stocking more fish ---- bonus!

Then the guides raise their fees and I'm back to bank fishing:(