Guide tip?

So I have won 2 free guide trips, lake fork, 2, 8 hrs trips for 2, since this is a free trip what would be a appropriate tips for said trips,

usually guide trips are given by the guide to whatever group, so I tend to tip just a little more to at least cover expenses. I think typical Fork guide tips range from $60 (15%) to $100 (20%), I will go higher than $100 if a special above average day.

Agreed.

I am quite sure there will be other opinions tho...

No less than $100 would be fair to the guide. Remember, he donated that trip for a good cause. Karma.

Not sure how or why you won them, but chances are the guide isn't getting paid. Depending on situation, if said guide donated time to try to raise money for an organization that you won said trip from for free or ticket price. I would tip minimum 150$ to his full day trip price. Nothing is worst than paying to take a trip out. If it is a two day with the same guide. You might not experience 100% dedication without tipping accordingly the first day.

P.s. If y'all meet for breakfast. Pay for his without asking. Or allowing him to.

My thoughts were he is not getting pd for the day so I was thinking a couple hundred,plus

If you give him $200 for two days as a tip he will be very grateful, I am sure.

Especially when its something u won.

No I was thinking each trip, wouldn't schedule close together either, I fully understand what it takes to operate a boat, truck, and make a living,

Depends. The best tip I got EVER was a doubling of my fee. Of course, both the son and the doctor caught their personal best on that trip. $100 a day seems about right, unless the guide goes WAY above what you expect of him. If he is working his butt off putting you on fish or trying to find fish, then a little more would be appreciated. If he just shows up (NOT LIKELY), then $75 or so. Hope this helps.

Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

I've tipped $40 on a rough day where the guide worked hard and $100 on a great day where the guide worked hard. Both on trips that I paid for ($400+ IIRC). I would think $50 to $100 per day for a free trip would be fair to both sides.

For a donated trip that I won rather than bid on I would likely give a bigger tip and pick up lunch. Probably at least $100 each trip. Depends somewhat on what you can afford.

I had a guy who guided me in Maine. When I called him and asked his rate he said $100 a day. I was like " oh, great this will be interesting." It turned out to be one of my top guide trips ever. Caught a bunch of 3 to 4# smallmouth on a beautiful July day out of a nice 20 ft Skeeter. He worked security 3 days a week for 14 hrs a day and just liked a few trips to cover gas. I gave him $300 told him thanks and put it towards that other PowerPole you were thinking about getting.

Moral to the story.......it depends on the circumstance.

what does it matter whether you paid for the trip or not ?
The guide donated it.
You bought tickets or entered said event & won the trip.
Tip according to the service and the fish the guide put you on.
if he fishes don't tip so much, Nothing worse than a guide catching a BIG fish you might have caught had he not been fishing. Tip good if he instructs and puts you on fish. The more fish the more of a tip.
The last guide trip I went on, before we fished, I let the guide know what I expected for my money and set a "tip range" based on the number and size of the fish I caught.
Tips are for "services rendered"

Him donating his time should be even more bases for tipping better. Secondly, I have never heard of not wanting your guide to fish. 3rd with a attitude like that with your tip range. I'm surprised you didn't catch 3 kentuckys in 8hrs.

I haven't taken but a couple of guided trips in my life. So, I'm not sure what is considered "customary." That said, if I'm not having to pay for the trip then I'd definitely tip well above the average.

How do you know this guy hasn't already pay to win a ticket or paid to enter a tournament to win. The guide donated his time and something was sold to make money for a good cause this guy is not obligated to make up the guides salary because he won a trip. He should tip based off of the performance of the guide on the day he fishes. A good tip is the same 15 to 20% is always a good number for any tip. I would think if he has a day of a life time he MAY want to give more but he has NO obligation to pay more. just my .02

Goof Luck on your trip either way I hope you catch a DD

This sounds very fair.

If I'm paying for a guide trip I tip AT LEAST $60 if I was satisfied, but usually more than that. And I've never had a trip I didn't feel it was worth tipping the guide. I've been real lucky in that regard.

If it was a free trip I'd feel uncomfortable not tipping at least $100 per day.

I don't know why "him" donating his time should be cause for a customer to tip more.
That was his decision to "donate", not yours.
I don't get "extra" when I donate cases of nuts to a cause or benefit.....but I also don't expect extra --- it was my decision to donate product for whatever reason I had.

The idea of a guide not fishing,,,well I guess you have heard of it now. It is more prevalent than you think. I think there are a lot of clients that would rather their guide just guide and not fish, but are hesitant about saying that, because it is customary for a bass fishing guide to fish. PLUS,,,, they get somebody like you saying what a bad "attitude" they have for expressing that opinion.
BUT,,,, Let me ask you the last time you paid $1,000 to go on a bull moose hunt and the guide shot the moose while you watched. Ever go on a marlin fishing trip and the boat captain or first mate hooks up and lands a big fish while you watch, when was the last time you paid big bucks to go to a BIG BUCK ranch and the ranch staff shot your deer for you. Why is bass fishing any different ?
Billy Tompkins, Falcon guide will not fish with his clients unless you ask him to.
David Ozio, Fork & Falcon, said he would not fish unless I asked him to do so. My son and I did quite well with him. By-the-way,,,even though we had a pre-arranged tip agreement with Ozio based on the number and size of fish he put us on at FORK, he was tipped quite well. I don't have a problem with tipping for good service,,,,,but it should be for just that, good service. Not just because we fished for a day.
a guide needs to charge what they need to in order to cover expenses and make a living,,,whatever it is,,,,but tipping is for the experience.
The guides I have fished with have been quite happy with my tips,,,,$$$$ & NUTS,, but they were all pre-arranged, the guide did not fish & they provided excellent service.
PLUS,,,,,Everyone had a great time, including the guides.

I think you are spot on actually. Every fish the guide catches is one less I am going to catch. My tip starts at 20% and goes up or down from there based on service.

I almost prefer the guide to fish, sparingly. We find out of fish are there and it is just my presentation that is off.

I would be just a little more generous on a free trip than a paid one just because it is how I am. What I wouldn't tip would be based on number and size. He has no control over the fish biting or not. More than likely if he can locate them and you don't catch it is your presentation problem. Maybe if the guide was also fishing, he'd show you how to catch them

some people have empathy, some don't.

I tip more if he cleans all my fish and gets all the bones out.

Nutman, I agree with your pre-arranged tip. If I were on a donated trip to Fork I would give the guide $100 up front and tell him that's to cover expenses.Then I would tip him a the end of the day depending on the trip.A great trip I would tip him $300 and as little as $50 for a slow trip.I also would pre-arrange this with the guide.Don't go if you are expecting something for nothing.

So why do you tip more for a great trip and less for a slow trip? If the guide works just as hard on both trips shouldn't he deserve the same tip? You tip the guide for how much work you think he put in it not how good the fish bit.

For the same reason I wouldn't tip a chef as much when his eggs benedict didn't turn out so great.Sure it was just as much work for him.But you don't get rewarded as much for failure as you do for success. Welcome to the real world....

I've never been on a guide trip or thought about it... Heck I didn't even know your supposed tip.

Funny, you just compared a chef that has complete control of what he cooks to a guide that has no control if fish bite. Welcome back to the real world......

Yeah the guide is a waitress and fish the chef. I never tip the chef. I tip the waitress on quality of service. They have no control of quality of food. If he works hard and goes the extra mile he gets rewarded for the effort. If he parks the boat, hands you a rod then talks on the phone the entire trip then low tip even if I caught a giant.

And here come the other opinions....

let him have a night with your bride and call it square

That is what's wrong with America

You pay a guide $400 a day to put you on "biting" fish.
I don't need to go out to Fork and just throw lures, I do that all the time.
Same for Falcon, I know where to fish but when I pay money I want to be put on fish that are biting that day. That, in MHO, is what you pay a professional bass fishing guide to do. The guide is the one in control.


and if the waitress turns in your order for filet mignon and the chef cooks you a New York strip, are you going to leave a tip when she brought you the wrong steak. Her job (guide) is to control the service and what-when & how you get your food. Same for the guide; where are the fish / what are we going to throw & how do I catch them. Why else would you pay $400 a day? Then consider the tip.

Ok guy's no need to argue over this or get your panties in a wad... was a simple question, I was just wondering.... lol, I like my food brought the way I ordered it, on the other hand if she looms cute and is spot on with service and the food sucks, I still tip 20%+ depending. ..

this is a great discussion.
shows that there are varied opinions and not one single one is correct in all situations.
I personally have not had a bad guide trip & therefore have felt perfectly fine with the cost and the tip I gave.

There are some guides you can learn plenty from and not catch many fish at all. Some hire guides with expectations on catch big fish or lots of fish, some hire to learn deep water stuff, some hire them to learn new techniques. Its all relative.

I would say around $125-$150.00. I have only been on a few guided trips, mostly offshore in Costa Rica, and the guides always delivered. I did leave a guide in Oregon a $50.00 tip due to poor service. We were in his boat 100 feet from another guide and the other boat was pulling in Sturgeon after Sturgeon. We would get a bite every hour or so. The two guides were friends, and we're talking back and forth. I asked why don't we move and our guide changed the conversation to Elk Hunting. I think that's all that was on his mind since that's all he talked about for six hours, and the fact that he was going to have to re-winterize his boat.

Why do guides expect tips? I can see if the trip was won, but on a regular basis why do you not work in expenses etc into the cost of the trip and not worry about the tip at all? to me tips are for people making minimum wage not people making $50/hr, I personally would not tip a guide, I'm already paying for the service... do yall tip tree trimmers, your auto mechanic, or your lawn service guys?

Try tipping your mechanic next time!! Trust me.

I am a diesel mechanic, I charge $100/hr.....I don't need a tip to feel like I came out okay. I've never looked for a tip, just a paid invoice...

Here is something to consider instead of a tip...

If you have a good time or learn a bunch of stuff, book a follow up trip with the guide for a later date. Guides make it on repeat clients and we all have our regulars. Another option is to make an unsolicited post on a forum or your social media sites with a recap of your experience. Throw that guide a bone. When we get hit up to donate a trip(Anyone with a small business can attest that you get hit up constantly!) the word "EXPOSURE" gets thrown around a lot. At the end of the day when you see how little exposure you actually get at an event, you start reevaluating who you want to support in the future. Any sort of exposure directed towards your target demographic is worth something.

In the end if you still feel like you want to help out or want to hook a brotha up... you could always offer to throw a few dollars in the gas tank or pick up the ticket at lunch or breakfast. I donated that trip to help someone, not to make tip money. Either way, we are gonna try to have a great time because paid or free, nobody wants you to walk away with a bad experience.

Reading some of these post made me remember a scene from the old TV show 3rd Rock from the Sun. Watch the last two minutes of this YouTube clip....

I always liked the Cheers episode where the guy did the same thing to Carla and she poured the pitcher of beer on his head and told him to keep his tip.

I cannot say I have ever seen a guide get on here and say tips were expected. Not even sure I have heard one even say it. I think they appreciate a tip if they get one but cannot honestly say they expect one.

Excellent post
and if you are really happy,,,,,buy breakfast or lunch or both & give a decent $$$$ tip.
it is all about the experience you have.
Billy Tompkins' mom in Florida is very happy that her son put me on my PB fish 4 times down at Falcon two years ago. She still gets Cinnamon Sugared Pecans from me for the Holidays & whenever I am going to Falcon I always book Billy's condo for my place to stay. AND if you are going to Falcon consider his place as a place to stay, it is an excellent place with a great view

this just in, The Fork Guides Association has followed the lead of Joe's Crab Shack. Tips will no longer be accepted! However, the price is $100/hr. After the first week of the new system guides are raving about it! Mr. Guide Frontender said "I have no pressure anymore to perform, I can go sit on a gar-hole all day working on my tan" and Mr. TenReallyEight said "why put extra effort in, I'm getting paid the same thing no matter what". Clients seemed to not be as excited. Mrs. Backlash said "my guide use to give each hole 30 minutes and ran entire tank of gas, we didn't even start the big motor today!".

if this was the case then you would not have a guide business..... you have to do some good or like Clark said you will have no repeat business, and word would get out that you cant fish.... i'm all for posting on a guide's FB with pictures and giving him some "exposure" to grow his business. I also wouldn't mind picking up lunch, but when you talk about a trip that cost $400/day for fishing,you should be on fish. you are paying to catch fish, so no gar holes...

You want to have the best chance of an awesome day? Tip them before you start and tip them well. They tend to show you the best stuff they have! It's worth the risk.

Rob, That is funny right there!

Good stuff! I do hope They stay off my drum hole.

I gave Ken a tip after seeing his wife. "Don't try to cull up"

Just take me with you and I'll take care of the tip!!!

Yeah Jerry, I outkicked my coverage on her.