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A quality guided fishing or hunting trip can be a delightful learning and fun experience. A carefully planned trip can be a fast track to learning the secrets of a particular region and is well worth the money in many cases.
The best guides are well known in an area, work and carry themselves professionally, and will take the time to teach clients the intricacies of the particular sport gleaned from years in the trenches.
Here are some questions to ask before you book a guide:
- How long has the guide been in business?
- Can you get some references to call and check them out?
- What are the primary species that will be sought?
- What is the back-up plan if Plan A goes south?
- When does the guide get paid?
- What does the client need to bring (equipment, food, beverages, etc)
- How long will the whole trip take?
Take a minute before shoving off for the trip to set the ground rules and what you, as a paying customer, expect from the guide. For example, I don’t want the guide to fish, unless I ask them to. I’ve been with guides who treated us as though we were simply accompanying him on his private fishing day. We were an afterthought. This happens too often. You won’t see this in fly fishing very much, but any kind of “meat” fishing, it’s prevalent.
The best way to go is from a direct referral from a satisfied customer. Perhaps the guide has a website with testimonials. Make sure to check these out. Check with the local fly/bait shops to see if they know this guide and can speak confidently about them. Any local guide worth a hoot will hang around the local fly shops to some extent for marketing purposes.k
Below is a link of regional guides from another smallmouth bass related website
Smallmouths.com
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