#88 IS HIRING A GUIDE WORTH IT? PART II

You're planning a fishing trip, is hiring a guide worth it? I drafted an article covering this topic a while back, but two weeks ago my Wife and spent a few days on the Green River in Dutch John Utah, and we in fact did hire a guide.

In my past article I talked about how important communication with your guide is in setting up expectations for the day. You are hiring this person and you should be able to mutually agree on what you are getting from the day, whether learning some thing new, or helping to get better at a certain aspect of Fly Fishing or “I want to catch 7,000 fish”, to just wanting a relaxing day on the water, these are the items that you and your guide need to settle on even before you set foot anywhere near the water to help avoid miscommunications.

Now let me tell you my recent tale: we hired a guide to float the Green River in Dutch John Utah for a one day float on the river, we were ready at the agreed upon time, and when our guide showed up, he was less than friendly, (I get it, maybe late night, or end of season burn out, or even sick) never less we loaded up and headed to the launch ramp to start our day.

Upon arriving at the launch ramp, I discussed our expectations with him and discussed what we wanted from our trip: a relaxing day on the water, a chance to enjoy the canyon, and the opportunity to catch a fish or two. That was all we hoped for from the day.

This was not what we received, the first few hours were like none I have ever experienced. This man was rude, and condescending to both me and my Wife, he was almost yelling at us to “mend, cast a foot over, don’t move the boat, don’t touch that”, etc. etc. and the kicker was how he was cursing at other boats on the river, this behavior had my Wife almost to tears at one point.

Fast forward to lunch, this is when my Wife and I had discussed it privately and decided that this was not going to continue, and we needed to have a serious heart to heart conversation with our guide. The conversation was brief, first, “are you okay, is anything wrong”? we were concerned that there may be an issue, he stated there were none, then we informed him that we will no longer tolerate this treatment and behavior, and he was either to change his attitude, or to just take us back to the launch ramp, (we were both diplomatic and polite during our discussion).

For the rest of the day, he said little, and we managed to land a few fish. More than anything, we were relieved when the trip finally ended.

The next morning, we decided to have a quick chat with the Manager at the shop, just tell them that, “for the money that is being charged this is how their employee is treating their guests.” As a former business owner, I would want to know this so I could correct the problem for the future.

NOW HERE IS THE CRAZY PART OF THE STORY:

After carefully listening, the Manger told me they were going to comp our prior days trip, “no charge” she was sorry for the inconvenience that we endured. This was not my intention to get a free trip, only to bring light to the situation.

“I have since posted numerous posts on-line praising the action of the Manger and staff at Dutch John, for their amazing effort to rectify this situation.”

The rest of the story, since we had the day to fish, we decided to ask if there were any guides available for the day, after checking they informed us there were no guides available, but had contacted another Outfitter, and had found a guide for us.

We meet our guide, who was friendly and polite, we talked, and once again discussed our hopes for the day, and he was completely on board with our plan, we proceeded to have one of the best days on the water since I can’t remember when. We all laughed, caught a ton of fish, missed fish, and just had an amazing stress-free and relaxing day on the water, I cannot thank everyone involved enough.

Now I have written this long diatribe to make you aware of a several things before you go on your trip.

 You are hiring a guide to help with your day on the water, help you to catch fish, (if you want), for him/her to share their local knowledge of home waters, even assist you to improve your casting, whatever! it is your day and you should enjoy yourself. Now with all, remember that your guide does not control the weather, fish, water levels, or anything else physically out of their control.

I hope my recent tale of tragedy and triumph helps you in having the best possible day you can have on the water as you and your guide create lasting memories.

Tight lines

La Machine...

Thanks for reading, feel free to hit me up with any comments or questions.