I have been doing alot of thinking and alot of talking with people that I know well and trust and am happy to call friends above all else and I am pretty sure that I have came to the conclusion that after april 15th 0f 2015 I am going to call it quits on this whole guiding thing...... I will say this that over the years I have met some outstanding people, Been in some crazy situations, had a few knock down drag out brawls.......But most of all caught a shitload of fish with a ton of great clients that most of which have become much better friends over the years then anything else......some of you may wonder why I am doing this at age 50 ? well I will tell you why, I am just pretty much disgusted at what this industry has become. Its a shell of its former self......when you book a trip now with someone off of facebook or craigslist or groupon or what have you you have no idea what your going to get. You might get a young dude with a really cool looking boat and lots of stickers on it and his lifted truck yet he has only been rowing a driftboat for a year or two and most of his fishing knowledge comes from youtube or other internet fishing sites. He did not grow up walking the stream banks as I and many other guides my age did and most of these youngsters are not proficient and or safe in rowing there boat down the river with customers in it...................yet since they spend the money on advertising, spend countless hours on facebook and the internet and take hundreds of hours of video they will get more of the unsuspecting customers then the guys of my era.....and yet at the end of there trip they will wonder what happened and why...I have got alot of my best new customers from these types but at the end of the day I no longer want to be apart of it or associated with it until this state can come up with some kind of competency test or internship or apprenticeship program...Do I blame the young guides ? No how can you, there just doing what the state allows them to do. You have to blame the state and its lack of leadership or thinking in this arena.........So I will say this in closing, its been alot of fun, alot of hard work and I don't think it was supposed to end this way but at this point I am just done !
So if you want to come have some serious fun and catch a few fish hit me up and sign up because April 15th will come faster then you think............Peace Fly....