#921529 - 02/03/1503:08 PMRe: Im done.......Just not like it use to be..........
[Re: superfly]
WDFW X 1 = 0
My Area code makes me cooler than you
Registered: 01/27/15
Posts: 4481
I for one believe SF is not screwed.
By attending some anger management classes, some sensitivity training, and improving his people skills he could defiantly fill his boat with a group of prudes on a regular basis.
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He who joyfully marches in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice.
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....
Great post, glad you shared that with us.
This all could have been avoided with the ideas you have.
The new guides I see obviously have a lot of family funding going into their little project. They often have vehicles and boats that I only dream of owning as a hard working person. It clearly doesn't add up
Ain't that the truth! It always makes me scratch my head when I see all these new guides rolling up in $40,000 lifted trucks with Micky Thompson tires and $2,000 worth of rims on them, towing a brand new shiny drift boat with $1,000 of aluminum rod holders mounted to the roof. Then you see the old time guide with a beat up Willie and a 15 year old truck...the guy that should be at a higher status all things being equal. The math never really added up to me...a lot of engineers I know have fewer toys and spend a lot less money than most newbie young-gun guides it seems.
Anyhow...I digress! Good luck in your future endeavors!
I have an old "Fishing Holes" map book from 1975 for coastal streams. In the accompanying article the author Terry Rudnick (sp?) mentions that the 'Nooche was an overlooked/underfished stream.
And with good reason.
That was only a few years after completion of Wynoochee Dam and hatchery mitigation hadn't started in earnest yet, winter or summer. I recall a low number winter run return of something like 14 fish to the fish collection facility one year…..or something close to that. Wild fish for the most part.
I also remember a early closure....and it was because Natives/wild steelhead were not returning in the numbers needed to keep the run going.
I also remember the late 60's where the Humptulips, the Satsop, and the Wynoochee were open until the end of April. Teaching was my profession, so I had spring vacation to fish those rivers....many days, wouldn't see another fisherman, even with the gear I had and my lack of experience, big fish tested me and my gear...... 18 - 25 pound wild steelhead were fairly common...... 26 - 30# were caught...really...