What do you expect from a guide?

The question really says it all. Do you expect the How, Why, When, Where tutoring, or simply a safe, good humored float of free-styling it?

To tell me when my shows are on..

That would be Pat ... in my case, we actually get to the "lost" stage with you

i expect to be told it is raining and the rivers are out.

+1

Gee, I thought we would have caught some fish today.

"Are you going to row us back up to your truck?"

Take me down river safely and teach me at least 1 thing I didn't know that morning. I prefer that one thing to not be that the guide is a perfect asshole. Pretty good luck to date on that.

To be told that "We crushed em yesterday right here, with the exact same baits and that pod of fish must have passed through."

That right there is classic. lmao

side drifting

Access first of all. I've hired a guide when I'm away from my home waters and don't have my boat(s) or maybe don't even know where the local water is. A guide service for a couple of days really adds interest and value to a vacation trip. We vacationed in Grand Bahama last year, and it's impossible to get to the bonefishing locations without a flats skiff. So the guide's skiff was essesntial to fishing. The guide also could see invisible (to me) bonefish, and although I could hardly understand anything he said, "11 o'clock, 40 feet" was perfectly understandable. So the second thing I expect from a guide is a skill that I lack.

On a trip to Utah, we hired a guide to float the Green River. His driftboat provided access that was essential to getting to where the fish are, and his local knowledge - small size 16 and 18 nymphs in the morning, large cicada dry flies in the afternoon - had us fishing successfully all day long. An outstanding shore lunch was an added plus.

So access and an additional skill come to mind as expectations of a fishing guide.

Sg

You better be able to row back up [censored] corner Bret lol!

take a trip with bob and you will know what to expect from a guide

To row the boat down a river that's holding fish, safely.Oh and maybe supply a leader or two if he has any left over from the day before.If not I'll have my own.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

P.S. If I can come away with just one thing that I learned or had forgot about it would be a good trip.

Certainly not a degree in piscatology, but it is nice to gain knowledge.

It’s what a guide does between the bit that keeps them in business, a few fish to the boats is the +.

if it's a fly guy'd on a river closed to nates... then i'd want him convince me to keep it....

I like to measure my day when fishing or hunting with a guide by two things. Did the guide hold me back by his lack of skill or knowledge, or did I hold the guide back by not being able to connect when the opportunity was there.

Not having the guide holding my fish in all his hero shots!

Fishy

Good thoughts. If both are perfectly matched, that's good. If the guide holds me back, then I paid for a float. If I hold the guide back, then I try as quick as I can to change, to catch up, and I hope I remember to thank him for teaching me. Good Guides work for everything they make.

If he is a Richard Cranium I just say "Thank You," or not, and no head butts are involved, but my experience has been very good so far. (Thank you Gilly)

Somebody said, "It's between the bites that makes a good guide." I think it's before , during, between, and after the bites that makes a good dude. I am very thankful, and support as best I can, the Guides who have taught me what I know. The others, I forget.

I expect them to be on time. I expect them not to walk us through a stretch of water another fisherman is fishing. I expect them not to get into a shouting match with said fly fisherman and threaten him. I could go on but that'll do.

Have had a few great experiences too Gilly in the salt, Two River Outfitter in Big Fork, MT, who not only put us on fish during tough conditions but did more than was expected in order to do so. That makes a good guide to me.