Questionable Guides Offers

[buckhorn2]

I have been reading about some Guide offers and think all are not honest. I have not posted anything about a guide trip that we had that stunk. I know there are good days and bad days in hunting and fishing but sometimes the come you get is not given in all honesty. Then when you see the same Guide telling of awesome hunting opportunity or fishing being red hot should you just smile and let it go. I have had great guide trips with Dale who was great to our family and gives you what he says he will. Not stirring the pot but some guides are better at telling stories of past adventures instead of giving you good service.

[Bone_Collector]

Sorry to hear about your experience with your trip, people like this do a disservice to the guiding community and from my experience they are the exception to the rule. One piece of advise I would give to you is when researching about a guide ask around on various forums about the service or individual because chances are if they are a reputable guide people will know who they are and voice their opinion about their excursions.


B_C

[Kc_Kracker]

There is only one way to find a guide

word-of-mouth

period....

[_TONY_]

There is only one way to find a guide

word-of-mouth

period....

Agreed

[Bofire]

 :)Most reputable guides will offer references. Call them.

[buckhorn2]

It all started when we were talking about catfishing on our lyons ferry trip with the hunting wa group. Then adds came up about the great catfishing trips that were happing at wallula and the big stringers of catfish being caught there so we booked a trip and drove several hours to the spot. When the guide showed up he showed us pictures and told of the big trips he had so off we go to the secret hole. I know how fishing is and somedays they bite and some days they don't but this was different. When we got the boat anchored the guide says okay everyone just sit and I will cast the rods out then when a fish its I will set the hook and then one of you reel it in. Today they were;nt biting so he says after 4 hours and 4 fish we might as well call it a day they just are;nt here. When we get to the dock we ask how much do we owe and he says 600.00 dollars for the four of you sorry they did;nt bite. It for us just a bad trip the guide was so full of himself all he could talk about was the great goose hunting spot or the great place he had to shoot does that we just heard enough. It was just a bad trip for us so If you do get a guide make sure like others said and check into it because our guide was a legend in his own mind but sure could charge.

[rittem1]

I would think that the cost of the trip would be something I would want to know before the trip started, not after. Sorry you had a bad experience!

[WSU]

Sounds like you didn't research the guide or go with someone with a very established business.  Sounds more like someone moonlighting to make a few extra bucks

[Boss .300 winmag]

It all started when we were talking about catfishing on our lyons ferry trip with the hunting wa group. Then adds came up about the great catfishing trips that were happing at wallula and the big stringers of catfish being caught there so we booked a trip and drove several hours to the spot. When the guide showed up he showed us pictures and told of the big trips he had so off we go to the secret hole. I know how fishing is and somedays they bite and some days they don't but this was different. When we got the boat anchored the guide says okay everyone just sit and I will cast the rods out then when a fish its I will set the hook and then one of you reel it in. Today they were;nt biting so he says after 4 hours and 4 fish we might as well call it a day they just are;nt here. When we get to the dock we ask how much do we owe and he says 600.00 dollars for the four of you sorry they did;nt bite. It for us just a bad trip the guide was so full of himself all he could talk about was the great goose hunting spot or the great place he had to shoot does that we just heard enough. It was just a bad trip for us so If you do get a guide make sure like others said and check into it because our guide was a legend in his own mind but sure could charge.

$600 for a catfish trip for 4 you can buy a lot of catfish for $150.  i think his hand would have been a little lite after his guide skills were not proven at the end of the day, obviously he is a scam artist of a guide. Was he licensed? 

[YJ Guide Service]

Just to have a guide respond to this post.  Sometimes fish just don't bite no matter what you do. If the guide does everything he can and changes gear and location to find you fish then its just an off day. If he doesn't and just goes to one spot and doesn't change gear and sits there the whole day or a few hours and calls it a day then that's bad.  I find that when you have those types of days and you as a guide do what you can to make the customers day as positive as possible by doing everything you can to get them on fish they understand its fishing if the fish don't bite. If you don't do everything you can to put customers on fish you wont be around long, cause word of mouth will make or break you. When you book a trip make sure the guide is reputable and how many hours your going to fish before you go that way everyone's on the same page. I know a lot of guides that don't let you cast the poles or set the hook, I myself don't understand why they do this it doesn't make sense to me. I had one guide tell me it was because the poles he had were way to makes expensive to let customers set the hook on a salmon they might break them lol makes no sense to me that's the fun of it.  As far as the trip price is concerned $150 per person is right in the ball park for this state. I understand your disappointment on not catching as many fish as you would have liked. I myself have been on guided trips in Florida that we paid big money for and never caught anything so I know the feeling. I find guiding for fishing to be more stressful than guiding for big game any day. Sorry you got a bad guide but don't let one bad guide make all the good ones out there look bad please. Just my opinion coming from someone who guides for fishing for a living.

[buckhorn2]

The story even gets better when we tried a trip for oversize sturgeon at bonnieville. There used to be a hunting and fishing paper called fishermans news and this is where it started. There was a guide on there ever week giving fishing reports so my friend booked us a trip with him. It looked bad from the start while we were waiting on the ramp up pulls a blue van with flowers on the side and out crawls the guide with a long pony tail and trys to launch the boat but it's battery is dead so he takes one out of the van gets the boat started and puts the battery back in the van. Then he says I will do the casting and if a fish bites my wife will set the hook she really has these fish dialed in. First he trys to anchor using his new idea of two anchors out and if you think a boat swings around with one try two. We anchor across from the fshery and he baits us with anchovys and we cath about 2 dozen shorts apiece while boatr after boat goes by with oversize in. He says well no bite today lets call it a day and  I will give you another free trip next week which was nice but we had had enough. Anyway just wanted to let people there are good and not so good guides and to make sure before you book.