Hire a Guide-It’s Ok

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Maybe it is our ego. Maybe us veteran bass anglers just know more than any other bass angler. Maybe we are embarrassed to admit that there might be someone else that knows more than we do, especially on our own lake that we have been fishing for 20 years. Maybe you are an occasion fisherman that just can’t see paying a guide to go fishing. I’m not sure what the reason is but more often than not we just don’t think about hiring a guide once we become an established bass fisherman. Why not??

Me first experience with a guide was in one of my first draw tournaments. The bass tournament was on lake Okeechobee, in Florida. It was a national tournament, all of the famous tournament pro’s were there along with the top Lake Okeechobee guides and local tournament fisherman. On the second day of the tournament I drew the most sought after guide on the lake. Needless to say we took his boat and fished his areas.

At this point I had been fishing the Big “O” almost every weekend for about 5 years and I knew the lake well. As we started out we headed in a direction I had been probably 10o times. All of a sudden he stopped the boat and started easing up to the shoreline which seemed no different than the rest of the area. We headed into a cut out in the shoreline that I never seen before, it was barely big enough for the boat and was covered with floating vegetation and was overgrown with overhanging trees and shrubs. You would never know it existed. After navigating this small canal for about a hundred yards, dodging branches, driving over stumps and getting stuck twice the canal opened up into a field of open water with grass patches and heads of bullrushes.  Where were we, why have I never been here before or even knew the area existed. It certainly was not on any map I have ever seen. After carefully examining the field of dreams I notice how hard and sandy the bottom was, then I started noticing bass beds, one after another. We ended up catching a limit of fish within about an hour, culled a few larger fish then went to another area I had never been to before and repeated the same process. I learned more about Lake Okeechobee in that one day than I had previously learned in 5 years.

Another experience I had was actually hiring a guide for bonefishing in the Florida Keys. Over the past 5 years my wife and I have vacationed in Islamorada which is located in the Florida Keys. Each year I would spend a day or two trying to catch bonefish on the salt water grass flats. It is my understanding that catching a bonefish is one of the most difficult things to do in fishing. How hard can it be. I have been fishing for almost 30 years. Not only did I not catch a fish in 5 years I think I only maybe saw 2 to 3 fish.

On the sixth year of our vacation I decide to hire a guide. It was my first time hiring a guide and was not sure exactly how to act. Do I dress the part, do I let him know I was an experienced fisherman, how much information do I actually let him know? I decided to just act like a tourist, after all I was actually on vacation and did not have any experience with fishing the flats for bonefish. I met the guide at the dock at about 7:00 am. We discussed what I was trying to accomplish and I let him know I was trying to catch a bonefish on the flats. I also found out that it was useful to let him know that I was an experienced fisherman. He did seemed relieved to know he would not have to hold my hand every step of the way. Knowing I had some experience changed his approach for the days fishing and it was in my benefit. I didn’t want to be stuck fishing with some spin casting outfit with a bobber and a piece of cut bait sitting on the bottom of the ocean.

As we pulled up to our first stop I was a little disappointed but yet encouraged, this was an area I had fished on my own in previous years. The guide set me up with a spinning outfit loaded with a peice of shrimp, the same thing I would have done on my own. He then proceeded to the polling platform on the back of the boat and we started fishing. After about 20 minutes he spotted a fish along the shoreline about 30 yards in front of the boat. I couldn’t see anything. He kept on, 2:00 o’clock, 20 yards, 3:00 o’clock, 20 yards, he’s gone!! We proceeded down the bank and about 10 minutes later. Fish coming, 11:00 o’clock, 40 yards, 10:00 o’clock 20 yards, 9:00 o’clock, 20 yards, can you see them?? Just make a cast at 9:00 o’clock. They’re gone!! This time I think I might have seen some type of flicker of something, I wasn’t sure. This continued for about two hours. I could tell the guide was getting frustrated but he was doing his job.

Finally after about 3 hours I got a good look at a school of about 8 fish that basically were swimming around right at the boat. I took a good hard look and realized I had to train my eyes on what I was looking for. They didn’t just raised a white flag and ask to be caught.

For the next hour or so I started finally spotting fish. All it took was some initial training and adjusting the way I was looking at the water. I was merely looking at the surface of the water instead of focusing on the bottom where the fish actually were. Now that I was able to see the fish I had to adjust my casting to lead the fish properly. Again the guide was instrumental in teaching me exactly what to do.

We eased up on another flat and again the guide spotted a fish. This time it was a single large bonefish that was in the eating mode. I made the first cast which was an ok cast but the bonefish slowly headed the opposite direction of my bait but was not spooked. I made another just past the fish and carefully drew the bait back in the direction he was headed. I let the bait sit and he continued approaching in the direction where my bait was. After what seemed like an eternity I felt a slight bump on my line, reeled up some slack and all of a sudden my line took off like a bat out of hell. I did it!! I hooked my first bonefish. After what seemed like an hour we landed the fish and it weighed, 12 lbs 4 oz. Apparently this was a huge bonefish for the Keys. We took some pictures and released the fish. About 20 minutes later on the same flat I ended up catching another one. He weighed 11 lbs 12 oz’. Two trophy bonefish in one day. I think the photos are still on the wall at the marina.

Whether it is bass fishing, bonefishing or fishing for whatever species, if you want to learn more about fishing, have a casual outing without all of the fuss of the boat and equipment or if on a vacation, why not consider hiring a guide. You might learn a thing or two, or much more. It is well worth it.