I guide and fish tournaments. I have to buy a $150 Ky resident guide license plus my fishing license yearly. To guide in any lake that is attached to the Mississippi River by navigation, I have to have a US Coast Guard OUPV credential. It has to be renewed every 5 years. My initial cost for it was over $2000. Renewal costs several hundreds of $$.
I’m never ceased to be amazed by the contempt some here have for guides. I fish one trip per day and I never fish on my guide trips. KY guides can’t keep fish on guide trips. I have lots of clients who say we can catch our limits then catch yours! Not happening! My clients rarely catch limits. If filling ones freezer is your goal, you need to go elsewhere.
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Slabprowler thanked you for this post
I never meant to highjack the thread or start guide bashing. I simply pointed out the fact that if we are worried about depleting the population, guides are more prone to do that than the tournament fishers. To each his/her own. I'll get mine and enjoy doing it. It is interesting though that the guide business is largely unregulated in Mississippi, especially on the Corps impoundments. All you need is a fishing license to start a guide business.
One more question about depleting the resource. If this is true and it’s virtually impossible to overfish the population, then why have length limits? Or reduced creel limits? When I started fishing in the 70’s we could keep 30 crappie. Now it’s 15. What is that?
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No and no. Word they gave was that the crappie were being over fished. Which is exactly the opposite of what you suggest. I’m no biologist but I do know while both of those positions can be wrong they both can’t be right. I’d love to know the truth.
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I reached out to a contact who guides Mississippi and Alabama waters. He is required to pay a fee of some sort to guide in Mississippi; not Alabama. He is also required to have insurance, which I translate to liability. So yea, there are fees for the law abiding. I appreciate these folks who offer this service to people. It’s a good thing! Guides introduce people to this great sport and resource we have.
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I apologize for stirring this up. It seems we were talking about two different issues here. When I stated guiding is technically illegal, I was referring specifically to the three Corps impoundments in Mississippi, not the entire state. To my knowledge, guiding is licensed and permitted in other places such as the Tenn-Tom waterway. The regulation I posted to support my opinion was taken verbatim from the Vicksburg district website.
As for context and interpretation, the regulation does apply to a commercial guide business. Technically, it’s against the regulation to conduct the business of guiding or soliciting for guide trips on Corps impoundments in Mississippi. I personally know of situations where a park ranger made a guide service remove the advertisement magnets from his truck while camping in a Corps campground.
Also, you can call the district office, ask them if you can get a license/permit to guide on the Corps impoundments and they will tell you flat out no.
Lastly, I was intentional in my use of the term “technically” because up to this point the Corps has chosen not to enforce the prohibition against actual guiding for crappie.
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CrappiePappy, John Doe thanked you for this post
No heartburn from me and I know very little about the legality of the business. Just like any other business, it has all kinds of people.
I know a few guides, and these folks are good people who love the sport. I believe their contribution is a benefit to the sport and for sure to the people who enjoy the service. The smiles on their faces tell it.
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USAF Retired - 1988 - 2011
weekend warriors and retired ppl take way more out of our lake than guides