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To Jerry Blake
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Hey Seeker,
Guiding is the most satisfying thing I’ve ever done and I’ve done quite a few different things including being a carpenter, cabinet maker, EMT, dental lab technician, home inspector and a few others.
It IS work though – always something to repair or maintain. Been working on the boat today. Had to exchange a battery at Walmart and track down a problem with my big motor. It looks like I need a $250 electric fuel pump, which will take 2 or 3 days to get.
I don’t get many trips during the winter but that’s when I work on my brush piles since it’s not too hot and there are no skeeters, tics, chiggers or wasps to pester me.
I’m in a tourist area but most of the other guides here are “Trophy Striper Guides” and this area isn’t known for crappie fishing like some places so it took a while to get much business. I started out in a 16-foot crappie rig with stick steering and a 50-horse motor. After a few months when it looked like I might actually be able to make a living guiding I bought a bigger boat.
Advertising is probably the key to getting a good customer base. I tried the yellow pages but got very few calls from there – and its expensive.
There is a company here that has brochure or “rack card” displays in all the restaurants, motels and tourist traps. They charge $40 a month to put my rack cards in about 80 racks all over the area. I have to provide the rack cards but they keep the racks stocked.
I also make flyers with a picture from a recent trips and the same info that is on my rack cards, which I take around to some of the resorts on the lake when business is slow and they put them on their front desks for people to pick up.
My most productive advertising is my website but it took a while for it to get indexed on all the search engines. When I started guiding most of my clients were people that were already coming to Hot Springs and found my rack cards or flyers but now a lot of people are finding my website and choosing to vacation in Hot Springs so they can fish with me.
I’ve gotten on all the free guide listings I can find on the web and paid to be on a couple in the beginning but didn’t feel like I was getting my money’s worth there – there are plenty of free ones.
I have quite a few regular and repeat customers and that helps fill the calendar. In the winter I sell some trips on eBay and that helps.
To enjoy guiding you need to like meeting people and have a lot of patience – for the fish to bite but also for the people that haven’t fished much and even some that have fished a lot and want to do it “their way”.
You'll need to devise a system where everyone can catch fish, whether or not they can cast accurately or count a jig down. I use minnows under slip floats with long rods in rod holders so anyone can catch fish.
It also helps if you enjoy seeing other people catch fish while you’re doing all the work. People want to catch fish, not watch the guide catch fish. I don’t do much fishing while I’m guiding, unless it’s real slow and I’m trying to find a pattern.
If I do fish I’m tight-lining a jig out ahead of and deeper than what I have the minnows set to pinpoint the brush and to see if I need to set the minnows deeper. When I get a fish on I usually hand the pole off to the nearest one and let them reel it in. Once the fish start biting I stay busy taking fish off and baiting hooks.
Offering to take people on another trip for free if we don’t catch their dinner takes a lot of pressure off. I can’t always make the fish bite but I can take the people out again and so far everyone that has gone back out for free has caught plenty of fish the second time out.
A friend of mine – Darryl Morris – has recently started guiding and has helped me with a couple trips. He started out as a client and got hooked on crappie fishing pretty bad.
He’s from NE Arkansas and may not be able to do much guiding in his immediate area but is willing to drive 3 hours to guide here on the weekends. He seems to enjoy it and I think he will be a good guide.
You have the right idea – to start out guiding part time and see how it goes.
Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you get started. If you'll email me I'll send you a copy of my rack cards and fliers. If you have a way to get something similar in the hands of prospective clients that would be a good place to start.
Jonathan is going to be here next Sunday and I hope to send him home with a cooler full of big fat fillets. He took an afternoon trip with me this summer and we couldn't pry their mouths open. But, its a whole new ballgame now and I hope they wear him out!
