I spent 20 years in the military and moved a lot. When I was reassigned to a new base I always found it tremendously helpful to hire a local guide to learn the local waters. I always told the guide I was new in the area and all of them treated the trip as a learning experience. I figured it was well worth what the guide charged just to keep me from testing every piece of non-productive water I could find. I could never gather all the information a guide accrues by spending all the time he/she does day after day on a particular body of water. It would be a really tough task to learn all that by myself a day at time, or by listening to the local fishermen hanging around the tackle shop.