Tipping your guide.

[Chartboy]

I only used guides for inshore saltwater. Both times, the guides put us on fish, kept my son happy, and cleaned the fish. I tipped 10% in both cases.

[Eager Beaver]

Beaver...I wish you had some video of that rip...I mean trip...MAN...What a lush...Did you tip him? LOL...Better yet did you even pay him?

He was paid before we even got on the water. By the way he came highly recommended in an issue of Bass Masters Mag. Afterwards I had to laugh, he said the boat that we was using, he had borrowed, because he had wrecked his. GO FIGURE!!

[DemolitionMan]

Well, I say do what your heart tells you to do...However, IMO, tips are reserved for people who "works" for tips....DemoMan

[HOTSPOT]

From a guide's point of view:

Like other guides have said, tips are appreciated but no required.

I personally am the type of guy that tips for any professional service. My barber, waitress, car wash, etc. Nothing wrong with letting them know you appreciate the good work.

When I hire a guide, I do so to learn a new body of water or a new tactic. I use these rules:

1. If the guide helped me learn the water and the tactic to my satisfaction, but the fish did not cooperate 10%.

2. If the guide helped me learn the water and the tactic to my satisfaction and we had a mediocre bite 15%.

3. If the guide helped me learn the water and the tactic to my satisfaction and the rods were busy 20%.

Most folks I have taken out use the rules above or something similar. But, every now and again, I will get someone who has an awesome trip and offers nothing. On the other side of the coin, I've had mediocre trips where the folks tipped well.

I don't think more or less of a customer based on the tip they did or did not provide. But, when a person that gave a good tip calls back for another trip, I give them first priority on prime dates.

I work hard for everyone that comes aboard and try to make sure they have a good time no matter the bite or the weather. It's my job and I love to put people on fish, especially kids.

[HotRodChevy]

We take a trip to Virgina Beach every winter for striper and use the same guide.He is great and we always tip him.Also his mate only works for tips and we usually give him 15 or 20 percent.

[DRPEPPER]

I have used guides on trout trips In Arkansas to entertain customers. On the White river they will do a shore lunch for you too. I will give a smaller gratuity. But, I always give a strong hint that the ones being entertained should show some appreciation to the guide. When I am being entertained I always give at least 20% of what the day would cost.
But, of course the guys I go trout fishing with, all swap the duties of being the entertainers and the entertained a couple of times a year. If there is a second or even third day involved, I am usually the guide as far as tying hooks or cleaning fish. So I know how much work it can be. I don't get tipped (or even paid), but I get to gripe at them yahoos all day long.
On the other hand, when I joined this sight and met Jerry and Darryl, I was a little leery of their generosity. But after meeting them and fishing with them I feel they are genuinely good guys and deserve all the compensation one can give them. These guys not only try to provide for their clients, they work their hineys off providing a good fishery for half of the state.
NOTE: I said hineys not bellies.
DP

[Baditude]

We hired a guide on Kentucky Lake a couple years ago. This guy (who will remain nameless) didn't show or tell us squat other than what depth to fish. It never failed , every place we pulled up to , he was the first in the water and we'd only get a couple drops in before he was ready to move to the next. Needles to say , we only caught a few dinks , got lobsterized by the sun and to top it off when our "time was up", he took the bait that WE had purchased and went back out on the water. The whole day was spent within sight of the ramp. Can you guess if he received a tip ?

[blairarnold]

I have only failed to tip 2 guides. One was a bird hunting guide in Ok. who took us to spots that looked and were mediocre at best, stood by the truck the whole time we were hunting, and drank a case or better of our beer that night, getting pretty drunk in the process. (He had been recommended in an article in Southern Outdoors.)

The other one was a trout guide here in Ark. who got real huffy when I put some cooking equipment in the boat even though I told him I would be doing the cooking for the shore lunch, but he durn sure ate plenty when the time came. He also drank a world of beer and kept getting meaner and meaner to a cousin of mine who was with me and who is one of the nicest most polite people you will ever meet. Finally even though I had only had 3 beers all day long (against his 20 or better), he told another family from my home town who fished with him about a week later (and whose oldest son was my oldest son's best friend, both being about 13 at the time) that I had really gotten plastered. I not only didn't tip him, but I have never been back to that resort since, and my family had been fishing there since 1960. (I talked to the owner about what had happened and what was said, and he more or less blew it off.)

Every other time I have been with a guide they have worked really hard to make the trip a success whether it was or not, were very nice, and provided a good time. I always tipped them whether or not the trip was a big success.

[Jason Piper]

I do aprreciate tips! But I feel I don't deserve one at times when the fishing is poor. I work hard to ensure my client has a good time, weather or not that deserves a tip dosen't matter because they have already payed for the trip. I just enjoy helping others learn new techniques and catch fish! I don't know exactly a percentage that should be payed, I just appreciate whatever I recieve! I'm sure all other guides feel the same as I do.

[twojigginjohn]

if i could afford a guide, i would tip.... yep, sure would. but until then, its a leaky canoe.