What are your thoughts on........

[Agronomist_at_IA]

Having a Guide taking you out fishing on a big name lake and then using a GPS to mark the points incase you come back to the lake sometime without a guide. Wrong or not?

[fivebucks]

I'm sure it happens all the time but I would get upset (probably after the fact) if I were a guide and a client was punching in waypoints. They would not get to fish my best spots. It will be nice to see how the guides feel on this subject. I personally would not GPS a guides spot.

[fishing is hot]

Why not just follow the guide around and save that money too. It gets done all the time. You should realy ask the quide if he would mind if took out GPS and saved his wavepoints. What I do then is take him to all my known spots that I know don't hold fish. Make for a long day. Either way I most likely would never see him again.

[Iron Cowboy]

when I was looking for a guide for unfamiliar waters I asked him his rules on bringing my gps and marking locations. He said he was fine with it but said up front he wouldn't bring me to any of his good spots that are lesser known. We would be on the more "community" spots. Fair enough I guess.

[deadeye]

You are paying for the spots IMO. I guess its up to the guide if he/she doesn't want to take you to the real good spots cause your marking them. I wouldn't be real hot about it if I was guiding people but I would also play it by ear. If they are from another state and come up once a year then whatever. If they are there every weekend then I would be a little more hot. Before the time of GPS people looked a lake map and just remembered the hot spots so you don't even have to use a gps to get back to the same places.

Just because you mark some spots doesn't mean that the fishing will be good either. I have a ton of spots that are very seasonal and limited to when the fish are even there. Conditions also play a huge role and they are almost always different the next time out on the water. You could go to some spots 50 out of 52 weeks of the year and not catch a thing. Someone could mark all of my spots and be skunked every day because they are not there when the fish are.

[Wayne Ek]

This has never bothered me. I encourage my clients to bring along a hand held GPS. Spots are just that spots... Some times they hold active fish and other times they don't. Calendar periods, seasonal patterns, food sources are much more important than spots.

[Acemac]

if your a guide that wont bring a paying client to your "good fishing" hole your not worth paying. period

[magic_minnow]

i agree with acemac.

[Zoob]

Same, agreed with acemac. That's what a guide is for - bringing the client to the hotspots (based on season, climate, etc.) If you're shirking your clientele - it's no different than ...

...wait for it....

...bait and switch.

Oh man, I crack me up. On that note, time to hoof it out to the ice shelter, stare at my stick for a few hours, and listen to the ice-warming cracks that've been going on all day today.

[TSchultz]

I heard it characterized it into two groups once and fully agree with that persons assessment. Guide vs. Outfitter.

A guide teaches you about the water you are on; forage, seasonal movements, techniques, different spots, and why the fish are there at that time, etc... This should include, in my opinion either marking up a map for you to some extent or letting you have the gps coordinates. If they want to fish a spot, and don't want you to mark it then they should let that be known. I wouldn't mind if they have a secret hole they don't want marked, unless they are doing that with every spot.

An outfitters job is to catch you fish with no other information offered period.

Personally I don't care for the second as I always want to know the why's and how's. But there are people that just want to catch fish, and don't care about the how's and the why's. What does burn me though are people who label themselves as guides, but don't want to share any information with you, the customer. If this is the way a guide operates I expect them to let me know up front that it will be a fish catching trip, and not a technique learning trip.

[SDS]

i take people fishing all the time, you need to know weather they are avid fisherman, if they are you can not trust them with your spots! it took me years to pattern my fav lake, i will not take some yuppy out for a couple hours just to let him waypoint all my spots!

[Fred_Bear]

i take people fishing all the time, you need to know weather they are avid fisherman, if they are you can not trust them with your spots! it took me years to pattern my fav lake, i will not take some yuppy out for a couple hours just to let him waypoint all my spots!

Yeah, I hate fishing with good fisherman too.

[pulleye16]

Funny...this yuppy paid to get a part fixed on my car. The machanic said it was an easy fix and showed me so the next time it broke I could do it myself...I guess some people are less selfish then others. YOUR A GUIDE, YOU'D BETTER GIVE ANYONE AND ANYTHING YOUR "SPOTS" regardless of GPS or not, their paying for your service of catching fishing. Fish move, weather patterns change...there are so many factors that a guide should be moving with the fish so there GPS location may be that of a day, week...If you're relying on "spots" then you should try harder as a guide.

[Coach1310]

I have heard, that for many guides, this is frowned upon. I can see both sides of the coin. When you "pay" a guide, you are paying for that day or that 8 hours. Sure you hope to learn techniques, methods, etc, but just because you pay them for that 8 hours, doesn't mean he/she is responsible for letting you mark all of his/her spots for future use. If they let everyone mark all their spots, I think their business volume would drop some.

[quijibo]

I went on two guide trips last month and I asked both of them this same question. They both responded that they would be disappointed if I didn't mark them. They also both gave me a lesson in fishing; they were there to show me where to look for fish and the technique to use for that type of spot. The first guide told me to avoid this same spot we were fishing at the tournament(the next day) because it would be very popular and no one would catch anything. He was right.

Both agreed that a guide that relied wholly on hot spots would have a very short career.

Keep in mind that we don't have Lakemaster chips for Colorado. It takes knowledge and patience to find good spots. The first guide actually plotted 1 foot contours of the whole lake with a couple of buddies.

Colorado also regulates guides and their state determined territories very strictly.

Adam

[Agronomist_at_IA]

I heard it characterized it into two groups once and fully agree with that persons assessment. Guide vs. Outfitter.

A guide teaches you about the water you are on; forage, seasonal movements, techniques, different spots, and why the fish are there at that time, etc... This should include, in my opinion either marking up a map for you to some extent or letting you have the gps coordinates. If they want to fish a spot, and don't want you to mark it then they should let that be known. I wouldn't mind if they have a secret hole they don't want marked, unless they are doing that with every spot.

An outfitters job is to catch you fish with no other information offered period.

Personally I don't care for the second as I always want to know the why's and how's. But there are people that just want to catch fish, and don't care about the how's and the why's. What does burn me though are people who label themselves as guides, but don't want to share any information with you, the customer. If this is the way a guide operates I expect them to let me know up front that it will be a fish catching trip, and not a technique learning trip.

This was a great comment. I was recently with a guide on a very popular lake that should have been called an outfitter. I asked him a couple of questions on how a person would go about finding fish on a lake or what to look for and he wouldn't comment on anything like it was a big seceret. I was also a little disapointed that we paid for a trip to a big named lake, and then the guide took us 2 out of the three days to a small local lake 30 miles away. I'm thinking he does this to keep locals from discovering his spots, but it's disappointing when your on a body which is a few hundred acres instead of the lake that is 200,000 acres. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm thinking the chance at a bigger trophy fish is on the bigger lake. Now I understand that it's easier for him to find the fish and put you on fish on the smaller lake, but I can poke around myself and do that.

[fiskyknut]

Whoa that sounds like a horror story!

What 200,000 acre lake are you talking? Did you let this fellow know that particular lake is the one you wanted to fish/learn?

What about species.. When you were taken to this other small lake did you even target the species of fish you had intended to fish in the first place?

Pretty good drive for you coming from IA most likely, and it sounds like that "guide" misrepresented what your trip would entail. Did you pay him full rates for a trip to this other pond? Ouch!

fiskyknut

[harvey lee]

I have never taken my GPS along with a guide to mark his locations.

I am happy if I learn something about that lake, where and how to fish the specie we are after that day. Maybe a special presentation or bait and how to use it a bit differently.

If the guide can teach me something about the lake or specie, I will not need his GPS locations.

Learning new things from the guide may help me on another lake on another day.

[wahoo]

Guides I have employed have always been most cordial. I never asked to mark spots and never did. Excellent guides are excellent teachers and offer much more than spots to mark. They have taught me about techniques that work well on their waters and that I employ when fishing similar waters. Typically they are more than happy to offer information. In addition, good guides are honest, when you call them and ask about how fishing has actually been.

A bonus I have found is if you use a guide for eyes and ask them about other species, pan fish, Pike, etc. they will show you spots that you can fish when not with them

[Fred_Bear]

I've fished with a guide once. We learned a new presentation and a new type of structure to fish and he had no problem that I was using my GPS. It was in Ontario and the GPS is always on because everything always seems to look the same up there.

The guy was not going to be fishing the next day so he gave me his GPS for the day and and pointed out a few particular spots to try depending on conditions.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

Whoa that sounds like a horror story!

It was to me, best part was we never did get fresh minnows. Heck the bucket of minnows smelled like a sewer, and when I pinched the head off a few of them they were rotten inside. A couple were live but not many.

What 200,000 acre lake are you talking? Did you let this fellow know that particular lake is the one you wanted to fish/learn?

Well I asked if we were on X lake a couple times and the comment was it's all X lake. When you pay for a guided trip on lake x which is where the trip is suppose to be,my feelings are driving 30 miles away from the lake your staying on to fish is bull.The HSOforum said guided trips on lake X, with no mention of any other area lakes. The Lake as perch, walleye, & pike. We got to fish for the types of fish we wanted, but we either had to fish Walleye/Pike or Perch for the day. Couldn't fish walleye in morning and then move to perch. I mean come on is it really that big of a deal to hit walleyes and then go hit perch when you have a 200,000 acre lake right there. Heck the one day we were on lake X, we fished perch.....you can't tell me walleye & pike aren't in the fricking lake.

Pretty good drive for you coming from IA most likely, and it sounds like that "guide" misrepresented what your trip would entail. Did you pay him full rates for a trip to this other pond? Ouch!

About a 10 hr drive. Yes paid him in full.

I never asked about GPS on his points, and never did take one to do it. Just thought with the experiance I had with this guide, I'd be better off trying to fish the lake myself. At least I'd have fresh minnows.

[Ed Carlson]

Having a Guide taking you out fishing on a big name lake and then using a GPS to mark the points incase you come back to the lake sometime without a guide. Wrong or not?

It is considered "Bad form" to do that without the guides prior consent to do so.

Some may say.."Sure Go ahead..knock yourself out"...others would not like it at all And if you were caught doing it on the sly...it might just end the day.

Best course of action..Ask up front if it is OK.

I guide, and I seldom care if anyone wishes to tote along there GPS..because fish move, and what your marking is only where fish were, not where they will be. Short term knowledge, not all that valuable in my view...except for today.

I feel it is far more important for the client to learn, if they so wish to do so, why they are there. So in the future they can better evaluate the best opportunity's, on there own.

[croixflats]

For me a guide is there to show a few tricks and techniques and hopefully put me on some fish. Furthest thing in my mind is to use him for locations I would rather use his tips and techniques to find my own spots.

Ed nice avatar Deadwood has got to be my favorite series of all time. A few scenes still haunt me from that show.

[MnShooter]

IA---- This big lake you talk about was it in SD? I know a couple guys that just went up there for a fishing trip......but its been hella slow up here thats for sure....

[DuckBlind]

Guessing a good guide has a number of good spots! Having a few people mark some spots and fishing them probably isn't going to ruin anything...just be respectful about it, dont post it online like on this site...and dont show up with 10 buddies the following weekend!