Guiding: Know Where You Are

Guiding for trophy fish in the Great Lakes is challenging. A Steelhead fishery can be fickle and when someone is spending a significant amount of time, effort and money to catch a trophy, the pressure on a guide can be rather intense, especially if the guest is along with you for their first time and you are striving to prove yourself. One of the most critical aspects of your guest being successful is conveying your expectations in an appropriate manner. Listening and following the direction of your guide is essential, after all, the angler has employed your services so they have already conceded the fact that they need assistance in achieving their goal. Pride and ego can be a monumental obstacle to overcome when an angler is certain that another fly pattern may work better or that next pool around the bend “looks” fishy. I have to admit that I have certain expectations of a guest long before I am over fish with them and these expectations are discussed thoroughly. I expect that they can cast a fly rod, have experience wading in moving water and are physically fit enough to manage a hike into spots that are off the beaten path. If they feel that they satisfy these expectations then great, if not they may be better served by someone else. When pursuing trophy fish, the only certainty is that the guest will come away from their experience with an increased knowledge base about fly fishing methods, behavior of the fish they are after and a history of the geographic location of where they are fishing. An analogy that comes to mind is a big game hunt. The endless miles of hiking, camping, stalking and glassing are a certainty, however, bagging your quarry is not. If both guide and guest are on the same page going into their endeavor together, the probability of dissatisfaction is lowered.