If anyone is interested in helping me get into guide service or something on the side let me know or knows how to go about it let me know. Also anyone will to hire for prostaff or photography that’d be great. Also adding a link to all my catches.
What do you have for equipment?
When I heavily considered guiding, I spent time with guides asking questions only those in the business could answer. BK helped a lot with that.
I also practiced guiding, and still do, but I’m not charging. What i mean by this, is i provide all equipment, tactics, boat control, etc and try to end the outing with guide quality experience and fish caught.
It is super fun to bring people into fishing, and especially fun to watch people catch their biggest fish, of several species. Honestly, i enjoy that enough to not charge.
Put an add on here, and take some strangers fishing. I did that many times. Meet someone on the water, and take them. This will get you some real practice to see if it is something you want to do or not. My boat has seen plenty of strangers, become regulars.
Guiding isn’t free. There’s captains license to acquire and maintain. Gear to have. Time taken to stay on the bite and always trying to provide a better service. Guides IMO don’t make squat. Do it because you like it.
If i was to offer you advice on WHO to guide for, it would be a clientele who has little opportunity to be guided – the handicap and elderly. This is still an avenue i may pursue in the future. That group is excited to be on the water, excited to catch a fish, excited to have a fish to bring home, and generally easier to please than most clients. Handicap brings forth challenges too, but i’ll tell ya, there’s a ripe market ready to be plucked.
Why do you want to guide?
If you want to fish a lot, I’d suggest a well paying job. You don’t need fishing to be the job to fish a lot. My 2c
If you want to fish a lot, I’d suggest a well paying job. You don’t need fishing to be the job to fish a lot. My 2c
These two sentences were the best advice I ever received when I wanted to get into a fishing career. I’d hate to deter anyone chasing a dream, but I talk to many guides and prostaffers every year during work and they often hint to the same thing. Of coarse every job has it’s challenges that make you wonder what else is out there. FYI to get real prostaff deals you normally need to have some type of history as a competitive angler, guide, or youtuber with a decent following already established.
I truly wish you the best chasing a dream! Another idea to consider is getting into the fishing/boating industry. You can have a very stable and lucrative career as well as being around like minded people with the same passion everyday. This is the route I went, and I’m very happy with my decision. I make this recommendation to many young people who ask about the same thing.
Ditto the advice of getting a well paying job with some time flexibility to allow you to fish. I had that the last 20 years of my career, enabling me to fish quite a bit. With that said, I did get a captains license and WI guide license during those years and guided part time for just a few repeat clients and some occasional referrals from full-time guide buddies when they were busy. It was enjoyable for the most part, but there were some less-than-pleasant clients that I chose not to book with a second time, and since it wasn’t my primary income source, I had the freedom to be selective. After retiring from my career almost 7 years ago, I decided to quit the guiding a couple years later and enjoy the flexibility of scheduling fishing and other activities at my own leisure.
Now with all that said, you have to look no further than what Mr Holst has accomplished, starting out guiding on the Mississippi, and progressing to a very illustrious career. When I had hired him a few times to take me and my business clients out in the early 2000’s, it was clear to me that this young man carried himself in a way that exemplified true professionalism on various levels, and a passion and commitment for what he was doing. It’s been great to watch him along the way growing into the success he has earned. (No, James didn’t pay me to say this, but he did get me hooked on plastics for walleye). So perhaps Mr. Holst would chime in here to give you some pearls of his wisdom.
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