Re: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Guide etiquette dilemma

I have hired guides all over this half of the country and have found a couple bad ones, but this seems like an extra-bad experience. I've had guides answer the phone before, but it's typically only been to get/share intel on fishing conditions. Personal conversations shouldn't be happening while he's on the clock for you. With the wading, I'm not sure exactly how the trip was set up, but if you needed to get from point A to point B, going directly into the sun may have been the only option. A good guide would do his best to minimize the impact of poor conditions, though. I would definitely send a note to the head guide and let him know about your experience. For many outfits, word of mouth is the most important source of business. A poor experience doesn't bode well for a guide service. Luckily for them, you didn't post the name, but many would have.

Lastly, with the tide charts... there's some really weird anomalies going on right now, particularly in the Gulf. I just got off the water a couple hours ago from a 3-day trip for redfish in Louisiana (well, one and a half days due to terrible weather), and no one can understand what's going on with the water conditions. The tides are generally around the times predicted, but have been off by about an hour or two depending on the day. Additionally, the water levels are just WAY off predicted, and again, have been all month despite no storms or significant sources of wind pushing the water up. Heck, there was a north wind today which should have blown water out of the marsh, but the tides were still three feet over predicted heights.

On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 5:15 PM, Richard Farino <richard@urbanangler.com> wrote:

Miles,

If that's the #2 guy, that needs to be a 1-man operation.  People can argue about other folks nitpicking at everything someone does wrong on a trip, but you sometimes need to speak up.  He should know what he's doing… but if the cigarette smoke bothers you, mention it so he can get downwind.

Were the phone calls to other guides about conditions?  Fishing reports?  Sun in your eyes – did you ask him how he's able to see fish with the glare/sun in front?

Lastly, you work(ed?) for the big O in Clarendon.  Don't be afraid to let the guide know you can't recommend his outfit for those reasons.  You're not pulling a trump card, you're just being honest.

The mary jane is a fact of life.  You're fishing with an island guy in a tropical location and people are laid back and do whatever.  You have to understand the vibe, man…  

R

Richard Farino

Urban Angler VA | 108 N. Washington Street  2nd Floor | Alexandria, VA 22314 

(703) 527-2524 | fax: (703) 527-3313 | richard@urbanangler.com    

From: Miles <md@oppidi.net>
Reply-To: <tidal-potomac-fly-rodders@googlegroups.com>
Date: Monday, September 29, 2014 at 4:59 PM
To: <tidal-potomac-fly-rodders@googlegroups.com>
Subject: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Guide etiquette dilemma

I've just returned from a tropical paradise, where I booked a guide to take me bonefishing. I don't have a lot of experience with fishing guides, so I'm not really sure what to make of that experience. Question to follow:

I was fishing with the #2 guy in the organization, and though we had a good time, I wouldn't recommend him to anybody. First, when he picked me up he smelled strongly of mary jane -- maybe not baked at the time, but definitely spent a lot of time in the oven recently. I'm not anti-cannabis, but it just seemed unprofessional.

Second, at one point we spent about 45 minutes wading directly towards the sun. After that we went to another flat and finally found fish, I had zero depth perception and couldn't cast accurately to save my life. It wasn't jitters: it was blindness. Super frustrating.

Third, the guide smoked at least three times as many cigarettes as we saw fish. I'm not strictly anti-tobacco, but he always seemed to be directly upwind of me, blowing cigarette smoke in my face. The guide also answered his cell phone about a half dozen times while we were fishing. At one point I was watching a sea turtle swim, and he stopped talking on the phone long enough to tell me, "That's a pufferfish." No, bro, it's a turtle. "Oh, yeah." 

Fourth, in a discussion about what tide we were fishing, he told me: "You can't trust tide charts." Which to me is a weird thing for a fishing guide to say. I know there are reasons why tides vary somewhat for a given location, but the basic mechanics of moon, earth, and ocean have been pretty well established for a billion years or so. I was waiting for him to explain, but that was all he said.

Going back to number 1, I'm still not prepared to say the guide was high, but it would make a lot of sense in retrospect. It could also be that he's just a crappy guide. He did eventually find fish, which I did not catch, and I had an adequate amount of fun -- but still.

So my question is: What should I do about this? Is it appropriate to write an email to the head guide and say, 'I had fun, I am not asking for a refund, but I wouldn't recommend this to my friends because 1, 2, 3, 4..."? I think so, but I don't know if this would seem like ordinary non-fish-catching-customer complaints, or whether the head guide would take it seriously. Are these legit problems, or just "This is fishing" type nuisances? I know what counts as professionalism for fishing guides is a bit more lax than other jobs, but it seemed like this guy was still not quite there.

thanks,

Miles
 

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