So why DON'T you...

[luckie88]

HERE'S A GREAT REASON TO USE A GUIDE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq_Bj9EruBIMy

My newest buddy who is a guide and film maker, RA Beattie made this film you may have seen his film "Nervous Water" and another on the Fly Fishing Film Tour. I took him out on a trip on the Deschutes where I "guided" him around the area and we just crushed it! (the trip I took him on was free by the way)

[sharps]

I don't believe paddlewheelers were ever run up any river called Platte. Neither the Platte itself, the North Fork nor the South Fork. They could barely get them up the Missouri of which the Platte is a tributary. If you've ever seen any of the "Platte" rivers you wouldn't even think such a thing possible. Shallow, braided streams. The old saying of the Platte through Nebraska was "a mile wide and an inch deep, too thin to plow and too thick to drink". One must get through it to get to the North & South Forks. Mountain men couldn't even float their buffalo boats full of furs down it and they tried.

Having said all that, I don't use a guide. I'm not a cheapskate as my toys and home indicate otherwise, I simply can't justify or afford the cost of a guide on top of a trip to some famous waters. I'm also a bit put off by the expecting of a tip. I don't receive a tip for doing my job and I work for the public every day.

When we lived in Wyoming I had a couple buddies who were guides and I know both of them worked very hard at their jobs. They both put in a lot more hours as guides than they did at the job they worked in the off season and for not much more pay. Not enough to justify the added work, imo. They told stories of people I don't believe I would have had the grace to tolerate. One told me, "I wish one half of my clients cast one half as good as you" and at that time I was not all that good of a caster. I expect that to a guide the joy of a competent, polite client who is interested in learning about not just the fishing but the area in general is as great as the client who has hired a good guide. I have taken two guided hunts, many years ago when I could afford such luxuries, and tho a bear was not taken either time the experience was wonderful as was the guide/outfitter. We became friends and still stay in touch after almost 20 years.

If it were within my budget I would have no problem hiring a guide. It isn't and I so rarely travel these days that for me the question is almost moot.

[LadyFisher]

Thanks to the Drake for encouraging yet another piece of absolute #*%! - Gratefully we are not associated with them in any way and I don't think it is funny either. What a shame...gangster fly fishing? Ya right.

[Marco]

( IN MY HUMBLE OPINION). Even when taken "tongue in cheek" that Youtube clip is a ( explative(S) deleted ).




Mark
PS: And the (S) ain't for smiles either.

[spinner1]

Thanks to the Drake for encouraging yet another piece of absolute #*%! - Gratefully we are not associated with them in any way and I don't think it is funny either. What a shame...gangster fly fishing? Ya right.

What she said.