Pat:

You are obviously a smart man in the fact you are asking these questions.

There is a lot of good feedback here already so hopefully I can add something new. A guide needs to be a good listener and enjoy providing what the client wants. Someone here gave some good advise and that was to find out up front what the client wants on a guided trip. I took a trip several years ago with my youngest son. I had been on several guided trips on my home river and asked if the guide could give my son some help in learning to cast. Turns out our guide had been a junior high school teacher for several years and he did a great job!

I expect the guide to know the waters and what the fish are taking at the time I am fishing. I often use a guide on unknown waters. I also like it when he offers to show me places I may fish the next day or without a guide.

A guide should be pleasant, good spirited, and make the trip fun for the client. I realize some clients are more challenging than others but a guide is there to provide expert advise and make it fun.

On a guided trip, if the guide is not going to provide the flies needed or at least offer the flies needed, he should tell the client that at the time of the booking, not when the client arrives at the fly shop. That few dollars added expense can ruin a potential return client, not based on the dollar value, but the way it was handled. As a guide you are in the service business. Provide the services the customer is seeking.

I will get off my soap box now. Sorry for the lengthy post.

Dr Bob