As others have stated this has gone on far too long and now the truth has come out. You need to involve the lodge manager ASAP. If the guide has offered two nights at the lodge and two guided trips then my guess is the lodge has had some involvement with the guide regarding the situation. I would be on the phone to the lodge as soon as feasible and have a very frank discussion of your expectations. My guess is the $480 replacement cost of the rod is short money to the lodge in view of the loss of future earnings from you and other anglers. I know you’ve been extremely reluctant to divulge the name of the lodge and guide but the time for that is passed so let the public shaming begin.
Brian
I would like to know the name of this guy and the lodge. I think you have shown great restraint in not naming names. We should all be able to avoid this guy/place.
I know everyone’s been wondering what the Guide’s name is. At this point, if you PM me, I’ll tell you because I don’t think the Guide’s offer was ever real. Details to follow.
As I had posted before, the Guide offered 2 guided trips and 2 nights lodging next season as reparations since he couldn’t afford to replace my rod. I heeded everyone’s advice and contacted the lodge owner. Originally it was my intention to resolve the matter with the guide and only contact the lodge owner as a last resort. Well, it’s come to that point. And maybe it should’ve happened earlier.
I spoke with the lodge owner and we had a great chat, syncing up our details as we’ve never spoken to each other up to this point, only receiving status updates from the Guide. Turns out, the Guide never confirmed or received authorization from the lodge owner to give me 2 free nights. Which makes me think he wasn’t planning to guide at the lodge next season.
The Lodge and Guide’s relationship is: Lodge has clients and finds independent guides such as the Guide I had. Lodge owner has agreed to garnish a percentage of the Guide’s future bookings with the lodge, repaying me the amount owed (hopefully this comes through without any further hassle).
In the meantime, Thomas and Thomas has extended me the “Professional Program Discount” to repurchase a rod at a greatly reduced price which I will definitely take them up on… right now!
Sounds like there won’t be any future bookings for the lodge to garnish wages from, but at least you let them know about the details. Glad T&T was so nice about the replacement.
wow, sounds like the rod company is the only party stepping up to make things even partially right. The so-called “guide” is obviously a POS and the lodge is not much better. I don’t get angry, much, but if this happened to me, the so-called “guide” and the lodge manager’s name would be all over the 'net, and everyone I know would know it.
“I can’t afford it” boo-f’ing-hoo, then go do something you CAN afford when you screw up.
This whole story is nothing but a huge pile of BS.
I’m with the other people on here who pretty much won’t pay a guide to take me fishing. I’ve not had many positive experiences, and at this point in my life, I can usually look at a piece of water and figure it out. I JUST DON’T GET paying someone to take me fishing on publicly accessible water…
As much as I’d like to plaster the guide’s name, I believe in karma, and unfortunately, slander and defamation are much more real in today’s litigious environment. In addition, there have been other comments about not understanding as to why someone would hire a guide. I don’t quite understand the sense of disdain towards the idea of hiring what essentially boils down to is help.
Not to single anyone out, I couldn’t help but notice your location: Central PA. You hit the jackpot for streams. I grew up in Eastern PA, a far cry from the number and quality of streams Central PA has, but still plentiful. If I wanted, I could fish anytime of the day, any day of the week, which I did! However, being in Chicago now, this place is a desert for streams let alone trout. 2-3 hrs drive in one direction would be the minimum to find a stream. Fishing 2-3 times a year is the normal now.
Hiring the guide was a special occasion as I hardly see my younger brother these days and we share a common passion: fly fishing. In addition, being 8hrs away from home, it’s helpful to have someone give pointers, tips, and have knowledge of the area. But most importantly and the main reason for hiring a guide, how am I supposed to wade a river that’s 10ft deep?
on a new golf course, says my golfing buddy, hire a caddy to learn more faster and have more fun.
same with fishing. folks who “never hire a guide” miss a lot, IMHO.
good thing there’s room for all of us!
A guide then is essentially a contractor you hire to provide a service. If you hired a contractor to put a new roof on your house, and in the process they tore up your front yard with a truck, you’d raise hell unless they immediately made it right- and any excuse such as “I can’t afford to fix it, but I’ll give you a discount on your next roof!” would be met with calls to the BBB, and bad reviews on Angie’s List or whatever. Fishing guides are just people who CHOOSE to make their living by taking people fishing— as in any other business, as the contractor they damn well better be prepared to deal with whatever happens. This one obviously was not. Lame excuses don’t make anything better.
There have been a few other threads about the ideas of hiring guides. Buying accessibility, or essentially “renting” accessibility to a piece of water is easier for me to understand. I’ve only lived in central Pennsylvania for about 5 years, and although I fish for everything, stream trout are somewhere down on my list. I’ve always been someone who takes great satisfaction in doing things on my own, not saying I re-invent the wheel every time I do something new, and I’m not against getting helpful advise.