Has this ever happened to you? You go to meet your fishing guide at the
dock in the morning and he's all smiles. "We've been killin' 'em on
live bait for the last 2 weeks," says the illustrious guide to whom
you have entrusted your valuable fishing time. "I was kind of hoping
to flyfish," you inquire hopefully. "Oh,you could try flyfishing I guess... but we'll still have the bait rods out, you know, so we can actually catch something." Your heart drops at the thought
of tossing live shad hooked to 5/0 hooks and bank sinkers.
If that hasn't ever happened to you are either lucky, smart or haven't
fished with many guides. Before you make arrangements to
go out on somebody's boat or walk the stream, you need
to know exactly what to expect. There's nothing worse than wanting to sight cast to surface feeding fish only to find out your guide is a bait
dunker, or to want to try to find some big tackle busters on a twelve weight offshore... and end up with a troller. Do some homework. Ask questions. If you don't, you
never know what you will end up with.
I am constantly reading internet reports of guys going to fish places at times I knew there would be good flyfishing, only to find out that the guide they had hired for the day didn't know anything about what they wanted to do when they showed up at the dock. All the guides fishing today are good anglers. They all can catch fish in the way they are accustomed. However only a person who flyfishes consistently knows what a flyrodder needs. Especially a flyrodder with limited saltwaterr experience.
I got especially dissapointed when a guy I know from one of the forums had gone to South Carolina on a weekend that I knew had great tides for finding tailers in the grass... and spent two days fishing shrimp on popping corks. Do your research. Ask specific questions about fishing and preferred methods, and if he doesn't give you the answers that lead you to believe that the guy flyfishes alot, then find someone else.
