BigBendFishing.Net

So after leaving Steinhatchee I head to Clearwater to the end of Sand Key.

I am headed to our annual convention.

One of our marketers offers to take me fishing so Saturday in the A.M. we are off to Oneils marina to meet the guide.

He has a tower boat built around a 24 foot Carolina Skiff pretty cool unit.

At the dock a guy tells me he was just in a sea of poons and where to find them. We go for a looky lou but it is now 9 am and they have been scattered by the weekenders.

I think we are going to the skyway bridge we are not.

We feed pins and lizzads at his snook hole for an hour.

We go around the corner to another snook hole and finally Doug hooks a black drum. We saw some snook the end another exiting boat ride with a "Guide."

Not the week for me for fishing with guides.

Yes I was clear I wanted to go to the bridge. If we were going to beach fish we should have been out at first safe light not 8:45.

I was told by another guide he calls it boatriding with benefits sometimes you even catch fish.

I am not a guide basher or hater I have been out with many paid charters.

Before last week I had two bad trips in my life the number doubled last week to four.

I should have brought my boat if I had done bad I could blame my lack of local knowledge skill whatever I still feel like you pay to play the guy should make something happen.

If people get on my boat and don't catch fish beginners or experts I am crushed I make every effort to make it happen young or old green or knowledgeable.

Dang WAM, better luck next time!!

Now I am convinced it's just you!

That sucks WAM. The last charter was a better story.

If the guy was a certified USCG Licensed "6-Pack" Captain &/or a "Guide" who advertises for business, and you paid him a fee for services...well, I recommend the following actions:
#1. Find out which Guide Association (most any guide & registered Capt. belongs to some kind of association) he belongs to and issue a written angry letter to it's board, CEO, head dude in charge!
#2. If he was a freelance guide, you are probably SOL - sorry! But, I would still write him an angry letter so he knows he screwed up and he'll realize you will be spreading the word (but, don't tell him you will be "putting his s___ on the street")!
#3. Next time, do the research! Find a list of guides and check them out through their association of guides! Most of the guides up and down our coast know one another or, at least, know a guide they trust that knows a certain guide! Check them out!!!
Like you said, if you go fishing with one of us, we are not professionals and do not accept money for services rendered - so, if we have a bad trip, well...that's just "a bad day of fishing, which beats a good day at work"!
And, don't feel like the Lone Ranger with his mask off - we have all been there and feel your pain (and expenses) - sorry!

Man, I hate to say it, but I think I'd rather be at work than on the last two trips you've taken.

Better luck next time!

Tom Keels wrote:Now I am convinced it's just you!

And the winner is

Tom Keels wrote:Now I am convinced it's just you!

I can see where this is going quickly.

Not a duel at fifty paces or a cut contest something a little more simple lets go fishing your boat or mine and we shall see I ain't saying I am all that but I think I could do my part if there is a fish in casting range.

I went to the Keys a few years back and for a treat decided to charter a boat .....to make the story short....I paid $600 for 6 fish (none that were big) and I got soooo sea sick, it was terrible, the only time I wasn't chumming was when I had a fish on the line.....just a word to you guys, don't go off shore fishing when you are pregnant, its the only time in my life I have been sea sick!

I am not a guide. I have never professed to be nor pretended to be.
On the occassion I have offered people fishing trips,that is exactly what I offer. Fishing trips,not catching trips.
But, then, I have never had a complaint.

them goats don't swell or tell thet just smell like hell you fish with them too?

Jumptrout51 wrote:I am not a guide. I have never professed to be nor pretended to be.
On the occasion I have offered people fishing trips,that is exactly what I offer. Fishing trips,not catching trips.
But, then, I have never had a complaint.

Both "guides" Have a strong Internet presence.

Both guides show pictures of trips that had great catches as part of their adds.

Either could suggest that they are currently "not on fish" that would help avoid a misunderstanding.

I always am aware that it is possible to not catch fish.

I suffer from the delusion if your a guide that you can put it together

no major weather or pressure change good moon phase good tide
water movement but not ripping what do you want?

QueenB wrote:I went to the Keys a few years back and for a treat decided to charter a boat .....to make the story short....I paid $600 for 6 fish (none that were big) and I got soooo sea sick, it was terrible, the only time I wasn't chumming was when I had a fish on the line.....just a word to you guys, don't go off shore fishing when you are pregnant, its the only time in my life I have been sea sick!

Ill ahve to keep that in mind!!!!!

I left out the part about us driving under a bridge and a jackazzzzz casts and hits me in the head with a big old egg sinker, my wife bought me one of those sundowner hats its like a hard hat so it bounced off the sound was like a gun shot good thing I wasn't packing or everyone would have heard one that was no mistake.

Now that's funny right there.