Slow day on the Upper Rogue / Shady Cove

[fomoco69]

Drifted the upper Rogue /Oregon yesterday with a guide from the Fishing Hole.....got skunked....was supposed to be red hot.....too far to drive to get skunked for $450.00......I think guides are charging too much these days & if the fishing is slow & conditions change they should give the customer a break on the price of the trip....$300.00......guides are charging too much these days!

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Sad...but you have to expect that with Steelheading.

Trout fishing on the Lower Sacramento River with a guide would be more constant as a rule.

Next time I would get a reference here on this forum for a good guide but that is still no guaranty.

Is $450.00 average or high for drifting for a day for Steelhead?

.

[Idadon]

Well, $450 is more then I would pay or can afford. Speaking as a once-upon-a-time guide in Idaho there are days when it just doesn't happen. Yesterday might of been hot and tomorrow might be even better but today is dead. Let me add that there were days that I would of done it for free and other days when I got to the take-out thinking that $250 wasn't nearly enough.

Just remember that NO guide can guarantee fish! Having said that, I sympathize, $450 is a lot to pay for No fish.

[TaylerW]

$8000 boat, lunches, $2000 +/- in gear, terminal tackle, flies. Boat insurance, car insurance, fuel, tires maintenance, TIME SPENT LEARNING THE CRAFT. When you break it down to pieces, a fishing guide works an average of 12 hours for a workday, including prep, fly tying ect. that breaks down to $37.50 an hour at best. With all the incidentals most likely closer to 30.

Your paying for access to the knowledge gained by being on the water daily, as much as the service its self.

Not too unreasonable......

[donkeyhunter007]

I have payed $450 + tip (I tip whether I catch or not but it fluctuates due to my perceived effort by guide) and have been skunked.

Part of the HUNT.

Once upon a time considered guiding so I crunched the numbers.......there did not seem to be a lot of money there.
Lots of expense and prep time. River blowouts, storms, off seasons.
$450 a trip probably provides a living wage but not much more unless you have a really constant clientele
plus guide people need time to fish too!

Cost of living is brutal these days..... pound of butter at the grocery store here is $6.50!! But wages aren't climbing in cooncert.
This all being said I have hired guides that were basically worthless and I would have been better off on foot and asking river hobos where they have seen splashes.....So asking around on forums for good guides is always a good idea to help get value.
I think more guides are offering buddy programs which is very cool... Half price and meet a new friend!!!

[Pinch the barb]

My favorite bumper sticker I have ever seen is "Guide, not God". All they can do is "guide" you where the fish should be and teach you techniques to attempt to get them. It's never guaranteed.

[Rick J]

Agree with many of the posts especially for steelhead - there is no guarantee. If the guide works hard and puts you on good water where one would expect steelhead - that is all he can do. I can see a refund if weather conditions blow out rivers but if conditions are favorable to fish - you take our chance. I like the bumper sticker quote!!

When steelhead fishing I always consider hooking and landing a fish an extra!!! Just being out on the water in a beautiful conditions is all I ask for. Hooking a fish makes it just that more special 0 this hold whether I am fishing with a guide or on my own

[Morgan]

Like many of the others said...you are fishing for steelhead. the unicorns of the rivers.
So many times we/people go out for steelhead and get skunked.
Another reason they call them the fish of 1000 casts.
They can be there one day....and gone the next.
$450-500 seems to be the going rate for float trips.

Like Bill said....Hire a guide and float the Lower Sac for more of a "gaurentee", for hook ups.
But afterall, we all go fishing. Not catching.

[JasonB]

I think we can probably all relate to your feeling of disappointment, I know I sure can. Darn near every time I allow my expectations to swell too much I end up with that let down feeling. It sounds like your expectations were unrealistic due to the reports of the fishing being "on fire". That's one of the many problems with reports; you are basically looking backwards at what was. There is clearly no way to know if/when our next good tug will come, but we all know that the only way the next electric jolt comes is by continuing to make another cast, and spend another day (or week) on the river giving it our best.

Fishing is always a gamble, and catching is variable to put it favorably. Guides still have to pay the bills either way, so I don't think it's fair or realistic to expect a sliding scale depending on how many fish you catch. Of course I have no idea who your guide was, or what level of knowledge/expertise they had, or what level of professionalism or service they provided. That's a whole other issue, but I would hope that you got more out of your day than just a ride down the river while waving a fly rod around? The times I've spent with guides (including some skunk days), I have always come away feeling I learned some things. I try to put things into a bigger picture when it comes to the action or "success" of my fishing. If I let a skunk or two get me down too much I would have sold all my flyfishing stuff long ago.

May your next grab come to you in the next run... or maybe the one after that...?
Tight lines,
JB

[PV_Premier]

for me it is about perceived effort if i am paying a guide.

case in point, i recently had two different guides in NZ.

guide A - you could tell he did his homework, but was very willing to make adjustments on the fly on day 2 when the fish weren't as much "on the grab" as day 1

guide B - kinda seemed to be winging it throughout both days of the trip, wasn't super willing to be agile/change tactics or locations

same story last year on the bighorn...

of course, i caught more fish with guide A. but he also got the bigger tip, and would have regardless of whether i caught a lot fish or not. preparation, agility, flexibility, are what get me as a "repeat customer"...not the number of fish in the net. because after all, on the Yuba the past 3 trips where i consider myself to be a "local expert"...day 1, 20+ hookups, day 2 - 1 hookup, day 3 - 8 hookups. sometimes, it just happens...the fish don't cooperate. if i were a guide, which i'm not...far from it...i wouldn't want someone to judge me on my "day 2" performance. i know the river better than that, but i also know trout are damn fickle.

[NCL]

I would certainly agree with all that has been said, especially when it comes to steelhead. To put this in perspective, I have been on two guided steelhead trips do far this year, one for three days in California and a four day trip to Washington. On both occasions the guides were diligent, making casting corrections, putting us on good holding water. On neither occasion did I catch or even hook a steelhead and I probably spent more than 10 times what you spent for one day. On the second trip there were six anglers, five of which were experienced steelhead fishermen and no fish were landed, per the guides only the fourth time this has happened in 20 years. It happens. The comment about false expectations are very true, on one occasion I read a report of a trip I had been on and the number of hook ups and the number I experienced were somewhat different.