Fly fishing guides

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

We promote the top fly fishing guides because they can make a big difference as far as the fishing success of our customers is concerned.

A big concern to us is that we can all go down to the CA D of F & G today and buy a fishing guides license for ~$100 with no actual testing or qualifications.

Professionally we have to be very sure who we are sending our clients to for help.

What is a top fly fishing guide?

It is a person who is responsible, hard working and has good people skills.

There are guides that have part of the qualifications but lack in an area or two.

One thing we can't be a part of is any drinking of alcohol as far as fishing or guiding is concern for many obvious reasons.

There are also guides who don't have good people skills which gets back to us very rapidly.

Also, many guides will be mostly qualified to be guiding with conventional tackle using lures and bait to catch fish. I can tell you that some of these guides are very good with either fly or conventional but be careful when someone recommends a fishing guide to you to be sure it is going to be fly fishing.

I think in most cases if you get a recommendation from a fly shop, a friend, fly fishing Rep or a fly club for a guide that person should be a good choice.

Another way to judge if a guide is any good is the fact that they will already be booked up.

[Darian]

Bill,..... Thanks for the info. It's always better coming from person in a position to know....

[Gregg]

Great post Bill. I'm just starting to utilize the talents of the local guide network. Adam and I drifted the American with Keith Kaneko (sp?), and I'm afraid he set the bar too high! We're spoiled! Keith is everything you listed that a good, professional guide should be: considerate, hard working, friendly, and most of all, patient. A good guide is indespensible, and quite a bargain if you figure their rate of service per hour. I know most guides run a full day for one or two anglers for a few hundred bucks. Per hour, it works out to like $15 or $20, and for all the knowledge and insight to our local waterways and fish, it should be double. Spoil yourself at least once and hire a top-quality guide like Kieth.