Miles,
If that’s the #2 guy, that needs to be a 1-man operation. People can argue about other folks nitpicking at everything someone does wrong on a trip, but you sometimes need to speak up. He should know what he’s doing… but if the cigarette smoke bothers you, mention it so he can get downwind.
Were the phone calls to other guides about conditions? Fishing reports? Sun in your eyes – did you ask him how he’s able to see fish with the glare/sun in front?
Lastly, you work(ed?) for the big O in Clarendon. Don’t be afraid to let the guide know you can’t recommend his outfit for those reasons. You’re not pulling a trump card, you’re just being honest.
The mary jane is a fact of life. You’re fishing with an island guy in a tropical location and people are laid back and do whatever. You have to understand the vibe, man…
R
I've just returned from a tropical paradise, where I booked a guide to take me bonefishing. I don't have a lot of experience with fishing guides, so I'm not really sure what to make of that experience. Question to follow:
I was fishing with the #2 guy in the organization, and though we had a good time, I wouldn't recommend him to anybody. First, when he picked me up he smelled strongly of mary jane -- maybe not baked at the time, but definitely spent a lot of time in the oven recently. I'm not anti-cannabis, but it just seemed unprofessional.
Second, at one point we spent about 45 minutes wading directly towards the sun. After that we went to another flat and finally found fish, I had zero depth perception and couldn't cast accurately to save my life. It wasn't jitters: it was blindness. Super frustrating.
Third, the guide smoked at least three times as many cigarettes as we saw fish. I'm not strictly anti-tobacco, but he always seemed to be directly upwind of me, blowing cigarette smoke in my face. The guide also answered his cell phone about a half dozen times while we were fishing. At one point I was watching a sea turtle swim, and he stopped talking on the phone long enough to tell me, "That's a pufferfish." No, bro, it's a turtle. "Oh, yeah."
Fourth, in a discussion about what tide we were fishing, he told me: "You can't trust tide charts." Which to me is a weird thing for a fishing guide to say. I know there are reasons why tides vary somewhat for a given location, but the basic mechanics of moon, earth, and ocean have been pretty well established for a billion years or so. I was waiting for him to explain, but that was all he said.
Going back to number 1, I'm still not prepared to say the guide was high, but it would make a lot of sense in retrospect. It could also be that he's just a crappy guide. He did eventually find fish, which I did not catch, and I had an adequate amount of fun -- but still.
So my question is: What should I do about this? Is it appropriate to write an email to the head guide and say, 'I had fun, I am not asking for a refund, but I wouldn't recommend this to my friends because 1, 2, 3, 4..."? I think so, but I don't know if this would seem like ordinary non-fish-catching-customer complaints, or whether the head guide would take it seriously. Are these legit problems, or just "This is fishing" type nuisances? I know what counts as professionalism for fishing guides is a bit more lax than other jobs, but it seemed like this guy was still not quite there.
thanks,
Miles
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http://www.tpfr.org
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