{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Re: Guide etiquette dilemma

as I read your post, I am imagining your guide to be like Captain Ron....

On Tuesday, September 30, 2014 9:24:47 AM UTC-4, Cary Pugh wrote:

Like others I have been with a wide range of guides in various countries.  Agree the standards are different for different countries but you should feel the guide is working hard for you and is controlling the few variables that he/she can (your comfort -- within reason -- and his intrusions and distractions being the two main ones as he can't control the weather or the fish).  On smoking I speak up if I want to avoid the smoke (it bothers me but its cultural so I won't tell folks they cannot smoke).  I am guessing you did not think the phone calls related to his guiding business but rather were personal and distracting and that is why they stood out (I imagine most all of us would understand a guide getting calls about booking trips and not wanting to blow off prospective or upcoming business but we expect the guide to handle that quickly and ask if he/she could return the call at a better time, when he is not with a client).  I am less excited about the mary jane.  It is a fact of life but if you are in a boat or riding with him you should not be wondering about how baked he is (or how recently baked). 

I am glad (as a potential client of this outfit -- you never know) that you are bringing to the head guide's attention.  I have not hesitated when I have found exceptional service (either good or bad) to make this known to the outfitters.  Whether they act on it or not is their issue.  And as your post just now shows most folks don't take the time.  Thanks again for doing so.

On Monday, September 29, 2014 4:59:29 PM UTC-4, Miles wrote:

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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