"You are not allowed to fish here without a guide"

[Paul Arden]

A good guide is great. He's a great angler passionate about his fishery that he knows inside out and wants to show you and will help teach you how to fish it. Secrets that have often taken a decade or two to establish. And the best ones are completely mad and a joy to meet. And I know that I am very fortunate in that I have made many brilliant friends who tick all these boxes (some in particular have given new meaning to the "mad" box).

Quite often guides will get together and fish together. And I've had some tremendously fun times fishing with one or more guides. But for the majority of my fishing I want to be alone. I want to solve the puzzles, yes, but more than that I just want to be alone. Sometimes it's great to share the fishing, either with a friend or a friend who is a guide. But the greatest and most memorable moments of my fishing life, have all happened solo. There is something just about being the only person fishing that has had, and always will have, the greatest appeal to me. Those moments in an overcrowded rat-race of a world are all-too-rare.

That's why I choose to camp in the hills rather than stay in a hotel. Yes there are elephants and maybe even tigers for all I know (there are certainly elephants, I can recognise elephant shit, it's about the size of a small hill). And who knows, maybe I get mugged by machete-weilding Samurai :p But life is just a series of risks worth taking.

OK Snakehead look out. I'm coming to get you (and I mean it this time ).

Cheers, Paul

[Rich Knoles]

I agree there are places you should have a guide.
And there are situations where it is better for the fish.

Hi Paul, which places do you think someone should have a guide?

[THE DOG]

To be honest, I love to fish one, just to be alone with the river.
But sometimes leadership is needed.

[THE DOG]

Paul, if you will go to our trout camp it fishing without a guide))) only in the first day tour along the river show a fishing place. So you are welcome.)))

[Paul Arden]

Fantastic. Hopefully we can do that this summer. After the Spring I have a much clearer diary. Last year was insane and I won't be doing that again!

Cheers, Paul

[Harps]

I agree there are places you should have a guide.
And there are situations where it is better for the fish.

Hi Paul, which places do you think someone should have a guide?

I think in a situation where there is a quota to protect a certain species of fish- limited fishing through a river where there is a run of endangered salmonids.

Also fishing through some of the federal lands up here- a float through the military base should be allowed with a guide (certified and trained).

It's strange- I think that conservation is number one, but if a trained individual can fish an area in a manner that is ecologically "safe", I don't see why those opportunities should be limited (no fishing versus fishing with a trained person).

It should/would also be an everybody guided or nobody in type of rule- no exceptions for locals.

[Bernd]

I can think of a lot of reasons why I decided to hire a guide in my own fishing trips.

Sometimes it was about manovering the boat over long distances thru hundrets of islands to finally arrive in the perfect fishing spot.

And then it was about fishing as a team and having the guide helping me to manover the boat while I was playing a huge Tarpon for example.

Or it was about finding a Permit within just a few hours available.

Or it was about learning the best nymph techniques to successfully fish the Bow river in Alberta.

Not to forget all the drift tours I needed the guide to be able to fully enjoy the new stretch of river I have never seen before instead of trying to manover the boat.

It also was about watching an expert casting and how he adapts his technique to the kind of fishing he was an expert in.

After all I always wanted to learn from the best. I can't become an expert in all kind of fishings by myself. But I could learn much faster and become a much better fisherman by having quite a lot of guides/experts helping me and sharing their knowledge.

For sure being out in the wilderness there soon comes a safety part into play. But this does not only happen in the pure jungle!

I remember a few cases in which I safed a student of mine as well, which happened in a way more average situation. Once I had to stop a student from getting drifted away in a (too) fast current. And then there was a student who completely got out of control while wading the ocean inbetween slipery rocks and significant waves.

In summary for me there a many reasons to hire a guide. But the most important one of all to me is to go home with knowing that I took my changes to catch some good fish instead of haven't caught anything based on having fished totally ineffective. A guide will make me fishing effective within minutes.

No doubt I always want to make the decision by myself to fish with or without a guide!

Greets
Bernd

[Paul Arden]

It's nice to work things out on our own, but I like to know what's been worked out before! I reckon it takes 10-15 years of intense fishing to work out a type of fishery. That's 2000 days on the water. After that point if you haven't worked it out, what have you been doing? :p

I have two distinct experiences of this now, one is UK stillwaters, which applies to Mid West stillwaters and (some) Tasmanian stillwaters. And I have NZ South Island. The greatest learning in both those fisheries didn't happen at the beginning, but somewhere in the middle.

I'd like to get into those middle reaches with Snakehead, Asp, Saltwater Flats and Grayling over the next 10-15 years. I'm a firm believer in building on the experience of others, not least because the way people fish actually alters fish behaviour.

There are a few people I thoroughly enjoy fishing with. My ex-Ardleigh boat partner - Trevor, Ronan, Deano, Bernd, Peter, Sasha, Tonio, Bruce, Davy, Simon G., Bill and Rick. And maybe a handful of others. Actually there's a hell of a lot of people I enjoy fishing with :p But as much as I like them, I don't want to fish with them all the time. Half of those are professional guides by the way - they all work public waters.

I've seen a lot of fisheries tied up. That goes against the spirit of the angling brotherhood. It doesn't matter what skin colour you are, your sex, how much money you have, or what you do for a living. Fishing is the great equaliser. Historically this has always been the case. Let's make sure we don't change that, because that alone makes this sport Great.

Cheers, Paul

[THE DOG]

Bernd said more about a very interesting point which is also very important to me. Guide is Remotes expertise of different anglers from all over the world because he will learn from them and, in turn, pochtalen and conductor of that knowledge to other anglers.
In addition, there are many small things that can not be tricky to find the tour for a week fishing, you just need to live on the river, because the situation is always changing))) often guide even can not rationally explain some of their advice or actions, but they lead to success fisherman, it is just at the level of feelings, some things.

[alp]

Guide can be very helpful. He can be very pleasant company as well. No doubt about that.
Yet there are some things how he can spoil your day. Here are some typical situations from my personal experience:

1. No sign of fish around. He says: - Dear Sir, trust me, they are here. Very big fish! But, you're supposed to be here two days ago, while the sun and moon... -

2. He showed you the fish. Ok, thank you very much. Now you want to fish in peace. But he does not move from you and harass: - Take my fly..., throw it there..., try Pendelum..., you forgot (something)... -

3. He showed you the fish. That's nice. After some time, you would like to walk around a bit. But, he took a position on the bank, drinking (your) beer and says: - My friend, trust me your fish are here. Don’t be nervous... -

4. He says nothing, but frantically trying to catch more fish than you, anytime, anywhere. Now you beg for mercy: - My friend, slow down a bit here and there, give me some space...-

[Bernd]

Hi Paul,
agree with most of what you wrote.
As a guide you often see how effective (or not effective) different methods of presenting the fly to the fish work (like "DOG" pointed out). It easily might happen that one client catches fish after fish, while his buddy fishing next to him doesn't catch a single one. Then it's your job as a guide to find the answer!
That is exactly in which I have learnt most.

Next time you try to adapt to what you have learnt and will develop new ideas.

I fished 20 years for Sea trout and haven't learnt 50% of what I learnt in just one year guiding and helping people to optimize their techniques.

I think it's one thing to catch a fish on your own in an hour of fishing and be happy. It's a another thing to know how you could have caught two fish in that hour and to know why others fishing with you didn't catch a fsh or caught twice as much.
Fishing on one's own there is a lot knowledge to never be discovered as far as I understand it.

Besides that there may be times when I prefer to fish alone for whatever reason. That should be possible to decide always!?

Greets
Bernd