I did my first guide trip in 2003 at age 20 on the Blackfoot River. I was working at a dude ranch outside of Missoula, Montana, a typical Midwestern transplant, as spastic and confused as a 1-year-old golden retriever. I was not a very good fishing guide that summer. Or the summer after that. Or probably even the summer after that.
As I quickly learned, the problem with guiding is that actually catching your people some fish is often secondary to the much more difficult process of interpersonal relations. As someone with introverted tendencies, the sheer amount of talking one is required to do on any given guide day can be much more exhausting than actually rowing the boat.
As far as I can tell, guiding is at least 70 percent client management, i.e. bullshitting. Chatting up the clients in the morning, correcting their poor casting form while leaving egos unbruised, entertaining them when the fish aren’t biting, chatting them up some more on the ride fish cocktail hour. The fishing guides I know who are truly exceptional seem to actually enjoy this sort of interaction. The talking, the joking, the connections and bonding. It’s not an act, at least most of the time, and they get clients that return year after year, more for the camaraderie than the fishing.
