Guiding

I am not a guide. I have never been a guide. I have never wanted to be a guide. I'm not sure I would know how to be a guide. Guiding seems like hard work. It's difficult enough to catch fish on your own, but trying to get other people, who oftentimes have never cast a fly rod before, to catch fish, seems like an impossibility. Plus, even if the client has realistic expectations, and is just happy to be out in a beautiful setting while learning a new sport, I would want to make sure they caught some fish. I would put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure that happened. So why would I want to torture myself like that? No thanks, guiding is not for me, I tell you what!

That being said, I guided for the first time a couple of weekends ago. I had a couple of clients, let's call them Joel and Shaun, because those are their names, and we spent a lovely half day on a trout stream somewhere in the continental United States... It was sunny, kind of hot, but only a tad windy. As far as I could tell, it was a perfect day to try to be a guide!

Since I was acting as The Guide, I had to show them how it's done. The is the same dopey grin I have whenever I catch a fish...

After a quick casting lesson, I stationed my two clients about 75 feet apart in adjoining pools, and let them go. I traveled between them to give them occasional casting tips and to unravel their inevitable wind knots. Although their loops were not always very pretty, they both got the hang of casting in relatively quick time. As all beginners do, they let their backcasts get a little sloppy every once in a while, but the weeds weren't too high behind them, so their flies were quickly extricated.

I thought it would take longer than it did, but in no time Joel caught a fish. It wasn't one of the trouts we were after, but it was a fish nonetheless. A fat, colorful chub dangled from his line. Soon, another one. Then Shaun got into the act, catching several chubs. I have never heard of a professional chub fishing guide, but it seems I would make an awesome one. For the first couple of hours, chubs were the only things being caught, other than the trout or two I caught while demonstrating how to do things.

Joel and his first fish, a chub.

Eventually Joel caught an actual trout, a lovely little brown of about 8 inches. And then he caught another, somewhat larger one. What a great way to end the day! And the best part of the day was that neither Joel nor Shaun drowned. Who would have guessed that my first foray into guiding would be so successful?! Maybe guiding isn't so bad after all...

Joel and his first trout

Joel's second trout.