F
fishnquest
0
Last year a friend here reserved 6 spaces for two days in a row with his favorite guide for steelhead fishing on the smith (ca) and the chetco. I went on that trip. I have been fishing most of my life, but this was my first time steellhead fishing. There were 3 guides for the six of us, all nice willy boats. I teamed with another guy who has been fishing most of his life. It was raining the first day, but neither of us cared.
Right off the bank, our guide started complaining about how upset he was with his 16 year old son (or stepson, or something)
:think:. The guide starts telling me how stupid I am, "don't cast there", "what are you doing", "aw, you're jerking at nothing", etc.
I am losing gear and notice that the line is not breaking, but rather the knots are coming out (I can see the squirrelly end of the line where the knot came undone!) This happened no less than 3 times to both of us before I made a comment about it, then the knots got better. The guide would not let us tie a line or bait a hook; he insisted on doing everything for "his gear" and had plenty to brag about how great it was. The rig was nothing more than a hook on the end of the line with an egg or a piece of shrimp, with a splitshot somewhere above the hook.
In less than an hour I had the first fish on, the guide yelling at me to "PLAY IT, PLAY IT, PLAY IT". I ignored him, and brought the fish to the boat; a big, beautiful chromer hen (the guide kept the roe, fine by me). Shortly thereafter, my partner had one on that was obviously even bigger than mine, and the guide starts the same tirade. Paul lets the fish run and it immediately takes him to the gigantic snag we can all see and he loses the fish. That night, Paul told me how he regretted doing that.
My point is, even with the fish caught, that was the most miserable day I ever had fishing. The second day is not worth talking about, either.
$200.00 per day to get told how stupid I am, no answers to any questions, everything is a secret.
Is it worth it to pay a guide?
Right off the bank, our guide started complaining about how upset he was with his 16 year old son (or stepson, or something)
![Confused :confused: :confused:](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f615.png)
I am losing gear and notice that the line is not breaking, but rather the knots are coming out (I can see the squirrelly end of the line where the knot came undone!) This happened no less than 3 times to both of us before I made a comment about it, then the knots got better. The guide would not let us tie a line or bait a hook; he insisted on doing everything for "his gear" and had plenty to brag about how great it was. The rig was nothing more than a hook on the end of the line with an egg or a piece of shrimp, with a splitshot somewhere above the hook.
In less than an hour I had the first fish on, the guide yelling at me to "PLAY IT, PLAY IT, PLAY IT". I ignored him, and brought the fish to the boat; a big, beautiful chromer hen (the guide kept the roe, fine by me). Shortly thereafter, my partner had one on that was obviously even bigger than mine, and the guide starts the same tirade. Paul lets the fish run and it immediately takes him to the gigantic snag we can all see and he loses the fish. That night, Paul told me how he regretted doing that.
My point is, even with the fish caught, that was the most miserable day I ever had fishing. The second day is not worth talking about, either.
$200.00 per day to get told how stupid I am, no answers to any questions, everything is a secret.
Is it worth it to pay a guide?