As a fishing guide, the question I probably get asked most often is: “Do you guarantee that we’ll catch fish?”
I often answer: “Listen, I’m just a fishing guide, not the good Lord, but what I guarantee is that I’ll do everything I can to make sure we catch some.”
I know, it sounds a bit silly, but I prefer to bring the client’s expectations back to something realistic rather than dangling the impossible in front of them, and having them be disappointed in the end.
Now, you’re going to tell me that you know guides who guarantee fish. Ah, maybe for “panfish”, brill, sturgeon and pike. At a pinch, bass and walleye, but again, for these two species, I’m really not sure that there are many guides who dare to do it.
The reason is quite simple, it’s because it’s very difficult to make that kind of promise. Yes, for several days, even several weeks, we can achieve a consistency in our fishing that allows us to bring fish on board every day. However, there will be that famous day when everything seems against us. The conditions are bad, there is a cold front, the water is still very cold for the time of year (or too warm), the turbidity of the water restricts the “strike zone” to a minimum, the atmospheric pressure makes the fish amorphous, etc.
Even though I have been fishing for over 40 years, 14 years that I have been guiding, 12 of which were full-time, that famous day that makes my life miserable ends up happening one day or another during my season. And believe me, it may happen less often when you are an experienced guide, but it still happens. There are days when, despite having adapted to the best of my knowledge, having changed sector, depth of presentation, speed, type of lure, size and color, there is nothing to be done. The “fish” is “off”.
Those who have already come fishing with me know how perceptive and determined I am. As the saying goes: “This is not my first BBQ!”. I have already been there and it is not a bad day that will discourage me. It is stronger than me, to the limit I make it an obsession, I want to find what to do to get things moving, I want “fish” in the “boat”. If necessary, and I consider that there is a glimmer of hope, I will not hesitate to extend my fishing day, which is very appreciated by customers.
As I often say, on average for the whole season, we can easily say without being too wrong that in a week there are two good days, three average days and two bad days. During the season, it looks pretty much like that. For the good days it’s easy, even an amateur will manage to pull off a good catch. The fish are “On”, life is beautiful. When it becomes less favorable, that’s when things get complicated. The good times are over, you have to work much harder to catch fish. Where the top fishermen (and good guides) stand out more is on bad days. These fishermen, despite the “odds” being against them, will thanks to their greater experience manage not to “skunk”. A very small consolation you might say, but sometimes, just catching just one fish becomes an achievement… especially when the other 50 boats haven’t caught anything!
My point is that it is virtually impossible for anyone to guarantee that every day they go out on the water they will catch fish. Certainly not the species most popular with sport fishermen.
But as I have always wanted to stand out from other guides by offering more, that is what I am offering you in 2023, as a client: Guaranteed Fish.
Since I started as a fishing guide, I wanted to stand out by doing things differently. I offered different fishing experiences, such as trolling for landlocked salmon with a fly rod. I worked very hard to promote underrated fisheries, such as sturgeon fishing. I remember the time when I had to promote, not my guide service, but rather the sturgeon fishing itself. Over the years, it has become very popular (perhaps too popular!), but I can assure you that about ten years ago, this was far from being the case. There is also my muskellunge guide service, which I offered more specifically to those who did not have the equipment, but who wanted to give themselves the chance to catch some. I wanted to make my lake trout fishing more attractive and interactive by investing heavily in the latest technology (Garmin Panoptix) while offering multiple screens at my clients’ disposal, in order to make the experience more enjoyable. Even downrigger fishing has become more exciting thanks to the Panoptix. This technology has allowed us for several years to see salmonid attacks “live” behind the balls, which is really “cool”.
My ultimate goal has always been to give the client the most memorable experience possible. Not only by offering a fishing experience that stands out for its exciting side, but also with high-end equipment. You have no idea how much it cost me a fortune.
And today, I want to do even more by offering you for 2023 my policy: Guaranteed Fish. It’s something I do occasionally, and I’m now making it official.
For all my services, with the exception of my landlocked salmon guide service at the Kiamika reservoir and my muskie casting service, I will apply this policy.
What does this policy consist of?
If during a guided fishing trip we do not catch any fish of the target species, I will bring you back in exchange for gas expenses only. And in order to be transparent and make it easy to manage, I have set a rate of $100 for gas expenses, regardless of the guide service. It is true that it does not always cost me $100 for gas for each fishing trip, but some cost me even more, if I think of my muskie guide service among other things.
And there, I see a lot of eyes raising eyebrows and people saying to themselves: “Oh yeah, you’re going to do that for muskie too!” Yes sir, this policy applies to musky too. No matter the species, if we don’t catch the target species, I’ll bring you back “for free”, “for free” in the sense that I’m not making a “cent” with you and that I’m offering you my day as a volunteer lol.
Listen, $100 for two to go fishing again, that’s not expensive. At that point, there’s not much to lose! And honestly, I don’t see what more I could do to satisfy the most demanding customers.
And here, to avoid ambiguity, we’ll clarify this with a few examples:
– The Guaranteed Fish policy does not apply to casting muskellunge. The reason is quite simple, fishing success rests on the customer’s shoulders: bad strike, not putting enough pressure, bad “figure 8”, etc. I don’t guide Jim Saric, I guide people who have no experience, you still have to give me a chance!
– If we’re hanging out with musky, we have a “zip”, the fish unhooks before I even pass you the rod and it’s the only action of the day, I’ll bring you back in exchange for gas.
– If you drop your fish, the policy doesn’t apply. I did my job, I put you in contact with the fish you were looking for and you missed it. I’m not bringing you back in exchange for gas.
– We’re at the sturgeon, we caught 8 brill, two eels, 1 mala, 12 perch, 2 copper redhorse, zero sturgeon. I’ll bring you back, because even if we caught plenty of fish, we didn’t catch the target species which is sturgeon.
– We’re at Memphré at the opening, we had 6 graylings on the lines, they all unhook before reaching the net, I’m not bringing you back “for free”. It’s not my fault, I did my job, I put you in contact with several fish and you escaped them. It happens, we call it bad luck.
The Guaranteed Fish policy applies to salmonid, shad, sturgeon and muskellunge fishing, with the exceptions mentioned above.
The Guaranteed Fish policy is a policy that applies per group, not per person.
From now on, my Salmonid guide service on the Memphremagog will no longer be divided into 2 packages. Thus, there will no longer be a “Grise à la jig” package. It will be a Salmonid package for the fishing season, i.e. the months of June and July.
The main reason is that I deprived myself of some great landlocked salmon and rainbow trout fishing because I insisted on only fishing gray trout in July. It is obvious that I will continue to target mainly gray trout with a jig in July, but I will not do this fishing exclusively. If there are, for example in July, better opportunities for fishing for landlocked salmon with a downrigger, we will abandon gray trout. So, my Guaranteed Fish policy will apply so that, if we do not bring any salmonids into the boat, I will bring you back in exchange for gas only.
Where this policy becomes extremely interesting is for my muskellunge guiding service. Listen, you have the choice of taking an experienced guide who does 8-hour days, who has proven himself for several years and who offers to bring you back “for free” if you don’t catch a musky… or you take the musky guide who offers you no guarantee in addition to doing shorter days.
It seems to me that the choice is quite easy to make!
Oh, I forgot!
If you and your boyfriend were unlucky the first time, and you didn’t catch at least one musky, I’ll bring you back “for free”. If the second time, we still haven’t managed to catch a musky, well you know what? I’ll bring you back again “for free”, and that until we catch it. It will take as many times as it takes, but we’ll get that famous musky.
I think you get the idea.
This is how it works in my boat, and I challenge other guides to do the same.
On that note, Happy New Year 2023!
