How to Find the Right Fishing Guide

The fishing industry has progressed over the past few years from a part time sport to a booming industry for tackle suppliers, boat companies and all related industries like fishing guides. Never has the request for guides on our most popular lakes been so strong; the cost involved from boats to tackle has become so expensive that it is cheaper for a person to just hire a fishing guide. The problem occurs is how do you pick the right guide and there appears to be a lot more to it than just finding someone that catches fish!

The considerations are vast and wide and in order to pick the right person to take you out on the water becomes a lot of work unless you let qualifications lead you for the right reasons. As our world has become more and more controlled by government the guide industry is no different! A guide has to be properly licensed, insured and should have relationships with quality sponsors. Every one of these entities do research to make sure that the person you pick or they pick to represent them are quality guides with good reputations. Coupled with the fact that the US Coast Guard has requirements that must be met on all inland and international waters; waters that are referred to as navigable water ways throughout the country ensure proper licensing.

This process of Coast Guard licensing ensures proper background and experience checks along with testing that qualifies a guide. The problem is, most of the people hanging a sign out and calling themselves guides have not completed the proper US Coast Guard process to be licensed. When this happens you as a customer are at risk; if something was to happen on the water there could very well be no pay out for insurance as commercial insurance requires proper licensing to pay when an accident occurs. So then the only recourse you have is to sue the individual, and that takes time and money!

The easiest solution for this is to require the guide you hire to show you his Coast Guard license before you get in the boat, if he or she is licensed they are required by law to carry the license in their boat when involved in guiding for hire or being paid!