After ten years of working as a bass fishing guide blogging and writing about some of those experiences on this site I have developed a desire to move on from the love of trying to perfect the actual guiding process. This has, over the years, become a slight obsession, and after any number of experiences and time spent on qualifications, personal development, indeed years of hard work, I have it where I want it, just about.
Is this important? After all this personal effort, it is to me, I like experiences that are hard won, rewarding, and are worthwhile investing time in. Over the past ten years bass guiding by itself was never going to keep the wolves from the door here, so it was always necessary to have fall back. I’ve done this through education. Qualifications are not nearly as important as people make them out to be, that is of course until they are needed as a short positive answer to a twenty second question.
Does this make me a better guide? I know this, it has certainly helped, of that I have no doubt. It openly demonstrates a willingness to commit to improvement and development and tests that long effort with a recognised validity.
I’ve read enough bullshit on forums and blogs in relation to bass guiding and what its supposed to be. I’ve seen many guides come and many go. I’ve had both extremely positive and negative experiences with customers to know how good and bad the job can be. Its a job like any other and also a job not like any other. I’m very glad to say the positives I’ve experienced far outweigh the negatives.
Lots of people are guides in this country, guides that simply just get on with it on a day by day basis without demonstrating any self indulgent public torture.
They try daily with integrity to make themselves and their businesses better.
They often look inwards and they know well and understand the depth the reality and the rigours of the job, what it means to do it both properly, and to use their infinite local knowledge, ability and experiences to transcend the perceptions of what a fishing guide is or can be.
10 Serious things about guiding
