Wanna be a fishing guide?

[mike fox]

Not wishing to distract from the thread but this might be of interest to some people.
You're running out of time to register for Wednesday's virtual #FishInTheReads event. This week Simon Cooper will be discussing his book, Life of a Chalkstream, that records a year in the life of an essentially English waterscape, one that is home to a vast array of wildlife and natural habitat of the keen angler – the Chalkstream. Book now for free on the Orvis UK Eventbrite: http://orv.is/SCfitr

#Chalkstream

 

[ROVER]

I've wondered about a day with Jonathan Barnes somewhere up here in the NE. At £190 for a one on one day on waters he'll know with a former national rivers champion, that's seeming a better deal the more I read here...

Anyone been out with him? Any other guides know him?

I've not been guided by him but have met him a few times, he clearly knows his onions and has the credentials to boot. £190 for a full day sounds a bargain as whatever your experience I'm sure you'd still gain a lot from picking his brains. I would also consider using Stu Wardle in this neck of the woods, both a cost a mere snip compared to the prices that appear to be the norm further sarf!

 

[codyarrow]

 

[bennysbuddy]

Just about enough to enable me to not quite make a living!

you could supplement it with a paper route

 

[bennysbuddy]

I'm better than some and worse than others...

do you make a good shore lunch mid day ?

 

[andygrey]

I've not been guided by him but have met him a few times, he clearly knows his onions and has the credentials to boot. £190 for a full day sounds a bargain as whatever your experience I'm sure you'd still gain a lot from picking his brains. I would also consider using Stu Wardle in this neck of the woods, both a cost a mere snip compared to the prices that appear to be the norm further sarf!

Prices are higher 'darn sarf' but so are day tickets.

 

[BobP]

I'm happy with a tip if I think I've earned it, but don't expect it and certainly don't put it into writing as an expectation at the end of the day.

It is your business and so to put in writing that tips would be acceptable would not be too good an idea. FB is not my business and they put the thing about tips in merely as a gentle reminder. I don't expect a tip but am always happy to get one. I think it means that the client is satisfied with my services on the day.

Guns on a local driven game estate shoot where I pick up are reminded in the same way that a tip to the keeper is always gratefully received. A day's driven game shooting is a hell of a lot more expensive than a day on the Test. 200 bird day @ £42 a bird inc VAT equals £8400. Usual team of guns is 8 so that's £1050 each. Add to that travel, cartridges, maybe overnight stay and we're up to about £1500 for a day out. Then add a tip to the keeper which would be about £100 each. Are people on here opposed to that as well? Do they tip when they have a meal out in a restaurant? Do they tip when they go abroad to countries where tipping IS expected?

 

[Reg Wyatt]

FB is not my business and they put the thing about tips in merely as a gentle reminder.

Hilarious. Why don't Fishing Breaks pay the 'guide' a larger percentage of the £340 they charge for their services instead of 'gently reminding' about a tip?

Reg Wyatt

 

[clag]

Hilarious. Why don't Fishing Breaks pay the 'guide' a larger percentage of the £340 they charge for their services instead of 'gently reminding' about a tip?

Reg Wyatt

Why don’t the guides go independent of FB? Why do taxi drivers pay Edinburgh airport a fee to pick up and drop off fares? Why do air bnb get away with a 20 - 25% charge on all lets through their site.

The answer is they all provide a market to the underlying service providers. The service providers take a commercial decision to access the market via an intermediary/hub rather than go direct to the market which might be difficult to promote to/access. Marketing/Business not your strongest suit?

My only connection to FB is I bought some days from them several years ago and I read Simon Cooper in T&S. However, I can’t fathom the bitter little sniping on these pages. Nobody is making any one go to school or hire an FB guide.

If it is so easy to set this up off you and all the others go - obviously it’s money for old rope so you are bound to succeed.

Brothers of the angle....hhhmmm.

Regards

CLaG

 

[Reg Wyatt]

Why don’t the guides go independent of FB? Why do taxi drivers pay Edinburgh airport a fee to pick up and drop off fares? Why do air bnb get away with a 20 - 25% charge on all lets through their site.

The answer is they all provide a market to the underlying service providers. The service providers take a commercial decision to access the market via an intermediary/hub rather than go direct to the market which might be difficult to promote to/access. Marketing/Business not your strongest suit?

My only connection to FB is I bought some days from them several years ago and I read Simon Cooper in T&S. However, I can’t fathom the bitter little sniping on these pages. Nobody is making any one go to school or hire an FB guide.

If it is so easy to set this up off you and all the others go - obviously it’s money for old rope so you are bound to succeed.

Brothers of the angle....hhhmmm.

Regards

CLaG

Not really about that CLaG. Fishing Breaks make plenty of money from their letting of fishing, which is good. They then invented the need for 'guides' solely to make plenty of money from them too. They charge £340 and pay the guide £120. You think that's fair on top of the letting? Poor Bob has to supply the flies and buy teaspoons just to make ends meet. It's a rip off CLaG and it annoys me greatly that it damages people's thoughts of the chalkstreams.

Business is probably my strongest suit, I'm not sure why you would suggest otherwise or what that has to do with my opinions? As for brothers of the angle - exactly what I'm thinking, I hate to see fishers getting conned so I'm using my lifetimes chalkstream experience to give an honest opinion on what is nothing more than a con.
Nobody is making anybody go anywhere or do anything as you say CLaG - this is an opinion based forum about fishing and I'm trying to help people.

Reg Wyatt

 

[ROVER]

Prices are higher 'darn sarf' but so are day tickets.

Agreed, hence my comment

G

 

[BobP]

Why don’t the guides go independent of FB? Why do taxi drivers pay Edinburgh airport a fee to pick up and drop off fares? Why do air bnb get away with a 20 - 25% charge on all lets through their site.

The answer is they all provide a market to the underlying service providers. The service providers take a commercial decision to access the market via an intermediary/hub rather than go direct to the market which might be difficult to promote to/access. Marketing/Business not your strongest suit?

My only connection to FB is I bought some days from them several years ago and I read Simon Cooper in T&S. However, I can’t fathom the bitter little sniping on these pages. Nobody is making any one go to school or hire an FB guide.

If it is so easy to set this up off you and all the others go - obviously it’s money for old rope so you are bound to succeed.

Brothers of the angle....hhhmmm.

Regards

CLaG

Perfectly true and a good response.

Do I want to spend huge amounts of time identifying fisheries, contacting the owners, negotiating with them to set a price per rod/day then advertising it, setting up a website, organising the clients as to which days they want. Do I need all this when someone else does it all and then pays me to act on their behalf by taking the clients fishing? The answer is obviously no. The office does all that stuff while I do the fun bit.

In order to do that they have to trust me. On those days I am the physical presence and face of the company. The company has to be sure that I act appropriately, to be sure that I know what I am doing, that I know how to treat and talk to the clients - in short that I am good enough. Although it was never said as such, I am sure that when I first started that the company had contacted the first few clients after their day to see how I had performed. Obviously satisfactory as 7 seasons further on and I'm still here.

 

[blithfield2]

Not really about that CLaG. Fishing Breaks make plenty of money from their letting of fishing, which is good. They then invented the need for 'guides' solely to make plenty of money from them too. They charge £340 and pay the guide £120. You think that's fair on top of the letting? Poor Bob has to supply the flies and buy teaspoons just to make ends meet. It's a rip off CLaG and it annoys me greatly that it damages people's thoughts of the chalkstreams.

Business is probably my strongest suit, I'm not sure why you would suggest otherwise or what that has to do with my opinions? As for brothers of the angle - exactly what I'm thinking, I hate to see fishers getting conned so I'm using my lifetimes chalkstream experience to give an honest opinion on what is nothing more than a con.
Nobody is making anybody go anywhere or do anything as you say CLaG - this is an opinion based forum about fishing and I'm trying to help people.

Reg Wyatt

Whether you like the situation or not, there is obviously a market for a 'Guided' service and it appears that FB have the nouse to market that service using the expertise of the likes of Bob, but we find with even your 'strongest suit' you are at odds with the idea.

 

[Reg Wyatt]

Whether you like the situation or not, there is obviously a market for a 'Guided' service and it appears that FB have the nouse to market that service using the expertise of the likes of Bob, but we find with even your 'strongest suit' you are at odds with the idea.

Yes blithfield2, I'm at odds with Fishing Breaks charging £340 for a 'guide' and then paying that 'guide' £120 and suggesting you tip them. You're correct in that I don't like the situation, the market for it has been entirely invented by Fishing Breaks, I'm not in the business of ripping people off and will always try to expose that.

Reg Wyatt

 

[andygrey]

Yes blithfield2, I'm at odds with Fishing Breaks charging £340 for a 'guide' and then paying that 'guide' £120 and suggesting you tip them. You're correct in that I don't like the situation, the market for it has been entirely invented by Fishing Breaks, I'm not in the business of ripping people off and will always try to expose that.

Reg Wyatt

As I've said before, it's a free and unregulated market. FB charges the maximum it's thinks people will pay and pays the guides the minimum they think they can get away with... a fairly strong capitalist business model. I do feel that the 'request' to tip is a bit of a 'stealth-tax' but if it gets the guide a few more quid, then so be it.
The OP was related to the FB Guide School, which I think I don't like the idea of. Not because it may create more competition for my business, but rather that it's intimates that you can become a fishing guide after a weeks course and that there are no real entry requirements.

 

[Lewis Chessman]

@BobP (and ACW if following): Bob, I thought Jack Shepherd used to guide for Dermot Wilson's company, operating out of Nether Wallop Mill, back in the 1970s.
Does that ring any bells with you?

 

[BobP]

@BobP (and ACW if following): Bob, I thought Jack Shepherd used to guide for Dermot Wilson's company, operating out of Nether Wallop Mill, back in the 1970s.
Does that ring any bells with you?

Sorry Lewis. Well before my time. I can ask later in the season. Did you know that Simon Cooper has had a Blue Plaque put up on the side of the Mill to commemorate Dermot? Nice gesture I thought.

 

[caeran]

There are plenty of umbrella companies
Uber take a bigger chunk of the fare than the driver
Just eat take 25-30%
And plenty more


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lewis Chessman]

Sorry Lewis. Well before my time. I can ask later in the season. Did you know that Simon Cooper has had a Blue Plaque put up on the side of the Mill to commemorate Dermot? Nice gesture I thought.

I didn't know. no. Very good! I must pick up one of DW's books some time, though I don't know how applicable it will be to my Highland loch fishing I understand that he wrote very well.
Do ask, please. I just have a feeling that guiding has been a part of your world from a lot longer than FB have been around. Seldom is something new under the sun in our game, eh?

 

[ACW]

James
think you are right about Jack shepard ,though it is way way back and lots of water under the bridge since.
Back a while i did do a little hosting/guiding ,boat fishing mostly at bewl,then grayling initially on one of FBs beats which was great until the price went sky high ,then on to another test beat,
Finally ended up doing my bit of the Kennet ( Denford now Avington)where I and many on here had some great fun .
never made money doing it but really enjoyed almost all of it and have a lot of friendss from those trips .