NOT ALL RIVER GUIDES ARE EQUAL
Here are some tips when considering which Ontario river fishing guide to hire.
There are numerous Ontario River fishing guides, but not all are equal!
I hire guides still: I look back to my very first days of river fishing and remember how hard it was and how confusing it all was and how few fish I caught back then, if only I had a mentor.
I didn’t know any better so I kept thinking if I just had the right fly or the right bait I’d start catching more fish, but I was very WRONG! Even If I had the right fly or right bait I still wouldn’t have caught more fish because what I didn’t have was the right skill.
If there were Ontario river fishing guides like me available when I was just getting started and I knew what I know now I would have hesitated in hiring them because know now that my fly and my bait weren’t the problem.
Good angler or good guide: “just because someone is a great angler, doesn’t mean they will be a great guide” . I train all my guided and implant the knowledge I have gained from guiding around 3000 anglers over the last 20 years. This knowledge is invaluable and you can’t get this by just fishing alone.
That’s why A Perfect Drift Guide Company has some of the best Ontario river fishing guides in the province.
Fishing Guides Come and Go: Many new guides just getting started don’t last long. It takes skill in fishing, skill in guiding and skill and dealing with people to succeed as an Ontario river fishing guide. Many new guides lack the knowledge on safety and dealing with people that do not know how to fish.
Friendly, Patient and Skilled: Some guides are like drill sergeant and can push you so hard you end up more stressed then before you arrived. We know that guiding is supposed to be fun, relaxing and a good learning experience.
All our guides at A Perfect Drift get frequent reviews to ensure we are continuing to provide the best guide expereince possible.
Hire a Guide, Not an Angler: A great guide will have enough fishing skill and enough guide experience to teach you more in a day on the water than you might learning in a year or 3 by yourself.
I have guided guys they have told me they have been fly fishing or centerpin fishing for 20 years and when I see them fish I know they have never been taught properly because even though they have been fishing for a long time, they have been doing it poorly.
When you get out with a good Ontario river fishing guide you will learn the right way so you are not spending years practicing the wrong way.
References and Testimonials: I have thousands of testimonials, referrals and thank you emails and all the guides at A Perfect Drift have great reviews from clients.
Reviews: I suggest that you do a little research when you are looking into any Ontario river fishing guide. Look them up on the internet where you can often find testimonials, reviews, referrals, stories, articles on the good guides. If you can’t find anyone referring a guide you are considering hiring that’s a bad sign.
Fishing Shops: Fishing shops sometimes have in house guides. Some of them are pretty good, but some aren’t so good. Many of the guides from the local shops use part time anglers to do their guiding for them. Do you want an angler or a giude? Trust me, you want a guide with expereince, someone that’s trained properly by another guide, not by a shop owner whos secialty is selling products.
Guide Pictures: It’s usually easy to tell if a guide is more of an angler than he is a guide just by looking at his pictures.
If the guide in holding all the fish or 80% of the pictures are from the same 5 or 6 guys chances are those are his buddies and not his clients.
We have over ten thousand pictures from guided trips. See a few of the best pictures on our photo album page.
Professional Guides: When I’m not available to guide clients I have other trained and professional guides available.
These are guides that I know to have both exceptional skills in fishing and in guiding, and they also have great reputations behind them.
All are guides are professionals and are held to my high standards. The same high standards that have made me the top Ontario river fishing guide.
My Experience: I have had the opportunity to learn from thousands of anglers, other guides, professional tournament anglers, world champion anglers, and even from guys that where head coaches of their national fly fishing teams.
I pass that knowledge on to all the guides that I train and that work for A Perfect Drift Guide Company.
This knowledge is something that most Ontario river fishing guides just can’t provide to their clients. For more about me check out the About Graham Page
For rates and packages go to our River Guide Page
BONUS TIP OF THE DAY
Should Your Guide Be Fly Casting Certified?: 15 years ago I considered getting certified as a fly casting intructor because some of the other guides where certified and I wanted to be able to compete with them.
While I was spending hours a day training for my fly casting certification I thought to myself would I be better off spending this many hours mastering fly fishing techniques instead of fly casting and would my clients be better off and the answer was yes, so I switched gears and started learning, training and mastering the art of nymphing, dry fly fishing and streamer fishing, and it paid off huge. I’m now considered one of the most skilled river guides in Ontario and these skills help more anglers catch fish than me teaching fly casting.
I determined that your time on the water with a guide is limited so you might as well use it to learn to fish and just practice your casting on your own time. As long as you know the basics of casting and your guide has spent a little time teaching you, this can work better.
Over the years I’ve experimented with teaching people how to cast first compared to drogging them into the river and teaching them how to fish first and cast after. I now have my clients almost always fish first and teach them casting later once they have caught a few fish and are comfortable with the rod in their hand. I’ve found most people learn fly casting faster with this fish first and cast later approach and they don’t end up bored with a sore arm and sore shoulder from casting for 2 hours. I’m the first and might still be the only guide in Ontario to reverse it like this but it works for me.
So, is it important for your guide to be certified as a casting instructor? Yes and No. Yes, only if your doing a dedicated casting class or if your primary objective is to improve your casting, but if you’re there to learn how to catch fish then no, it’s not important.
RIVER FISHING TIPS AND ADVICE
Have you ever wanted to know what the guides know? Now you can!
Anglers ask me all the time about what rods and reels and other gear that I recommend, or they ask me about my best flies, or my best methods or even which rivers are good to fish. I build a website that cover’s all of that and more . . . . . You should checkout our sister site where I tell you exactly what gear you need and i give you free tips and tricks to help you catch more fish. Check out www.ontariotroutandsteelhead.com