Be a Professional Hunting and Fishing Guide

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

If you can't arrange to hire on with an experienced outfitter or guide for paid, on-the-job training, the next best thing is to switch places for a while by becoming a customer. Hire a guide to lead you to the best hunting and fishing spots in your locality and to teach you some of the tricks of the trade. In either case, try to absorb as much outdoor savvy as possible from the voice of experience.

Another good source of knowledge is the printed page. There's a wealth of information recorded in hunting and fishing books and magazines, and studying such publications can enable you to talk intelligently about the animals and fish you're going after. Field guides can help you learn to identify the plants and such your clients will be seeing (and, most likely, asking you about).

But the bottom line for guide training is to lace on your boots and get out there! Buy the appropriate topographical maps, learn to read them, and study them until you have the terrain features of your working area locked in your mind. Then head for the woods and spend plenty of time on the best fishing lakes, along the shores of local rivers and streams, and in the "bush." (You can even take your spouse and kids along on these learning outings and share the pleasures of the outdoors with the family.)

Furthermore, don't overlook the old-timers in your neck of the woods, since they're often veritable founts of wisdom concerning local outdoor history and lore. For example, I've learned a great deal from Tom Ebert, a gent who was 77 years young the first time he took me bird hunting in the Chequamegon National Forest and who nonetheless stepped out with the energy of a teenager. Tom was a logger in this area for over 40 years and knows the land as well as do the deer and bears that make it their home. He once showed me some photos of the flowage area of a large local lake, taken before it was flooded. Now I spend much of my time guiding on that same impoundment, passing Tom's entertaining stories on to my clients and taking advantage of my special knowledge of the lake's subaqueous topography to improve the fishing.

Overall, my relationships with several local old-timers have been beneficial to all involved: These elderly outdoorsmen have enjoyed being in the company of a younger person who's interested in hearing what they have to say; I'm glad to soak up their knowledge and "color"; and my clients gain from my improved ability to take them to the best hunting and fishing action. So make plans, if you can, to go hunting and angling with the oldsters in your area. Then—once you're in the business—when the fishing is lousy and the game isn't moving, you can delight your customers with the stories and wit that your older friends have willed to you.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print