by Jeremy Devries

Created on: December 26, 2008

After weeks of web browsing, calls to travel agencies, a stack of brochures 8 inches deep and ridiculously overpriced airline tickets you have finally made reservations for your trip of a lifetime. You've gotten your group together and chosen the best outfitter Google has to offer. Every one of your friends is counting on this research to give them an affordable trip that is well worth the money. You too are hoping for great fishing and definitely want to avoid any member of your group having a bad time. The first mistake most "Group Leaders" make and the number one reason for some disappointed faces in your group is pairing the wrong two guys together in a boat.

Almost every day the leader of the group at our lodge has broken up his "teams" into a good angler fishing with novice angler. Sounds reasonable right? The good fisherman can take care of himself while the novice can be fully attended to by the guide. Unfortunately this is NOT the best way to organize your team.

Here's the reality of it. As guides, we evaluate our talent level every day. Within the first fifteen minutes of dropping the boat in the water (often sooner) we are able to decide what water we will be fishing. One of the major rules of guiding is that a boat is only as good as the least experienced person in it. In other words, there are spots on the river, holes, runs, shelves that a novice angler can handle. Likewise there are plenty of other spots that require a good caster, and then there are spots that require an excellent caster.

When a boat is teamed up with a novice guy and a great fisherman, the guide is constantly trading off. For example, the other day my clients were Bill Jackson and his son Thomas. Thomas is 27 years old and a competent angler while Bill is 55 and an offshore tuna fisherman. In other words, the dad couldn't cast and the kid can. So, every stop we made, I was looking for a layup for the dad, and the kid had to constantly fish the tougher water. This works out sometimes, but the reality of it is, the better fisherman gets the short end of the stick ALL day.

On the other side of the coin, when I took Bill and Thomas to EASY water, a long tail out or a boat nymphing run, the kid was bored to tears. They were both catching fish and Bill was ecstatic. However, you could feel the boredom setting in as Thomas sat there watching a "bobber" in "pond" water all day long. The kid wanted a challenge. So the next stop was a fast chute with moving current everywhere. It took a

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>