How to Find the Right Fly Fishing Guide

In my experience, the best fishing guide usually isn’t the most expensive one – or the one with the pretty website that shows up as the first result on your Google search.

Often, it’s the guy who’s too busy on the water to bother with a pretty website. So how do you find him?

Here's where to start.

Talk to Your Fly Fishing Friends

If you’ve got fly fishing friends, take advantage of ‘em. If you’re planning a trip to a new river, there’s a good chance somebody you know has already fished it.

If you have a friend who’s local to the area, even better. The fly fishing world tends to be pretty small, and guide reputations get around.

Klickitat River fly fishing — One of the good ones: Klickitat River fishing guide, Tracy Zoller. | photo by Jasper Taback

Don’t Book a Fishing Guide Blindly – Do Your Research

Whether or not you get a recommendation from a friend, it never hurts to do your own research. Read Google and Yelp reviews if they’re out there.

If not, at least try to track down a phone number.

Pick Up the Phone and Call Your Guide

These days, most guides will have an online booking option. It’s designed to be an easier booking experience than calling – but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t call.

The best way to ensure a good trip is to make sure you and your guide are on the same page. That starts with communicating before the trip.

Be Honest About What You Want From the Trip

You should always assume a local guide knows a whole lot more about a river than you do – that’s why you booked the trip, after all. But you can certainly give your input.

If you want to catch a trout on a dry fly, go ahead and say that. It may not work out, but at least your guide has the chance to give you what you’re looking for.

Fly fishing guide — It helps to have a local in the boat who knows the river's bugs. | photo by Jasper Taback

Have an Open Mind on the Water

Ask any fishing guide what their favorite kind of client is, and you’ll get some variation of the following answer: “Anyone who listens.”

By the time you’re in the boat, you’ve hopefully done your homework and picked a guide you have some faith in. If they ask you to do something, give them the benefit of the doubt.

Even if you think you know better.

Find a Good Guide and Keep in Touch

The first time fishing with a new guide is always a little uncomfortable – there’s only so much conversation you can make with a total stranger over 8 hours in a drift boat.

But go back and fish with the same guide a few times, and you’ll notice a real difference. The guide gets used to you, you get used to the guide, and it makes for a good time on the water.

Plus, you don’t have to do your research all over again.