Florida Guides

[Janderson45]

Hi All - I know this has been asked before (by me even) but I’m looking for suggestions on a Florida bass fishing guide.  
 

I’m looking for a strictly artificials trip/guide.  I know a lot of guys use shiners for the general public fishing style trips they typically run, and for targeting trophy bass, but that doesn’t interest me.  
 

I’m looking for Orlando Area (Toho, Harris, Kissimmee, St Johns) or more towards Southern Florida (Okeechobee, Istokpoga, Stick Marsh) - will pretty much go anywhere in the state with a good guide and a hot bite.

 

I fished Okeechobee a couple of years ago, and while the overall experience was good, the guide we fished with ran mostly live bait trips.  He was happy to fish artificials with me, but you could tell he didn’t do it often with clients, and the lake fished really tough the few days we were there.  Looking for a guide more focused on tournament style fishing this time.  
 

Any suggestions/help are appreciated!

[Dwight Hottle]

warrior2bass.com for Orlando area. The Hawgtech guys sponsor him. Great guy & guide. He will put you on fish. He is primarily an artificial bait guy. 

[Janderson45]

2 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

warrior2bass.com for Orlando area. The Hawgtech guys sponsor him. Great guy & guide. He will put you on fish. He is primarily an artificial bait guy. 

Awesome, thanks. I will check him out.  Think he’ll like my reel handles too... 
 

Please keep the suggestions coming Florida guys!

[Mike L]

Do a search on here for guides. 
I listed a dozen or so of primarily Big O guides a while back that I either know personally or fished with in B.A.S.S. or FLW tournaments over the last 10 yrs or so. 
 

 

 

 

Mike
 

[roadwarrior]

On 11/23/2020 at 9:45 AM, Dwight Hottle said:

warrior2bass.com for Orlando area. The Hawgtech guys sponsor him. Great guy & guide. He will put you on fish. He is primarily an artificial bait guy. 

I am planning a trip with him in January.

[Captain Phil]

Perhaps a little inside information would help?

 

The life of a bass fishing guide is not easy.  You can't control the fish, the weather or the skills and expectations of your customers.  The days are long, normally starting before 4 AM.  In the evening you are spooling reels, repairing your boat, your equipment and following up phone calls.  The pay is terrible.  By the time you pay for your boat, fuel, insurance, advertising, tackle and all the rest, you could make more money working at Walmart.  You want your customers to have a good experience.  Most don't know anything about real bass fishing.  All they know is what they see on TV.

 

People come to Florida expecting the catch big bass. The best way to ensure your customers are satisfied is to fish with live native shiners. They aren't always easy to obtain, so you have to raise your own.  This requires even more time and expense.  Wild shiners are expensive.  More money is made selling shiners than catching fish.  

 

Communication is key.  Ask a lot of questions.  Tell the captain what you expect.  Be realistic.  Find someone you like.  Spending a day on the water with a jerk is not fun.  If you are going to fish artificial lures, you are better off with someone who fishes a lot of tournaments.  If you are going to fish Florida in the winter, you will be dodging cold fronts.  Take some warm clothes.  If the Captain does a good job, tip him appropriately. 

 

Satisfied customer from Minnesota.

[Born 2 fish]

Chuck pippin is a highly recommended guide in that area.

[Janderson45]

On 11/23/2020 at 10:45 AM, Dwight Hottle said:

warrior2bass.com for Orlando area. The Hawgtech guys sponsor him. Great guy & guide. He will put you on fish. He is primarily an artificial bait guy. 

A+ recommendation.  We spent three days on the water fishing pure artificials with Nick Kefaldies from “Warrior2Bass” and crushed it despite unfavorable conditions.  Best 5 went 25+ on days 1 & 2, about 20lbs on day 3 with a heart breaking giant lost at the boat.  Biggest of the trip was a 7-4, with plentiful 4-6lbers.  

[CountryboyinDC]

I'm headed to Orlando for a family vacation toward the end of the year, and was looking forward to some guided fishing.  I booked a couple of days with Warrior2bass, but he's now moving to Tennesee and getting out of guided fishing.  Maybe he plays a mean steel guitar and is headed to Nashville to chase that honky tonk dream, but props to @Revival for pointing out he posted that on Instagram.

 

Chuck Pippen also seems to be out.  I've called, emailed, and texted, and haven't been able to get him to tell me if he's available or not.  

 

I saw a recommendation for Arti-FISH-al Entertainment/Captain Lee on here not too long ago and I'll explore that further.  I wanted to see if anyone else had any other guides that they'd fished with in the area that they'd had luck with.

 

For me, I'm not adamantly opposed to fishing wild shiners, but I don't do it when I fish by myself, and I probably would prefer fishing artificial.  I am looking for the chance to catch big fish (not necessarily a lot of fish), am not taking the family (or anyone else) along, want to fish about 8 hours a day, and above all don't want to spend the day with a jerk.

[roadwarrior]

On 2/26/2021 at 10:48 PM, Janderson45 said:

A+ recommendation.  We spent three days on the water fishing pure artificials with Nick Kefaldies from “Warrior2Bass” and crushed it despite unfavorable conditions.  Best 5 went 25+ on days 1 & 2, about 20lbs on day 3 with a heart breaking giant lost at the boat.  Biggest of the trip was a 7-4, with plentiful 4-6lbers.  

 

Last January ghoti and I fished with Nick. Our best day with golden shiners we caught 

24 before running out of bait at 11:00. Our biggest bass was just under 10 lbs.  The best

5 that we saw, but lost, were HUGE! 

[Captain Phil]

Florida bass guides prefer fishing with live shiners because it removes the skill of the angler from the equation.  If you fish Toho with wild native shiners, you are almost guaranteed to catch bass.  The time of the year is also significant.  In March or April, I could hand you a stack of Devil's Horse lures and wear you out catching bass.  Shiners catch bass year round.  It doesn't take much skill to swim a live shiner around some pads and jerk the rod.  

 

If you are going to limit your bass fishing to artificial lures, you should be prepared for whatever happens and make sure your guide knows this in advance. 

[roadwarrior]

44 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

 It doesn't take much skill to swim a live shiner around some pads and jerk the rod.  

 

Well, that maybe true, but it sure is fun!  We bought 48 shiners and caught 24 bass, all

better than 5 lbs. 

 

[CountryboyinDC]

Yeah, Nick had said that he would do whatever (shiners or artificial), and obviously the guy knows his stuff.  He asked me about what I usually do, and said based on my experience it may be best to use shiners (that'll put a dent in the fishing ego, but I liked the honesty).  It's just a shame that he gave up the guiding before he had a chance to take me.  That's why I'm a little hesitant to go with Lee Harrelson.  It seems like he only does artificial, and my priority there would be to catch fish rather than use a particular bait.

[roadwarrior]

1 hour ago, CountryboyinDC said:

That's why I'm a little hesitant to go with Lee Harrelson.  It seems like he only does artificial, and my priority there would be to catch fish rather than use a particular bait.

 

https://www.aeguideservice.com/

 

Great guy and BassResource member. However...Arti-FISH-ial only.

[TnRiver46]

2 hours ago, CountryboyinDC said:

Yeah, Nick had said that he would do whatever (shiners or artificial), and obviously the guy knows his stuff.  He asked me about what I usually do, and said based on my experience it may be best to use shiners (that'll put a dent in the fishing ego, but I liked the honesty).  It's just a shame that he gave up the guiding before he had a chance to take me.  That's why I'm a little hesitant to go with Lee Harrelson.  It seems like he only does artificial, and my priority there would be to catch fish rather than use a particular bait.

Fishing guide is a dream job until you have to work it, I learned that at 23 when I was guiding full time, wasn’t quite how I imagined it. 
 

I know a guy that might be willing to take you if all else falls through, my cousins boyfriend. He took me out on toho and we got on them good. He’s not a guide but he has cashed a good many tournament checks, fishes lures or shiners 

[CountryboyinDC]

28 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Fishing guide is a dream job until you have to work it, I learned that at 23 when I was guiding full time, wasn’t quite how I imagined it. 
 

I know a guy that might be willing to take you if all else falls through, my cousins boyfriend. He took me out on toho and we got on them good. He’s not a guide but he has cashed a good many tournament checks, fishes lures or shiners 

I don't doubt that being a fishing guide is not big money.  Honestly, at $550 (I understand that I also tip), with bait, boat payments, insurance, marketing by whatever means you do, fuel, and tackle expenses, you won't be paying yourself a huge salary.  Like a lot of other endeavors, you have to love it enough to suffer through the small pay.  Definitely bass fishing guides' rates are a lot less than a saltwater trip.

 

I appreciate the offer on the contact.  I'm going to see what else materializes, I don't want to ask any favors from folks that aren't in the business.  

[Janderson45]

On 8/6/2021 at 4:53 AM, CountryboyinDC said:

I'm headed to Orlando for a family vacation toward the end of the year, and was looking forward to some guided fishing.  I booked a couple of days with Warrior2bass, but he's now moving to Tennesee and getting out of guided fishing.  Maybe he plays a mean steel guitar and is headed to Nashville to chase that honky tonk dream, but props to @Revival for pointing out he posted that on Instagram.

 

I’m not very active anymore, but wanted to update that Nick is currently living and guiding on a part time basis in central Texas (Fork and Ivie I believe).  Would definitely give him a shout if you’re looking for some winter time studs on live scope like they’re getting famous for down there…

[AlabamaSpothunter]

43 minutes ago, Janderson45 said:

I’m not very active anymore, but wanted to update that Nick is currently living and guiding on a part time basis in central Texas (Fork and Ivie I believe).  Would definitely give him a shout if you’re looking for some winter time studs on live scope like they’re getting famous for down there…

Dude this is the CRAZIEST thing ever.......I was slammed with work last week listening to podcasts, and I watched the Shawn Ryan Show podcast with Nick Kefalides and he said he was Bass fishing for a living now, being busy I didn't have time to go down that google rabbit hole but assumed Tourney stuff.

 

To hear he's a guide, and within nice driving distance......I'd love to fish with him for a cpl. days.

 

Do you have his contact info.....I googled Warrior2Bass, but's it's defunct.   

 

I'd equally love to fish with Live Scope.    Thanks for posting, maybe I can go fishing with a true legend in the SOF community.  

 

EDIT:  NVM found his new page

[CountryboyinDC]

@Janderson45, thanks but I'm good.  Had a great time with Lee Harrelson https://www.aeguideservice.com/ last year, and would probably look him up again if I was in central FL.  I don't know what was going on in Nick's life, but by the time I finally got a hold of him and he said he wasn't going to be able to make the trip after all, he wasn't real apologetic.  So, just based on that experience, I'd never consider him again regardless.

[Janderson45]

7 minutes ago, CountryboyinDC said:

Had a great time with Lee Harrelson https://www.aeguideservice.com/ last year, and would probably look him up again if I was in central FL.