in my In Fisherman bass book it says Al Linder was a guide at Sam Rayburn in the mid 70s.  this kind of surpriised me for 2 reasons.  one is i was always told when these new lakes came on line in the early 70s like rayburn the fishing was much easier than now due to all the new shoreling brush.  you can simply beat the banks and have a hey day back then.  and two,  when i was growing up in a middle class neighborhood in the 70s,  people didnt really have the kind of money to spend on toys like they do now mainly cause it was a  one income family back then.  so what kind of people would spend a half weeks salary back then to hire a guide to fish a lake that was much easier to fish than it is now??  and there is enough of these people to have a full time guide around to make a living?

I know the guys will give you some good insight into the history of B.A.S.S. and how some of the pros started off as guides.

I had a conversation about B.A.S.S. and ESPN and FLW with a guide and he told me how some of today's pros and stars started out as guides.

He also said that you cannot be both a guide and a pro. Each career takes a lot of time and you cannot do both and be successful at both.  

He also said that to be a successful guide you must limit yourself to one or two bodies of water. Any more and you just don't have the time to study and fish the other bodies to get to know them to be successful.

It would be very interesting to find out which bass pros and stars started out as guides.

Anyone???????

           He also said that you cannot be both a guide and a pro. Each career takes a lot of time and you cannot do both and be successful at both              

 

Their use to be several pro that guide.  Tom Mann Jr  and Tim  Horton use to guide.  I don't know if they still do or not

Fishing and hunting guides have been around forever.

As for that: "The fishing used to better when I was a youngster nonsense". That's a statement from a deluded slightly senile oldster whose memory has become clouded with overload.

Exactly what George said

I work as a deck hand on my uncle's charter fishing boat during the mid-60, charter fishing in nothing more than a guided fishing trip. During the 70's I belonged to two bass clubs whose members included John Torian, John Hall, John Dean, Villis P "Bo" Dowden SR, Harold Allen, Larry Nixon, Tommy Martin, & Zell Roland all guides at Toledo Bend's Pendleton Harbor Marina. Tommy Martin guided through out his entire career and still guides on T-Bend today.

i guess i must have lived in a poor middle class area.  if guides today are making 300 a day, generally speaking that is roughly  2 days salary for a blue collar worker.  so assuming in the 70s  hiring a guide for a day was 2 days salary for a blue collar worker and he is maybe the only income worker at that time i am very surprised they had that kind of money to burn back then.

While today's guides may make $300+ a day it aint all profit

Ask Ole George Welcome & others about expenses  

I read a really good book about Brainerd MN and how the guide services took off in that area (Al Lindner, Gary Roach, Marv Koep). Basicaly Marv had the great idea of showing people that they can regularly catch fish and give them a reason to come up and hang out in the north. Facinating book, its called Legands and Legacies but I think its a limited printing as I can't even find it on Amazon for you.

But basically, a bunch of people saw a need that people had, filled it, and the rest is history.

Nevermind, I found the link...

http://www.raygildow.com/