Question for our professional anglers

[gaza]

malevans one of the refences you made about the guides knowing when it is best to fish, or not. it makes sense but when anglers are staying on the bank they dont have a choice but to try well at least have the guide row out in 4ft waves and tye another rig to the bouy or trees.or bait the area in winds over 100mph you see just because its windy or wet you still gotta do it when you are out there doing the bussines day after day. sometimes not having a shower for three days or longer can run you down a little. but you gotta stay on top of everything and i think that for these reasons and may more to many to mention guides are a breed apart in there own field of fishing you see whatever field of fishing be it catfish,trout,pike,carp ETC you have differnt times of fishing and diffrent types this is stating the obvious but the point is the hours say what i put in. compared to lets say a trout guide or salmon guide are somewhat longer day and night as to day fishing only for the trout/salmon guide. i would go as far as to say twice as long over a weeks fishing. you gotta have the stamina and patience along with the obvoius knowledge. the teaching aspects are as inportant as the fishing they go hand in hand one without the other does not work. you have to show how and why things are done. not pushed in the face, but a subtle teaching usualy works. i would say never try to explain everything all at once wait for the questions to arrise and answer with honesty confidence and knowledge.giving the anglers the confidence they need in you. this i find eases the stress of waiting for the first bite. i always see anglers arriving with baited breath. seems like they have been holding there breath all of the time on the plane journey over .

i love to see the anglers arrive with big smiles and leave with even bigger smiles on there face.

 

NEWT with refrence to those big waves, fella you can see what the diffrence in angling. i suppose those lads love it as for me i find all aspects of whatever is thrown at me like a good school you learn from it take it back and get it all right even when the worst things are thrown right at you. you have to get it right. never mind it will soon be summer lads.

[Peter Waller]

Congratulations to all concerned. No bloodshed! The Pike and Predators forum could take a leaf out of A.N's book!! Never thought I'd see the day .

[malevans]

Apologies guys. I did not put my point clearly. The point about professionalism in a guide is not related to him/her being totally dependent upon guiding for their income or doing the job full time. As for how often on the water....depends on how much experience the said guide has of the venue...

Changing tack for purposes of illustration for mo.

 

When I fish a new water I end up putting in hours and hours or days and days, but we all see the guy who has been on it for years and decades who turns up catches in a couple hours, time after time, whilst we go through our sessions...but time is actually critical to me. So I put the hours in so I can get to the stage where by I need less hours to catch. Some pike venues I will not fish based upon percentage likely hood of a return on time spent....Willen lake for Pike never in bright sunshine, Loch Oich only in bright sunshine.

 

So point is with enough experience the issue of being full time on the water becomes less important. I can take any novice to a river I know and they will have have a wild brown in 20 mins max, yet there is a professional guide complete with published books and branded discovery whose clients regularly blank or catch very few on the same venue...he is full time, looks and acts very professional, landrover looks really pukka. Nuff said..

 

Would I pay a guide etc etc, very very good question, never in the UK despite time being critical, I like to work it out for myself its more satisfying...abroad yes I will pay a guide because thats about a holiday, and an angling experience, basis of selection....recommendation not how many hours works or whether he has another job. Like the argument I had with my mate in a highland hotel one night. Gillie in Irland chose his fly, leader length, told him exactly where to cast and how to and what speed to move the fly round...and he was trying to tell me he had caught two salmon....Blah....he had experienced landing one....

[trent.barbeler]

Dear All,

 

Peter said:

 

"Congratulations to all concerned. No bloodshed! The Pike and Predators forum could take a leaf out of A.N's book!! Never thought I'd see the day"

 

You ain't yet Peter cos I haven't given my opinion on this subject from a barbel fishing point of view!!

 

Regards,

 

Lee.

[Dick Dastardly]

Oh well we got to page two before the inevitable came up! Is it the guide who catchs the fish or the client? I am going to take the fith on this!

[trent.barbeler]

Dear Budgie,

 

Don't take the fifth. Unless of course you are an American up before a senate committee.

 

Come to think of it, up before Mr Waller might just be as equally frightening!!

 

Don't think I'll bother now.

 

Regards,

 

Lee.

[Dick Dastardly]

Lee,I might have caused confussion as my post was meant to be after Malcoms comment on the salmon catching/landing.

[Peter Waller]

Lee, the floor / screen is yours ! After you my friend .

[Newt]

The Ebro in Spain - where is the best catfishing and what size (width, depth, flow) is the river at that point?

 

[gaza]

newt i have the same pic as that but you cannot realy pinpoint anything on there the blueish area is the delta region above this is mainland and mountain ranges this combines for a beutifull backdrop. from this lline down to the sea is fishable for carp barbel catfish zander mullet crucian carp specimin roach and rudd this combined with the sea fish bluefish or amberjacks taking the baits gives this area the diffrence between upper regions and mid sections you can see the island of gracia in the middle of the picture some very good captures have been taken in fact we broke the lower ebro record the first time here with a fish of 154.00lbs all the swims above this area to the town of amposta have been built by me.a total of 10 as we are only allowed to buld two a year and only in wood. but to actualy get to these swims is by boat only. as access is all through private land one good local public area is where the ferries cross. dont tell me you are finaly coming to spain mate.