Rockport Fishing Guide Rant

[bearintex]

Subbed for the stories....

[atx_hunter]

And a seagreen colored Maverick flats boat guide, that deserves to have his push pole shoved where the sun doesn't shine! This SOB not only cut me off, he blew through my drift zig zagging across my flat, with his fly fishing client nearly getting tossed out of his boat as this JACK-TARD ran. I got into his face at the Marina and once he saw my Coast Guard ID....he got out of there fast. I warned him and documented it.

We did have the displeasure of meeting that guy this weekend. He was poling through the area behind us and as he got closer we spread out a bit to make to blatantly obvious that there wasn't room to go around us. Finally, when he got to be about 50 feet from us he called out and asked if it was ok if he went around us. We told him absolutely not and he responded by reving the engine as loud as he could while turning around.

[txstringbender]

Me and a buddy were in Port A a few years ago flounder gigging one night. I was walking along minding my business and one of these complete A Holes came up on me from behind in his airboat and his bright lights. I stood my ground but he went around me and then cut back I front of me about 10 feet. Then throttled up and almost blew me over. I said a few "very nice things" about his mother and such but he couldn't hear me. Same thing. Looked like he had a "client" on the boat. I just hate rudeness."

[Jon-Paul]

Sadly this type of behavior is up and down the coast and its not just with guides. The guides that I have seen that act like this fee they have a sense of entitlement and will let it be known. Others are weekend anglers or new boat owners that either don't know some of the courtesy or either just don't care.

I used to get upset but now I just smile and let it be. It does me no good to get all worked up anymore.

[TexaRican]

This thread reminds me of my last fishing trip listening to the outdoor show on AM driving down to Surfside. Three old guides griping for a solid hour about all the young guides in East Bay with no etiquette or respect. Morons running i-pilots on a crowded reef and all that... It was a hoot.

[TimH]

Agree. The majority are excellent and respectful. Alpha male personalities, competition and such, they can short-circuit themselves and blow gaskets quickly.

I went with a guide in Rockport years ago, that was worried about folks on HIS SPOT as we sailed out. That's all he could talk about. And when we pulled up and one was there, he had no qualms about easing in and setting up literally on top of someone. Then he got a bit ticked, when I started casting lures since his style of fishing didn't match what I wanted to do. I caught 3 reds before he could get his cut bait working and he proceeded to cast right over on top of me, blocking me out of my casting zone. He was trying to get the other two on the boat hooked up and he proceeded to hook and hand the rod over to my Dad. That was his first mistake LOL!!!!! As I stated, it takes a lot to push me over the top, ex-Marine with combat experience or not (older guide - name withheld), he got the message in stereo and we had a MUCH BETTER FISH

His personality struck a chord with me and as we drove home, there was a common theme.....one and only trip with him, no more follow up and no references.

I like the way you put this, "short-circuit themselves and blow gaskets quickly." There is a ton of that happening down there. I see some sight of it every time we go.

[nimrodajh]

Well this just sounds like a blast. Can't wait to book a trip out of Rockport. Who do we think we are to fish public water for fun? That belongs to the guides right? Or is it the guy with the new boat, the legendary weekend warrior who has been fishing here his whole salt life... since 2014.

We need to invest in some of that real estate offshore and in the bays along the Texas coast since that's how it works now. Then we could all have our own "my spot".

[Capt.Bryan]

I can remember the days of actually being able to wade fish in waist deep water and not have to worry about getting ran over. Fishermen ran big heavy deep v boats and couldn't get any shallower than about 3 feet, now the boating industry has changed and people have migrated to buying 50k plus dollar boats that will draft in 6" of water and run even shallower. It's becoming the new standard so we will have to get used to it. People go out and book a guide that pulls this kind of crap like you experienced then his customers go out and buy a similar boat and does the same things that they learned from the guide and think it is normal.

I have a coast guard license and have guided in the past until I got burned out a bit, but feel that the state really needs to make a boating license mandatory for anyone operating a boat. I don't see it happening for financial reasons because they do not have enough game wardens to enforce the number of violations they would have nor the financial means to keep them on the water at all times. I know game wardens now that are only allowed so much fuel each month and when they run out they are pretty much done for the month. I fished Galveston bay this weekend and every boat on the water was pretty much drifting the same reef, at any given time during the drift you could pretty much cast in any direction and hit another boat. For the most part it was orderly and somewhat organized, go upwind drop your troll motor, throw out your drift sock and drift through, then you have your 2-3 boats that try to pull in on the middle of the reef or no troll motor or drift sock and blow right through everyone's drift. Fall fishing isn't much different, you can have 5 or 6 boats following a set of birds everyone picking up a few fish then you have that one boat that runs up in the middle of them and scatters the birds and fish makes 2 casts starts back up and runs to the next group of birds.

It's not all that different at the lakes either, I was fishing a brush pile on Rayburn for crappie that I had been limiting out on every Friday through Sunday for 2 months several years back. Had a boat pull up and tell me I was on their brush pile and I said ok, they said they put it there and I said well you did a good job. So then they anchored up next to me which their anchor didn't hold and ended up dragging up one of the 4 trees that was there. They had the spot marked with a chlorox bottle so after listening to them for about 30 minutes while I caught my limit I made sure I accidentally snagged the string the chlorox bottle was tied to and had to cut it to get my jig back. Never seen those guys on that spot again. A one ounce bullet weight makes a god awful noise when it hits the side of a fiberglass or aluminum boat while anchored up bass fishing on a point and boats start motoring around you after catching a fish. On Lake Conroe one time I even had a jet ski try to idle between me and the bank one time and thought it was funny when he got hung up on the shallow rocks I was casting too.

So it doesn't matter what body of water you go too there are always going to be idiots that think every spot is theirs or you are catching their customers fish or look how shallow my boat will go.

[snappertapper]

Years ago there were a couple guides in Baffin that thought they owned the areas around well known running lanes. They would have their clients wade on both sides of it, and when you were courteous enough to idle through them (when you are supposed to hit these lanes on plane) they would flip chit. GW put a pretty quick end to that after a couple of phone calls.

[bowhntrmatt]

Me and a buddy were in Port A a few years ago flounder gigging one night. I was walking along minding my business and one of these complete A Holes came up on me from behind in his airboat and his bright lights. I stood my ground but he went around me and then cut back I front of me about 10 feet. Then throttled up and almost blew me over. I said a few "very nice things" about his mother and such but he couldn't hear me. Same thing. Looked like he had a "client" on the boat. I just hate rudeness."

I was on a guided gigging trip one night and the guide ran us right up into some guys walking and gigging. It was a little awkward. We literally could have high-fives the guys walking. I didn't like it too much, but I'm not about to tell a guide how to do his job.

[BigFoot]

Noone has respect for kayak fisherman. Hell we purposely picked an area with low traffic and we still had boats flying by over our lines and about 50 foot from us. Didn't even slow down, nothing. People have no common decency anymore.

[Mike Javi Cooper]

It's amazing what a 4 pound ball peen hammer will do to a stainless prop..

[nimrodajh]

I can remember the days of actually being able to wade fish in waist deep water and not have to worry about getting ran over. Fishermen ran big heavy deep v boats and couldn't get any shallower than about 3 feet, now the boating industry has changed and people have migrated to buying 50k plus dollar boats that will draft in 6" of water and run even shallower. It's becoming the new standard so we will have to get used to it. People go out and book a guide that pulls this kind of crap like you experienced then his customers go out and buy a similar boat and does the same things that they learned from the guide and think it is normal.

I have a coast guard license and have guided in the past until I got burned out a bit, but feel that the state really needs to make a boating license mandatory for anyone operating a boat. I don't see it happening for financial reasons because they do not have enough game wardens to enforce the number of violations they would have nor the financial means to keep them on the water at all times. I know game wardens now that are only allowed so much fuel each month and when they run out they are pretty much done for the month. I fished Galveston bay this weekend and every boat on the water was pretty much drifting the same reef, at any given time during the drift you could pretty much cast in any direction and hit another boat. For the most part it was orderly and somewhat organized, go upwind drop your troll motor, throw out your drift sock and drift through, then you have your 2-3 boats that try to pull in on the middle of the reef or no troll motor or drift sock and blow right through everyone's drift. Fall fishing isn't much different, you can have 5 or 6 boats following a set of birds everyone picking up a few fish then you have that one boat that runs up in the middle of them and scatters the birds and fish makes 2 casts starts back up and runs to the next group of birds.

It's not all that different at the lakes either, I was fishing a brush pile on Rayburn for crappie that I had been limiting out on every Friday through Sunday for 2 months several years back. Had a boat pull up and tell me I was on their brush pile and I said ok, they said they put it there and I said well you did a good job. So then they anchored up next to me which their anchor didn't hold and ended up dragging up one of the 4 trees that was there. They had the spot marked with a chlorox bottle so after listening to them for about 30 minutes while I caught my limit I made sure I accidentally snagged the string the chlorox bottle was tied to and had to cut it to get my jig back. Never seen those guys on that spot again. A one ounce bullet weight makes a god awful noise when it hits the side of a fiberglass or aluminum boat while anchored up bass fishing on a point and boats start motoring around you after catching a fish. On Lake Conroe one time I even had a jet ski try to idle between me and the bank one time and thought it was funny when he got hung up on the shallow rocks I was casting too.

So it doesn't matter what body of water you go too there are always going to be idiots that think every spot is theirs or you are catching their customers fish or look how shallow my boat will go.

You pretty much nailed it all the way around, but especially the last part!

[justletmein]

Seems pretty much par for the course now days, guides and tournaments seem to think what they're doing is more important than common courtesy. Throw in the googans who just don't have a clue and you've got a mix of frustration trying to fish on a weekend.

[justletmein]

I was on a guided gigging trip one night and the guide ran us right up into some guys walking and gigging. It was a little awkward. We literally could have high-fives the guys walking. I didn't like it too much, but I'm not about to tell a guide how to do his job.

I would have left him a note instead of a tip.