WOMEN’SOUTDOORSNEWS January 2014
FISHING
What a catch!
The 7 Deadly
Sins, or how
not to guide
an angler
By Kathryn Maroun
I’m sure that you have made offers
in life that you never expected the
person to actually take you up on.
“Here take it, you should have the
last piece of cake. I insist.”
Then you are in shock and upset
when the person takes you up on
your hollow offer. The delight of a
great fishing run is a lot like cake –
always leaves you wanting more.
Nothing will upset an angler more
than having someone else mess
with his water, even if they seemingly
have had their fill.
I politely offer guides a pass at the
pool, but I never expect them to take
me up on my offers. Sometimes they
do. And this prompts me to ask this
question: Should a guide get a
chance to fish his sports’ water?
Whether guides can fish depends on
many variables: river rules, licensing
rules, and lodge rules. But if all of
those are OK, then it depends on
your relationship with the guide.
Richard Adams — a good guide!
A lot of fishermen become guides
because they love to fish. In my
opinion, and with experience from
both sides of that equation, I think
that it muddies the waters and can
turn an otherwise successful fishing
day on its ear when guides fish their
sports’ water.
It’s a case of you can’t have your
cake and eat it, too. Fishing is fishing
and guiding is guiding. Pick one!
I love guiding and I love fishing, but
never the two shall mix. Personally, I
think that it is better not to be the
person poling the boat. But if you are
the guide and not the sport, you
Photo courtesy of Kathryn Maroun
“It’s a case of you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. Fishing
is fishing and guiding is guiding. Pick one!”
should try not to commit any of
didn’t know is that I’d asked my
the 7 Deadly Sins that can lead to the cameraman to quietly mark his outing
demise of a guiding career.
with the guide on our GPS. With
confidence, the next morning my
crew and I retraced the route and –
just as they had done with the guide
the day before – filmed me landing a
Lust is an intense desire for money,
fish of note after a handful of casts. I
food, fame, or power.
wish I could have seen the look on
I remember shooting the pilot for my the guide’s face when the series
aired featuring me with the big fish
series, What A Catch!, in the
that he lusted after. I would never hire
Highlands of Cape Breton on a
that guide again.
storied Atlantic salmon river. Fishing
was tough (as usual) all week, and I
hadn’t landed a fish. My husband told On the other hand, I’ve had great
me not to come home until I got a fish experiences fishing with wellintentioned guides who put me in the
on camera. Desperate and out of
hot spot on day one. With a fish on
time, the guide and I split up to
camera, the pressure is off, and
double the chances of getting the
everything else after that becomes
footage.
gravy. It’s a win-win situation.
The local guides know the hot spots.
That’s why