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Angling Publications - Index

Angling Publications - Magazine - Index

10
You wake up one morning and realize that it’s happened
to you: You’ve confused having a job with having a life.
You spend every day chained to your desk dreaming about
getting paid to do something you actually enjoy. You’d give
anything to be on that Montana river, a boat off the coast, or
the banks of that farm pond casting flies to whatever swims
there. You’ve hired a professional guide before, so you know
what they do. Now that’s living! Think of it: You’re your own
boss. You take newbies out, give them a few quick casting
tips, and put them on fish. You spend every “working” day
on the water. How hard could that be?
The guide’s life might just be harder than you think.
Captain Tommy Mattioli (www.matty-j.com) usually meets
his clients at the marina in Hampton around 7:00 AM. They
throw their gear on the boat, listen to a short safety talk,
and head out for a day of fishing the productive waters of
the Chesapeake Bay. It all looks so effortless—and Mattioli
has been up for several hours working hard to make it look
so. While his clients were fast asleep, he was driving to the
marina. While they were still eating breakfast he was warming
up the boat, setting up the gear, stocking the cooler with
ice and snacks, and heading out on the water early to cast
his gill net for a few bunker in case his clients can’t manage
a fly rod on a moving platform in high wind. This is also
why he preps a full set of spinning gear on his fly trips:
Guides never really know what the client can do with a fly
rod until they see him or her cast. “Casting a 9-weight with
a weighted line into a headwind is very different from cast-
ing a 4-weight on an open trout stream,” Mattioli confides.
When the day’s fishing is done and the party heads back
to the dock, the client’s day is over. Mattioli’s work, however,
goes on. He cleans the customers’ fish, cleans the boat, and
preps for tomorrow’s trip. “I love being a guide,” says Mattioli,
“but it’s a lot of work. When all is said and done, I put
in plenty of 14-hour days.”
Captain Tony Harding of Latitude Chartersalso guides on
the Chesapeake Bay (www.flyfishtidalva.com) and has seen
it all. “It takes a lot of experience to be a good guide; and not
all of that experience is positive.” Harding remembers one
trip last fall when he took an outdoor writer and one of his
friends out for a day of striper fishing. The fog was as thick as
pea soup and hung around until the afternoon—very unusual,
Harding insists. When the fog did lift in mid afternoon, the
bite was on. The clients quickly brought more than half a
dozen stripers to hand, one over 26 inches long. Yes, it seemed
as though their luck had turned and all was well.
“I looked up toward the bow,” Harding recalls, “and realized
that the outdoor writer was gone. I found him treading
water, clutching my bow line with one hand and my fly rod
with the other. I bit my lip to keep from laughing because it
was 52 degrees outside and he was up to his armpits in frigid
water. Needless to say, our fishing was done for the day. It was
a real shame, too, because the fish had just turned on.”
Freshwater guides have plenty of their own tales of woe:
Customers who fall out of driftboats or who show up with
their gear completely disassembled—no line on their reel,
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