Choosing Guides for New Fishing Reports Section Coming to Penn’s Outdoors

We’ll soon be starting a weekly fishing reports post. It will, over time, provide some of the most comprehensive information on what’s biting across Pennsylvania. The page will have primarily two sources. One will be links to other pages that compile fishing reports from various sources. The second will be actual reports from guides and other sources that contribute directly to Penn’s Outdoors.

I thought that I should share with you some of the criteria that we’ll be using to select guides and sources for our reports. So, here are our guiding principles for selecting our reports’ sources.

1. Guides must appear honest. I know many guides who post that are always catching boat loads. While guides generally fish better than the rest of us, they don’t always catch a lot of fish. So, these reports will not be over-hyped infomercials for their business.

2. Guides must share information that is specific enough to at least help you prepare for your next trip. I do not expect them to give up their secret sports but their posts should be education enough that even those who choose not to fish with them can benefit from the post. I understand why some guides are very secretive. They have a tough business. At minimum, they should share the baits that were effective on that outing.

3. Guides may promote their sponsors as long as they acknowledge their relationship with the company. Being a pro-staff member is critical to a guide as it allows them to get discounted or even free equipment and tackle. In some cases, it also helps to provide some financial stability. So, reports will be allowed with plugs for their sponsors’ products.

4. Guides and sources must have a general level of respect from the angling community. I typically have a good idea whether someone is providing a generally quality service. This certainly doesn’t mean that a guide has to 100% satisfaction to list a report here. Everyone has customers who weren’t satisfied but the general respect level has to be there. But to be include in these report

5. Guides must support selective harvest or catch-and-release principles. While most guides do this as far as whether they keep fish or not, these principles also include proper handling techniques of fish in photos. You can read more about this in my article on selective harvest.

At this point, I only have one guide that I have selected so far. L.D. Guide Service provides a great example of a guide that meets all of these principles. Here is a fishing report from L.D. with some comments from me.

Went fishing today with Bhman and his buddy M. The sky was overcast, the river was dirty/dark stained and 68-71 degrees. Post spawn. The morning really sucked, (can I say that), I mean there just wasn’t any other word for it. I was high man with 5 fish by noon and I was trying it all. The afternoon was kinder to us and we ended up with 54 fish, all smallies except for 2 walleyes and 2 rock bass.

Principle #1 - I appreciate the honesty here. A half day trip with L.D. would’ve had a tough go of it. I also like that L.D. includes the actual count of fish they caught as well as the species. Many guides don’t keep track, and rock bass or panfish end up in the final tally. Nothing wrong with that as long as that is disclosed.

The fish were caught on Alluring Baits Trick Sticks and LD spinner baits.

Principle #2 - While L.D. is not walking you through every step of how to fish these baits, he is pointing you in the right direction as to where to start your bait selection.

The fish scored one when M put his rod down to use a different rod. His 3″ Trick Stick lure went in the water about a foot down and the boat was in about 5ft. All of the sudden a really big fish hit that lure and took his rod off the boat and down river the same way the boat was floating. M made a dive for the rod and Bhman dove for M thinking he was about to go over. The whole deal lasted about 5 seconds. Wasn’t funny at the time, but we joked about it later. We could hear M’s wife when he tells her he needs another rod and reel. “But Honey, aren’t you supposed to hang on to the rod when a fish bites?” I love this job, something new every day!

Principle #5 - Great hold here on this nice smallmouth bass. I have not fished with L.D. but if this is what he is teaching his clients, kudos to him. This fish has no chance of jaw injury due to straight vertical hold.