By Gary Harlan
My second career as a fishing guide on the Tennessee River began in 2006, and I have been doing (and still loving) it ever since. You start this job (guiding) to make a living doing what you love and loving what you do, but there’s another side to it. The fishing is yoked equally with company you keep whilst sharing a boat for 8-10 hours.
Imagine if you will, being locked in a room with people you may not know very well all day long, a small room (12 feet x 12 feet or 144 square feet). Now imagine being cooped up in a 100-square-foot boat all day. You learn to enjoy people, making new acquaintances and reconnecting with old ones. I still fish with some of the same folks I started fishing with in 2006. I know a guide who still has his first customer, and they are still fishing together, going on 40 years now. The guiding business is about the experience that the customer has while with you and the relationship that’s developed.
Guides must have the mentality and the faith that they (everyone on the boat) are going to have a good time regardless of the fish biting. Those experiences are what I want to share with you: the good, bad, and more times than not, the comical.
First Fish…
Jake was 11 or so, had spent a lot of time trying unsuccessfully to catch something in the local subdivision lake. He was really fired up about fishing and was dying to catch something (anything that bites at this point—they are DESPERATE). This was the information related to me by his parents prior to the trip (no pressure). Spring break was here, and the family had rented a cabin for the week and booked me for a full-day fishing trip. We agreed to take two ½-day trips and mix it up with mom, dad and sisters. Jake was ready to say the least!
I picked him, dad and older sister up and headed out. He had his fishing hat, shirt, gloves, tackle box and pole, at this point I knew he was serious, and he was a man on a mission. The fishing angels were kind to the family because there were still some big bluegills on the bed in a few of the creeks. While getting the boat into position and anchored, I went through our plan of attack and how we were going to work the plan and any emergency (bathroom or otherwise) that came up. Jake figured it out quick, as did his sister. His face when caught his first fish was priceless (see pic) and a big step in his journey through life. He wanted to hold the fish, take the hook out, let them go… the whole shebang. Sister on the other hand, just wanted to catch them and let me do the rest.
There’s a milestone in every young man’s life when you realize squeezing a bull bream just right will produce a long stream of fish pee and if aimed towards your older sister you can hear her scream repeatedly. While all this is going on, poor dad can’t get a bite to save his life. The older sister begins to tell dad how he is doing everything wrong and what he needs to be doing in triplicate. Dad looks at me and shrugs and smiles and says, “She’s right you know.” I got a nice text from the family once they got home, Jake had finally captured some fish in the local lake and was so proud. I was too!
Can anyone ever really weigh the true value of that first fish? I doubt it, and I know Jake agrees.
(Capt.Gary L. Harlan, Tishomingo, Miss., is a guide with Roger Stegall’s Professional Guide Service and can be reached by calling 901.413.2650.)
