More than five years ago I began guiding for Bay Flats Lodge in Seadrift. I joined a team of around seven guides who had been working for the Lodge for a minimum of three years each. The Lodge had virtually no turnover for guides and this was a very tight group. My parents had always taught me it was better to keep your mouth shut and your head down and simply do your job, especially when coming into a situation where you were the newbie. I had a tremendous amount of respect for these guides and over the years I have been a full time guide with them, that respect has not diminished. Most of those original guides are actually still here guiding every day and doing what they have always done very well, which is entertaining the customer and putting them on fish of a lifetime. That’s a pretty good track record no matter what you do for a living and I’m proud to say that I am one of the team members at the premier fishing and duck hunting lodge on the Gulf Coast!
One of the very first lessons I learned was that you need to adjust to the wind and the weather in order to keep the customers on the fish. A trip where you don’t catch keeper fish happens once or twice a year, but to work at this lodge and to stay booked in the future you must put the customers on the fish the majority of the time. There is no room for getting skunked in this business. Your fellow guides and the lodge ownership, while always there to help you solve problems, will not tolerate less than a good catch and happy customers – which are not mutually exclusive. A first class lodge with a reputation to uphold means we all must work together to resolve problems on the water. If a guide falls short, you can bet other guides are on the phone with them or texting information and trying to pull them up and ‘coach’ them up. With the full force of the lodge behind every guide, every customer has the best chance to be on the fish.
So what is this idea of adjusting to the wind and the weather all about? Experience is the best way to put it, but how do you get that experience if you don’t have years of time on the water? We help one another to think about what we are going to do, where we are going to go, and what has worked in the past. Then once out on the water, we are on the phone discussing locations – and the earlier in the day the better. Why would we be bouncing back and forth ideas and information? The goal of everyone (guides, owners, staff, customers) is to have the best information we can get and share what is working. Even more important perhaps, is to share what isn’t working. That is customer service at its best, especially when you consider each guide is putting his own success at risk by sharing vital catching information with the others, just to ensure the success of everyone to be sure all customers have a good chance at catching the most fish possible.
When the norther has pushed through and the wind is blowing 30 plus mph for more than eight or so hours, you can expect that the water has been pushed from the North shoreline to the South shoreline and that the lakes on the island around here are filling up with water and wind blown bait! Find a way to safely brave the bay and get to where you think the bait may be trapped against a shoreline. The redfish will probably be hanging out there taking advantage of the helpless critters being pounded by the wind.
Dodging thunderstorms is not easy, but really it is easy! Today’s smartphones are your second best source of information – the first being your own eyes. If you see a black cloud bearing down on you and it’s obvious there is impending trouble on your horizon, then take cover. Don’t assume you can avoid it all with a rain suit. Aside from that use any of the variety of apps on your phone just like we do and check the radar! Personally, I use myRadar but the other guides use different apps which are really helpful because one app may not be showing what is really happening while another tells you to take cover now!
Common sense always supersedes all others, but with a combination of information from your buddies, your phone, and your own eyes it is possible to smack some really good fish ahead of cold fronts, between thunderstorms and during less than perfect weather out on the salt water!
Stay safe, have fun and don’t take it too seriously, and you will not only find plenty of fish for the table, but you may also catch that personal best fish or maybe help a fishing buddy do the same and make memories that last a lifetime.
Capt Stephen Boriskie, Bay Flats Lodge, Seadrift, Texas 512.589.1916
