Is this normal?

So my little brother is in town from A&M and we have been chasing em hard every weekend. He and his buddies were trying to line up a little guided hunt together before they all had to go their separate ways next week. So he calls me and asks me if I think he should go. We talk about it and he decides he's going. Last night he calls me and tells me the guide went and checked out his Facebook and since he has some pictures of some solid hunts he can't join them because the guide is scared he will come back and hunt his spot (public I am assuming).

I have been duck hunting for 11 years and have never heard of this.

I know how secretive you have to be when hunting public water, I cut my teeth on public. But these days with google earth and every other barney having a mud boat there's really not any "secret spots" anymore. If you scout and find birds in a hole you better go hunt em because they won't be there long with all the pressure these lakes get. I guess these guys will only take extreme barneys and out of towners on public hunts?

To me this seems extremely unprofessional. What do you guys think? I know Cody Malone does quite a bit of guiding on public waters....what's your take Cody?

I've not been a guide or hunted public with a guide, but i'd say you're right, not normal or professional. Any client could go back to the spot you take them anytime you go public.

It's often recommended on here that newbies go with a guide simply to learn.

Amateur hour

I'd personally don't know why a guy would hire a guide that hunts public anyway...not counting the coast, that is a different animal all together.

I can see both sides of the deal. I do think if you're going to guide on public that is the risk you take.

Judd, I agree....when we were discussing it we didn't know it was public....

Would never pay to hunt public unless it was maybe at the coast. And then still probably not. Plenty of blinds to go around....

[quote=Judd]I'd personally don't know why a guy would hire a guide that hunts public anyway...not counting the coast, that is a different animal all together.

I can see both sides of the deal. I do think if you're going to guide on public that is the risk you take.[/quote

Some people may want to "learn" how to actually hunt water instead of just shooting birds on a pond. It is a good idea for someone new to the game to learn how and what to look for.

So did all the buddies get excluded too, or just your brother? It's weird but at least they didnt just take the money and take them to a bad spot they dont care about.

I would think he would be more likely to take your bro on a guided hunt because he obviously has good spots of his own. Why would he want to go back to the 'guides' hole when he seems to be doing just fine.

Or maybe the guide is scared his spots aren't as good as your brothers and doesn't want to dissappoint. I doubt that though

No, the "guide" told them based off Facebook there was 2 guys he wouldn't take. That's a good point though about them not taking them to a bad spot but still seems pretty bush league....

Yeah, cuz we all know how difficult scouting can be...drop the elitist how tough it is to kill ducks on public bs. It boils down to who has time and money to spend scouting...we both know that is 90% of the key to killing birds on public. I hunted public before I went private...it's the beating of a jackass being able to screw up your hunt and time on the road that was my enemies. Not worth the aggravation to me...if you are hunting private correctly you still have to scout (assuming you have more than one hole), work at planting stuff, build and maintain blinds. It is all work just different kind of work.

I like this side of you, Judd

Not knocking you Judd, nothing personal, but no matter how much money someone spends buying a new mud rig, expensive decoys, Benelli shotguns, Blackcloud/Blindside shells, barrel stickers, and black hoodies some of those guys still need help with the "how to" part of it.

I am sure you figured it all out in your time on the water but some people may not have and would want a guide on public water.

For those that guide on public water, how to you handle the topwater factor? Setup some buffer lanterns around ya? Meet sports at the ramp after you get the X and set it all up?

I have seen some in action and it looks like sometimes they go set up decoys and stuff and come back to the ramp to pick clients up, I will not name names but seen it happen.
I do not like it or think it is right to do what they do and have no idea how they keep people from coming back. I have seen a few lakes get ruined by guides but they have as much right to it as us I guess.

I usually hunt other lakes when I see them around.

I didn't take it personal...but I will say you always throw little jabs out to the private guys and implying (in a very condesending way I might add) that you aren't a "real duck hunter" if you're gunning on private.

I can't say I figured it all out on my own. I had help from guys who I now consider some of my closest friends and two of them still kill a crap load of birds on public but don't get on here and thump their chest about it and degrade those who choose not to do the same thing they do. It's the old democrat way of thinking...if you don't do it my way then it isn't the way to do it.

To take the Aggies post one step further...I don't think TPWD should allow guides to hunt on public fresh water lakes. Don't take that as a worry because I don't have the time nor energy to push some agenda like that in Austin. But it wouldn't hurt my feelings if they did it and might free up some of the public hunting in the more metro areas...you could pool your money with everyone you know and it couldn't get me to walk in a spot within 1.5 hours of DFW. Society has changed and not for the better...very few people give a crap about others. My blood pressure can't handle it and it's suppose to be fun.

[color:#FFFF00]

I agree 100% about the guide deal and society. This actual forum is also a big part of the problem in todays society. I have been were your at and gave up public for years for the same reasons but mostly because I needed to raise my kids which are now almost 14 and 18 so I have time to play the game again, and have been loving it, my girls included. There are not too many hunts without kids anymore for me.
This forum is a place to have fun, and if I got pissed every time my name came up I would stayed pissed but I could care less.
Enjoy the last few days of season, I am hooking the boat up in 30 minutes and heading out myself.[/color[/color]]

What's this guides name

Tic toc tic toc man answer the question already.

biting tongue.

Flyway Freaks out of Jefferson Texas

Did the name of the outfitter not make anyone in the group stop for a minute? Maybe one of yall had a moment where you told the other one "I don't know about this outfit as the name might suggest something"? No?

Old SLick, Dead eye and Scout!

I tried looking at their facebook page, but couldn't read any of it with all those dang pound signs everywhere.

Looks like they can pile the birds though. Maybe I should book a hunt so I can get some new public spots.

yeh the nicknames should have been the indicator!

Hey, I don't need to book a hunt. I recognize two of their public spots.

GigEmAggies, you got a boat? I can give ya GPS coordinates to them. Beating them to their spot would be freakin' awesome...

ha yeh man that really would be! Unfortunately I don't have my own rig.....

Banded Pintail apparently equals - #thischangeseverything

now that's funny.

Also, death mask Fridays? Apparently I've been doing things wrong. #hashtag

Does their guided hunt come with a hat or a decal? This could change everything

I see lots of East Tx in those pics

I thought hashtags were twitter does gheybook do them too?

Hardcore

Yup....so does instaghey

Learn something new everyday....uuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh

"Hey, remember me?!"



I'll volunteer mine.

Cody is a good guy I call BS!!!

He's not saying Cody is the guy. He's asking Cody's advice since he guides on public lakes

I took a guide to hunt public and did it twice and plan to do it again. I used Lance Vick who I found on THF and he guides fork. The reason for me was because I wanted a bull can and he put us on them. I don't have a boat and used his expertise on that lake to get what I wanted.

I plan to also do the same for my trophy redhead on the coast.

Not everyone makes bank and can afford 20k boats and high dollar leases.

Lol, I bet Cody will not answer that question. I have ask many guides that hunt public (including Cody), how they keep clients from hunting their spots, and never got an answer. But I always suspected you basically pick and choose who you take, you take someone that most likely will not hunt your spot, probably they hunt once or twice a year, and don't have a boat, etc... Not someone that hunts 30 days a year.

And to your point about "there are no secrete spots", I see that comment a lot and it makes me laugh. Of course there are no secrete spots. You can look at a hunting map, and see where you can and cant hunt, so yeah no secrete spots, public information. But can I look at a hunting map and know where the ducks are? No, you got to scout it, that takes time and money. And you got to keep scouting because birds move with pressure. If a guide finds a spot holding birds, and the rest of the Barneys are not on to that spot yet, you can bet a guide is not going to just take anyone to that spot. Otherwise that guide is not very smart. He is going to take a client he can trust, or he knows does not have the means, or interest, in hunting this spot.

I'm just applying some common sense. Guiding on public lakes (especially high pressure areas) is a flawed business model. It should be illegal. Hunting land is scares these days, it should be for tax payers to enjoy, not for tax payers to exploit and profit from. JMO!!

So the guys who hire guides don't have to pay taxes? That's weird.

Yeah, that is weird, who said that?

This is what you can call a self-correcting problem. If you want to guide people on public water but won't guide people on public for fear of what they might do then you probably won't be a guide for too long if this is your primary source of income. If you can afford to do it for fun then more power to you. That is what America is all about. However, America is also all about modern technology too so word of your poor business plan will spread quickly. Good luck!

So you freely admit that the guides have to spend time, money, and effort to find the best spots to guide and then say they shouldn't be able to charge for it. Nice.

I guess guided fishing should be illegal too if it's on a public lake?

So I guess your saying that the taxpayers who hire the guides don't enjoy the time they spend hunting the public water with the guide?

Only thing I wish changed was for guides on public fresh water be regulated/licensed like saltwater.

There are still some secret holes out there. Especially with the weather patterns the last few years.

I don't see most guys hiring guides actually figuring out how to get back to most spots at least for morning hunts.

Had that happen before.. But I wasn't paying him and turns out he checked my Facebook and found out I use to know his wife

I bet that most guys on here would trade their wives for a good hunting spot.

No, that is not what I'm saying.

Shouldn't be able to sell it, is what I'm saying, on public lakes.


Public lakes can hold a lot more fisherman than duck hunters. You can pack fisherman in ontop of each other, can't do that with duck hunting.

I am on the other side of the fence as most on this board. I am not against guides on public. There are people that have to hire a guide. If guides were not allowed, some people would get left behind at no fault of their own. The most gripe I see is about bad behavior on the guide's part. So I say deal with the bad behavior, not ban all the guides.

then you make no sense

There are definitely no "secrete" spots....whether or not there are any "secret" spots is up for debate! Just giving you a hard time Guy!

I agree. You got to get out there and scout. No two ways about it. What I am getting at is with Google earth etc. any yahoo with half a brain can study a lake before they get there and figure out spots they want to check. They can pull their phone out and use the GPS to get them to the hole....THAT is what I mean by no secret spots anymore.

I thought I had secret spots until I found a 5000 year old arrowhead there.

x2.

First of all I don't think you'll ever get a ban on public for guides. I could be wrong.

Second of all this is the same mentality as anti-gun people. You get a couple bad apples and someone wants to take away our rights. We got a long history of people making a living or a second income on public water (salty and sweet) why try to take it away.

pocket knife Jesus has spoken, and I now see the light

Good Lord almighty!! All this time I tought "Ward you were really hard on the Beaver last night" was the dirtiest thing ever said on public television. You just took to a whole different battleground.

To say that guides shouldn't charge for public land is silly.

People pay to do things, or to have things done simply because they can't, or don't have the equipment to do it.

People pay others to fix their vehicles....they could do it their self, but may not have the knowledge how to do it.

People pay others to do tractor work...they could do it their self, but not everybody has a tractor.

People pay others for tutors...they use what they learn.

None of this is different than hiring a guide on public.

Some want the "know how," others don't have a boat, others just want your spot.

All part of the game we play.



To answer your question, no I wouldn't say this is normal behavior of a guide, but if it's how he runs his business and has great success, then by all means he has the right to cancel that hunt. He may be extremely successful simply because of the way he runs things. This clearly shows that the guide isn't out just trying to make an easy buck.

Perfectly said. We wouldn't want to offend anyone or make them mad. A couple of examples from history come to mind of one group of people that have taken the rights of others away just because they don't agree with it. I didn't know liberals duck hunted.