By Aaron Kephart
This is probably going to be the quickest fishing report I have ever written because the fishing on Apalachia and Hiwassee in July will be even hotter than the weather, and also because I have something a little different I would like to write about today. We are blessed to have such incredible fisheries in the Murphy area, and believe it or not, July can be an extremely productive month on these bodies of water.
Now, letâs move on to the other thing I wanted to talk about this month. I recently booked my own guided trip for redfish in the Gulf for later this summer, and that experience got me thinking about how I personally hire a guide. There are so many of them nowadays, and the process of weeding through websites and Facebook pages (all guides seem to have both nowadays) can be a little daunting, and sometimes completely unproductive. Every good guide has their strengths and weaknesses, and a good one isnât cheap. With that in mind, here are my 3 tips for choosing a guide.
1. Ask local tackle shops for recommendations. This is the old fashioned way of doing things, but these folks can tell you more than websites and Facebook pages. I personally contacted a few in the area I plan on fishing this summer, and the same name continued to come up. I hired that individual. If the guide is a good fisherman and respected in the local fishing community, the local tackle shops will know about, and recommend, him. Two great resources for recommendations in Murphy are Murphy Building Supply (they have one heck of a tackle store) and Howardâs Bait and Tackle (really close to the lake and a convenient place for picking up live bait).
2. Make sure they actually catch what they say. The proof is in the pudding, so to speak. If someone advertises trophy smallmouth, make sure they can provide you with recent pictures of real, true trophy smallmouth. If they advertise trophy trout, I want to see pictures of some trophy trout. If they claim to catch boatloads of walleye, show me a picture of a bunch of people holding up a bunch of walleye. Itâs the same for any other species. I personally requested pictures from a year before my trip to see what I could realistically expect to catch.
3. Listen to what the guide has to say, even if it isnât necessarily what you want to hear. This one has cost me a lot of money over the years. I personally lose a lot of trips because I am always going to be upfront and extremely honest with my potential clients, particularly new ones. As an example, I lost a couple trips last August because I had people calling wanting to go walleye fishing, and I told them that time of year was really tough for walleye (basically just hours of deep trolling and hoping), but that I could put them on some big smallmouth, stripers, or trout instead. They declined, and went with someone else who told them âsure, I can put you on walleye.â They called me back after their trip to tell me that they hadnât caught any walleye, and that I was right. On the other side of the coin, I had a client a couple weeks ago who wanted to catch a smallmouth on a fly rod. We had the trip planned for quite some time, but a couple days before we went the weather took a turn and the smallmouth were not going to be on a shallow bite, so instead we went striper fishing on a different lake and had a ball catching 8 to 14 pounders on topwater plugs that morning. Know what you want to do, but remember that flexibility can be key.
If you are interested in the smallmouth and spotted Bass, brown trout, stripers, crappie and walleye of a lifetime, or just âwhatever is bitingâ, please give me a call. Hiwassee, Apalachia, and Chatuge are all red hot right now. I have fished these lakes for over 30 years, and I love showing them off. Please call me at 865-466-1345 or email me at mtnlakesguide@outlook.com.
Aaron Kephart is the Owner of Mountain Lakes Guide Service serving Murphy Area Lakes.