The up's and down's of Professional Fishing

I have been going through many different emotions lately, the hot weather is coming the fishing is good and bad and the pressure mounts daily to become better at what you do. Your customers expect your undivided attention and sometimes the days are long and tedious.

Dealing will all this it seemed to be a good topic to put out there and let all those that have thought about getting into this professional fishing as a career some of my thoughts on the up’s and down’s. Let me first say that the reward’s from a personal standpoint of watching a big smile on a customer’s face when he or she catches a wall hanger is just priceless. Having said that it is not all glory and certainly not all bad but on a day to day basis you deal with all kinds of different personalities, all kinds of different expectation, and sometimes you produce and sometimes you don’t. Some people let you off the hook and some express their dissatisfaction. Wow! All that plus you can’t really make a living unless you are blessed with other options for income as the expenses of boats, equipment and fuel are just out of sight.

The question then remains why some of us do this! The answer is pretty simple for me I love to be with people, I love to fish and the joy over whelms the bad days. Yes, I get tired some days, I get off the water and wonder how will I ever get back at it the next day? The heat drains your energy; your body is sore but at some time during that day there was a point where that big smile or that one fish made it all worth it. All I can say is if you love the sport, cherish the pride around fishing and helping people gain that big smile and want to spread the gospel of fishing, then it might be for you the gift it is for me!