Gene Miller Guide Service

ALL the guides on Rainy, Kab. Namakin that i’ve talked to. Years ago I paid for gas and a crankbait lost while trolling. Maybe the Mille Lacs guys who anchor up and drown a crawler don’t need to charge. I dunno.

Dutchboy wrote:

ALL the guides on Rainy, Kab. Namakin that i’ve talked to. Years ago I paid for gas and a crankbait lost while trolling. Maybe the Mille Lacs guys who anchor up and drown a crawler don’t need to charge. I dunno.

I think Chris Granrud started charging for gas. Probably why they now run from Tilson all the way to Kettle to catch their fish….50 miles round trip in a 2160 can’t be cheap.

A couple of guides are running from Kab and portaging through at Kettle Falls and fishing the east end of Rainy. When you are running 20+ foot boats with 300’s on them that adds up fast. I watched a guide fill his boat after a day guiding. His group went from the Ash River over to Kab. then up to Kettle Falls for lunch and they fished their way back. 29 gallons @ $4.00 a gallon.

Dutchboy wrote:

ALL the guides on Rainy, Kab. Namakin that i’ve talked to. Years ago I paid for gas and a crankbait lost while trolling. Maybe the Mille Lacs guys who anchor up and drown a crawler don’t need to charge. I dunno.

Perhaps it is just differences in locales, regions, traditions? This is not an argument I am trying have with you, just curious…I am not familiar with guide expectations or protocols up on Rainy, Kab, and Namakan regions. Other than Gene Miller who trolls the entire trip and does not charge extra for gas, the only other guide I have had out on Mille Lacs was Steve Scepaniak who is also a muskie guide and we basically did run’n’gun fishing all day who also did not charge extra for gas.
Come to think of it, I have never had a walleye guide. (Perhaps I should?)
Years back when I lived in Wisconsin I had a number of muskie guides I went out with and none of them charged for gas or the somewhat expensive sucker minnows. One notable difference though was that it was the expectation that the client bought or provided the lunch for the guide. Not sure if that is still the case but I learned that it was clearly a regional tradition perhaps exclusive to the Wisconsin muskie guides. First time I learned that many years ago with a buddy and I went out and the guide was asking about lunch as we were eating our own sandwiches in the boat. We had no clue ’til later and it did make for an embarrassing experience.

The reason I ask is because the well known GB guides are up to between $500 and $575 for an 8 hour trip for 2. Some have a fuel surcharge that might add up to another $100. This is for 8 hours from dock to dock I was told. After you add a tip you could have from $350 to $400 per man in a guided trip. That is getting pricy.

2 of the best guide services on Rainy get $375 and $425 plus gas and bait. Both claim 8 hours of fishing. I’m guessing when you add it all up the Rainy guides are not alot less than GB guides. The scenery is better in VNP.

I have taken 2 guides on Mille Lacs, both walleye guys and both were gifts to me(maybe that was a hint) so I don’t know cost. Neither of them asked for gas money or bait money. One of them, Aaron Mcquiod, did say he would give me a “secret spot” if I bought him lunch at their resort. Lucky for him I was very hungry so I took him up on that. I honestly have never heard of guides charging for gas and bait. To me that is part of the package…

sticker wrote:

I honestly have never heard of guides charging for gas and bait. To me that is part of the package…

x2.

-J.

sticker wrote:

I honestly have never heard of guides charging for gas and bait. To me that is part of the package…

Me 3…

To me a guide is going to be better motivated to get you into fish closer to your AO than take you clear across a 14 mile lake to his one honey hole…

Gene had us into a 38″ Pike right out front of our resort. In less than 15 minutes. Not 28 gallons later.

I think it is more of a regional thing. I’ve used guide in FL that are pretty much running $100/hour… So if you are taking to 6 hour trips, that’s a pretty good day… and we tipped him a hundy to boot!!! After fishing with him for many years, if he wasn’t booked for the day, he’d pretty much take us the entire day for that. Then we’d book him on the other side of the weekend, because if you were tarpon fishing with him, you basically were prefishing for the weekends tourneys… Now, in FL and some areas up here, you are fishing Capt.’s, so there is another expense for them. Gas and bait… in most cases you are involved catching the bait at the beginning of the day.

In the Midwest, I’ve really felt that they were underselling themselves. If they are paying for the same insurance and gas and have a decent fishery (i.e., Miss. R., GB, St. Louis River, etc.), then a $175 trip is just plain nuts and if the dude puts you on that great fishery, then you outta shell out a very nice tip!!! Never been charged for gas and bait, but do know that bait can be paid for by the client. At $6.00 to $9.00 per sucker minnow in the fall, that’s not real surprising.

In my area of N. WI as well as many N. MN lakes, there is not a need for the Captain’s license, so the average that I am aware of is typically $350 for the full day.

Mark