Haven’t done much guided big game hunting as I am lucky to have had a father that taught me to hunt and to live in a place where game is plentiful. Same with fishing, but I’ve paid for a fishing guide and will do so again, and this is no different than big game hunting. I can generally catch fish wherever I go, but when I went to New Zealand I was very happy to have a guide and I tipped him well. A similar situation came up last summer on the Harriman (Railroad Ranch) section of the Henry’s Fork of the Snake River. The previous summer I fished there and did okay, but this is some of the best and most difficult fly fishing in the world. Last summer my wife and I booked a guided day and it was one of our best fishing days ever. We didn’t realize when we booked that we would be with John McDaniel, who literally wrote the book on fishing this stretch. What we learned in our 8 hours with him was incredible…doubt we could have ever learned it on our own no matter how much we fished there. Point being that we can always learn more, and we will never have the local knowledge that only a long time local can have. I am very happy that there are long time locals out there who are able and willing to share their knowledge of their particular trout or elk or kudu or whatever with us. Many of us here are accomplished hunters and fisherman, and there is no threat to our manliness in hiring a guide. Quite the opposite for those of us who are willing to set our egos aside so we can learn. So anyhoo, 20% or better seems right, all else being equal.
