Fishing Guides vs Fishing Charters: What’s the Difference?
Last Updated on September 5, 2024 by Boatsetter Team
Should you go fishing with a guide, or is booking a charter the better move? What’s the difference, in the first place?
Whether you want to go deep sea fishing or schedule a day on some secluded river with a fly fishing guide, if you’ve never paid to go fishing with a pro you may not be sure if hiring a guide or booking a fishing charter is the better way to go. And truth be told there’s no dictionary definitions that make it easy to understand the potential differences. In fact, many people use the terms “guide” and “charter” interchangeably and there are plenty of captains out there who might call themselves a guide one day and a charter captain the next. That said, there are some specifics that people can use to distinguish between the two to some degree.
What is a Fishing Guide Versus a Charter?
Let’s get the obvious out of the way right up front: both fishing guides and fishing charters are taking other people out fishing, for a fee. Generally speaking, fishing guides tend to run smaller boats, take fewer people, and usually work alone. Some take just one or two anglers for specialized experiences, like flats fishing on a skiff or fly fishing in a river from a drift boat. Many run relatively small aluminum fishing boats in lakes or inshore fishing boats in bays, often with up to four passengers. But there are also plenty of guides running larger boats which can carry up to six anglers.
Charters, on the other hand, can include USCG-inspected boats which are rated for far more customers. Many can handle groups of a dozen or two, and rather than being 20-something-foot boats they may be 50 feet, 60 feet, or even larger. Any boat rated to carry more than six passengers is generally called a charter. And as a rule of thumb these larger operations usually have a mate or sometimes multiple mates who help run the boat and set the fishing gear.
What does all this boil down to? While there’s plenty of overlap between guides and charters, as a general rule of thumb guides provide a more hands-on fishing experience. You’ll get the captain’s help, knowledge, and experience, but you’ll still be the one doing the casting and figuring out the right retrieve. At the other end of the spectrum, on large charter boats with big parties aboard the captain and mates will usually get the gear set or bait the hooks and call you in to reel up the fish after it’s already on the line. As a result, dedicated recreational anglers who want to learn just as much as they want to actually catch a fish will opt for booking a guide. But people who don’t fish very often or groups going out for celebrations or team-building excursions will commonly go the charter route.
Remember that all captains, regardless of whether they consider themselves guides or charters, must be licensed by the Coast Guard in order to take paying customers out on a boat. The most common license, called a “six pack,” allows for up to six passengers. So, many guides and/or charters will be limited to that number of paying customers regardless of the boat’s size or type.
Speaking of paying customers: the cost of a fishing charter is often going to be higher, and sometimes much higher, than hiring a guide. Larger boats have more maintenance and operational costs, so they charge more. Plus, remember that it’s good form to tip a fishing guide as well as a charter captain and the mates, so the “sticker price” of a fishing trip is just the starting point.
Which is Best for You: Fishing guides or Fishing Charters
If you have some experience fishing, love the sport, and want to become a better angler, hiring a guide is probably the best bet. Take a few trips with a good guide and you should be able to learn enough to get some appropriate gear, rent a fishing boat, and hit the water with a reasonable chance of catching a fish or two whenever you’d like.
If, on the other hand, you’ve never been fishing before and want to get an initial exposure to how things work, a charter might be a better move since it allows you to watch without having any real responsibilities or impact on whether fish get caught or not. It’s also a better move for large groups that may include people with different experience levels, or for groups that may have goals for the trip which don’t really revolve around fishing itself.
Most important of all is remembering that many of the pros out there straddle the lines between guide and charter. Some are more flexible than others and will tailor specific trips to meet the client’s preferences. The real key to having a successful, satisfying trip is to communicate with the captain prior to booking and get a good feel for whether or not they provide the type of experience you’re looking for.
With over three decades of experience in marine journalism, Lenny Rudow has contributed to dozens of boating and fishing publications and websites ranging from BoatU.S. Magazine to BDOutdoors.com. Rudow is currently the Angler in Chief at Rudow’s FishTalk, he is a past president of Boating Writers International (BWI), a graduate of the Westlawn School of Yacht Design, and has won numerous BWI and OWAA writing awards.
