When I first read your comments the first thing that came to mind for me was
guiding. I have the advantrage in haivng a helped a friend (Dave Willihide
of Goin Fishin Productions) build up a guide business.

YOU WILL NOT GET RICH GUIDING.

You might be able to get by on it if you have your major bills paid or have
another income.

It is like any business. You have to take care of business. That means
advertising, promoting, selling. I don't mean posting a few notices int eh
local tackel shops. I mean being willing to share information in the hopes
that people will appreciate it and come back to hire you. It means spending
days on end making notices and fliers and pamphlets. It means getting
somebody with real graphic arts talent to help you make your stuff standout.
It means getting permission to put your notices in restaurants, chamber of
commerce offices, RV parks, and other places where people who are interested
will really find them.

Also, one of the fishing rags had a good article recently on proffessional
guides. There were a couple things they suggested very strongly suggested.
Don't tournament fish if you guide. Don't fish when you take clients
fishing. Hmmm... That soubnds counter to what you want. I'm not saying
you can't do those things. Dave tournament fishes and he is usually in the
top ten. He has had mostly satisfied clients.

Now lets look at the busines end of it. Whne I first started helping Dave
promote he was getting one trip a month on avergae. It has taken almost a
year and a half, and now he get three or four a month, and if he wanted to
give up tournament fishing and his day job he might be able to book about 8
per month. He spent abotu a year trying to build it before. Now I admit
the Sonoran Desert in Southwest Arizona is not exactly what most folks think
of as an ideal fishing area, but it works for a guideline for my purposes.
Roughly 2 1/2 years to get to a point where he could survive off his guide
service. You live in a stronger fishing area, and you have lots of
connection so you might be able to do it a little faster, but...

There are some benefits to running a guide service. (if appropriately
licensed) Lots of tackle companies have guides and captains programs that
will get you a substantial discount on products. This may include tackle
and products you could never pick up as sponsors as a straight tournament
angler.

Of course that is paired up with the added headache of keeping records on
all of this. Add-on the tax burden. If you do it while keeping a day job
you have the added risk of having all your expenses disallowed as part of
your hobby if you don't make money. I don't care what the tax guys say
abotu you got so many years... Yes if you don't start showing a profit
after three years you run the risk of having your business declared a hobby.
The problem is that isn't a hard and fast rule. There are ways around it.
To incorporate is one option. Of course that has its problems too with
increased book keeping and increased taxes if you do make money.

There are also expenses you may want to consider. I am sure you know what
it costs to operate your boat. A tank of fuel for mine costs about a
hundred dollars at today's gas prices. Then there is maintenance, repairs,
upgrades, and under the increased wear and tear of (hopefully) having lost
of amateurs on your boat the more frequent replacement of equipment, and the
boat itself. Those are pretty straight forward, but what about commercial
insurance, business licenses, maybe a state tax license, and maybe even a
local license form your county or city. Most of those licenses are
reasonable, but they all add up. You might think you already have insurance
covered, but the odds are you do not. That $100 a year liability insurance
from Progessive does say it covers you for fishing tournaments, but it
definitely does not cover you for a commercial for hire venture. That costs
a whole lot more. Slap a couple signs on your truck, and now you need to
have commercial plates on your truck and commercial insurance on it too.
You might consider also getting a general liability policy for your business
too. Guess what? Watercraft are one of those things often written as as
not covered as part of commercial auto or commercial general policies, so
you may wind up having three different insurance policies to cover your
business.

If you are well organized, and successful you will still find yourself
spending a couple days a week doing paperwork and taking care of details,
chasing down stock in materials, etc etc etc... On top of that... the
busiest time to book charters is ont he weekends, so if you are serious you
have to count on giving up a lot if not most of your weekends.

You know when you will get to fish? All those days yo don't have a charter.
Think you might want to take those days off and ssave the expense of running
your rig Not if you want to be a successful guide. Psuh comes to shove.
No matter how personable you are and how great the scenerey is if your
clients dont catch fish they won't come back and your guide service won't
grow. You have to spend your off days locating fish.

Will you get to spend more time on the water. Maybe. Probably more than
running your sports memorabilia business. Will you get to fish more. Not
more than if you went for a straight tournament career, but to be honest. I
think that most folks would a have better chance of surviving as a guide
than as a tournament pro.

Let me know Warren. I am the same age as you with similar aspirations.
Makes it tought for me though because my contracting company is making
money. Its pretty hard to trade a steady paycheck for a gamble, but it sure
is tempting some days.

Bob La Londe
www.YUmaBassMan.com