I did something yesterday that I hate doing. But I had to tell someone that fishing may not be too great on the following day and give them an opportunity to back out of asking me to take them on a fishing charter. Ouch... that hurts the wallet.

I had someone call me yesterday afternoon wanting to go on a fishing charter today. I'm sure I didn't sound too enthusiastic on the phone because all I could think about was that I hadn't been on the water here in in almost two weeks because of being out of town for FLW Redfish Championship. I really don't like to pump someone up about a fishing trip and accept their money unless I know I'm on fish. So yesterday I asked the guy if I could call him back. I told him that I would like to check the tides and call a few other capt. buddies and see how things looked. The tides didn't look too hot and the captains I called had been fishing all weekend with horrible luck.

So I called the guy back and told him that I wanted to be honest with him and let him know that my expectations for the trip (today) wouldn't be very high. But, if he wanted to go fishing, I wanted to take him. I just wanted him to be aware that there's a possibility that the fishing might be less than stellar. I left the decision on whether or not to go, knowing what I had just told him, up to him. He passed.

I know this might not sound like a good business decision but hear me out. If I had told him that the fishing would be good (knowing that it probably wouldn't be), took him on a charter, and didn't catch a lot of fish... What is he going to say about me to his friends when he gets back home? That's right. He'll bad mouth me. I would rather him go home and tell his friends that he called a guide that was honest about the situation. Or even go home and not mention anything about me. Anything is better than having someone go home and give you a bad rep. Reputation is all we have as guides.

Hey, I could have made $450-$525 today regardless of the fishing. But is that what I really want? Well, yes and no. I need the money but I need my good reputation more. I believe in the Biblical principle that says, "It's better to have a good name than great riches." I better have a good name because I sure don't have great riches... yet. lol