I recently launched a new web site, SportFishMichigan.com, and I’m ecstatic to report that the results are just what I was hoping that they would be. The internet is playing a larger and larger role in growing businesses, and with so much social media to keep up with, and ever-changing optimization priorities on search engines, it’s crucial to keep up-to-date in order to capture as much web traffic as possible. Where print ad was once king in attracting customers, the internet now is the new preferred medium for many advertisers. Continue reading
Category Archives: Fishing Trips
Highest Compliments and Thanks
One of the highest compliments that I feel that I can receive as a fishing guide is a customer booking a return trip. Sure, there are many things that I truly appreciate, as the owner of Traverse City Bass Guide Service, including customer reviews that I can post to my web site, customer referrals, gratuities, etc. but to me, the ultimate is the opportunity to fish with a customer on a repeat basis. This means that hopefully, I showed that particular customer a good enough time that they want to come out again. Given the nature of the business, and that we are located in Traverse City, it isn’t always easy to arrange fishing trips from as far as some of my repeat customers are from. And given the huge choice of so many wonderful travel destinations, the fact that the customer chose to come back not only to Traverse City, but to also fish with me again is just plain awesome! I’ve had customers from California, Oklahoma, quite a few from Texas and Florida, Canada… and the list goes on. I’ve even had a customer from Guam. That was a fun trip. Continue reading
Fishing with Dr. Howard Tanner Part 2
Now that I’ve introduced my friend Dr. Howard Tanner, it’s time to talk about a fantastic steelhead trip that we enjoyed this past October.
Fishing with Dr. Howard Tanner Part 1
It’s frigid outside, but things are toasty inside.
Hooting and Hollering
One of the most exhilarating and addicting experiences I’ve had the great privilege to be able to live over and over is that of seeing the true joy of my customers catching fish (http://www.traversebass.com/photos). Whether it’s their first fish, their biggest fish, their most fish, it makes no difference. I love the feeling I get when a customer is able to share their fishing experience with me. This is part of what makes my being a guide so rewarding. Continue reading
Guide’s Day Off! Let’s Go Fishing!
On a rare guide’s day off from salmon and steelhead customers, what did I do? I went fishing of course! Not only did I have the day off from my busy guide schedule, but another guide friend also had the day off. It was mid October, with the fall steelhead run in full swing. Following a hugely successful salmon season on the Big Manistee River, it was nice to have a day’s break. Driving down to the Muskegon River to meet my guide buddy, it was filthy with rain. Just pouring. No matter, we were going to enjoy this.
After a relaxed breakfast at a local diner, we hit the water in my buddy’s jet sled. Backbouncing egg sacks were clearly the way to go, as we boated 17 or18 beautifully chrome steelhead. We tried a few drifts with a float fished by a center pin rod, but that only yielded a carp. The highlight of the day was a hot steelhead that actually jumped in the boat. I’ve been fishing for salmon and steelhead for a long time, and I have to say—this was the first time that a steelhead has literally jumped in the boat. I’ve had salmon ram the boat, and steelhead leap and hit the side of the boat, but this chrome buck turned and ran straight at the boat, launching itself a few feet from the boat, landing squarely inside the boat. Absolutely a first, and absolutely no net needed! It also so happened that I was trying to do some filming and caught the entire thing on camera. Check it out!