The summer I turned 22, my father reconnected with high school friends at a reunion, invited on a float trip with one of the trout-fishing outfitters on the White River in Arkansas. At the last minute, someone cancelled, and I became the lucky recipient of a three-day “safari-style” fishing trip. When the Army Corps of Engineers built the dam that formed Bull Shoals Lake in 1951, they also created one of the best artificial trout fisheries in the world in the cold tailwaters of the dam. The river was stocked with rainbow and brown trout so successfully that it produced a record 40-pound, 4-ounce brown landed in 1992.
We motored from Cotter to Norfork in traditional wooden johnboats, each boat carrying a guide and two fishermen seated in folding camp chairs. My guide was a pulpwooder in the off season who knew every good hole on the river and how to tell a story. The cook and his helper preceded us downriver in a larger boat to set up a fly and tables for lunch, which they prepared streamside. In the evening, they pitched our tents with cots and cooked a steak and trout dinner for us. I had watched those 1950’s African safari movies and thought, “This must be what it’s like.”
The Roots Of Guiding
The tradition of guided hunting and fishing trips traces back to gamekeepers on the great estates of Europe. These men led aristocrats in pursuit of trophy red deer and salmon. In the United States, guides such as Mitchell Sabattis continued the tradition by providing their services to guests of the great Adirondack lodges and hotels.
Guiding in this country probably reached its zenith when the 22-year-old Grand Duke Alexei, son of Russian Tsar Alexander II, hunted buffalo in Nebraska in 1872. His retinue included two companies of U.S. infantry and two of cavalry, a regimental band, cooks and teamsters. One-hundred Sioux warriors were paid 25 wagon loads of supplies to entertain the Grand Duke with riding demonstrations and a mock battle. The Grand Duke’s guides were two of the most famous plainsmen of the day: Lieutenant Colonel (Brevet Major General) George Armstrong Custer and William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. No expense was spared; the supply train included three wagons of champagne and spirits. The Grand Duke bagged numerous buffalo and carried the tanned robe of his first home as a trophy.
African Safaris
In the early 20th century, guiding big-game hunts for the wealthy became a profession in British East Africa. Theodore Roosevelt’s 1909 African expedition was the safari of the century with over 500 porters, camp staff and hunting guides. Richard John “R.J.” Cuninghame led the safari assisted by some of the most famous professional hunters of the day. Roosevelt and his son, Kermit, shot numerous lions, buffalo, elephants and rhinos–the majority preserved for mounted exhibits in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum in Chicago and the Museum of Natural History in New York.
The safari business grew with hunters catering to royalty, the wealthy and the famous. Philip Percival was an assistant on the Roosevelt safari and later partnered with Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke to form Tanganyika Guides, Ltd. Baron Blixen-Finecke and Denys Finch Hatton organized a highly publicized safari for the Prince of Wales, who would become King Edward VIII.
Blixen-Finecke and Finch Hatton were already world-famous guides when Isak Dinesen (pseudonym of Karen Blixen) immortalized them in Out of Africa, later made into a film starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. Percival guided Ernest Hemingway on his first safari in 1934 and his second in 1954 and probably inspired the white hunter characters in Hemingway’s book Green Hills of Africa and his short story “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” Known as the Dean of Hunters, he was elected the first president of the East African Professional Hunters Association and mentored many young guides, including Harry Selby, the guide in Robert Ruark’s best-selling book, Horn of the Hunter. The romantic image of the guide had been created.
Modern Guides
Guiding has changed considerably in the last 50 years. Today, a guide is liable to be a college graduate. As a professor in the Recreation Management Program at Appalachian State University, I had the pleasure of meeting numerous students who went on to become successful professional guides. One of them, Ollie Smith, ranks among the best fishing guides in the Southern Appalachians.
Ollie’s father imbued him with the love of fishing that set him on his career path. After graduating, he was the head guide at Paradise Guest Ranch in Buffalo, Wyoming. He was drawn back to North Carolina where he co-owned an Orvis-endorsed fly-fishing shop before creating his own guide service, Blue Ridge Anglers. In 2004, he guided former president Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, on a day of fly-fishing complete with Secret Service agents. At the time, Ollie said, “That was the greatest day of my guiding life.”
Jack-of-All Trades
He describes his profession this way: “As a guide, you are a best friend, peacemaker, physician, coach, entertainer and professional detangler. When you reach the point where you are receiving more enjoyment out of watching your clients than catching a fish yourself—that’s when you are a guide.” He is an excellent raconteur, and there is no one I would rather talk fishing with than Ollie.
Another former student of mine, Joe Boccardy, worked for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and has been a hunting guide. In gratitude for a job in Alaska that I arranged for him, he guided my first successful turkey hunt, calling in a tom with a 9.5-inch beard for me. He also hunts grouse and woodcock with English setters and guided two friends and me on a three-day bird-hunting trip in northern Wisconsin, the “Grouse Capital of the World.” Three generations of his dogs flushed well over 50 grouse and woodcock for us in a day, although we only bagged a few each. That was some difficult grouse and woodcock shooting in brush so thick there was no room to swing a shotgun when a bird flushed. The real joy of the hunt was watching Joe’s superbly trained dogs at work.
Alaskan Guided Adventure
Dave Stelling, another former student of mine, is the operations manager for High Country Guide Service in Boone, North Carolina, but he has also been guiding fishing trips on the Kanektok River for Beyond Boundaries Expeditions in Alaska for 17 years. I ran into Dave a few years ago, and we quickly decided to create a group of six fishermen and book a trip. Our group included my longtime fishing partner, George Santucci, Andy Hill, one of Dave’s friends since their college days and another former student of mine, and Andy’s father-in-law, Dr. Frank McKemie. Andy, now the Watauga Riverkeeper, is a former fishing guide, so he invited two of his favorite clients—Frank Goin, Sr. and Frank Goin, Jr.—to complete our group. After 50 years, I was going on my second guided river-fishing expedition.
We flew to Anchorage, then to Bethel on the west coast of Alaska. The adventure began the next morning aboard a 70-year-old de Havilland Beaver float plane for the trip to a remote lake at the headwaters of the Kanektok. We flew 85 miles per hour at 500 feet in classic bush-plane style enjoying spectacular views of Alaskan wilderness. After landing on the lake, we sorted gear and waited for another float plane to deliver the rest of our party. We then began a seven-day, 90-mile wilderness trip in 16-foot rafts down the Kanektok to the coastal Yupik village of Quinhagak.
Experienced Adventurers
Our guides, in addition to Dave, were Christopher Maher, 35, and Skye Kreis-Potgieter, 23. Chris is a graduate of Chico State University’s Recreation Management program and a world traveler. Skye is a third-generation guide whose grandfather, of Boer stock, was a professional big-game hunter in Kenya and whose father managed a safari camp there before immigrating to the United States. Chris and Skye were knowledgeable and helpful, and it was a joy to spend a day in a raft with either of them as they manned the oars and dispensed fishing advice. Dave, despite the pressure of managing the expedition, was just as much fun in a raft and, in addition to being a first-rate fishing guide, was a chef-quality cook.
We rafted through the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge fishing and enjoying the scenery and camaraderie. Under the tutelage of our guides, we caught so many dolly varden, rainbow trout, and grayling that our hands were swollen. We landed over 50 fish each in a day, including sockeye and chum salmon. It was catch-and-release fly fishing at its best; on one stretch, I hooked seven big rainbows in an hour.
Bear Medicine
Bear tracks and scat were everywhere along the banks, and among the brown bears we saw were a mother and cub and an enormous boar who stood and sniffed the air as we floated by. These coastal bears, fed on salmon and berries, can reach a standing height of 10 feet and weigh 1,500 pounds. The wary bears kept their distance, but it was reassuring that our guides kept 12-gauge shotguns loaded with slugs at hand just in case.
Too soon, our week ended, and we began our trip home from the gravel airstrip in Quinhagak. I am used to planning my own expeditions, often with George, but I doubt we could have put this one together. Our guides were up early, worked hard, did the heavy lifting and made it possible for us to enjoy the trip of a lifetime.
Perks That Guides Provide
- Knowledge of the local terrain, wildlife, weather, etc. Fly-fishing author John Gierach wrote, “…although people have been trying to tell me what to do all my life, the only ones who’ve been right on anything like a regular basis were fishing guides.”
- Hard-to-obtain permits to hunt or fish on restricted government land and/or private property.
- Gear in the form of rafts, canoes, tents, camping gear, etc.
- Logistics including lodge reservations, fly-ins, shuttles, supplies, etc.
- Horse and mule pack stock and the “horse sense” to go with it.
- Dogs of whatever kind are needed, including retrievers, pointers, trackers, hounds, etc.
The luxury of having everything taken care of by an expert so that you can enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
