There are basically two routes to finding work as a fishing guide on the West Coast. The first is to get hired by one of the dozens of fishing lodges located along the mainland and the offshore islands; the second is to own your own boat and gather a list of loyal clients. David Korsch eventually took the second route and has now become an assessor for the new Tidal Angling Guide certification program.
While he has been an avid saltwater fisherman since he was six, Korsch began his professional guiding career when he was 22, hired by Vancouver Fish-on Guiding Services of West Vancouver. This was an ideal summer job as he completed his studies in forest resource management – with an emphasis on stream rehabilitation and fisheries – at the University of British Columbia.
Degree in hand, Korsch continued to guide for Fish-on until 1990, when the company was purchased by Sewell’s Marina. At this point, he bought his first boat, Predator, and joined Sewell’s fleet of charter boat owner-operators. His company, Predator Charters, was off and fishing. “Today, I run a charter boat out of Horseshoe Bay as an independent operator,” says Korsch, now 47. “Every day is a challenge. Each day is different. A fishing guide has to be able to read people and keep a conversation going. It’s not just knowing how to fish. People skills are a huge part of the job.”
Korsch is now planning to put his experience and expertise to good use in his new role as one of the first 10 assessors for the Tidal Angling Guide Certification (TAG) program. “For new, upcoming guides, TAG will give them a new level to aim for,” he says. “It’ll be proof that they know what they’re talking about. I think that most of the fishing guides are already good, simply because the fly-by-night guides tend to fall away. The way it works now is that, through attrition, we wind up with the best guides. The best guides are the ones who have been doing it for a while.”
“This is a high-capital, expensive business,” says Korsch. “And, of course, it’s seasonal. There’s less business during winter, though the waters here do have salmon runs throughout the year. But during the busiest times, I’m running two charters a day and keeping really busy. I mostly do half-day trips, with the first trip starting at 7:30 in the morning.” Being a one-man crew and skipper means that when he’s busy, he’s very busy. And commuting to Horseshoe Bay from his home in Gibsons each workday means he’s an early riser. His fishing ground currently includes the area roughly from Vancouver Harbour northward into Howe Sound, then west toward Nanaimo on Vancouver Island and east to the south arm of the Fraser River.
For those wanting to enter the professional fishing guide sphere, Korsch says on-the-job training is valuable, as was the degree he took from UBC. He admits he wasn’t sure what to expect when he took that first summer job as a guide. “I didn’t take the job for the money, but because I loved fishing,” he says.
Korsch thinks the TAG program will be successful in separating the legitimate guides from the fly-by-nighters: “For those guys who can prove they can be professional fishing guides, it will be good for the lodges looking to hire qualified guides. It will give proof of a level of competence. The lodges can be assured of having qualified guides and so, for someone new, TAG will be quite beneficial." It would be particularly helpful, he says, "if the insurance companies get on board with it, and the lodges can get a break on liability insurance costs. That would be a good financial incentive to bring in the independents and the lodges.”
