Editor’s Note: As a fisherman, you understand the necessity of investing in quality equipment. However, you may question the need to spend additional dollars hiring a crappie guide. But if you want to spend your time on the water catching crappie instead of looking for them, a knowledgeable guide is the best investment you can make. This week, I’ll take a look at the advantages of hiring a guide, how to locate a guide for the lake you want to fish, what to expect from your guide, and which questions you need to ask before your crappie-fishing trip begins.

When you hire a guide for the day, here are some standards by which to judge him. A crappie guide:

* should have a pleasant attitude and make the trip fun and enjoyable for his clients. His job is not just to take his anglers to a place where they can catch crappie but also to provide an entertaining and fun day.

* should be willing to teach youngsters and novices how to catch fish. He should be patient and train anglers in the skills required to be competent crappie fishermen. In most instances, you can learn more about how, where and when to catch crappie in one day of fishing with a guide than you can in 8 weeks of trial-and-error crappie fishing.

* either will clean the fish or assist you in cleaning the fish and help you get your gear loaded. One of the tests of a quality crappie guide is what he does when the trip is over. Some guides want to take their pay and leave as quickly as possible, because they are tired and worn out like you are. They believe they have put in their time, and that’s all that should be required. However, oftentimes those extra 30 minutes spent in helping their clients at the end of a trip separate the great crappie guides from the average guides.

* should be a constant teacher. His job is not only to allow you to catch fish but to teach you all he can about the sport of crappie fishing. Then you will return home with a nice mess of fish and a pleasant experience from a day on the water and also the knowledge and the ability to catch more crappie the next time you go to the lake.

To learn much more about crappie fishing, get John E. Phillips’ Kindle eBooks and some print books by going to https://johninthewild.com/books/#crappie or to www.barnesandnoble.com.

To receive and download for free “The Crappie Catchers’ Cookbook,” by John and Denise Phillips, go to https://johninthewild.com/free-books.

Tomorrow: What Questions You Should Ask Your Crappie Guide before the Trip