Why you should Book Directly with Your Fishing Guide

Why you should book directly with your Fishing Guide.

Reasons not to use FishingBooker .com
My name is Robert Hamilton, I have been guiding fishing trips around the Rockport Texas area since 1987. There were maybe ten fishing guides in Rockport at that time. You would book a fishing guide directly through the guide’s website or via phone, you found them on Google, social media, referrals, or by word of mouth.

I have been a member of the Rockport Fulton Chamber of Commerce the majority of these years.
Booker Group D.O.O. is an enterprise located in Serbia, The main office is in Belgrade. Fishing Booker was established several years ago. In or about 2019 I started noticing my customer base was based more only on my older customers and repeat clientele. At the same time, the number of inexperienced guides was increasing dramatically.

Fishing Booker was a great way for these new guides to get an instant customer base.

Fishing Booker is a pay-for-play internet extortion group. Fishing Booker pays a lot of money to dominate search engines so that only members who pay them 10-30 % of a charter cost for each trip get seen and found by potential clients. Over time more and more people are using their phones and computers to search for fishing guides. Fishing Booker has bought all the space on the first page, so most fishing guides’ business sites are lost. To a potential client it almost looks like you have to book a fishing guide through Fishing Booker.

1. A savvy fisherman needs to scroll down the search page to find more experienced guides, because Fishing Booker has pushed their sites to the second or third page.
2. Fishing guides are losing $70-$210 on an average 3-person $700 trip to the overseas-based Fishing Booker A new, inexperienced guide is less likely to spend enough on bait and give as much time and attention as he would to one of his regular customers. These guides are also new to the game, and Fishing Booker’s system does not rank a guide based on experience or reviews on Google, Facebook etc…; but on how much they’re willing to share with Fishing Booker. The amount a guide pays to Fishing Booker for a 5 person trip could be between $95-$285.
3. Fishing Booker is worldwide. No matter where you search your popular fishing location in the world you most likely encounter Fishing Booker. Nearly every body of water in the United States and beyond is targeted by Fishing Booker’s advertising. Fishing Booker sends its profits out of the USA.
4. Most Fishing Guides chose their profession to be their own boss. Many are now beholden to the Fishing Booker stranglehold on the fishing charter market. In addition, several other businesses have piggybacked on this model, making it harder to get exposure to new clients without utilizing their services or spending a bunch of money advertising to compete.
5. Customers pay the 10-30% deposit first to Fishing Booker and pay the balance of the trip to the guide the day of the trip. When you book a fishing guide directly through their website or over the phone there won’t be an overseas company holding your deposit hostage, if an issue arises you can work with the guide directly.
6. The more established guides that use Fishing Booker will usually block out the busier times because they will likely book it themselves. In other words the good guides will most likely be blocked out for popular times available to customers using this site, forcing the customers to inexperienced guides who do not provide as valuable of a service.
7. Bad weather days, family emergencies for guides and fishermen have to go through the third party Fishing Booker to cancel or reschedule. This happens more than one would think and can usually be handled easily between the guide and the customer if the trip is booked directly. Instead of moving the fishing date to an agreed time or date the customer may lose their deposit when using the Fishing Booker site.
8. Customers may or may not want to fish on tournament days, or during other exceptionally busy days. Other factors like exceptionally low/high tides /red tides and other natural conditions could be discussed with the guide directly giving his honest opinion on the selected date. Local fishing guides would be more aware of these activities /conditions and discuss this with a customer directly before booking a trip. Fishing Booker would be much less likely to be aware of these circumstances and frankly they don’t care, they just want you to book no matter the circumstances.

Fishing Booker has studied the key words, key fishing places, bays, rivers , towns that people look for when people scrolling with their computer or cell phone when looking for their fishing experience. So, most likely when you are planning your next fishing trip scroll past Fishing Booker.com, Captain Experience, Guidesly and other paid ads.

My recommendation is to check the local Chamber of Commerce site for a fishing guide list or to do in-depth research, directly booking through the guide service. If that doesn’t work just keep scrolling, and look at individual guides’ sites. Check their Google reviews. Call, Text, or email a guide directly. Your needs and expectations will be better conveyed, and you will most likely have a better fishing trip.

Book your trip with Captain Robert by visiting the booking page here