Fly fishing guide school

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Dream of being a fly fishing guide, or having guide skills to take your fishing to a new level? We offer a guide training and rowing school only because so many people were asking for it. Nobody else in Eastern Canada offers the elite level, customized training we do.

Want to own your own boat and run rivers? Take your fly fishing to the next level with our rowing school. Several of our long time clients have graduated to their own drift boat or raft, and come to us to build independent river running skills. We provide one-on-one training with you on the oars. Dream of being a fly fishing guide? Expert boat handling skills is the ticket to entry. 

The focus of our rowing school is on reading the current, efficiency, and putting the angler on fish. Good boatmen (and women) make it look easy. 

You can bring your own boat, or use our whitewater fishing rafts, hard sided drift boat, canoe or motor (or all of the above). We set you up to rig the boat, row powerfully and efficiently, use the current and eddy lines, hold water and anchor, manage anglers in the bow and stern, deal with safety concerns such as someone falling overboard, getting unstuck, plus invisible details like trailering and setting shuttle.

One day or multiple days as desired. Customized to your needs, boat, and type of water you want to fish. $350 per day if you bring your own boat (which we can help you set up if its new); $500 per day in our boats.

Dream of being a fly fishing guide? First, you have to be a fly fisher, and for that you are on your own. Spend days on the water, study rivers, and practice your casting so you can catch fish pretty much any day or any condition. Hiring an experienced guide for a day of specific instruction is super beneficial, and shortens the learning curve considerably. That alone will teach you a ton about being a guide.

We focus on the 'guide' part of being a fly fishing guide. Teaching and correcting casting, finding fish, having multiple tricks up your sleeve to get a client to set the hook, managing a group, preparing for and structuring a work day, wading safety and customer care, and guide etiquette is just the short list of skills we work on. Plus the boat skills listed above. Ideally an Eastern Canada fly fishing guide can row whitewater, canoe and portage into lakes, and run a motor boat. There is a lot going on to work for an outfitter or be a guide for hire, and our guide school sets you up for getting in the door and proving you can take clients on your own. Regardless of where you want to work or what species you want to fish, guide skills are the same across the board. Head up north to work at a lodge, to Northern B.C. for steelhead, or Gaspe for Atlantic salmon, guiding is guiding. 

5 days, $1800 per person, guaranteed ratio of 1 instructor for 2 trainees, boats and all equipment provided. Mid June. Contact us for the full agenda of our five day guide school and this year's planned dates.

Two people minimum required to run a course, contact us to apply and get on the list. Or, if you and a partner sign up we can do custom dates and content specific to your goals.  

Jeff Jackson is the owner and head guide of Algonquin Fly Fishing. He started river guiding in 1988 and has since logged thousands of days full time guiding every summer since - everything from high end whitewater rafting, northern canoe expeditions, to fly fishing western U.S. rivers and here in the Ottawa Valley. His winter job is a professor at Algonquin College and runs their Outdoor Adventure guide training diploma for the past 25 years. He is recognized as Canada's leading outdoor risk management expert. He is a certified freshwater angling guide, fly casting, river rescue and whitewater instructor.

Assisting are a small number of career guides who come in to teach their specialty, whether that is fishing sinking lines, two handed rods, running motorboats or river rescue.