Our Training Program evolved from the need for training to increase the level of professionalism in the industry and to provide a pool of competent angling guides. The overall objective of this program is to provide participants with a solid base of combined working knowledge and practical skills to become an angling guide. This builds confidence and character, and enables satisfactory production and performance as an entry level Angling Guide within the industry. It is designed for those seriously interested in a guiding career, and is applicable for individuals with specific goals (ie. lead angling guide, obtaining your own Angling Guide License).
Those that benefit from our Training Programs include:
- Our ranch: We require professional and qualified guides. The nature of the work requires a certain character and diversity of skills. At this time the industry is facing a severe shortage of guides. Recruiting new staff is time consuming and on-the-job training is difficult when experienced employees are busy with guests. Our Program serves both the training and recruitment needs of our business.
- The angling guide industry and adventure tourism in general: Adventure tourism is expanding and angling has become an important aspect of the outdoor trips that tourists are seeking. Our Programs increases the potential for diversification of the guide outfitting and adventure tourism industries. Angling is an important primary product of adventure tourism, as well as being an important secondary product on hiking trips, pack trips, and hunting trips.
- Graduates and their communities: The economic impacts of guide outfitting and adventure tourism are significant and communities are developing the expertise that is necessary for participation in this growing industry. Those that choose guiding as a career, bring this expertise and experience back to their communities.
The program combines theoretical and practical training. Each training objective is achieved under guided supervision and time is allocated for individual practice and study. The first third of the program is based out of the Ranch, where theoretical and practical training is provided in a controlled environment. The last two thirds is spent in base camps where the students have first hand experience by applying their newly learned skills to the "real thing". At the end of the program, a certificate confirms successful completion.
This program is registered with the Private Career Training Institutions Agency of British Columbia. We train qualified staff to help meet the growing demand for walking, hiking, angling and horse riding adventures throughout Canada. The program teaches those interested in a guiding career how to become professional stewards of the environmental and cultural resources with which they work; it also trains them to become competent in looking after guests taking part in holiday experiences staged in the South Chilcotin Mountains. Those who go through the program leave with skills they can apply in wilderness jurisdictions anywhere.
The program fosters beneficial practices in wilderness tourism best illustrated by the formal protocol agreement that was established between the Government of British Columbia and a number of wilderness tourism operations in the province. Concretely this means we help regulatory agencies carry out their responsibilities more efficiently by teaching our guide trainees how to fill out the wildlife sighting forms that were development jointly by us, with scientists and government representatives. As a result, we are able to share with them 16 years of collected data containing sighting locations, sex and age ratios, all of which are important when making wildlife management decisions.
It stems from this that we have become involved in local land use planning decisions on these public lands, because we know what is happening in the back country. After all these years of recording wildlife sightings, a substantial body of intelligence has already been gathered to feed the decision-making process, so that the long-term stability of natural populations is ensured.
By requiring that all our adventures be guided, we are aware of the impact our guests have on population movements. Our guide training programs emphasize this, and we commit to a very low level of use over a large area. When you have horse riders moving slowly through a valley, you are not displacing the wildlife the way motorized transportation would. The guides learn this; they also learn bear avoidance; and, we always pack out everything we take in. Our overall footprint is minimal. The written procedures we adopt are our commitment to regulatory agencies in terms of maintaining the lowest level of human habituation possible when it comes to wild animals.
Similarly with angling activities and the angling guide training program, we submit creel reports (fish catches) as part of our angling guide management plan. The creel report says how much we take and where we take it from. Guides learn about the particulars of different lakes, streams, ponds and rivers; how they vary seasonally; how they vary in terms of technical skills needed by the guests who are going to fish them; and, where the most appropriate place to fish is. As a result of our training, guides become able to start training their guests from the ground up if they are novice fishermen; or if you they are avid fishermen, they are able to provide them the best high-end challenge.
In the mountain meadows, our wilderness guides learn to identify when a range mix is ready for horse grazing and what the carrying capacity of that range will be. Horses are not staked consecutive nights in the same area. Guides learn how to avoid putting salt blocks by a creek or a source of water. These are all details that are important for the health of the range. Those are all fundamental aspects of our guide training program.
Training Objective 1: The business of a licensed angling guide:
- Background of the ranch operation, guide outfitting, angling guide and adventure tourism in BC, introduction and background of participants
- Listing of all guide outfitters, guest ranches, fishing lodges, employment opportunities and the ranch referral program.
Training Objective 2: Communication within the industry:
- Guide and Client Relations:
* Expectations - key factor, marketing, standards, exceeding expectations, active exchange
* Responsibilities - deliver quality product, ensure client returns.
- Employee and employer relations:
* Job description, skills, Policy and Operational Procedures, employee contracts, work schedules
* Responsibilities - two way street, open communication, defined responsibilities
* What employers are looking for, resumes.
- Rules and regulations:
* Wildlife Act - agency responsible, enforcement, licensing, definitions
* Fishing Regulation Synopsis - recent act, application and enforcement
* Commercial Back Country Recreation Policy – recent act, implications
* Forest Practices Code - licenses, leases, tenures
* Park Act – permits, standards.
Training Objective 3: Back country safety and survival:
- Judgment and Leadership:
* responsibilities towards guests and safety, assessment and judgment of guest abilities
* leadership skills - competence, leadership, setting and adhering to standards, dealing with extreme situations and unknown variables, confidence from doing and experience.
- Map Use:
* Use of topographic maps, scales, boundaries of guide area
* Orientation with landmarks, compasses, identifying boundaries in the wilderness.
- Wilderness skills:
* Fire starting - structure, purposes
* Water and food source - practical, prevention
* Shelter - location and types.
- Bear and Cougar Safety:
* Avoidance, Prevention, camp sanitation, food storage
* Types of encounters, behaviors and bear defense strategies.
Training Objective 4: Fish habitat, daily and seasonal patterns:
- Lakes:
* What make a good fishing lake vs. a poor one
* Understanding the structure of lakes
* Prospecting a lake/Looking for clues/Approaches to lake fishing
* Life cycle of Rainbow trout/What they feed on
* Daily and seasonal patterns.
- Rivers and Streams:
* What makes a good fishing stream
* Habitat within the stream and weather factors
* Daily and seasonal patterns.
Training Objective 5: Angling techniques/Equipment and methods:
- Spin Casting:
* Equipment and costs (Rods, reels, lines, accessories)
* Advantages and disadvantages
* Fishing plugs, Spinners, Flashers, Spoons and Lures
* Making your own lures, bait and knots
* Spin and Bait Casting.
- Fly Fishing:
* Equipment and cost (Rods, reels, lines, accessories)
* Fly tying and knots
* Fly Casting
* Techniques in the river
* Equipment tips.
- Cooking and Smoking fish
- Waders in streams and rivers
- Boats and Canoes, safety
- Float Planes, safety, use, costs, advantages, and disadvantages.
Training Objective 6: Angling paperwork:
- Daily Creel Reports
- Annual Angling Reports.
Training Objective 7: Obtaining your own angling license:
- Application process
- Required knowledge for the tests
- Responsibilities of the Licensed Angling Guide.
Notes:
Airfare is not included in the tour price.
Also see tour packages in:
Canada
British Columbia
Outdoor: Water Drifter
Fishing
Outdoor Skills School
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