Three Rivers Fly Shop

Booked for ½ day guided fly fishing trip and was utterly disappointed with the experience.
First, even though we had booked a guide, they charged our friends to rent poles/​waders. We have been out with several other guide services throughout the U.S. and have never had to pay to use equipment when we’ve paid for time with the guide.
Second, we arrived at the shop at 7:45 am and it was so crowded, we stood around until after 8 am, waiting to pay and get our friends fitted with waders; the guide left us «riverside» promptly at 11:45 am in a rush to get back to the shop for a 1:00 pm appointment to guide another group. We were shorted at least 30 minutes with the guide (that has never happened to us with other guides; normally they leave ample time and err on the side of staying out a little longer).
Third, AND THIS IS THE WORST PART, the guide didn’t know the river and took us to the area where everyone and their mother was fishing; about every 10 feet on both sides of the river there was an angler; most of them were bait casting; 3 of the 4 of us didn’t catch a thing with our fly rods… not even a single bite. The guide had no idea how to rig our gear effectively. The only person in our group who spent any time with the guide caught ONE trout but it was off as soon as it was on, and she didn’t even land it. Fishing etiquette was non-​existent on that river, and I could have driven to that spot without the guide and fished with better results on my own.
The lady at the shop didn’t explain when I booked my trip that the river would be very «pressured» that weekend due to a local festival going on; it cost the four of us around $ 295 with the fly shop plus a $ 50 tip, and the guide didn’t even seem like a real fly fisherman; he was mostly a «striper guide» on Lake Texoma and «helped out» Three Rivers on the weekend. Super nice guy, but definitely had no idea what he was doing and certainly wasn’t experienced enough to keep up with more than just one person in our group.
When we returned to the fly shop (on our own… remember, we were left riverside), the lady asked me if we had a good time; I said «not really,» and she shrugged her shoulders and didn’t offer to make it right. Well, on the Internet, it’s easy to make-​up the difference. This is the truth about our experience and the service we received. Hands-​down, this was the worst guide, worst fly fishing experience, and worst customer service we have ever received.
We were all totally disappointed. You don’t need an expensive guide to take you out to the crowded spot everyone else knows of… and not give you any advice on fly patterns or tactics. We would have been much better off fishing completely on our own.