Fishing Guide Job Description Template for Lodges and Outfitters: Licenses, Boats, Pay and Tips

Fishing guides read an ad for four things: the water, the boat, the license and the money. Answer those in the first lines.

Below are a template, two variants and the rules behind each line. For the wider hiring process, see how to hire fishing guides and deckhands. Confirm legal points with your state agency before you post.

What does a fishing guide job description template look like?

It runs 19 lines, in the order a guide asks the questions. Replace each [bracket], delete options that do not fit, and put real numbers in the pay line.

For day rates and tip ranges to put in the pay line, see fishing guide pay.

What should the fly lodge and charter deckhand versions say?

Keep the same 19 lines and change four or five. A fly lodge ad leads with water and housing; a deckhand ad leads with the boat and the tips.

Alaska exempts assistants and deckhands from guide registration when they work under a registered guide’s direct supervision on the same boat. Oregon, since 2026, requires Charter Guides to register an employee who helps with onboard angling or boat operation as a Crew Member, at $50 a year.

Under 46 CFR 16.210, no marine employer may employ a crewmember who has not passed its drug test. What deckhand applicants expect is in fishing charter deckhand jobs, and lodge staff expectations in fishing lodge jobs.

What license lines does a fishing guide ad need by state?

The credential by name and your role in it, for each of the six states below. In Montana, Idaho and Colorado the guide works under the outfitter’s license or registration.

State	Write in the ad	Rule behind it
Montana	“Montana guide license; we endorse your application.”	18 or older, conservation license, board-approved first aid, outfitter endorsement; $125; guides using watercraft display board stickers with their license number
Idaho	“Idaho guide license, valid while you work for us.”	Valid only while employed by an Idaho outfitter; Red Cross or comparable first aid; float guides need 3 supervised trips per classified river or a 500-mile log; power boat guides 50 hours on that water
Alaska	“Alaska sport fishing guide registration; we register the business and boats.”	Business, guide and vessel register with ADF&G, free; guide carries the card, a copy of your business registration, a fishing license and photo ID
Colorado	“Colorado outfitter registration no. [X]. Guides 18+ with first aid.”	No one may advertise as an outfitter without registration; guides need a Red Cross first aid card or approved equivalent
Oregon	“Oregon Outfitter Guide registration required; we file your employee notice.”	$350 guide, $500 charter guide (2026); $500,000 insurance; hands-on first aid and CPR; employees who lead or assist anglers register individually
Wyoming	“Guide boats carry our Wyoming sticker.”	$325 sticker on every guided fishing boat since Jan 1, 2026; trips reported twice a year

Sources: state agencies and rules listed below, accessed Oct 26, 2026. Oregon had not posted 2027 fees.

Write “hold or qualify for,” since a new guide may need your signature first. Montana processes routine applications within 10 days but non-routine ones in up to 120, so hire early.

Colorado bars advertising “in any publication as an outfitter” without a registration, so put the number in the outfit line. Fees and the other states are in fishing guide license by state.

When does the ad need a Coast Guard license or federal permit line?

Whenever a guide runs a motorized boat with a paying client, and whenever you guide on federal land. Under 46 U.S.C. 8903, a self-propelled uninspected passenger vessel must be operated by a Coast Guard-licensed individual.

One paying client is enough. Friends voluntarily splitting actual costs such as fuel and food do not count as passengers for hire.

• OUPV (six-pack). Covers boats under 100 gross tons carrying six or fewer passengers. Inland needs 12 months of experience; near-coastal needs 12 months, 3 of them on ocean or near-coastal water, and reaches 100 miles offshore.
• Applicant basics. Age 18, a drug test, a first aid course within a year of applying and a current CPR card (46 CFR 11.201).
• More than six passengers. A boat under 100 gross tons with more than six passengers, one paying, is a small passenger vessel. Oregon’s Marine Board says such boats must be Coast Guard inspected and run by a licensed captain.

On federal land the permit is yours, but say where it applies. National forests require a special use authorization for commercial use, and the rules define guiding as services such as supervision, education or transporting people “for monetary or other gain.”

BLM requires a Special Recreation Permit for commercial use (43 CFR 2932.11), and national parks bar business without a permit, contract or written agreement (36 CFR 5.3). Tell applicants which waters your permit covers, so they know where they may take clients.

Should the ad say whose boat, trailer and insurance it is?

Yes, because the boat decides cost, compliance and possibly the guide’s tax status. Bringing a drift boat and tow vehicle is a different job than stepping onto yours.

• Stickers follow different things by state. Montana’s watercraft sticker shows the guide’s license number. Wyoming’s $325 registration buys a boat sticker, a trailer sticker and a dash slip; the boat sticker and slip transfer between boats and vehicles regardless of ownership. Say who buys them.
• Insurance. Oregon requires registered guides to show at least $500,000 combined single limit per occurrence, naming the Marine Board. If your policy covers guides, say so.
• Tools of the trade. Under 29 CFR 531.35, if you require employees to supply tools used in your work, it is a violation in any week their cost cuts into minimum or overtime wages. A guide-owned boat is the clearest case.

Then state the status. The IRS weighs behavioral control, financial control (including who supplies tools) and the type of relationship. It will rule on Form SS-8, but a determination can take at least six months.

The Labor Department proposed a new contractor test on Feb 26, 2026, centered on control and the chance for profit or loss. Comments closed April 28; as of Oct 26, 2026 the Federal Register shows no final rule.

How should pay and tips be written in a fishing guide ad?

As a number, a unit and a tips rule, and for employees the number must clear $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage since July 24, 2009. The Labor Department says some states set more protection, and employers must follow both.

A day rate does not end overtime. Under 29 CFR 778.112, the regular rate is the week’s day pay divided by hours actually worked, plus half that rate for each hour past 40.

For example, $300 a day for six 12-hour days is $1,800 for 72 hours, a regular rate of $25.00. The 32 hours past 40 owe $12.50 each, $400 more. Track rigging, shuttle and cleanup time along with river hours.

Exemptions are narrow. The seasonal recreation exemption (open seven months a year or less) excludes private businesses serving a national park, forest or wildlife refuge under an Interior or Agriculture contract. The fish-catching exemption does not name guiding. Ask before writing “no overtime.”

• Tips. The Labor Department says an employer cannot keep employees’ tips under any circumstances, and managers and supervisors may not take them from a pool.
• Tip pools. If you pay full minimum wage and take no tip credit, non-tipped staff such as cooks may share a pool (29 CFR 531.54). Pooled tips must be paid out by the regular payday.
• Room and board. If you count lodge housing or meals toward wages, 29 CFR 531.3 caps the value at your actual cost, with no profit. Say in the ad whether housing is free or deducted.

Some states also require a pay range in every posting; those rules are in how to write an outdoor job listing.

What wording should I leave out of a fishing guide ad?

Anything that describes the person instead of the work. The EEOC says it is illegal to publish an ad showing a preference for, or discouraging, applicants by race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age 40 or older, disability or genetic information.

Those laws reach private employers with 15 or more employees for 20 calendar weeks this year or last, or 20 or more for age. Smaller outfits may fall under state law.

Instead of	Write
“Young guides with energy”	“Row [X] miles a day and wade [X] hours in current”
“College students for the summer”	“Available [date] to [date], 2027”
“Strong guys to launch boats”	“Launch and trailer a [X]-pound drift boat”
“Guides under 35”	Delete it. Name an age only where a license sets one, such as 18

29 CFR 1625.4 names “young,” “college student” and “recent college graduate” as ad terms that violate the age law. Under 29 CFR 1630.2(n), a description written before you advertise is evidence of essential functions, so list the real physical tasks.

Once the ad is filled in, you can list it on WildWork’s post a job page, where guides browse fishing guide jobs. Point newer applicants to how to become a fishing guide.