Newfoundland Guide Service Inc.
"making new friends one trip at a time"
A Little About Your Consultant
Newfoundland Guide Service was the result of the melding of two careers
initiated as a child and started at age 18. After a childhood of fishing,
hunting, trapping, canoeing, etc. I enrolled in a 6 month program called
Outfitting Industry Training at a local trade school; 6 months later, in
1988, I was a registered guide. Next, was my first professional position
as a guide in Labrador for fish, bear, and caribou and the start of my
University education. At the end of the season and before the next season
I started flight training for a pilots license, but completion of this
phase was to be delayed almost 10 years as my spring flying time would
be consumed by University (M.U.N.) and a general lack of money. After completing
a BSc in biology with 3 seasons of field research for the Provincial Wildlife
Dept on moose and caribou I started my own Provincially funded research
on moose and hare browsing effects on birch browse defense compounds. It
was during this time I met my wife and we started another journey. During
my final year of University I switch to working on moose movement patterns
and the endangered pine marten for the Federal government. I got preliminary
acceptance to graduate school at the University of Alaska and my GRE marks
and a MOU of my proposal were accepted by the supervisor that I had dreamed
of working under and had talked with for 3 years. Unfortunately, my supervisor's
funding was declined, by the NFS and he told me he was quitting his professorship;
I got notice 6 weeks before I was to leave for U of A. Well after a short
period of scrambling and failing to gain access at the 11th hour to another
good school and supervisor I gave up on the idea for a year and went back
guiding full time spring, summer, and fall. After my first year back full
time guiding, I went back to flight training and never pursued a government
research position again. With the help of my outfitter employer of the
time and government grants I completed a pilots license with high performance
and float plane ratings. Eventually, I started a salmon fishing service
of my own which then expanded to big game hunting. Finally, after 4 years
of hard work and one bouncing baby boy, we have a small outfitting
operation, leased lodges, and do some marketing and sales for over 15 of
the lodges we know intimately - province wide. More importantly, we love
our work, have made a load of friends, spend 6 months a year in the woods
or on the water (as a family when possible), and have visited and worked
in a lot of places in the Province from the arctic to the southern shores
that most biologist will not have the opportunity to see.
I am now starting to enter what I am told by my older outfitting friends
is a maturing phase where I have taught guide training for the province,
take more pictures than fish or game, yearn less for new unexplored areas,
and enjoy a peaceful evening watching a river or valley just as much as
a challenging hike and game to pursue. Wanderlust and the essences of a
sportsman is a hard thing to shake it seems and I doubt I'll ever be totally
released from its grip,.... but at least now its not strangling me.
Repeated advice to me is, "Bill, if you have the product they will beat
a path to your door". Other sage advise includes, "You can't beat word
of mouth advertising" and, "Treat them as you would like to be treated
and you'll do OK".
Well, Newfoundland Guide Service has lived by such words and we are
still making new friends each year. The secret to our success is simple:
find the best location around for the fish or game you are about to offer,
build or lease a lodge there, treat your guides like family, don't offer
what you can't deliver, and work hard and keep a low profile.
Sure, we've shaken hands with some people important to this industry
like magazine editors, TV hosts, the rich and famous, etc., but its
the guy you never heard of sitting in his house reading the sporting magazines
and books, or watching the TV shows about pristine wilderness hunting and
fishing that have made us successful. The dreams and desires were always
there - we simply do the work that is necessary to provide the reality.
While a number of record book fish and game have been taken by our guests
including: Boone & Crocket, Pope & Young, S.C.I., and I.G.F.A -
we tend to judge success by the size of our guests smiles!
Enjoy Newfoundland and Labrador;
October 17, 2001 (updated 2003)
Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada
Bill Bryden, Newfoundland and Labrador Guide