Are fishing guides doomed? While listening to a recent podcast on Artificial Intelligence Ethicology I couldn’t help but include myself and chosen profession in the discussion. The gist of the cast was a deep dive into whether or not AI could replicate and remain in control of an applied field of study or profession without eventually crashing out. As the host, Allie Ward, and guest Dr. Abeba Brihane discussed the various attributes and pitfalls to AI, the similarities to what I ‘ve seen happening in my profession seemed to match what was happening everywhere else. I wouldn’t say it made me nervous but I am wondering if those chuckles I let out at the idea of the possibility of being replaced were nervous laughter or seasoned confidence. Surely there’s no way.
How on Earth could a computer out fish me? How could a person simply ask a screen and get a complete answer containing the 20+ years of experience I’ve had in relatively confined space? The only way to find out was to go and ask for myself. I’m not one for signing up for all the latest and greatest advancements in technology but I’m also not one for getting left too far behind either. I am after all a father of a 14 year old boy who, just as I was doing in the 80’s by helping my parents program the VCR, is running at twice the speed I ever did with all the current tech trends. If I want to communicate I’ve gotta get on board.
Signing up was easy by design. Just link and open with some other account and before you know it you’ve clicked on a box and signed the terms of agreement. That was too easy. Just like that a crusty guide was jacked into the Matrix! ChatGPT was my AI generator of choice. I anticipated a half dozen tutorial screens to hold my hand and walk me through it but I think there was only one and even that prompt seemed basic enough that I just clicked before finishing the instructions. Nothing to do now but learn to fish! As a Kenai River guide, the two absolute fundamental parts of fishing and guiding this river is where I started. Teach me how to flip for red salmon and ChatGPT teach me how to catch trout on a bead. Oh crap! In less than a minute and probably more like 30 seconds I was reading, almost as if I were saying it to my clients, exactly how to do it.
The format started just about as I would. First, you’ve gotta understand sockeye salmon behavior and then approach the water. Before we even get our boots wet that’s where I start. They’re not here to eat, they’re only traveling and typically fairly close to the bank and all you’re trying to do is run into them. Collision fishing. Step two, look at your rod, this is what we’re going to use. 8 or 9 wt fly rod, strong reel and floating high visibility line. Dangling off this line is a unique set up, three feet of heavy line, a bunch of weight to get it to the bottom then about another four feet of tippet and of course a big hook. Ok, thats about all I tell them also, pretty standard set up, no need to get fancy with it. ChatGPT’s third step; stand in one foot of water, cast 10 feet upstream and out, let it sink and drift down stream, it might accidentally mouth it-set the hook with hard downstream tug. Yep that’s pretty good and actually better than how I’ve heard it relayed by some humans. Uh oh. Step four, fight the fish with rod low and don’t force them, they are powerful fish. If its hooked in the mouth we can keep it, anywhere else and we gotta let it go. Finally bring a net and a stringer. ChatGPT Pro Tip--watch the people who are catching and do what they do. Well, if a guy were taking notes in shorthand from me during my instruction period and comparing them to ChatGPT they would be darn near identical. This is not looking good.
Could AI really be doing this to us?! How in the world did it figure that out?! I won’t get into the workings of how AI sources this info, mostly because my knowledge is rudimentary at best, but the answer is pretty simple. We told it how to do it. We gave away all our secrets and pro tips to the world wide web and now it’s telling anyone who asks. Maybe we deserve to be replaced. Probably not all of us but certainly there are a few despised blabbermouths who are actively selling every smidgen of info they’ve ever learned or heard to the web. All for a few more sales and hits to their website. I won’t go off on that tangent because there’s enough there to fill an entire website of why you shouldn’t do that. In any event it’s simply repeating what its gathered from the web. That’s not dissimilar to what an actual human in waders is doing though.
There is a spectrum of guides and anyone who’s taken enough guided trips knows that. A good guide will put you on the fish and it’s usually not too difficult to do that. They’ll get in the boat and press play and go through the standard set of instructions they tell everyone. 10 and 2, mend and lift. I got the same spiel from ChatGPT but I wasn’t expecting it in thirty seconds and I certainly wasn’t expecting the added on pro tip. If the guide likes you he’s probably going to throw in a pro tip or two as well but it might take all day and all your cookies to get it out of him. Good guides, show up, put you on the fish and politely get out of there with your tip money and that’s that. Nothing wrong with that and I will admit, I appreciated the quick and accurate info I got from the AI.
I’m not going to delete my ChatGPT account after this blog because it really was good and I might even recommend it to a friend who is stumped with a particular problem that needs to be solved, I’m not ashamed of that. I did however mention that there is a spectrum of guides. When I logged on to AI I expected good info and got it. When a person travels and does their research on a guide, makes bunch of calls and finally sends off their hard earned money, they’re not looking for just the good guide, they’re hoping for the GREAT guide. That is where things change. That is what cannot be replicated. The greatness of a legendary guide. A real live human guide that lives and breathes for their work and will probably live and die by there piece of water.
The good guide and AI are certainly going to put you on some fish but are you really learning from them? There was something missing from the AI intstructions. The nuance and finer points were nowhere to be found. Pro tips and finer points are not the same. Ai pro tips are to keep your rod low. Good advice but why? The great guide who’s not part of the matrix will tell you a few reasons, some finer points. I would personally say that for starters the fastest part of the river is on the top, don’t bring the fish ups there, he’ll gain a few more pounds and be gone faster than you can realize your knuckles are bleeding. I’d probably also say everyone can see your rod bent and before you know it they’ll be standing in your spot when you return from stringing your fish. I’d definitely say that if you lift that rod you’re going to point it right at your face and when that snagged fish turns and throws your gear after you brought him up to the top your going to eat that lead and look like you came to Alaska for hockey camp rather than going to the fish camp. How many times has AI dodged a zinging bullet or actually caught one in the chest? A good guide and ChatGPT both know to stand shallow but your great guide knows that you better go stand on that white rock, not a step further, and will harp on you and possibly even pull you from the spot if you’re not following the real live instructions. How do I know? Because I’ve been here everyday, I actually put that rock there!
Your AI guide has given good advice on gear recommendations, 8-9 wt fly rods are the standard and fill most guides quivers of rods but it didn’t tell you that rather than just a couple split shots to get your fly to the bottom you’re most likely going to be flipping a half ounce wrecking ball all day and that a couple sizes up on the rod are going soak up that extra work you’re putting on that old tennis elbow. Your expert human guide also knows that you’ve been hoisting crappies up from the boat slip all summer and the instant you hook onto one of the pound for pound baddest fish in fresh water and reach up past the handle on that rod it’s going to explode in your hand, the rod butt is going to slam into your hands and that for about two seconds you’re going to catch a 2,000 rpm cheese grater right across the knuckles! When was the last time ChatGPT ever bled red and spent the day shaking out their hand? Hopefully you won’t after your great guide scolds you, as politely as possible, on why you’re not going to do that again. Nonetheless those are the human touches that can’t be related or learned by software. AI recommended a net, excellent advice, but there was no mention of how big of a net or how to use it. What could be worse than finally, after all the work and doing it just as ChatGPT instructed, than seeing your buddy lose his man card flailing on the net and almost every time popping it right off, right at the bank?! I’ll admit that after catching the 500th red salmon of the season I’m fairly tired of it but watching the theatrics of a newbie on the net is one of personal favorite pastimes. Your great guide will have that red scooped up from underneath or snagged out of midair before you even register that the fish made a move. Or better yet using that net like a hockey stick and flinging your red ten yards into the bushes after you were told to just drag it up on the rocks. Maybe you did sign up for a little bit of hockey camp!
All the stolen secrets and divulged info some guy swore he’d never tell then went straight home and posted them to social media or probably worse, added to his website, can be easily stolen from the World Wide Web but just as the name implies, it’s artificial intelligence. I should write more things down on paper in leather bound journals just as my elders did but even then the nuance is not going to make print. Some secrets will absolutely die with your great guide.
I’m not sure where AI will take its knowledge but part of the podcast was about will it crash out. I’m on the fence about it. I’m sure I’ll tap into ChatGPT for real life advice and maybe some quick fix-it tips or who knows what. I also know that if it does indeed crash out and take itself down that I won’t mind one bit. For now, guides are simultaneously on the verge of unnecessary and as equally indispensable but something I can guarantee is that your great human guide’s knowledge is far from artificial intelligence.
