---
title: "Fishing Guide"
description: "Takes clients fishing on rivers, lakes, and the ocean, finding fish, teaching technique, and running boats or drift trips safely."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/fishing-guide"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Fishing Guide

**Category:** Personal Care and Service · **SOC code:** 39-7012 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 39-7012.00

Takes clients fishing on rivers, lakes, and the ocean, finding fish, teaching technique, and running boats or drift trips safely.

Also advertised as: Fly Fishing Guide; Charter Fishing Captain; Sport Fishing Guide; Fishing Charter Guide; Saltwater Fishing Guide.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $38,120 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $18.33/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $28,520 to $60,930, with the middle half between $32,910 and $47,700
- **Total US employment:** 53,500
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +6.3% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 11,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 57/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 53,500 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $28,520 |
| 25th | $32,910 |
| 50th (median) | $38,120 |
| 75th | $47,700 |
| 90th | $60,930 |
| Mean (average) | $43,720 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| VI | $102,020 | No BEA price parity | 50 |
| WA | $54,160 | $50,611 | 1,420 |
| DC | $49,210 | $44,777 | 380 |
| WY | $47,020 | $50,728 | 560 |
| CA | $46,000 | $41,546 | 6,900 |
| HI | $45,940 | $41,782 | 1,370 |
| VT | $45,920 | $46,877 | 140 |
| ME | $44,940 | $46,306 | 270 |
| NY | $44,450 | $41,188 | 2,870 |
| AK | $44,210 | $43,191 | 1,660 |
| KS | $43,700 | $48,519 | 400 |
| CO | $42,840 | $41,571 | 2,150 |
| FL | $41,600 | $40,227 | 2,720 |
| NH | $41,600 | $39,937 | 260 |
| MD | $40,310 | $38,405 | 510 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/fishing-guide/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/fishing-guide.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 62,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 66,100 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 3,900 jobs, or +6.3%. Faster than average: 6.3% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 11,900 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 45.8% |
| Some College Courses | 21.3% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 17.7% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 8.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 5.7% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 0.8% |

## What the work involves

- Plan trips based on weather, water, and fish behavior
- Row drift boats or operate fishing boats safely
- Teach casting, rigging, and fishing techniques
- Rig tackle and select flies or lures
- Handle and release fish following regulations
- Maintain boats, gear, and safety equipment
- Manage bookings, permits, and licenses

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Service Orientation — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Enterprising (E), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 5.01 |
| E — Enterprising | 4.67 |
| C — Conventional | 4.30 |
| R — Realistic | 3.52 |
| A — Artistic | 2.45 |
| I — Investigative | 2.34 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 89.9 |
| ESFP | 74.3 |
| ESTJ | 73.3 |
| ISFJ | 69.9 |
| ENFJ | 69.3 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Travel Guide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/travel-guide) — median $38,120
- [Tour Guide and Escort](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tour-guide-and-escort) — median $38,120
- [Travel Agent](https://nuecareer.com/careers/travel-agent) — median $50,160
- [Reservation and Transportation Ticket Agent and Travel Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/reservation-and-transportation-ticket-agent-and-travel-clerk) — median $44,390
- [Concierge](https://nuecareer.com/careers/concierge) — median $38,950
- [Usher, Lobby Attendant, and Ticket Taker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/usher-lobby-attendant-and-ticket-taker) — median $32,910
- [Lodging Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/lodging-manager) — median $69,250
- [Flight Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/flight-attendant) — median $63,580
- [Meeting, Convention, and Event Planner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/meeting-convention-and-event-planner) — median $61,160
- [Counter and Rental Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/counter-and-rental-clerk) — median $41,300

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/fishing-guide