November 3, 2026
End-of-Season Checklist for Fishing Guides: Close This Year, Book the Next
Whether you pull the boat in October or run steelhead into the winter, there’s a week when the season finally ends and the office work starts piling up. Putting it off costs more than it seems to, because the details of a trip blur together within weeks, anglers are never keener to rebook than right after a good day on the water, and the balance nobody chased in the fall is harder to collect in the spring. An afternoon or two with this list closes out the year and fills part of next season’s calendar before anyone else is taking bookings.
1. Get every trip on paper
Write down what happened while you can still tell one trip from another. On the Solo plan and up, the End of Trip Report drafts itself from the fishing reports you and your guides logged, so you’re correcting a summary rather than writing one. A season’s worth of those records is what lets you tell a returning angler where you put them on fish two Augusts ago.
2. Collect what’s still owed
Open the Payments page and clear every open balance before the year closes. It shows outstanding, overdue and collected totals by age, so you can start with the oldest. Extra anglers, added days and gear that came up on the water are the usual gaps. If you’re reviewing your rates at the same time, our guide to pricing fishing guide trips walks through the arithmetic.
3. Ask for feedback while they’re still telling the story
An angler is at their most generous in the first week or two home, while they’re still showing people the photos. On Solo and up, Fishing Outfitter can email the feedback request for you a set number of days after each trip ends, and the ratings and suggestions land on your dashboard. Your happiest clients are the ones to ask for a public review, since most anglers looking for a guide read those before they ever call.
4. File your catch reporting and renew what’s due
Catch reporting and guide logbook rules depend entirely on where you fish. BC guides can start with our guide to DFO catch reporting and the BC guide licence requirements, and Utah guides have DWR’s registration and records to deal with. Wherever you operate, take the deadlines from the agency’s own page, then put them somewhere you’ll see them. On Solo and up, your catch records and fishing reports export to CSV, which saves retyping a season by hand. Your license, insurance, permit and first-aid renewals each run on their own calendars, so list them now rather than finding out in March that one lapsed.
5. Square up the books and your crew
Log the last receipts before they vanish from the console, then export the season’s expenses and payments for your bookkeeper. Expense tracking and CSV export are on Solo and up, and on Business you can snap a photo of a receipt and let AI read it.
If you paid other guides as contractors, check your W-9s now rather than in late January. For payments made in 2026, the IRS raised the Form 1099-NEC threshold from $600 to $2,000, and payments made by card or through a payment processor are generally reported on a 1099-K instead. January 31 falls on a Sunday in 2027, so the filing deadline should land on Monday, February 1. Confirm how this applies to you with your accountant, since we’re not giving tax advice here.
6. Look at what actually sold
Before you set next year’s prices, look at which trips filled, which weeks sat empty and where the cancellations came from. Every plan from Solo up can export bookings, payments and leads to a spreadsheet, and Business adds Insights plus fishing report insights, which turns your logged reports into trends you can’t see from inside a single week on the water.
7. Rebook your regulars first
Your regulars are the cheapest trips you’ll ever book, and they’ll often commit to next year if you ask before the good dates go. Send a short note to this season’s clients with the dates you’re holding for them and a date when you’ll release them. On Business, client trip intelligence shows each angler’s past trips and feedback when you call, and broadcast messaging reaches a whole list at once, though promotional messages only go to people who opted in.
8. Open next year, and put the boat away properly
A season in Fishing Outfitter is a trip type in a specific year, with dates and a capacity, and it’s what anglers book into. Add next year’s seasons as soon as your dates are firm, because a trip type with no active season can’t be booked online. Update your prices and deposit schedule, then review your waiver and cancellation terms for anything this year taught you.
Then do the part you’d rather be doing anyway. Winterize the motor, pull and check the trailer bearings, repair the rods and restock the fly boxes while you still remember what ran out in August, because every one of those jobs is harder to get done in the week before opening day.
When spring comes around, the pre-season checklist picks up where this one leaves off.
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