Hello Bastien, could you first introduce yourself to Fishing.news readers?
Hello everyone, my name is Bastien Hubert. I've been a state-qualified fishing instructor and guide for several years. I'm 29 years old and live in Lozère, where nature and rural life reign supreme. A lover of the great outdoors and aquatic environments, I've always focused my academic career on the water: BAC in aquaculture, BTS in Nature Management and Protection, BPJEPS Fishing Instructor/Guide. I enthusiastically share my experience and knowledge through my company Immersion Pêche Lozère.
Ever since I was a child, fishing has been more than just a passion - it's been a way of life. Lure fishing (especially big-bait fishing) runs through my veins like an incurable addiction! I'm very sensitive to the need to protect the environment of carnivorous fish. Honestly, pike is the species that haunts my nights and inspires deep respect. At every moment, I ask myself how I can get to know it better, how I can protect it better, trying to understand every facet of this sublime and mysterious fish.
Why did you become a fishing guide?
To tell the truth, looking at it objectively, I realize that becoming a fishing guide is a kind of life mission from which I couldn't deviate. It's as if everything was written in stone. The other jobs I did when I was younger always left me with a feeling of emptiness. Only guiding gives me the feeling of being alive, of being in the right place at the right time!
What kind of guidance products do you offer?
In terms of guiding, I only offer "no-kill lure fishing" services, either from a fully-equipped boat or from the shore. As you may have guessed, my flagship species is pike in lakes, but I also regularly guide trout in rivers, pike-perch and perch in lakes. From a half-day to a week, there's something for everyone at Immersion Pêche Lozère!
The species targeted for guiding will depend on seasonality, water temperatures and climatic conditions. Seasonality dictates temperatures, and for me, temperatures remain a parameter to be integrated into one's guiding ethic. Lure fishing is so vast and can be used in so many situations that it's a technique that can take a lifetime to understand. Because identifying and analyzing a pattern as a function of environment, season, water temperature, atmospheric pressure, turbidity, wind etc., is the real reason why I'm absorbed by the power of lures. It's the protection of the fish and the reasoning behind the choice of lure that pushed me into guiding! I'm constantly trying to project myself into the mind of a fish to try and be effective.
What does being a fishing guide mean to you?
Being a guide is a way of being a sentinel for aquatic environments and the species they support. It means seeing the glimmer of happiness in a trainee's photo with a fish, but also and above all taking more pleasure in the trainees' fish than in a fish caught by yourself. Through this profession, we train, perfect, raise awareness, pass on technical and biological knowledge, but we also become an example. The guide diagnoses a problem or a need in order to make the trainee as autonomous as possible. This pushes them to "challenge themselves", so as to inculcate as many technical details as approaches and knowledge concerning the fragility of fish and environments.
Do you fish or not when you're guiding?
During the guiding sessions, I only take the rods in hand to develop elements (equipment handling, animations, recovery speeds, etc.).
What do you do when you're not guiding?
I'm also a private fishing warden with the Mende AAPPMA. I also do temporary work in winter.
How do you see guiding in France?
I think guidance in France is running out of steam. The market is flooded. What's more, increasing fishing pressure is making fishing more and more difficult, which is also driving anglers to move to other countries to indulge their passion. It's hard to make a place for yourself these days, so you have to constantly renew and evolve.
What advice would you give to people wishing to embark on this adventure?
In all humility, I have no advice to give anyone. However, a person who sets up and starts guiding must be up to date on the guiding environment (fish rhythms, behaviors, patterns...), offer quality equipment and develop a good work ethic.
What is your dream as a fisherman?
As an angler, I dream of healthy lakes and rivers, of a true awareness of the fragility of fish and the respect they deserve. I dream of seeing actions that allow pike to reproduce in all environments.
My overriding wish is that every trainee leaves with emotions and memories.
And for the selfish note, I'm not omitting the dream of catching a real 130+ giant pike.
