A Lake Tahoe fishing guide planned on wealthy clients. Now he casts that line alone

JD Richey’s fishing trips are mostly solo these days, and not by choice.

For much of the past quarter century, Richey, 51, has been taking clients on fishing trips across Northern California and as far away as Alaska. In the last two months, he’s seen his fishing guiding business collapse because of the COVID-19 crisis.

Fishing guides aren’t considered essential workers, and in many areas, state and local governments have closed boat ramps and marinas that would allow him access to the water.

For a while, Richey did something that a guide used to meeting clients well before sunrise rarely gets the chance to do: He slept in.

“That wasn’t real productive,” he said. It made him depressed. He sulked around the house he shares with his wife and their son in South Lake Tahoe.

Richey’s wife, Tamara, issued an ultimatum: Go fishing. Or else.

“My wife insists I go out for an hour or two every morning or as frequently as I can, for sanity’s sake,” he said.

The simple act of casting for trout and bass is a welcome respite as he floats around Lake Tahoe in the 10-foot jon boat that he drags down to the water because the boat ramps are closed. He calls the boat his “one-man sanity pod.”

Richey moved from the Sacramento area to Tahoe just a few months earlier with the hopes of changing his business model.

Salmon and steelhead fishing in north state rivers had long been Richey’s primary money makers, but fishing for those species has been rough in recent years. Drought and habitat declines have made the Central Valley’s fishing seasons a crap shoot. Several recent ones have been terrible.

Richey decided he would move to Tahoe and cater to wealthy clients looking to catch fish in Tahoe’s clear, blue waters. He invested in a $50,000 boat; the family bought a $461,000 house.

He was just about ready to start booking in Tahoe for the season when the pandemic shut him down. He’s had to cancel his Sacramento Valley striped bass fishing trips through the spring as well. He’s not sure when he can start guiding again this summer. The Lake Tahoe region is only now starting to discuss lifting its campaign calling for potentially disease-carrying outsiders to stay away. He’s hearing Tahoe’s boat ramps may not be open until July or later.

“Seemed like a great plan to move up here to a fishery that’s more viable and tons of potential clients, but, right now, we’re asking potential clients not to be in our town,” he said.

With no money coming in, he’s tried to secure funds from the various stimulus packages and government assistance programs for small businesses, but he’s not having much luck. There’s around $300 million in federal disaster relief money set aside for the fishing industry, including $18.3 million earmarked for California, but he doesn’t expect inland guides to get much from it.

So he casts his line each morning.

And he tries not to let the uncertainty and the fear pull him down like an anchor.

“It’s really tough because I’m the sole breadwinner, you know?” he said.

This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM.