My fishing partner and I booked a 7 day guided fishing trip to fish for muskies on the St. Lawrence & Ottawa Rivers near Montreal, Quebec with supposedly famous musky guide Marc Thorpe Guding Service. The packaged we purchased was supposed to include an apartment for lodging, groceries provided by Marc Thorpe (we agreed to prepare our own food), and daily guide service provided by Marc, for a price of $500.00 per day for 2 fisherman.
We were supposed to start fishing on a Friday with Marc and we get an e-mail a few days prior t leaving for Montreal, that Marc by mistake had double booked that Friday and he was sending us out fishing for the day with a bass guide. Now, we do not fish bass and we have lost a day of musky fishing, but in Marc's defense he did cover the cost of the guide for that day and the guide was very nice fellow, so we did not make a huge issue out of this. Marc picked us up Friday evening and we drive over and hour through rush hour traffice to get to his home in Terrebonne, Quebec and at first the house looks decent.
Marc leads us to the back of the house and we find out we are staying in dirty outdated converted attic, that he calls an apartment. The bathroom had a broken mirror, black mold, and due to the pitch of the roof, we had to neal in the dirty bath tub to take a very nasty bath. Now moving onto the dirty kitchen, all the food that he provided us (minus a few items, one dozen eggs & some canned veggies) was out of date code, frreezer burned, and had visible white mold growing on it. The dishwasher was broken and all the dishes were unwashed & the coffee maker had mildew growing in it.
We also could not drink the water, because apparently his filtration system was not working. Now moving on to the bedrooms, the smelly old mattresses, were thrown on the floor and you could feel the springs, I felt like I was homeless living in a flop house. The couches were no better, you could feel the springs in those, the only thing decent was the tv worked. When we brought these issues to Marc Thorpe's attention he became confrontational & insulted us, we thought about leaving, but we were on the hook to still pay him for the rest of the trip and would have had to pay the airlines to change our tickets. So we decided to try to remain positive and hoped for the best.
Now, when we booked the trip, Marc promised us 8 hours of fishing time a day, turns out we only fished about 6 hours a day on average. We would leave his house at 9:00am every morning and drive an hour or 1.5 half through horrible traffice to reach the launching ramps and fish to around 12:00pm, then he would say the boat traffic was getting too bad and we should go home and go out in the evening. We then would drive 1 to 1.5 hours back to his house in Terrebonne and leave his house around 5:00pm to make the awful drive again, to fish to about 8:00pm, then we left to go home again.
So on average we spend a minium of 4 hours plus a day driving and about 6 hours fishing. The ramps he launches out of are located in Sorel on The St. Lawrence river, Montreal on the St. Lawrenc river, Oka on the Ottawa river, & St-Placid on the Ottawa river. The fishing was not good and we did catch some small muskies, a few fish got off the line, and this guy became angry with us and insulted us as fisherman (sounds like fun).
Next we find out how angry, bitter, and RACIST this guy is, we would have to listen to his daily angry diatribe's of how he hates the goverment, Gay's, People of Color, and how his 3 ex wives screwed him over. He then goes on to trash America's goverment and tells us his own son has not spoken to him 2 years (wonder why?) and he could care less. He then would get confrontational in the boat, if we did not fish how he wanted us to (this guy had us so edge, there was no relaxtion).
Now you may ask, why booked with this monster in the first place, we had seen that Pete Mania and John Gillespie from Wisconsin Water's & Woods fished with this guy. He goes on to tell us that he threatend to "break John Gillespies spine" becasue apparently John upset him in the boat and he told Pete Mania "not bring John Gillespie back", then he tells us John called to apologize to him. Then he goes on to aire Pete's personal busness and I will not share that, becasue Pete Mania is a true class act and I have spoken with Pete, this really uspet me.
Next we are on the water and we pull up to "one of Marc's spots" and he starts yelling at another fisherman to get the blank off his spot and threatens the guy, then he tells us he would have "beaten the blank out of this guy, if he would not have left, he has to defend his turf". Bottom line this guy is a liar, bragger, unsuccessful, bully, crap talker, and he will one up you on everthing. He will tell he knows Mafia members in Montreal and he has all this political clout (this guy is a legend in his own mind and thinks he is some tough guy) what a joke.
Next he will portray himself as some fish biologist working hand in hand with the Quebec Minstry, turns out he is nothing more than fish tagging volunteer (anyone can volunteer). I point blank asked him if he had a degree in biology or science, he tells us he dropped out of college after one year (so he is a college drop out and match book biologist). He also talks about all these big time tv deals he is involved in and the Quebec goverment is paying him to do scientific studies, this guy is Canadian white trash, driving rusted out trucks and living like crap.
The grand finale, we settle up with this nickle and dimer the last day of the trip, we pay him and he ask about a tip. Is this guy joking, he put us on no big fish, made us live like animals, insulted us, decieved us when booking, and made us listen to his crazy uneducated rants every day. So then he drives us to our hotel and the minute I see the hotel sign ( I think freedom) and this classless guide, does not even thank us for our business $500.00 dollars a days worth, then dose not even say good bye or shake our hands.
If you want the fishing trip from hell, look no further! I have been all over the world hunting, fishing, and have never come across such a lowlife, this guy is a disgrace to an honorable sport. By the way, I have fished with almost every top notch guide in Canada for muskies, this place had the worst fishing of all and all the other guides were great. Our bad for not checking references!
I never write reviews and seldom read them, but this review was shown to me by my son. We've been fishing with Marc four years in a row now and will return for two more trips in 2015. Other than the sloping ceiling over the bathtub ,there is little I can accept as true in that review. Maybe we fish harder or are easier to get along with,but we have NEVER been disappointed with the size or numbers of fish. Largest at 54" and averaging four landed per day over the years seems grea t to me. Yes there were two days we blanked .
I don't know if real names are allowed on this site but I'll give mine. Larry C Carter . I can be found on Facebook under that name and will be glad to discuss our experiences with Marc with anyone.
Marc Thorpe Guiding Service Reviews
My fishing partner and I booked a 7 day guided fishing trip to fish for muskies on the St. Lawrence & Ottawa Rivers near Montreal, Quebec with supposedly famous musky guide Marc Thorpe Guding Service. The packaged we purchased was supposed to include an apartment for lodging, groceries provided by Marc Thorpe (we agreed to prepare our own food), and daily guide service provided by Marc, for a price of $500.00 per day for 2 fisherman.
We were supposed to start fishing on a Friday with Marc and we get an e-mail a few days prior t leaving for Montreal, that Marc by mistake had double booked that Friday and he was sending us out fishing for the day with a bass guide. Now, we do not fish bass and we have lost a day of musky fishing, but in Marc's defense he did cover the cost of the guide for that day and the guide was very nice fellow, so we did not make a huge issue out of this. Marc picked us up Friday evening and we drive over and hour through rush hour traffice to get to his home in Terrebonne, Quebec and at first the house looks decent.
Marc leads us to the back of the house and we find out we are staying in dirty outdated converted attic, that he calls an apartment. The bathroom had a broken mirror, black mold, and due to the pitch of the roof, we had to neal in the dirty bath tub to take a very nasty bath. Now moving onto the dirty kitchen, all the food that he provided us (minus a few items, one dozen eggs & some canned veggies) was out of date code, frreezer burned, and had visible white mold growing on it. The dishwasher was broken and all the dishes were unwashed & the coffee maker had mildew growing in it.
We also could not drink the water, because apparently his filtration system was not working. Now moving on to the bedrooms, the smelly old mattresses, were thrown on the floor and you could feel the springs, I felt like I was homeless living in a flop house. The couches were no better, you could feel the springs in those, the only thing decent was the tv worked. When we brought these issues to Marc Thorpe's attention he became confrontational & insulted us, we thought about leaving, but we were on the hook to still pay him for the rest of the trip and would have had to pay the airlines to change our tickets. So we decided to try to remain positive and hoped for the best.
Now, when we booked the trip, Marc promised us 8 hours of fishing time a day, turns out we only fished about 6 hours a day on average. We would leave his house at 9:00am every morning and drive an hour or 1.5 half through horrible traffice to reach the launching ramps and fish to around 12:00pm, then he would say the boat traffic was getting too bad and we should go home and go out in the evening. We then would drive 1 to 1.5 hours back to his house in Terrebonne and leave his house around 5:00pm to make the awful drive again, to fish to about 8:00pm, then we left to go home again.
So on average we spend a minium of 4 hours plus a day driving and about 6 hours fishing. The ramps he launches out of are located in Sorel on The St. Lawrence river, Montreal on the St. Lawrenc river, Oka on the Ottawa river, & St-Placid on the Ottawa river. The fishing was not good and we did catch some small muskies, a few fish got off the line, and this guy became angry with us and insulted us as fisherman (sounds like fun).
Next we find out how angry, bitter, and RACIST this guy is, we would have to listen to his daily angry diatribe's of how he hates the goverment, Gay's, People of Color, and how his 3 ex wives screwed him over. He then goes on to trash America's goverment and tells us his own son has not spoken to him 2 years (wonder why?) and he could care less. He then would get confrontational in the boat, if we did not fish how he wanted us to (this guy had us so edge, there was no relaxtion).
Now you may ask, why booked with this monster in the first place, we had seen that Pete Mania and John Gillespie from Wisconsin Water's & Woods fished with this guy. He goes on to tell us that he threatend to "break John Gillespies spine" becasue apparently John upset him in the boat and he told Pete Mania "not bring John Gillespie back", then he tells us John called to apologize to him. Then he goes on to aire Pete's personal busness and I will not share that, becasue Pete Mania is a true class act and I have spoken with Pete, this really uspet me.
Next we are on the water and we pull up to "one of Marc's spots" and he starts yelling at another fisherman to get the blank off his spot and threatens the guy, then he tells us he would have "beaten the blank out of this guy, if he would not have left, he has to defend his turf". Bottom line this guy is a liar, bragger, unsuccessful, bully, crap talker, and he will one up you on everthing. He will tell he knows Mafia members in Montreal and he has all this political clout (this guy is a legend in his own mind and thinks he is some tough guy) what a joke.
Next he will portray himself as some fish biologist working hand in hand with the Quebec Minstry, turns out he is nothing more than fish tagging volunteer (anyone can volunteer). I point blank asked him if he had a degree in biology or science, he tells us he dropped out of college after one year (so he is a college drop out and match book biologist). He also talks about all these big time tv deals he is involved in and the Quebec goverment is paying him to do scientific studies, this guy is Canadian white trash, driving rusted out trucks and living like crap.
The grand finale, we settle up with this nickle and dimer the last day of the trip, we pay him and he ask about a tip. Is this guy joking, he put us on no big fish, made us live like animals, insulted us, decieved us when booking, and made us listen to his crazy uneducated rants every day. So then he drives us to our hotel and the minute I see the hotel sign ( I think freedom) and this classless guide, does not even thank us for our business $500.00 dollars a days worth, then dose not even say good bye or shake our hands.
If you want the fishing trip from hell, look no further! I have been all over the world hunting, fishing, and have never come across such a lowlife, this guy is a disgrace to an honorable sport. By the way, I have fished with almost every top notch guide in Canada for muskies, this place had the worst fishing of all and all the other guides were great. Our bad for not checking references!
Marc Thorpe Guiding Service
I never write reviews and seldom read them, but this review was shown to me by my son. We've been fishing with Marc four years in a row now and will return for two more trips in 2015. Other than the sloping ceiling over the bathtub ,there is little I can accept as true in that review. Maybe we fish harder or are easier to get along with,but we have NEVER been disappointed with the size or numbers of fish. Largest at 54" and averaging four landed per day over the years seems grea t to me. Yes there were two days we blanked .
I don't know if real names are allowed on this site but I'll give mine. Larry C Carter . I can be found on Facebook under that name and will be glad to discuss our experiences with Marc with anyone.