Christian and Dennis were awesome. I read some of the reviews that were pretty negative. My friends and I had the best time with Columbia River fishing guides. Christian new where to go to get us the experience of a lifetime. We caught 8 very nice sturgeon. That may not seem like a lot but, these fish put up a fight. Christian and Dennis worked with us in a great team environment and expert advice on how to reel these prehistoric beasts in. We immediately booked another trip with them for September 1st for King Salmon! Highly recommend Christian and his team! read more

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I had the most amazing experience with Christian Witt! Sorry to read some negative reviews here because I can't say enough nice things about my experience. My brother and I took our blind father sturgeon fishing. We had a perfect day! Chris was patient and helpful with my dad. I would recommend him and will certainly go again. We caught 18 fish including a TROPHY! It was 8' long and too large to bring into the boat. Chris was wonderful. read more

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My experience with Christian Witt of Columbia River Fishing Guide was very unpleasant. I have provided 1 star for our guide Christian Witt in this review, but that is generous. I would have preferred to have left NONE. Although Christian is a knowledgeable fishing guide, his attitude and demeanor toward us as his clients was very unprofessional and abrasive. His language is profane, and it did not feel as if he made taking care of us his priority. At best his behavior is aloof. On the final day of our 3-day trip, we arrived at the beach at the scheduled time of 10am. Christian helped us board the boat and then left us waiting in the boat for 20 minutes while he walked 100 feet down the beach to help another fisherman (who was not part of our group) set his poles. While we had been boarding the boat this other fisherman had wandered up to our boat to admire Christian's lures. Needless to say, to leave us waiting in the boat for 20 minutes was not the best start to the day. Christian eventually returned to the boat, and we eventually made it out on the water to set anchor to wait for fish. Within the hour we had a bite on the pole. HOWEVER, the fish had hooked itself on the pole of Christian's girlfriend Tammy (who had joined us for the day -- Tammy was not part of our fishing party). At the time the fish bit, Christian was at the back of the boat taking on his cell phone (speaking profanely to another client)...Tammy was smoking a cigarette so she was not prepared to set her hook. INSTEAD, it was Mike (a member of our party) who reached over and set the hook...Once Mike had set the hook, Christian (now finally paying attention to what was happening on his boat, put down his phone to YELL at Mike "That's Tammy's fish") Yikes! Now I don't have a problem with Christian's girlfriend Tammy joining us for the day, and I don't mind her catching fish...HOWEVER, here is my understanding of how a professional fishing operation should be run...YOU SHOULD LET YOUR PAYING CLIENT CATCH THEIR LIMIT OF FISH BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO LET YOUR GIRLFRIEND FISH." When we discussed this matter with Christian at the end of the day, his temper flared. Now overall, I had a great time on the fishing trip, because it was a relaxing way to spend some time with my father, brother and friends, but if I were to return to Washington, I WOULD DEFINITELY NOT CALL CHRISTIAN WITT TO BE MY GUIDE. -- Attitude truly is the difference maker and Christian's attitude is BAD. If you are fishing in Washington, I hope you have a great time and catch lots of fish, but I would advise you to stay away from the services of Christian Witt of Columbia River Fishing Guide. read more

We purchased a Groupon for an 8-hour fishing trip on the Columbia River. Having fished for years and been lucky enough to go with some very good outfitters, we were looking forward to meeting a new guide and a day chasing salmon. Christian has an awesome, flashy boat that gets up and scoots. Good equipment with fresh lines and comfy chairs. Now the down side..... His attitude seems to be one of not giving a rats' backside if he gets to know his clients, gets into fish or even if we are present in his boat. Once we were in the water (11:15 am), dropped lines and settled in, he completely ignored us in favor of chatting endlessly on his phone or whatever else came to mind. I know, he was talking to his other buddies on the river to see if anyone was into fish, but still. I dont expect witty banter, a flashy song-and dance or juggling, but dude, at least talk to your clients. He then announced that since the very limited gill-net season had just ended, that the chances of catching anything were very poor. If that's the case, why not reschedule folks and stay home? Who wants to go to a fishless river, and then find out the outfitter you go with already knew it? I didn't expect us to all limit-out, but at least going with a good chance of getting into fish is the goal here, isn't it? It's pretty clear that we were just filling seats and his gas tank. At 4:15, he announced it was time to go in, that the tide was over (we were back-trolling so the lures were carried upstream, a logical way to set up) and we were done for the day. Not exactly the advertised 8-hour trip, now was it? We passed about 40 other boats on the way back, and they didn't seem to think the tide was anywhere near over. What completely hacked me off, was that when we all reeled up to go home, every single line and lure was sporting a lovely coat of algae and water weeds. So even if we were surrounded by fish, no one was going to hook one. If he'd not been so busy ignoring us, he may have thought to check lines. With six poles in the water, one of us reeling in to check and then trying to toss out would have been a mess. And heck, I was the lucky one on the river today. When we arrived at the dock, the woman checking for tags and taking DNA samples said I was the only person out of something like 200 people, she'd seen come through with a fish. I dont know if we got short shrift because of the Groupon or if he just had other things on his mind, but I think he just called this one in. Pretty sad, considering one of the other couples we had in the boat drove four hours to get there. read more

I booked a sturgeon fishing trip for my husband's birthday before I read any reviews, which is not like me. After securing the first half of the whole payment (non-refundable), I read reviews and then became extremely nervous. Would the guide show up? Would he be rude? I stressed for weeks before making the 7 hour drive to Woodland, WA. My husband and I decided that, worst case scenario, we would at least be near the coast and there would be other things to do. We would find a back up plan if needed. The evening before our scheduled trip, Christian called me to verify the time and place that we would meet and to make sure we had the correct fishing license. Prior to this call, and since the initial booking, Christian was quick to answer my emails. Christian was right on time the next morning. Is he a super outgoing, friendly, chatty guy? No. Did we pay for that? No. We paid for a fishing guide. In preparing to launch the boat, Christian was very focused on the task at hand so we stood back and waited for instruction and, while waiting, enjoyed the nature around us. Our trip was seven hours long. Christian gave great instruction and coached through the process when needed. We had to battle some big fish and he was encouraging when I started to wear out getting the fish to the boat. He got excited about our catches and was great about making sure we were able to take photos before releasing the fish. We caught a total of 36 fish! It was fun and totally worth the money. Once we got the hang of things, a few hours into the trip, Christian did start accepting calls from clients but would put the phone down immediately if we hooked a fish or if he needed to bait and cast another pole. As small business owners we understood that you can't just not take a client call. You can, however, make sure to put the focus on the current paying client, and he did. Like I said, he's not super chatty. He's an introvert's dream. If it had just been Christian and me on the boat we probably wouldn't have had any small talk of any kind and would have been happy just catching fish. My husband initiated small talk, mainly about hunting and fishing, and he and Christian had some interesting conversations in between catching monster fish. This was my experience. I feel terribly for those who have had bad experiences, but it's only fair to share a good experience too. I like to think that people can change and grow and learn from past mistakes. I would also like to note that Christian didn't even mention the second half of payment. I tried to hand it to him before the trip and he told me we would square up later. I paid him after the trip was over. The trip itself- catching 36 fish, many over 5 feet long- is a 5 out of 5. read more

Christian Witt is notorious for not showing up, being late, being a jerk when he does show up. I can only speak to one of these attributes. Months ago my friends and I booked a trip with Christian, set a date, made travel arrangements and got really excited about going King Salmon fishing on the Columbia. We got up at 4:30 am the morning of, went to the spot where we were to meet Christian and proceeded to wait for 2 hours. He was not available by phone or text. When we asked around, it turned out Christian had attended a community festival the night before. Sounds like he just got drunk and didn't wake up. Really what he did was take what was to be a ton of fun for a group of friends and flush it down the toilet. We may get our money back for the fishing trip, but not for the air fair, motel, gas, food and time we wasted in preparation for this trip. When we asked around at local fly shops this is pretty typical for Christian. read more

I bought the groupon from this guy for my husband's LAST Christmas present, in 2011. We tried to schedule a trip with him for a YEAR. He rarely answered his phone, if he did, he said he'd call us back with his schedule. Low and behold, he never did. I recently reached out to Groupon with this issue, and they took 6 days to get back to me, so now my promotional price expired, blah blah blah. I'm mad at the lunatic that screwed this up for us and I'm about to give up on Groupon too. If they don't give me the full refund I will never buy another Groupon again. If Groupon spent 5 minutes on this site they'd see they made a deal with a fake business and a dirty scoundrel. DO NOT USE COLUMBIA RIVER FISHING GUIDES!!!! read more

I will never do business with this man again. He was very difficult to schedule with and then he DIDN'T SHOW UP for our trip. We were waiting for him at 5:30am and met another pair waiting for an outing with his company. He ruined the day for 4 people and 4 fishing licenses and (no surprise) I never heard back from him. We used the time waiting for him to search the internet for all the bad feedback that is posted about him. A little too late - my mistake, please don't make it yours. read more

After he screamed at me for 7 min. about a question on pricing I decided not to go with him. I would never want to be stuck out on a boat with this guy. read more

I don't understand how a person like Christian Witt has any repeat customers. If you are a VERY experienced fresh water fisherman fishing from a boat maybe you can tolerate him. If not book with someone else. I booked this trip in May for 3 of my sons, 1 of their girlfriends, and a close friend of mine. We were all looking forward to the Sunday morning trip. We were just a few minutes late and boarded his boat around 6:10a. He and his assistant Leo were already on board. No greeting. No Thanks for booking with us. He said he would go over how things work once we jetted out to the spot just outside Ranier. That spot was crowded and Christian complained about that. Once one of the rods hooked a fish Leo would jump on the rod and then hand it to whoever was in charge of that rod. Then the yelling started. Do this, don't do that. Very confusing and we all had fished before. If we lost a fish on the way up he would say audibly under his breath "unbelievable" or "are you kidding me" which really made us feel great about our effort. He even complained towards the end by saying "Great, losing equipment (not sure what we lost) and now a spinner. Really? I paid this guy $1,200 and he is compelling about a $10 spinner. He even gained a spinner that came up with one of the lines. He would complain about lack of team work if the lines got crossed. Two of us decided not to take another turn on the rod because they did not want to get yelled at. Pretty sad. Then we got to hear him argue with a customer on the phone. That customer got so ticked he hung up on Christian. He also complained that if we had landed those fish that got away we would have been done already. We packed it in around 2p. To top all this off we spent about 20-30 minutes trying to help a friend of his get his boat back in the water. It had beached the night before. I am kicking myself for not checking these reviews as even though we caught 3 nice Salmon we were all so pissed on the way home that it took the fun out of the day. read more

I REALLY wish we had read the reviews on Yelp (wouldn't have thought of looking on this about fishing trips) prior to purchasing the guided trip for my father, brother and fiance for Christmas. They were scheduled to go Sturgeon fishing and were very excited since none of them had the pleasure of that before (hence why it was chosen). Well, they all took the day off work, drove the 3 hours, stayed in a hotel and were expecting to meet Chris at 4:30 am that Friday morning. Well, HE DIDN'T SHOW UP. They couldn't get a hold of him, waited for almost 2 hours, and decided to just drive home so they could salvage some of their day and fish up near Seattle. Around 9 or 10 he finally called them back to say that he would take them now, but it was far too late. They scheduled to go the following week because he still owed them the trip, so again, they took the day off, stayed in a hotel, and went fishing. Well, he was late that morning, but at least he showed up. They had nothing good to say about him as a person AND Sturgeon fishing was closed about 4 days prior - had he shown up to the original scheduled, they would have gotten to do what I paid for them to do. So how much money did they lose on top of the cost of the guide? A LOT. Moral of the story: DO NOT BOOK WITH HIM. read more

My experience fishing with Christian Witt was terrible. His attitude and overall vibe were unprofessional and hostile. I should preface that I've fished with a couple of other guides on the Columbia in the last couple of years, and neither of those experiences was in any way unpleasant. My family and friends booked a salmon trip and filled Christian's 6 passenger boat. We arrived a couple of minutes late because we had a bit of trouble finding the marina. We apologized for arriving late and were met immediately with a hostile attitude. Christian and his deckhand did not introduce themselves to us, say hello, or ask any questions about us or our fishing experience. I have been around plenty of surly fishing captains or deckhands, but nothing like what we were in for the rest of the day. Once we reached the area we would be trolling, Christian explained VERY briefly that he or Leo would be setting the hook for us when we got a fish and then it was our responsibility to land it. While that is obvious, his tone was condescending and pessimistic. It turns out this is his default setting. As the trip went on, we did get bites, but each time a fish was on, Christian would start yelling at us, not in a way that was excited, but a sort of scolding disbelief. Some of us handled and landed some fish, some of us lost them, but each time, he was yelling at us like we were idiots. As a guide, part of your job is to teach us if we need teaching, not to act like we are idiots for not already knowing what you wanted us to do. He and his deckhand were inconsistent with their directions and expectations, and it felt like we were working for them and they were the worst boss you have ever had. Keep in mind, we paid over $1000 for this trip. I spent a lot of time trying to get him to engage or connect with us in some friendly way to diffuse the tension of him yelling at me, my dad, my brothers, and my girlfriend (who he called an idiot for not reeling up fast enough). He kept us at a cold distance the whole time and continually treated us terribly, which resulted in almost 8 hours of uncomfortable silence, interrupted by him on the phone with two different people he got into screaming matches with, including another customer. He didn't apologize for doing that in front of us. All in all, what I mean to say is DON'T BOOK WITH THIS GUY. He's unprofessional and he's not a good dude. The fish were good, the experience was not. I'd recommend JB Kingfisher or Nick Popov. I've been out with both of them and had great experiences with them. read more

My wife purchased a Groupon guided fishing trip with Columbia River Fishing Guide service as my 2012 Christmas present. I was very excited to receive this as I've often heard about the spring chinook salmon run on the Columbia as being one of the best fishing experiences around. I booked the trip with Christian Witt for a date in April and everything looked good. In mid-February, I called Christian and told him I had a shoulder injury and therefore would have to re-schedule the trip for a later date. He said that would be OK. I called him later that spring, when my shoulder had healed, and we set up an August date for the trip. Early in August, I drove 130 miles and booked a motel room in anticipation of a 5:00 am trip. The night before, Christian called me to say that the other party had cancelled and that the trip was off. I had driven 130 miles and secured a motel room and because of the cancellation was out well over a $150. In my conversations with Christian, he did not seem to be concerned with the situation. Later that summer, I called Christian a couple of times to try to re-schedule a date to fish. But by then he was booked with fall hunting trips and said he would have a tough time fitting me into a fall trip....no guarantees. My experience dealing with Columbia River Fishing Guide service (Christian Witt) has been very poor. I've been fishing with many other guides and he ranks at the bottom of the list. My interactions with him over the phone have, for the most part, not been good. He never once made an effort to contact me (by phone) to fit me into one of his trips. His demeanor over the phone has been poor. I phoned him a number of times to try to book a trip and was never successful. A few days ago, my wife e-mailed Groupon and told them about the awful experience she and I had received in dealing with this company. Groupon responded with an apology and credit towards future Groupon purchases. This was gladly received as we use Groupon on a regular basis.....great company! In summary, do not go with Columbia River Fishing Guide Service (Christian Witt). They are not good and as a public, we should put them out of business! read more

I paid for a trip for my family and he cancelled twice. The first time was at 4am when we were headed to meet him. We rescheduled and kept in close contact on the days leading up to our trip. His wife (or girlfriend) called the night before to tell me he was burnt out and the fishing sucked but he rescheduled us with another guide. I kindly declined, told her I understood his frustration and asked for my money back. The conversation went bad at that point with him yelling and cussing at me in the background. Needless to say I never got my money back. I also found out he has a history of poaching. http://www.ifish.net/board/showthread.php?t=93512 I would not recommend him to my worst enemy! I'm only giving his 1 star because I have to read more

My husband took my two kids fishing with this guy and had a terrible experience. Mr. Witt was not at all what they were expecting: He showed up late because daylight saving time ended. But instead of apologizing, he declared, "No one told me!" He was on his cell phone the ENTIRE time (mostly due to a family medical situation). However, it being a medical problem, he should have cancelled the day before, which we would have been ok with. Instead he ignored his guests and was preoccupied telling all his friends about the situation, one after the other. He was neither personable nor helpful with the kids. He barely made any conversation and just trolled up and down the river. He didn't talk to them or show them fishing tips. Of course they caught 0 fish. He said come back and I'll give you half off. I don't think so. This man is unprofessional, and considering all the money my husband paid him, isn't worth coming back to, even for half off. read more

Great day on the river. Christian is dedicated guide and angler. Limited out on Kings, including 2, 30+ lbers. Not much more you can ask for in a fishing trip. read more

We had a great time fishing with Christian and Justin. I couldn't have asked for a better time. Limited out all three days. I was so pleased that I rebooked another trip for my Dad and I. If you want to fish the columbia river these are the guys. read more

I have fished with Christian for 6 years. No one I have met is more knowledgable about the rivers, is plugged in with other guides for a fabulous network and I always have a great time regardless if I catch fish or not (and I usually catch more fish with him vs. Any other avenue ). I wish I could fish with him more often, but alas, the pocketbook is not as accommodating. read more

I was given a pair of fishing trips to this Christian Witts service for Christmas, however I never got past the point of booking the trip due to the general attitude and overall behavior of the guide. His manner was as offensive as it gets. This person lacked all professionalism, as well as obvious anger management issues given that I talked to him for 5 minutes and he was yelling at me through the phone. Do not under any circumstances take a chance on this guy. Find a better service, there are plenty of them around. read more

We booked with Columbia River Fishing Guides to take our field employees out for "catch and release" sturgeon. The communication was good all throughout. Christian knew where the big sturgeon were and all our employees caught fish until their arms felt like rubber. We will definitely use them again. read more

My wife and I purchased a Groupon for an 8 hour fishing trip with this company. We have been down a number of rivers with guides and consider some of them friends. I was somewhat surprised when we called the day before to confirm and find out where and when to meet because we were told to meet at the Arco AM/PM in Woodland at 10:30 AM. How we would manage to get in an 8 hour fishing trip was a question, but my wife and I figured we must be going to fish into the early evening. NOPE! We met our guide, whom I assume was Christian (only because that was who I spoke to on the phone) at the Arco station at 10:30. I say assume because he never did walk around and introduce himself to anyone that I saw. We waited while he gassed his truck, then became angry that people were in the way at the pumps and drove his truck across the street to the Shell to gas the boat. Then we followed him through Woodland to the launch point. By now the time was after 11 AM and we were not yet fishing. We ran out the Columbia about 7 miles and began to troll and then anchored to let the tide troll for us. To frame a picture, it was a beautiful day, water was calm and it looked like it would be a nice day to fish. But being able to drive a boat and throw a lure in the water does not a guide make. I don't think our "guide" could have told you who anyone was, or where they were from or anything else. There was no conversation whatsoever. For the better part of 4 hours, except when my wife hooked a small salmon, Christian sat facing away from us at the back of boat using his cell phone. At 4:15 PM he announced we were done for the day, and when my wife pretended to not hear that and asked where are we going now (ostensibly to fish, since we hadn't approached 8 hours unless you counted when I was brushing my teeth at my house getting ready to go) he said "In." I knew the folks in the back row of the boat had driven all the way from Toppenish, a goodly drive, and they thought they had purchased an 8 hour trip as well. As it goes with good country folk they were too polite to complain but they were not happy. I hope this guy doesn't live off of tips or repeat customers because he will starve. I am not saying he is a bad person because I don't know him. How could I ? We never spoke. But he does need someone to show him how to be a guide. read more

OK to start we weren't even fishing with him, but we were on the hog line with him and I have never seen anyone treat their customers so poorly. He didn't talk to any of them and yelled at people when they lost fish. He ripped a pole out of a lady's hand when she lost a fish and then yelled at her. To start the morning off he showed up late to the hog line and pushed another boat out of their spot that had actually gotten there early. I would not recommend fishing with this jerk ever! Our whole boat and the boats around him were mortified with how he treated his customers! read more

I would never recommend Christian Witt. I bought my husband a fishing trip for valentines day, Christian was very nice over the phone and through emails he was happy to share info regarding fishing (because I don't know a whole lot about fishing.) The night before the trip Christian called and confirmed the pick up time and location, the morning of the trip my husband and his family is there waiting and there's another guide waiting to pick them up. Christian pulls up with his boat that had no motor on the back and tells them that "his buddy Justin will be taking them out because his boast broke 2 days ago and he has to take it to the shop." He never mentioned anything the night before about Justin taking them out instead of him... There was also two other guys that went on the trip my husband and his family did not know. During the trip the fishing wasn't picking up so Justin asked if everyone if they had a Washington State fishing license? (Because he was going to take them off of the Columbia river and up to the Lewis River) Turns out that these other two guys didn't have a Washington State license, they were from Orgeon. So the guide couldn't take them to the "good" spots to fish. After hearing all this from my husband I decided to call Christian and ask him why I wasn't told that he wouldn't be the guide taking my family on the trip? I explained to him that I felt like he didn't tell me the truth about this trip, he got very angry and started yelling at me over the phone. I had to ask him several times to please stop raising his voice, and that I was the customer and I feel like I have the right to ask questions. I told him that my family researched him and the way he fishes. He got very upset and started yelling again saying that "Justin does the exact same fishing that he does, and that I should be happy because my husband caught a fish and that he did everything to make my family happy and that he even let Justin use his poles." I told him that he should've let Justin use his poles because we did book with him and on his website it says that he supplies everything." He did not like what I had to say and started yelling again.Long story short, I felt like I was getting no where and thanked him for his time and hung up. I would never recommend Christian Witt to anyone. read more

It is very difficult to give even one star to rate this guy. He is VERY, VERY difficult to schedule with. When my husband did have a trip scheduled, he drove all the way north to meet up with Christian, and then, AGAIN, Christian did a no-show; without so much as a phone call, or ANY kind of word letting us know that he wasn't going to show up! I paid for two fishing trips and we never got to go on any at all. Christian PROMISED to return my money, but never did. I feel like he STOLE from me and he really let me down for sure. I hope that no one ever does any business at all with Christian Witt because if they do, they may be in for a huge disappointment. read more

Christian barely talked to us, mostly his friend and phone. Sat for a while as he did bait. He's not one to answer questions in a friendly manner or explain anything, felt like we were bothering him. Took us to smaller river, caught limit (which was only one opposed to other river which would be two). Off water in 2hrs. 3 stars is for catching fish. Was just an uncomfortable person to be around. read more

I've been all over North America fishing many different locations with many different guides. Christian Witt is one of the most knowledgable fisherman on the Columbia River. he told us he has been fishing there all his life, but knowledge isn't everything. The problem for me is I felt like I asked one of my unreliable college buddies to take me out fishing because I know he's experienced. I felt like on this trip it was as if he was doing us a favor by taking us out on the river not like we contracted a guide. All my guides in the past have been somewhat personable with their clients and I wasn't expecting 5 star hotel service, but I was expecting common courtesy which I received none. I think he yelled at me more than he spoke to me. On top of that, there was no safety demonstration, no life jackets on the boat, and after the first day he stranded half of our group on the beach so he could go hang out with his girl friend. We were resourceful so we made it work while we were out there but it makes me not want to return to this location on the Columbia River, even with another guide. He's great with fish but he should never have contact with people ever again. read more

I should have read these reviews before I booked this trip. I have done a dozen or so guided trips (mostly on Lake Erire) and have never had an experience as bad as this. First, he was supposed to show up at 4:30 am. After a number of calls, we finally woke him up at 5am, He got to the meeting spot at 5:30. A full hour after our time, and the sun was rising already. When he got their, he had no gas in his boat, so that was another 15 minutes. When we finally got to the launch, about 6:15, his boat wouldn't start so we had to jump it with our truck. He never once apologized. In fact, he really never acknowledged our group, never introduced himself or asked our names. One we were on the water and got to our spot, he baited the poles, tossed them in and said nothing. Turned around in his seat and started texting and talking on the phone. Never told us how we were fishing (shallow, deep), what his technique was going to be (try this place, if no luck move closer/deeper). At one point during the trip, he got into an argument on his phone with his wireless provider, it was alomost surreal, I couldn't believe this was happening. We caught one steelhead all day. He never moved the boat once to try and work for any fish, he just sat there, back to the group. Would barely answer a question. This guy is the worst, awful. The greatest story we have about this trip is about how bad Christian was. We at least are getting a laugh out of it now, but catching more than a single fish would have been nice. read more