Look trusted before they ever call.
Anglers pick a guide from a phone screen in about ten seconds. Driftline builds the site that wins those ten seconds, from your water and your photos, and you see it finished before you pay a dollar.
Driftline builds and runs booking websites for fishing guides. The site is built free as a finished preview before any money moves and runs on your own domain. Rent it for $295 a month with unlimited updates, own it for $3,500 one time, or get it included in every marketing plan from $1,500 a month.
Everything the site needs. Nothing you have to run.
Every row below is included in every plan. No build fee, no setup fee, no percentage of your bookings.
A site that books, not a brochure.
Rates on the page. Open dates visible. One button between "this looks incredible" and a request in your pocket. Everything else on the site exists to earn that click.
Where do booking requests land?
Your text messages or your inbox, whichever you actually read, with the trip, date, and party size. Already use booking software? The site points into it instead.
What if my photos are thin?
Send your camera roll and we'll send back a one-page shoot list for a normal guide day. Phone photos of real fish beat stock photography every time.
Real builds you can click through today.
A live client site and finished preview builds, the same kind you'd get. Judge the work.
Bowman Fly Fishing
The proof client. Site, ads, and search together took revenue to about 4x in a year.
Spirit Fly Charters
A saltwater preview built on spec: flats light, booking front and center.
Conejos River Anglers
A mountain-water preview: canyon photography, a clear trip ladder, rates published.
More on the shelf at our work. Every engagement starts exactly like these: a finished preview for your water, free.
What makes a fishing guide website actually book trips?
Five things. Real photos of your water. Rates on the page. A booking path that ends in your pocket. Proof you're legitimate. And a site fast enough for one bar of service at a boat ramp.
Anglers shop like you'd shop for a rod: on a phone, three tabs open, comparing. The site that wins answers three silent questions fast. What would a day with you look like? Photography and trip pages. What does it cost? Published rates, because "call for pricing" reads as either expensive or abandoned. Can I trust you? Reviews, your license, and a site that looks maintained this season.
The technical half is invisible but decides who even finds you. Structured data (schema markup, in Google's own words) tells search engines what you guide, where, and for how much. Every site we build ships with it, plus an llms.txt file so AI assistants get the same facts straight.
How much does a fishing guide website cost?
DIY builders: $17 to $36 a month plus your evenings. Custom builds in this niche: roughly $1,900 to several thousand up front, then updates cost extra. Driftline: $295 a month rented with build, updates, and hosting included, or $3,500 one time to own it.
The honest math isn't the sticker price. It's what the site does all season. A $30-a-month template you built in January quietly costs you the bookings it never wins, and it makes you the web guy at 9pm. Our pricing is published: three plans, month to month, the site in all of them.
The site web shops quote five grand for is $295 a month.
Build fee: $0. Setup fee: $0. Percentage of your bookings: never. The preview is free either way.
The first client 4x'd revenue in a year.
Bowman Fly Fishing, North Georgia. Driftline built the site, ran the ads, and did the search work. Revenue went to about four times what it was, and every dollar of it is walkable, line by line, on request.
What exactly produced the 4x?
The site, the ads, and the search work together. We scope it exactly that way on purpose: proof gets attributed to what actually ran, nothing else.
Can I talk to a real number?
We'll walk you through Bowman's year: what was spent, what came back, what a comparable season could look like on your water.
Do I need my own website if I'm on FishingBooker or Instagram?
Marketplaces and feeds rent you an audience. Your website is the one place online you don't share with competitors, and the only one where repeat clients book you commission-free.
Marketplace listings fill real dates for some guides. But read the terms: FishingBooker's own help page spells out the commission captains pay per booking, and every repeat client who books through the platform pays it again. Instagram is real for guides too, and our paid social leans on it. But a feed can't publish rates, take a booking, or rank on Google. The feed warms them up. The site closes them.
Who owns the website, the domain, and the client list?
Your domain and your client list are yours from day one, registered in your name, and they leave with you. Rent the site at $295 a month, or own the build outright for $3,500 one time, published right on the pricing page.
This is the part of the industry that burns guides, so plainly: some shops register your domain in their name, and the day you leave, your web address leaves with them. We set yours up in your registrar account. Your client list exports whenever you ask, no questions. Renting the site is what makes unlimited updates possible at this price; the $3,500 buyout is there for guides who'd rather own it outright.
What happens to my old site and my Google reviews?
Reviews live on your Google Business Profile, not your website, so they carry over untouched. Your domain moves with you, and your old pages get redirected one by one so the rankings you've earned transfer instead of evaporating.
That's the question behind the question: will switching cost me what I've built? No. Your Google Business Profile stays put, the equity transfers, and most guides keep their domain and lose nothing but the embarrassment of the old site.
A guide's real options for a website.
Template builder, marketplace listing, local web shop, or Driftline. Compare like an angler comparing guides.
| Driftline | DIY template | Marketplace only | Local web shop | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built around your water | ✓ | You build it | Their brand | Generic, usually |
| Up-front price | Published, $295/mo or $3,500 once | $17–36/mo + your evenings | Free to list | Quote by quote |
| Cost per booking | Flat, no commission | None | Commission, every time | None |
| Updates in-season | Text us, done | Your 9pm job | Their template | Invoice per change |
| Google profile + reviews | Included | ✗ | Reviews stay theirs | Rarely |
| Schema + llms.txt baked in | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | Sometimes |
| See it before you pay | Finished preview, free | ✗ | n/a | Mockups at best |
| Who answers when it breaks | Our team, same day in season | A help forum | Support ticket | Whoever's left |
Is this the right way to get your site done?
- Guiding is your living and the website is the job you keep putting off
- Your current site embarrasses you a little, or doesn't exist
- You want rates, trips, and booking in one place you control
- You'd rather text a real person than manage a project
- You want to see the finished thing before you spend a dollar
- You enjoy building your own site and have the evenings for it
- You want to own the code on day one rather than rent it running
- You need custom software built, not a booking site run
- A website alone is expected to fill your calendar. It won't; that's what ads are for
Your website should be the hardest-working thing you own.
It works the ramp at 5am and the desk browser at lunch. It quotes your rates while you're rowing. It asks for the review you'd forget to ask for. A guide gets one storefront on the entire internet that he actually controls, and there is no excuse for it looking like 2014. Ours start free, so you can judge that claim on your own water.
The site is the foundation. These are the floors.
The site convinces; the ads deliver people to it. Meta ads pulsed for your season, built from your photography.
Paid social → SEOThe structure baked into the build is what lets your water's searches find you. SEO compounds on top of it.
SEO for guides → The reportOne page a month: what the site and ads cost, what came back. The site's job shows up as a number.
See the demo →
We've built these sites for guides from Georgia to Colorado, and the pattern never changes: the guide who looks trustworthy on a phone screen gets the call. Text us your water and we'll show you yours before you pay anything.
Driftline · (470) 777-9686About web design, answered straight.
How does the free preview work?
Driftline builds a finished preview of your new website, for your water, before you pay anything. You look at it, click through it, show your wife or your fishing partner. Then you decide. Free either way, and if your stretch is already taken we'll tell you before we build anything.
What if I already have a website?
Bring it. We rebuild it properly on your domain, your old content and rankings get redirected page by page, and your Google reviews carry over untouched because they live on your profile, not your site. Most guides keep their domain and lose nothing.
Do I own the site?
Either way works. At $295 a month you rent it, and your domain and client list are registered in your name from day one and leave with you. Or own the build outright: $3,500 one time, with optional maintenance at $150 a month.
What does 'unlimited updates' actually mean?
Text us a change and it's made: new rates, new photos, a trip you added, a season note. No ticket system, no per-change invoice, no update package. Seasonal refreshes are included so the site always reads like this year.
What's included at $295 a month?
The website itself: built for your water, hosted, and updated without limits. No ads, no Google Business Profile work, no client emails; those live in the marketing plans, and we'll say plainly that a site alone won't fill your Tuesdays.
Will a new website get me more bookings by itself?
It converts the attention you already get: searches, referrals, people checking you out after a dock conversation. If nobody's finding you, the site needs traffic behind it. That's what paid social, paid search, and SEO are for, and why most guides pick Get Booked.
How do bookings actually reach me?
Booking requests land where you already live: your text messages or your inbox, with the trip, date, and party size. If you already use booking software, the site points into it instead. No new dashboard to learn.
What about photos if mine aren't great?
Send what you have and we'll send back a one-page shoot list for a normal guide day: the shots that sell trips, taken on the phone in your pocket. Guides are usually surprised how far their own camera roll gets us.
What are the contract terms?
Month to month. No setup fee, no build fee, no percentage of your bookings, ever. If you leave, your domain and client list go with you, and we help with the handoff instead of holding the door.
How fast can this be live?
The preview usually lands within a week of your go-ahead, and a finished site is typically live on your domain about two weeks after you say yes. Your total time cost is about twenty minutes.
Get a free preview of your new website.
Tell us your water and where you're at today. We'll build a finished preview of your site, free, before any money changes hands. If your water's already taken, we'll tell you straight.
Fastest: text (470) 777-9686