Case study · Fishing guide service
Epic Guide Service: a charter site built for the booking season
A Green Bay fishing guide whose season is short and whose customers book from a phone, months ahead, without ever having met him. We built a site with a page for every trip and season, then brought in anglers with SEO and Google Ads.
The results for Epic Guide Service
A guide service that follows the fish
Epic Guide Service runs guided fishing charters out of Green Bay, Wisconsin: walleye and musky on the bay and the Fox River, salmon on Lake Michigan and smallmouth bass off Door County. Outside the fishing months the same outfit guides waterfowl and snow goose hunts, and it offers a vacation rental for groups who want to stay near the water.
Every one of those trips has its own season, its own water and its own kind of customer. A father planning a first walleye trip, a musky angler chasing a personal best and a company booking three boats for a group outing are all looking for different pages.
The challenge: a short season and a stranger to convince
A charter is bought on trust. The customer is committing a day and a fair sum of money to a guide they have never met, on water they may never have seen, and they usually decide in the evening with a phone in one hand. Photos of real fish and a clear idea of what the day involves do most of the convincing.
Timing is the other pressure. People search for a spring walleye trip in the dead of winter, and the guide who appears for that search fills his calendar first. A site that is slow on a phone or vague about what is biting when loses the booking to the next result.
What the new site had to do:
- Give each species and each kind of trip a page that matches how anglers search.
- Show what is in season at any point in the year.
- Load quickly and read well on a phone, where most trips are researched.
- Make calling or sending a booking request possible from anywhere on the site.
What we built
A logo, a mobile-first website organized by trip and season, and the search work to put it in front of anglers while they are still planning.
A page for every trip.
Walleye, musky, salmon, smallmouth bass and group charters each have their own page, and so do the hunts. An angler who searches for "Green Bay musky charter" lands on a page about exactly that, with rates and a way to book close at hand.
A fishing calendar.
A month-by-month guide explains what to expect through the year, from pre-spawn walleye in early spring to the big fish of late summer. It answers "when should I come?" before the customer has to ask.
Galleries sorted by species.
Photo galleries for walleye, musky, salmon, smallmouth bass and waterfowl, plus a video page. A visitor interested in one fish sees that fish, held by customers like them.
Fishing reports and tips.
A reports section and a blog of seasonal advice keep the site current and give Google fresh pages on the topics anglers search for, such as spring walleye on the bay.
Booking within reach.
A tap-to-call phone number in the header, a Book Your Trip button on the home page and a contact form. Common questions are answered on a FAQ page, and a small online shop sits alongside.
SEO and Google Ads.
Page titles, headings and local details are set up for Green Bay fishing searches, and paid search campaigns run for the trips and weeks that most need filling.
How the project ran
Discovery
We began with the calendar: which trips run when, which sell out and which need help. The review describes that first consultation as taking the time to understand their vision and brand identity.
Brand and design
The logo came first, followed by a home page and a trip page designed for a phone screen before a desktop one.
Build and content
We developed the site, built out a page for each trip and season, and organized the photo galleries by species.
Launch, SEO and ads
With the site live, the search work began: ongoing SEO for the long term and Google Ads timed to the booking windows.
The results
The owner's review points to the thing a guide's website most needs to get right. The design, he writes, is "optimized for mobile devices, which has increased our traffic significantly."
More of that traffic arrives on the right page. Someone looking for a salmon trip on Lake Michigan and someone pricing a multi-boat group outing each start where their answer is, so an inquiry tends to come from a person who already knows which trip they want and roughly when.
Customers have noticed too. The same review mentions "numerous compliments from our customers on the new design." For a business that runs on repeat clients and word of mouth, a site people enjoy using is part of the service.
Google Lighthouse scores out of 100 for the live site, measured November 12, 2026.
In the client’s words
Increased our traffic significantly
“Lackey Designs completely transformed our online presence. From the very first consultation, their team took the time to understand our vision and brand identity. They created a stunning, user-friendly website that perfectly showcased our products and services. The design is not only aesthetically pleasing but also optimized for mobile devices, which has increased our traffic significantly. We’ve received numerous compliments from our customers on the new design! Highly recommend Lackey Designs for anyone looking to elevate their online identity!”
Jake Kaprelian, Epic Guide Service
Services on this project
Logo Design
A logo drawn for the business and delivered in every format it is used in.
Website Design
Page layouts designed around how this client's customers decide and buy.
Website Development
The build itself: fast, responsive pages and the custom features the project needed.
SEO
Titles, headings, structure and local details set up so the site is found in search.
Google Ads
Paid search campaigns aimed at the searches that turn into calls.
In the same line of work? See how we build charter and guide websites.
Frequently Asked Questions
What other guides and charter captains ask us about this project.
Yes, if you want to be found for each one. Anglers search for a specific fish on a specific water. Epic Guide Service has a page for walleye, musky, salmon and smallmouth, so each search has a page that answers it instead of one general page trying to cover everything.
The searches happen before the season, so the work has to as well. Rankings built over winter are what fill a spring calendar. For Epic we pair long-term SEO with Google Ads, which can be switched on for the weeks that need bookings and off when the boat is full.
Yes, where it suits the business. Epic Guide Service takes booking requests by phone and form and confirms dates personally, which suits a guide who matches the trip to the conditions. Where a client wants it, we add a booking tool or a payment link so a confirmed date is a paid one.
Not if they are handled properly. Photos are resized and compressed for phones and sorted into galleries by species, so a visitor loads the fish they care about instead of every picture at once.
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