Hi
With the windy weather so far this year, I guess that there must be a lot of cancelled charters, or are they going out anyway just to keep the revenue up
Hope the wind dies down for a while soon.
Whichway
Hi
With the windy weather so far this year, I guess that there must be a lot of cancelled charters, or are they going out anyway just to keep the revenue up
Hope the wind dies down for a while soon.
Whichway
Like any business, there is always an element of risk involved.
The Fishing Charter business is at the high end of the risk scale and one can live and die by conditions totally outside of your control.
Weather
Fish
Clients
Boat
I believe that most operators have a ' second or alternative ' income for just these cases.
Phill
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a lot of people think that owning and/or operating a Charter Boat/Business is a piece of cake and even glamorous, you get paid to do what you like to do anyway! but for those who have worked in the Industry will well know, there is a lot of drama between all the 'glamorous" days, not to mention gear and boat maintenance, then there is sea sick and cranky clients, and esky full of beer at first light usually is not a great start, the ever increasing pressure to get fish, especially if a specific species is asked for, Licence fees and insurance, trust me it is not like a quick day trip on your own to get a few fish, it is hard work, and I mean BLOODY hard work to do it consistently and successfully! sure some days are a dream and a couple of good clients can make it a great day, but it is not always the case!
Me and some mates from work have had a charter out of Noosa cancelled 6 times since last August due to crap weather. The charter people have bent over backwards to get us out there but said they would not take us out in rubbish contitions. They even bought all the food for the last attempt(all day charter ) but cancelled at the last minute when predicted 10-15 knots turned into 25-30. We've taken the hint and asked for a refund. Maybe i should take up a different hobby........maybe cake decorating
My old man owned a couple of charter boats ,i used to go out every weekend and holidays to decky with him and its hard work. clients expect to go out and catch fish every day, but some days the fish just dont want to bite.Most clients have hardly fished at all,so when a client hooks onto a fish they tighten the drag and try to skull drag the fish and end up getting busted off.I would fish for a bit to get some fish in the esky and try to hook up to some bigger fish to let the clients wind them in. He ended up having enough dealing with the clients and sold the boat after a couple of years.
Didnt see many charter boats supporting us last sunday.
Stue
Yes Noel you are pretty much on the money with a lot of your comment's.I'll give you an example of one week's work in extended charter.Okay Sunday arvo leave marina about 3pm travel for 10-12 hrs at 10kt's talk fishing with client's during steaming watch them get more drunk as the night go's on and stay up with them until we reach the destination then be the bad guy when you say hey it's 3am go to bed.(as our duty of care we must know what people are doing at all time' while on charter for their saftey)Get up at 5am to get ready to launch 4 dinghy's by 6am,go fishing all day retuning 1/2 hr before sunset,stay up until 12pm with client's making sure everything is ok and they don't drink themselves stupid and do silly thing's.(not all client's are like this with alcohol of course) Now reapeat 5 time's,come back early saturday morning about 3am get some sleep get up at 5.30 get client's ready for offload then clean down a large boat,re-fuel,re-stock with food do running maintenence replace lost/broken fishing gear and get off boat by about 1pm ish and go home and do laundry pay bill's keep family happy etc then return on the sunday to do it all again.Originally Posted by Noelm
Now i enjoyed my time as a guide and especially some of the great client's that i shared time with but to do this type of work day in day out it really become's just another job,sure i got to fish some great place's and see some wonderfull sight's which i will allway's remember but try this lifestyle for roughly 30 week's a year for a couple of year's back to back and it become's very stressfull and mundane put simply i was fished out.As with any job it's a lot of hard work and long hour's and lot's of commitment if you want to do it properly.I have a great respect for the guy's that have been in the game for many many year's as the hard work they have put in would be priceless.
I got out before my enthusiasm for the job became to low, i did'nt want to see people spend thousand's of dollar's to do their trip of a lifetime only to be confronted with someone that didn't want to do their best for them.I have had a couple of year's away from the charter industry now but i still feel it will be another couple of years before i get that passion for fishing back.Getting out when i did gave me the option of being welcome back when i decide to do it all again which one day i will.It's a totally different ballgame when fishing with paying customer's than fishing with your mate's there is pressure to perform and produce fish and not the relaxing fun weekend you spend with your buddie's.
Dan................
Guys- I could not agree more with you - a charter I work for has been out probably 5 times since November - the pickings have been slim due to the weather. It is a very hard life & Noelm & Dan you depicted it to a tee. 4reel - you probably didn't see too many charter boats because of several reason - It would be a bit hard to throw around a 30+ foot charter boat in the Brisbane River in such a crowded space - It would make for a very dangerous situation. Most of the skippers and crew were there but we were on smaller (staff owned) craft - or they were out trying to make a desperate buck elsewhere. Take a look at Keith from Incredible Charters & the weight he has thrown behind our cause, he has been the face and brains behind many protests and there are plenty of other owners/skippers who have put in a hugh amount of time & research preparing a defence against the greens proposed plans as well. Lets just all hope things don't turn out too bad for all involved.
Its not just charters all area's in the fish game are hard tackle shops, fish shops not to mention the pro's they struggle even more than charters at least they get paid whether fish are caught or not but the poor old pros lose money if nothing is caught, you have to really enjoy what you do in the seafood industry or its a very tough road.
G'day
Noel and Dan.... spot on.
I have been deckie on 3 boats for a number of years and you're right.... the owners are stressed and usually have other income streams.
It is bloody hard work and the deckies especially get bugger all pay for what they do, the skipper not much better.
Would I have a charter business?? sure, but only when I would oversee the operation and use it as a hobby, and a good tax move for a bigger boat
Dave
Just my 2 cents worth
I went on my first charter in November - in not very nice conditions and even after it having been postponed 4 times before we finally did get out - I wish we had waited (we would probably still be waiting now)
I do feel very sorry for the professional operators who are unable to get out in this weather, however this did give me the opportunity to hit John Gooding up for a business card when he parked in front of me to pick up the school kids the other day!
I hope the weather settles soon - so we can ALL get out for a fish!
Cheers
Janine
Its not only charter operators who suffer in this weather. Think of us farmers, with all the rain we are receiving our avo trees suffer from root rot, which, can take years to turn around, our custard apples which the fruit is maturing are suceptible to splitting from the excess rain, we are unable to apply sprays which will result in a downgrade in our fruit and less return.
Moving on to the wind side of things, whenever it blows, our fruit gets windrubbed causing a downgrade, or worse gets knocked off the tree losing the fruit completely, trees get blown over so we have to either stake up the trees or lose the tree completely.
Sure I may sound like another whinging farmer, and yeah, I feel sorry for other people who are suffering from the weather, but this weather has long term effects on us not just the direct impacts, just the same as the drought has caused us. Yeah, I know what you're all thinking, I can't be satisfied. But I'm just showing you what its like from my perspective.
Cheers
Kezza
yes kezza its the old story when it rains it pours, hopefully you will see the end of this crap weather soon as i think most will agree that we hav had enough rain for the time being
dbl
Yeh Kezza that root rot is a shocker!
We lost about 95 out of 110 avo trees a few years back, tried everything to save them but nothing worked for us. Hope your having some better luck.
Incidently how are you treating it?
Cheers
Jim
Gday Jim,
I have a strict regime for root rot. If you don't keep on top of it you're stuffed. We have always injected twice a year but it does too much damage to the tree. I now apply sprays at certain times of the year and monitor by getting root samples done. Where do you grow them?
Cheers
Kezza
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