1770 Fishing Charter

[trymyluck]

Hi all
Just returned from 1770 on a charter with 9 mates including 2 fellow Ausfishers and all of us had some major issues with how we were treated.I'll list a few of the issues we had and i was just wondering are we being too picky or what.
Day 1 The bait was not distributed till the last minute and still frozen, the deckie was 2nd person to have a line in the water and lunch got served at 4.00pm only after being asked where it was.
Day 2 Didn't leave Fitsroy Lagoon till around 1.5 hrs after 1st light (we felt that there was plenty of light to be able to navigate the entrance given that there was 2 that have many years of yachting experiance including Sydney to Hobart), again deckie on several times said he was busy (fishing) when asked for assistance.Lunch consisted of some of our fish being cooked and eaten, than a pot of broken up chicken pasted along the rail, again later than it should have been but at least we didn't have to ask for it i guess.
Day 3 Same deal as day 2 leaving the lagoon if not a bit later( 2 other charter boat having left well before us).Hot brecky was served and announced by the deckie coming out finishing his off. 4 of us missed out and had to be content with bread butter and peanut butter/honey sandwichs with a bit of fruit.Deckie again 2 busy fishing to assist or use gaff as the only net on board was broken and to our amasement thrown overboard by the deckie on day 1. 4pm came and and I gave up waiting and again asked about lunch. Wow some sort of chocolate cake and half warm sausage rolls with sauce(the cake went over the side mostly).

A few comments from people who have been on charters before would be appreciated just to comfirm if we are feeling justly cheated of a wonderful experiance.
Despite all the above we did have a great time with some great memories.

I'm not going to say which charter it was as we are waiting on a response from the manager and owners of the charter but if anyone would like to know you can pm me.

Mark

[reelchippy]

Sounds a bit rough to me it doesn’t take a lot to make the trip more enjoyable
abet you paid good money for the charter to oh by the way lots of boys around here know 1770 really good. Cheers

[lethal098]

mark, yeah doesnt sound the best, friends of mine just came back from hervey on a 3 day charter and said everything was laid on a silver platter, nothing was too hard day or night. sounds to me like you have been badly mistreated and i would definately hope you get somethin back from em, if not i knwo plenty of ausfish members that would definately want to know so we dont get caught out. cheers lethal

[scrubba01]

Next time try Silver Dolphin Charters not sure if the decky will do any less fishing but you will have a great time, the food is basic but good and the skipper will keep trying to put you onto good fish. It is a fishing charter though not a cruise boat.

[gunna]

Frozen bait ?? I only did a day charter up there but first thing they did was fill up with livies !!! And the skipper was great.

[Little grey men]

was this the deckie ?

[Az]

Frozen bait ?? I only did a day charter up there but first thing they did was fill up with livies !!! And the skipper was great.

was that with Sportsfish Charters?? - Pete Stevens looks after his clients

[trymyluck]

Scrubba01 - No one thought we were in for "cruise" but we did not expect to be treated the way we were.I could have listed at least a dozen other complaints if not 2 dozen. We had some really good quality fish left in tubs with no change of water for anywhere up 2 hours and when we mentioned brain spiking the response was why bother even though it had been requested and agreed with before the charter as did a lot of other things but it seems that it was just a bit of lip service.
mark

[dww13]

trymyluck

obviosuly your not happy and from what you have listed above nor should you be, however listing a number of issues with out any background information on a fishing forum isnt going to help yourself or anybody else.

No one reading knows what you had paid for, who you where going with and what was discussed prior or during the charter with the skipper. (you mentioned brain spikeing was discussed but that is the only detail you have let out that was discussed prior)

There are quite often charters put together for clients that do not intend to pay there money to be waited on hand and foot and then there are charters that are put together at top dollar rates and full service is required and expected.

Im not at all suggesting you skimped out on dollars or am i trying to stand up for the charter operator and crew. Your post hasnt given any details for anybody to comment on other then the fact that it seems the crew were a bit slack. (as i said though i know of plenty of charters that are arranged with a no frills budget and the crew are awarded equall fishing opurtunity etc they are basicaly there to assist if required and look after the boat)

We do plenty of extended trips and we charge top dollar, however the crew are the first up last down and make the stay as crusiey as possible for the clients. We make sure that we discuss expectations prior to and during each trip. This includes departure and arival times, menues, fishing tackle and bait supplies.

I think all you could do is let others know to look out for the operator and have ALL details discussed prior to fixing up deposits etc.

Hopefully you still managed some good fish.

cheers. Just my opinion.

[Nic]

That's pretty shonky – deckies aren't paid to fish. I actually can't remember a charter I have been on where the crew fished.

Perhaps the owner didn't know this was going on?

[spelchek]

Sounds like a shit operator to me Trymyluck. I'd certainly appreciate you naming them so I don't make the mistake of using them in the future.

[trymyluck]

trymyluck

obviosuly your not happy and from what you have listed above nor should you be, however listing a number of issues with out any background information on a fishing forum isnt going to help yourself or anybody else.

No one reading knows what you had paid for, who you where going with and what was discussed prior or during the charter with the skipper. (you mentioned brain spikeing was discussed but that is the only detail you have let out that was discussed prior)

There are quite often charters put together for clients that do not intend to pay there money to be waited on hand and foot and then there are charters that are put together at top dollar rates and full service is required and expected.

Im not at all suggesting you skimped out on dollars or am i trying to stand up for the charter operator and crew. Your post hasnt given any details for anybody to comment on other then the fact that it seems the crew were a bit slack. (as i said though i know of plenty of charters that are arranged with a no frills budget and the crew are awarded equall fishing opurtunity etc they are basicaly there to assist if required and look after the boat)

We do plenty of extended trips and we charge top dollar, however the crew are the first up last down and make the stay as crusiey as possible for the clients. We make sure that we discuss expectations prior to and during each trip. This includes departure and arival times, menues, fishing tackle and bait supplies.

I think all you could do is let others know to look out for the operator and have ALL details discussed prior to fixing up deposits etc.

Hopefully you still managed some good fish.

cheers. Just my opinion.

To give you an idea this trip has been planned for several months and the charter cost was around $6500 for the 10 guys.That was for 3 days and 2 nights fishing with 3 meals a day, 1 deckie and bait supplied.Fish brained spiked, chilled and if big enough filleted if we wanted and bagged.Now no one expected to be waited on or their bait put on but we did expect to be given every oportunity without raping one particular area to fish and to be well fed as well as the inexperianced helped out if required.I would also think that it would be their responsibility to ensure that our catch was of legal size and species. We would not of cared if they had even asked for help to prepare food or whatever but what we were told would happen did not happen.
Why should the decky have a paid fishing trip when we have paid for the use of the boat.
Why should we have to go hungry because they couldn't be bothered organising meals.
Why should our fish be cut up for bait (hussar and quite a few of them)and our fish cooked up, none of theirs were.Their fish did not sit in the sun for hours.
I would expect that any charter operator would be bending over to ensure a great time to ensure return business.
Mark

[kingfish101]

Sounds terrible... Its horrible when a trip turns out like that mate, what was the name of the charter?

[iricangi]

Hello Trymyluck,

had a very similar experience here on the gold coast on one of the "premier" charters, been out a few times with them "hoping" to get better, but that all fell t hrough.

Booked out the boat to take us to 36/50's and they sat around 18/24's all day long with no current, deckies fished all day, couldn't gaff to save his life and shit all result of fish.

Skipper didn't care and even said he didn't wana come out.

Gotta be joking seriously..

[Apollo]

As one of the other ausfish members who went on this trip with Mark (trymyluck), I would say that Mark is being understated in what he is saying about this trip. We have been out on many charters and have a pretty damm good understanding of what to expect. We wanted a fishing trip, not a 'cruise'. If we were chasing a top of the line swains type trip then we would have gone that way, but the service provided on this trip was not even basic. Three meals a day is three meals a day - some were unedible, some not enough to feed us with 3-4 guys missing out. It wasn't a case of the first guys gutsing themselves as they were still hungry, but I forgot to mention that the skipper and deckie ate first before we we informed it was ready. An example of the attitude of the deckie was that the landing net broke on the first day, so he just chucked the whole lot over side. Now we had 6 workshop tradesmen and 2 jack of all trade farmers aboard who could of easily jury rigged the broken net to atleast give us one for the rest of the trip. Want another one? We are all fishing along the side on a drift and the deckie wants people to move so he could fish. And more? Lunch was delayed on one day because the deckie went for a couple of hour sleep. One more? One of the boys caught a nice Coronation trout, but it didn't make it into our fish to take home - the deckie kept it (we didn't realise it was not there untill we we well on the way home). I could list many more.

I have seen many deckies and skippers in action and have seen how good they can be and how helpful they are. None of these have been 'silver service' type operations, just good operators such as Rainbow Beach Charter, Lapu and the like. Food has been basic but good, plentiful and on time. Deckies keep the bait going, assist anyone having a bit of difficulties and ensure any keepers are processed quickly to maintain optimal eating qualities for their customers. Skipper ensure safety and try to keep their customers on the fish. Nothing over the top, just good basic customer service.

A fair amount of time was spent before we left to ensure alot of things were discussed with the operator and clear understanding was reached as to what was expected and what would be provided. This was not delivered

On arriving back to shore after the trip, we grabbed the Manager (owners are away) and started to run through some of the treatment we had received. He was gobsmacked! He has asked for an email with full details, (which has been done) to discuss this with the owners. On receiving the email, the office manager rang me in distress as to our treatment. We will name the charter once the owners/managers have gotten back to us or if you need to know beforehand, PM trymyluck.