Originally Posted by
Lancair
Anyone who aspires to deckie regularly on someones boat should be like this guy.
First up, he turned up early, with ice. I usually pick it up on the way to the ramp. As usual the deckie drives my ute and trailer to a parking spot after I drive the boat off. When on return I reverse the trailer down to load the boat on, because I'm 6'2 and most of my deckies are shorter, they move the seat forward to drive and I have to move it back when I get in. Now I know it's not a big deal at all and I'd never taken much notice, it happens, but when I got back in, the seat was back ready for me to drive, my deckie is 5'10. BTW, a deckie that can actually reverse a trailer AND get it square to the ramp so it's sitting level in the water and get the depth right, would be a bonus. So far Ive fished with one guy who can, but he's a B-Double driver and can reverse those things so . . .
On the way to the bar, he rigged up lures and a bait jig to be ready to go. As soon as we reached the bait area and slowed to start the hunt, he was ready with the jig and had floating lures out to drag around as we searched for baitfish.
After 30-40mins hunting and no luck, he served up some pieces of fritata (baked egg and bacon with some onion and garlic capsicum tomato etc thrown in), whilst we ate he tidied up the rods and got the boat ready for the run out wide. On the trip out, he tied double dropper rigs ready to bottom bash and by the time we got there both our rods were ready, I mean baited up, ready to drop! I lost a rig on a snag at the end of our drift, by the time I'd moved us back to start a new drift, going a bit further because I had a rig to make, he'd done it, hooks on, sinker on baited ready to drop. After a few hours fishing he provided a ham and salad roll and a piece of fruit, stuck in the top of a cold Corona. For lunch he served up cold roast lamb with chutney and salad rolls.
All the time we were fishing, if he wasnt actively fishing, he was cleaning up blood and bait splatters off the boat or washing out the kill tank so it didnt get foul with old blood, taking fish from the kill tank to the brine esky and placing them in upside down and straight. The deck was kept clear and whenever he used the net or gaff, it went back where it lives. Rods NEVER got leant on the gunwall while unhooking fish or rebaiting etc, always in a rod holder with drag backed off. Every time we repositioned for a new drift, rods were secure in rod holders and hooks secured to the bait board or the rod and sinkers secured not flying around bashing the boat with hooks snagging clothing etc etc.
To be fair, I must explain, that this deckie I write about, is a mate, whom Ive known for a long time and fished with many many times. He works as a deckie on game fishing charter boats and has worked on some bigger privately owned boats travelling to Thailand etc. This recent trip was the first time we'd fished together in about a year, he's done a lot of gamefishing charters since and I guess maybe Id not noticed how easy it was to fish with him previously, after a year of fishing often with newbies or lazy crew.
I thought I'd post this an example of what a good crew member should be doing, maybe minus the food service, that was exceptional, even for him. (so was re-rigging and rebaiting my line)
Lancair
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