ONYA THUMPSOriginally Posted by thumps
I've never been on a charter before, but the closest I came was winning a charter with a Prominent operator on the Gold Coast, from a VMR raffel.
Funny thing was this charter could never fit myself & my mate on... funny that hey!
They will never get the thumbs up from me & I've never stepped aboard their boat!
Odyssey Charters, you have done the right thing & you care about your bussinesses reputation. Positive things can only come of your comments.
Tomcat charters is the only one i have been out on although i dint catch anything i had a great day even though we had a 3m swell and i was chucking up most of the day lol
The skipper and deckie couldnt do enough to help us and i would definently use them again !
Oh well yes u may think i am a whinger.. but if some of u guys like being ripped off all the time... then so be it.. i am juz stating my point of view... if becos of me ur business suffers, i tink it is high time for u to improve on your dad's business and dun spoil ur old man's rep. nothing is smooth sailing.. would u rather hear honest opinions or juz a pack of boot licking stuff..?
i hope we see a huge difference in service.
Odyssey owner .. welcome to ausfish peter. I myself have never been on a fishing charter but it is good to read the other side of the story and as mention you have done the right thing and you do care about your business. I also work in the tourist industry part time driving 4x4s and I know it Is hard work just to keep all parties happy when the weather is bad - customers are late - and it is all our falt when the wind is blowing.
If I am up the gold coast and I would like to hire a charter odyssey will be my first choice.
cheers
LEN
I personally feel that a forum is a place for both consumers and providers to better understand the fishing industry and share their experiences. I suppose Bundopeace was simply giving his point of views and sharing his experience (happened to be a bad one this time) with everybody. It is often such forum that reflects the service standard of charters. Odeyssey Charters might have won awards and achieved great experiences with many people but it does not mean that they are consistent with their services EVERY single trip. Not trying to be biased here, but probably Peter could find out more from the deckies if they were slightly not being consistent with the charter's high level of service on that day?
Of course I appreciate both sides of the stories but I guess only the deckies knew the exact situation and whether the latecoming was justifiable. I salute Bundopeace for being able to stand out unshaken despite the various posts against him as he is indeed a consumer as he had said. Isn't word of mouth important to consumers and I guess Bundopeace meant to share his experience to allow us all to have a better experience in future, and to help Odeyssey improve.
I have been on two charters and paid top $$ for them both. The first one we thought was a fishing charter however it ended up being a glorified excuse to take a boat from Rocky to Gladstone. Dad and I spent 2 days on the boat with very little fishing and very little assistance from the crew who seemed far more concerened with getting to Gladstone on time.
The second was with a barra guide in Townsville who after commenting all day on how crap the water looked and that we should have put in at another spot not only cut the trip short(7am-2pm) said to myself and a mate, "You don't mind if I take one of your barras home do you". We had kept 2 barra and a fingermark and he still had the audacity to charge $150 each for a short trip and then take half our fish. I was incredibly embarrassed by this as I had spent months convincing a mate of mine to travel from WA to come and catch a NQ barra. Personally I would have thought
1. a barra guide would have plenty of opportunity to catch his own barra
2. the wind had been blowing from the same direction for 3 days, ample opportunity to make alternate plans I would believe.
I would like to add that I have no doubt that there are probably many many more postive stories from incredibly hard working charter operators.
What MUST be remembered is that most of us do NOT expect to catch the motherload of fish when we go out with a charter, but we DO expect to be treated as customers who pay very good money to learn from professionals and also have a pleasant experience.
To be honest I can bust my own @rse trying to get bait, whinge about the conditions, catch stuff all and then give most of my measly catch away and pay through the nose for the pleasure of it.
The mullet
here here.......... to both Mullet and Shikai [smiley=thumbup.gif]
only ever been on one charter, that was with a Barra guide in Cairns, it had been raining for weeks, the water was crap & he was happy to let me cancel if i wanted, i wasn't going up there & not have a fish. this guy worked his butt off, gave me almost an hour extra. i was happy to let him fish as it was only him & me on an 18 footer. he got me a barra & for he life of me i cannot remember his name or i would reccomend him..so there are lots of good guys out there.
Odyssey Owner,
I have been on heaps of charters from the coast but never with you (which maybe unfortunate, you sound like you do really care) The reason fo this is we Found a skipper that I think is wonderful he hand picks his deckies and we have only ever had one that we where not happy with. This skipper has changed companies and guess what when he did we did too!!!
I have been out with a wide range of people and I think in your defence I must say that the experience they have on a charter is largely up to themselves, just sad for you that they have chosen to make it so public.
If I am ever down that way again I will make a point of giving you a go.
Al
Ps can I bring my own skipper
Giday fellas,
I have been out on two charters,
one out of tweed heads and one out of Noosa. Both boats were reasonably expensive but i had a markedly different experinece on both. The boat out of tweed was a small charter - the sea was rough and the skipper ummed and ahhed about leaving for the safety of his passengers. He then decided to make a run out and check the bar (with us on board) and deciding that it was safe - took us outside. I pulled a nice pearlie first drop, and then proceeded to vomit for the next 6 to 7 hours - but i kept doing my best to continue fishing. The deckie and skippa offered me food, softdrink, advice on dealing with seasickness. The support from the deckhand and skippa was sensational, encouraging all passengers and teaching us about the art of reef bottom bashing. Also, the skippa was up for trying anything that we the passengers wanted to try. We wanted to troll for a while - he and the deckie rigged upo lures (and explained how to rig them) then trolled. I wanted to fish with livies - the deckhand rigged a bait jig and showed me how to use it in deep water. Best of all there was no anger when i snagged the jig within the first 5 minutes... While i was sick as a dog and only managed one fish it was a brilliant experience.
My noosa experience was vastly different. The deckies had a heap of mates on board and these guys got what they wanted when they wanted. The deckies fished all day and didn't provide any help to the customers at all. We had to do everything ourselves without help. We were shown nothing, and told nothing. Then when i was cutting up some bait for myself as i had run out- deckie goes beserk about not touching the bloody knife. Well, as a 19 year old, fairly experienced in cutting up pillies and squid - i was not to impressed. Neither was i too impressed when the deckies and their mates took up the best fishing spots on the sides of the boat (heaps of room) and we the passengers were stuck fighting it out at the back of the boat. Then when a float line was sent out, and went off, one deckie dived on the rod (while we the passengers stood around looking sheepish - not catching anything). I personally was bloody glad when he lost that fish. The piece de resistance was when there was mackeral and tuna errupting all around the boat, and i was desperate to have a spin for them. I grabbed one of the rods that was standing on deck rigged with a lure and headed out the front of the boat to be out of the others way. The deckie again went beserk saying that you will never catch one taking the rod away from me. Him and his mates then stand out the front of the boat and chuck lures for half an hour. I know this sounds like major whinging, and probably it is - but just wanted to say that if the skippa and deckies are kind, polite and making an effort to help and assist all passengers (we have all paid for their service) then i enjoy myself and have a fun filled day (and learn alot), and when they are rude and ignorant i have an ordinary day - no matter how many fish are caught. Needless to say, i am most interested in returning to tweed heads for future charter experiences...
Cheers Fritzy
That is an interesting story Frtzy - re the Noosa charter.
What was the outcome? Did you give them a serve, and if not why not. At the end of the day, if your customer service expectations are not met - what did you do about it?
I work in a customer service industry, and it is actually quite helpful for clients to point out where thisngs could improve etc
That sounds like a fair enough appraisal fitzy.
I went on a sydney habour charter not long ago and was extremely unimpressed. I really went for experience on how to fish the harbour - im local - and the skipper silently took us from spot to spot rigging up the the lines not really elaborating on what we were doing even when asked. I expected active fishing not simply going to moorings in crowded bays and being handed a rod with a lump of slimy mackeral on it and sitting there for the next 45 minutes. It was huge ripoff as well. I won't drop the name of the charter, because its not really fair if he can't defend himself.
I wasn't expecting a great haul, but we caught one 5cm squire and one luderick the whole day
^I honestly get more action going to my local wharf in Pyrmont and putting prawns out on the bottom on set lines, going to sleep, and waiting for bream to hook up
For xmas last year, my partner gave a gift voucher for a Barra Charter in Townsville with U-Beaut Barra Charters. This was still the closed season, but we landed many barra and other quality fish, in the most heavely fished river in Townsville, the Bohle River. Ryan was totally professional in his conduct and service. There have been many guides in Townsville over the years, but Ryan has been around since the start and his client base proves that. It is difficult to arrange a trip sometimes, because he has so many return customers who book well in advance. Not only does he target barra, but he has also a boat setup for reef fishing, that is very popular. The only fault that I can find, is that he has now moved to Cardwell, as with the GRMPA rezoning, much of the shoal country that was close to Townsville is now restricted, but he still runs charters in Townsville. There are good guides out there, the only problem is that they are very popular. Word of mouth from the local tackle shops will put you in the right direction. Just remember you get what you pay for. The day we went there was a new bloke who has just started guiding part-time. His boat was an exact copy of Ryan's and he was also following us around trying out the spots after we finished. The best part was that while we were anchored up on rockbars, pulling in 80cm+ barra's, they were anchored hard up near the bank catching small rat barra and bream. In North Queensland you don't pay to catch bream, you pay for quality fish and the guides knowledge.
Cheers
dicko1980
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