Sit back, grab a relaxing beverage or a bowl of popcorn, chips and salsa if you prefer.
This may be a long post. As you may have read, I went on a chartered fishing trip yesterday, here is my tale of my experience.
Our tale begins a many years ago when I was but a lad of about 15, my mother and father took our family of five on a wonderful trip for a one week vacation in Acapulco Mexico. We had a great time. One of the activities we did was split a chartered fishing trip with a couple my Mom and Dad met on the beach. Us kids didn't fish but we got to see Dolphins surfing on the wake off the bow of the boat. My brother and I leaned over the edge and where able to touch the tip of their fins. Unfortunately we didn't notice the poorly done fiberglass patch we were leaning on until we started to itch. The rest of the trip was itchy and boring since we didn't get to fish. Less great was the fact that my dad didn't even catch anything. The guy we split the Charter with did however catch a nice sized swordfish, less great than my dad not catching anything was the crew telling this trusting individual that swordfish is no good to eat and the would dispose of it for him so they could keep it for themselves. My dad new better but didn't want to poke a hornet's nest by calling the crew out on their lie. Overall other than seeing the dolphins I was not impressed with my first charter experience. Oh and I forgot to mention we all got a good sun burn.
A few years later when I was 19 I was working for my dad cutting concrete, he decided to reward the hard work of his employees with a chartered walleye fishing trip, not many of the employees wanted to go so my Girlfriend and her father went with us and the few employees that did want to go since there was room. The boat was ok but not that impressive, the crew was ok but definitely not that impressive and all we caught was sheepshead aka bottom feeding junk fish to most people. Although my girlfriend's dad was happy to take them all home. Overall I was not impressed with my second charter experience. And I believe most of us got a good sunburn.
So fast forward to a few months ago when my father in law got a chartered fishing trip for four at a safari club international raffle, and gave it to my wife's cousin, his wife and my wife and I. With my less than stellar previous charter experiences I was less than excited to go. But hay who knows maybe this time will be better. Then my wife's cousin decides he doesn't want to go and says we can go. We decide to take our kids with us ages 10, 8 and 6 and all we have to pay is a little extra for the 5th person. The charter guy says there is room for one more for a little more money so we invite a friend to go too, he just has to cover the small extra charge for himself. Well ok this sounds a little better now, at least I get to hang out with my wife kids and on of my friend's if the fishing is a flop.
We get a few emails and my wife texts the charter company a few times to confirm details and make arrangements and we keep getting mixed communication about certain fees and where we are meeting. One email says meet in Saginaw then the day before the trip we get an email to meet in Monroe. We figured they go where the fish are so that's where it's best to go. We get up at 2:00 AM get ready my friend gets here at 3:00 AM and we drive to Monroe arriving about a half hr early. Aside from a little confusion from mixed communications everything is going good so far.
Like I said we've arrived a little early, we get a call from the captain (captain)"Hi is that you parked across the street at the address I gave you" (us) yep that's us (captain)" Great we are just finishing getting the boat ready and we'll be ready to leave in about 20 minutes" (us) ok we are going to run back to the gas station and fill up the car now since we have a few minutes" (captain) "ok see you in a few, when you get back come across the street and park by the big red dodge truck". We get back park where instructed, meet the first mate and captain, the docks are underwater because the lake is at a record for something like 100 years. But the captain has wading boots for us to use and help us load our gear and helps get the kids to the boat which is considerably nicer than I had expected and we're off. The Captain admits that he doesn't usually have kids as young as ours on characters but has enough appropriately sized vests for them and treats them very well, he just seems concerned that they may get bored or be in the way or something. I was a bit concerned that this may be a problem, however with my past experience with charter fishing I'm not expecting a great fun filled day anyway so I'm not that concerned. I'm just trying to make the best of a day I really wasn't looking forward to in the first place.
We get out on the lake the captain and first mate quickly and efficiently set up trolling rigs a d 16 to 18 rods have line in the water in No time, the captain sets the cruise control and we have a few fish on in minutes. This is going better than expected but a long shot. We catch a few walleye each, kids included. And I am starting to jam e a different outlook on this whole charter deal. My 8 year old reals in a very nice walleye that ends up being the biggest fish of the day and it was so fun seeing the everyone's reaction. At one time wehad four fish on at once and the first mate is helping two of the kids simultaneously while we were bringing in fish. The kids behaved very well the whole time not unusual for our kids but I think the captain was quite surprised buy this. Well about half way through the trip we get a call from the charter company asking where we are,
Wait what, we are on the boat fishing what do you mean where are we? Come to find out we somehow got booked on a completely different charter unrelated to the one my father in law had paid for and where supposed to be in Saginaw after all. We are now half way through a fishing trip that we are going to have to pay for an $826 dollar fishing trip and have missed the one that was mostly paid for witch is now forfeited and can't be rescheduled because it was donated for a charity auction. Well at this point there is nothing we can do but try to not think about that and try to get back to enjoying the rest of the day. Luckily we where able to just say oh well and we really did enjoy the rest of the day. We caught our limit of walleye and about 50 or 60 fish that we released that where not great eating fish but where fun to catch. The captain and first mate did a phenomenal job the entire time and the whole day was very enjoyable. Aside from being on the hook for an unplanned $826 it was a great experience, We still don't know how two separate trips got scheduled, luckily we have some money in savings and although not planned, unlike unexpected car maintenance this was at least a very enjoyable unexpected expense. I will definitely plan another trip in the next few years and likely every few years.
Oh yeah none of us got sunburn this time either.
P.S. I told you this was gonna be a long post.
I hope you enjoyed it.
This may be a long post. As you may have read, I went on a chartered fishing trip yesterday, here is my tale of my experience.
Our tale begins a many years ago when I was but a lad of about 15, my mother and father took our family of five on a wonderful trip for a one week vacation in Acapulco Mexico. We had a great time. One of the activities we did was split a chartered fishing trip with a couple my Mom and Dad met on the beach. Us kids didn't fish but we got to see Dolphins surfing on the wake off the bow of the boat. My brother and I leaned over the edge and where able to touch the tip of their fins. Unfortunately we didn't notice the poorly done fiberglass patch we were leaning on until we started to itch. The rest of the trip was itchy and boring since we didn't get to fish. Less great was the fact that my dad didn't even catch anything. The guy we split the Charter with did however catch a nice sized swordfish, less great than my dad not catching anything was the crew telling this trusting individual that swordfish is no good to eat and the would dispose of it for him so they could keep it for themselves. My dad new better but didn't want to poke a hornet's nest by calling the crew out on their lie. Overall other than seeing the dolphins I was not impressed with my first charter experience. Oh and I forgot to mention we all got a good sun burn.
A few years later when I was 19 I was working for my dad cutting concrete, he decided to reward the hard work of his employees with a chartered walleye fishing trip, not many of the employees wanted to go so my Girlfriend and her father went with us and the few employees that did want to go since there was room. The boat was ok but not that impressive, the crew was ok but definitely not that impressive and all we caught was sheepshead aka bottom feeding junk fish to most people. Although my girlfriend's dad was happy to take them all home. Overall I was not impressed with my second charter experience. And I believe most of us got a good sunburn.
So fast forward to a few months ago when my father in law got a chartered fishing trip for four at a safari club international raffle, and gave it to my wife's cousin, his wife and my wife and I. With my less than stellar previous charter experiences I was less than excited to go. But hay who knows maybe this time will be better. Then my wife's cousin decides he doesn't want to go and says we can go. We decide to take our kids with us ages 10, 8 and 6 and all we have to pay is a little extra for the 5th person. The charter guy says there is room for one more for a little more money so we invite a friend to go too, he just has to cover the small extra charge for himself. Well ok this sounds a little better now, at least I get to hang out with my wife kids and on of my friend's if the fishing is a flop.
We get a few emails and my wife texts the charter company a few times to confirm details and make arrangements and we keep getting mixed communication about certain fees and where we are meeting. One email says meet in Saginaw then the day before the trip we get an email to meet in Monroe. We figured they go where the fish are so that's where it's best to go. We get up at 2:00 AM get ready my friend gets here at 3:00 AM and we drive to Monroe arriving about a half hr early. Aside from a little confusion from mixed communications everything is going good so far.
Like I said we've arrived a little early, we get a call from the captain (captain)"Hi is that you parked across the street at the address I gave you" (us) yep that's us (captain)" Great we are just finishing getting the boat ready and we'll be ready to leave in about 20 minutes" (us) ok we are going to run back to the gas station and fill up the car now since we have a few minutes" (captain) "ok see you in a few, when you get back come across the street and park by the big red dodge truck". We get back park where instructed, meet the first mate and captain, the docks are underwater because the lake is at a record for something like 100 years. But the captain has wading boots for us to use and help us load our gear and helps get the kids to the boat which is considerably nicer than I had expected and we're off. The Captain admits that he doesn't usually have kids as young as ours on characters but has enough appropriately sized vests for them and treats them very well, he just seems concerned that they may get bored or be in the way or something. I was a bit concerned that this may be a problem, however with my past experience with charter fishing I'm not expecting a great fun filled day anyway so I'm not that concerned. I'm just trying to make the best of a day I really wasn't looking forward to in the first place.
We get out on the lake the captain and first mate quickly and efficiently set up trolling rigs a d 16 to 18 rods have line in the water in No time, the captain sets the cruise control and we have a few fish on in minutes. This is going better than expected but a long shot. We catch a few walleye each, kids included. And I am starting to jam e a different outlook on this whole charter deal. My 8 year old reals in a very nice walleye that ends up being the biggest fish of the day and it was so fun seeing the everyone's reaction. At one time wehad four fish on at once and the first mate is helping two of the kids simultaneously while we were bringing in fish. The kids behaved very well the whole time not unusual for our kids but I think the captain was quite surprised buy this. Well about half way through the trip we get a call from the charter company asking where we are,
Wait what, we are on the boat fishing what do you mean where are we? Come to find out we somehow got booked on a completely different charter unrelated to the one my father in law had paid for and where supposed to be in Saginaw after all. We are now half way through a fishing trip that we are going to have to pay for an $826 dollar fishing trip and have missed the one that was mostly paid for witch is now forfeited and can't be rescheduled because it was donated for a charity auction. Well at this point there is nothing we can do but try to not think about that and try to get back to enjoying the rest of the day. Luckily we where able to just say oh well and we really did enjoy the rest of the day. We caught our limit of walleye and about 50 or 60 fish that we released that where not great eating fish but where fun to catch. The captain and first mate did a phenomenal job the entire time and the whole day was very enjoyable. Aside from being on the hook for an unplanned $826 it was a great experience, We still don't know how two separate trips got scheduled, luckily we have some money in savings and although not planned, unlike unexpected car maintenance this was at least a very enjoyable unexpected expense. I will definitely plan another trip in the next few years and likely every few years.
Oh yeah none of us got sunburn this time either.
P.S. I told you this was gonna be a long post.
I hope you enjoyed it.
In all seriousness, who else will be joining me for a magnificent Micromatic Monday / GEMonday shave? It's easy to do, pick a GEM or two or three, or even a GEM cousin like an Ever-Ready or Star, throw in a soap and a brush, maybe some after shave; and voila!!!
