Sharon Michelle - Carlingford Lough 22/04/2006

[2Poc]

People:Me + 6 others

Duration:09:30 - 16:30

Tide:All

Weather:Mild, rough + raining later in the day

Bait:rag, mackeral, squid, crab, sandeels, artificials

Rigs:baited artificials, flowing traces & paternosters

Results:AWFUL 1 codling, 1 whiting, 1 Scorpion fish


Report:

Well after lots of planning and expense we had a terrible days fishing!
I was the only person to catch fish all day (all 3 of them! the biggest being a 1lb codling).
Tried every bait, every tactic & ended up getting the fish on tiny baited sabikis.
The skipper constantly complained about it being too early, that the fishing hadnt started etc, well he wasnt saying that when I was speaking to him about booking a trip!!
And he wasnt saying that when I asked him what bait I should bring.
Needless to say most of the 380 rag, 3 boxes of squid, 5 packs of sandeels & dozen mackeral were thrown out afterwards.
He brought us back early, charged us 20 quid extra over the price we agreed & offered no explanation/apology/anything as to the bad fishing.

Should have gone to the pub instead...

[Drew]

Thats rough mate, I havent heard many reports from this boat, but will be steering clear of it in Future! Maybe next time you plan a trip up this way you could see Peyton Cunningham, skipper of Pisces 2 out of Greencastle, Im sure he could accomodate a Pickup from Carlingford.

[2Poc]

Thats rough mate

Tell me about it...
Cheers - thanks for the info Drew.

Patrick.

[BigPhil]

you should have held him to the agreed price and time duration, as to the fishing, up here its pretty common knowledge most venues it is still a little early etc, but if he brought you back early then you should have been the one asking him for money off, not on!!!
i think you did a good job though of letting others know to avoid this boat in the future, thanks for the info and well done on the 3 fish 2poc, you must have been doing something right to catch where others onboard werent!

[ray]

don't want to sound like a real misery guts, and i am very aware of the fact that my last few posts have been to complain about skippers but trips are expensive and i believe that as the people who pay the skippers wages we should be treated right or we should not use them again...at this rate of going i will be buying a beach caster soon!

any way back to the subject!

was out on this boat once he took us out to "a wreck." it was a perfect day but after looking for the wreck for over 1/2hour (my fishing time!) he finally told us to start fishing there was never at any time anything that could possibly have been a wreck on the sounder nor were any fish caught. on the way back an optimistic type asked if he would stop for some macks for the freezer, after 1/2hour and no macks we gave up!

to be fair though you did seem to be a bit heavy on the bait for carlingford which in my experience never fishes THAT well (unless its dogs), also it is still very early in the year.

[te ariki nua]

i have to come to the defence of this skipper i have booked trips with him on 3 occasions spefically for tope.and on all 3 occasions we have caught fish first time out we got 3 tope the best going 40lbs plus and 2 of 30lbs and over i have never had any complaints and on all occasions we needed to hire one or two rods and were not charged for these.perhaps you were setting your sights a bit high giving that its only april

[ray]

i whole heartedly agree TOO EARLY! but again shouldn't the skipper give advice? i know that it is tempting to take a charter (bills to pay etc) even if you know that there will be nothing to catch but does he but so low a value on his good name? did he recon that they would not be back so why not stiff them for an extra twenty?
in my experience carlingford rarely fishes well for anything other than dogs and tope and even then only in mid summer.
i really can't imagine why he would take them out in mid april (of a late season)without telling them that their chances were almost nil.

[x]

I guess that's one skipper that doesn't read these forums....

He probably thinks he made a handy few quid out of that day. I'd say it'll cost him pretty dearly in the long run.

[2Poc]

Cheers for the responses guys.
Re: holding him to the agreed price - to be honest I was just so annoyed I just couldnt be bothered. As I had organised the trip I was getting the complaints from everyone else & had just had enough.
I just felt that I had been totally screwed & wanted to get the hell out of there.
We also had to hire a couple of rods which we were charged full whack for.

We had such high expectations & had gone to further expense to gear up with shads, artificial eels etc.
I would say all in all it we spent about €700.
If I'm paying big money for the services of a professional I expect a professional service instead I feel like I got shafted...

One other thing I wasnt sure about was the guy he brought along & introduced him as 'the mate'.
Well 'the mate' was a nice guy but all he did was fish with the rest of us & wasnt as if he was part of the crew.
Is it normal for the skipper to bring people along for a free ride like this or
was he just taking advantage of the fact that only 6 of us had booked the boat?

Well Kilmore Quay will be next so hopefully we'll do a bit better....

[ray]

unfortunately it is all too common for a skipper to bring his mate who just fishes like every one else who are paying for the experience! this is the second most annoying thing a skipper can do the most is to take himself off up the sharp end and fish away to his hearts content, now im not talking doing a bit of fishing which can acually be usefull (if damened annoying) if he with his greater local knowledge ACTUALLY CATCHES SOMETHING when you have all but given up as it proves that there are fish there and that they are catchable.
i wish to change my mind... THE most annoying thing a skipper can do is lock himself in the wheel house and occasionally shout messages out the window (which if the weather is nice he might have opened first) in fact one skipper i used once only shouted two messages all day...."ok start fishing" and 6 hours later "lines up" are you reading this andy?

[Drew]

Yes.... Know a couple of skippers like that... Saying that, He hasn't really had to do much while we've been on... 3 2 Hour drifts catching Codling from 1 End til tother...

[pete]

2poc that sounded like piss poor service. The skipper would have known perfectly well that there would have little around Carlingford at that time of the year. As Sandman says it'll cost him in the long run.

[BigPhil]

if anyone goes out on a charter and the skip says his mates comin too, have a wee word in his ear before you leave and get the price reduced for your party. if we take a charter , generally we only try to take 6 for comfortable fishing no matter what the size of the boat, if they bring someone else this defeats the purpose of it, yes, its the skips boat, he calls the shots, but when you are paying for the fishing for the day on it, you have a say who fishes!

[2Poc]

if anyone goes out on a charter and the skip says his mates comin too, have a wee word in his ear before you leave and get the price reduced for your party. if we take a charter , generally we only try to take 6 for comfortable fishing no matter what the size of the boat, if they bring someone else this defeats the purpose of it, yes, its the skips boat, he calls the shots, but when you are paying for the fishing for the day on it, you have a say who fishes!

This is as I thought, when he was introduced as 'the mate' I assumed he was a crew member rather than a fisherman. Thought it was a bit cheeky seeing as we were shelling out for the hire.

Well finding out at least that this level of service isnt the norm is somewhat reassuring. Just a pity it cost me big bucks to find out!!

Thanks again to all for all the comments + advice.

-Patrick.

[Conor H]

Pat Robinson used to bring a mate , Bill. He stood the whole day untangling tangles, unhooking fish for the inexperienced, filleting on the way home, and making tea ! That's the type of mate you want on a boat - albeit this allowed Pat to outfish everyone else, and Bill to slag Cassie off about how he couldn't hit a fish in St Georges !!

As for Carlingford, I went once and I'll never be back. Different skipper than you 2Poc, but the same story. I think we hit a wrasse bewteen 7 of us. The skipper you are talking about let down one of the lads off this forum a few times last year from what I hear (would that be right Graeme ?)

[Tanglerat]

Top bloke, that Bill. Used to be such great craic between him and Pat that you'd almost buy tickets to watch it!

As regards extra anglers, it can be tricky. Pat often brought me along as an extra. Some crews appreciated the fact, and I reckon Pat wouldn't bring anyone with a crew that didn't. I know that when I chartered The Cricket if Pat asked me if I minded an extra, I always said ok. Swings and roundabouts.

[redox]

I have been out with this skipper quite a few times over the last lot of years He never had a mate out with him The fishing was hot and cold we have fished for tope and caught them and we fished the wreck also and caught some nice fish but it was a little later in the year
we also blanked on a few trips