getting skunked on a charter.

[thehook]

So a few friends and I had our first group fishing charter for halibut last Sunday, we left out of victoria and ran about 15 20 min out past the breakwater. As you can guess by the title we got skunked. I know its fishing not catching but the guide never switched baits(had only brought octopus) only checked the baits twice the whole day and did not move spots. He also straight up lied about how many times he had been to this spot said he had been there 3 days in a row but the chartplotter showed only 1 previous trip there and from what we heard on the radio he was not around the day before. Today I noticed he posted some pics of some nice halibut that his next two groups got, man that burns me up. like I said I know it's fishing but I don't think our charter did as much as he could have to get us fish.

Sorry for the rant but just had to get it out

 

[Bloodbuggy]

Hope you feel better now. Well it is what it is, and thats fishing. Even the best fishing guides get skunked now and then, however it doesnt sound like your guide brought his A game that day, hope your tip or lack of reflected that. There are many different things he could have tried (baits, areas) in saying that im not one for running around to different spots all day its a waste of time and money, but sounds like a real lack of effort on his part. Dont let it get to you, for everyday ive been skunked I will always have an unbelievable day that makes up for it.
Cheers.

 

[mhbradley]

This has happened to me in Sooke Basin in the heart of the salmon run in August 2012, and I had brought all 3 other group members over from the mainland... man it hurt.

The octopus is common in Victoria as it keeps the dogfish off, so I do know people who fish mostly octopus for halibut... though diversity is nice

Checking the baits is less imperative with octopus, so as long as the hooks didn't come up empty, they were still fishing.

That's a ****** feeling, sorry to hear that...just keep in mind that the guide probably feels pretty ****** about it as well.

Tight lines.

 

[codfather]

thehook, it sounds like you already understand it's fishing and not catching so that's good.

I have had days when I'm guiding that the fish gods have decided to make it a work day instead of a play day. That's when the fishing vs catching thing comes into play. The difference is by the end of the day my guests have seen how hard I've worked to try and get them fish. No one on the water will work harder than me and in most cases at some point you will get rewarded for hard work with fish.

From what I read that did not happen with your guide. The last thing a guest wants to hear is how good it was yesterday when you have nothing in the cooler today. As you know that was yesterday and fish move so you might have to move today.

Hope you have better luck next time.

 

[thehook]

I hope we have better luck next time but I don't think any of us will be willing to throw down on a charter, I'd rather rent a boat or cover all costs for a forum member to take me out... it's really more disapointing then anything, we were looking forward to this trip for a long time and 3 of the 4 of us are still hali virgins.

 

[profisher]

Not surprising if you went straight out or west. One of the commercial boats from Finest At Sea has been carpet bombing the area with set lines and cleaning the area out. He was charged last year for fishing the inside waters without the necessary paperwork and was found guilty, was fined and forfeited his catch. He is legal this time around and seems intent on negatively effecting the local sport fishing anglers. I won't be supporting his store in any fashion. The other halibut license holders understand that there is nothing to be gained by being confrontational with other user groups and take their quota where they don't effect others.

 

[Seafever]

That happened to me and three friends some time back.....booked a hali trip out of Victoria...left the inner harbor and went out and about 1/3 the distance to Constance.

He used herring and spreader bars. Nada, zilch, zip for any of us . Not a sniff.

To be fair, it was pretty rough water once we got outside the breakwater...so he decided not to go to Constance....(although a couple other guide boats were out there).

We were in a 26 footer.

Peeved us all off because we had waited months to go on this trip.

We've been skunked on other charters too in different places with different companies (not just hali).

Skunk rate is about 50% total overall.

 

[goitzy]

I am coming up on year 9 of an annual hali trip this June with a guide out of hidden harbor in Victoria. We have had good and not so good days and although we have managed to get at least 1 per trip (got our limit more often then not) there are hours that you sit there contemplating what the guide could be doing better when nothing is happening. As someone who loves to fish and spends as much time fishing as possible I always think i could do more than the guide is doing to get us into fish but the reality is that I cant. I can guarantee that he wants you to catch fish and does what he thinks will bring the best success but coming back empty is definitely a horrible feeling especially when you see posted pics before and after your trip. If you enjoyed your day minus the catching i would say give him another try but if you hated the whole experience with him move on to someone new.

 

[sly_karma]

I've had the opposite experience, caught limits on spring and halibut yet still wouldn't go with that guide again. Was smelling of booze, grouchy and unacceptably impatient with a rookie in our group that lost a few fish close to the boat. Rather than coach the new guy and share some of his experience, this guy barked at his guest and humiliated him. Yes he found us fish but no way we'll fish with this guy again. And the hangover was two days in a row too.

 

[dougthefisher]

I know when I guided if we got skunked I sure felt like crap. as someone who is supposed to know what they are doing its not a good feeling to not catch fish. personally if we did get skunked I tried to get the guest back out on a free trip because I felt so bad.

 

[Charter Tofino]

Not to stir the pot as it's too bad you had a poor trip but here's a few points to consider. Chart plotters usually erase their trails after a certain distance so I wouldn't call him a lier based on what you see on his plotter. Also if you're on a half day halibut charter I wouldn't expect to bounce around spots. If someone has a spot that typically produces they are going to fish it for most of a tide. I don't recommend giving up on guides and hiring a forum member for costs (technically not legal). Try a new spot/guide and hopefully your experience will be better.

 

[Big_Shank]

I have been skunked on charters near Sooke and Victoria a couple of times. Other times I have landed fish that are too big to legally keep(30ish Lb wild spring off the bluffs last year only two days before wilds opened up) and other times during pink years only gone home with a single pink each for only three of the four guys in the boat. I've also been skunked while out on my own or with buddies in our own boats. To say these things don't happen would be a lie. It can be really spotty here, and can happen to the best guides/rec fisherman. You just kind of hope it doesn't happen to you!

I am always seeing other happy groups of people limiting out on some charters' Facebook pages while I have gone home empty the day before, but what charter is going to post a bad/skunk day? None of them! The next time I do fork over my hard earned cash on a charter though, I think I'll really make a trip of it and go all way out to Port Renfrew, or Bamfield and take the family camping as well. You just have to keep reminding yourself that a good day on the water limiting out or close to it, can pay off a few very disappointing skunk trips.

I wonder just how many people buy fishing licenses every year, fish regularly, and still wind up with no halibut(too many dogfish to count) in a season. I can't be the only one lol...

 

[Sentinel]

At the end of the day it is just fishing and it happens to the best of them. I doubt he took you to a spot he hadn't caught halibut on before and the nature of anchoring for them is stick and stay and make it pay through a tide change so moving is tough unless the trip will encompass 2 current changes. Having been on both sides of this I think when wearing guide shoes I would find a way to make it up to the clients. Maybe a reduced price trip or a free 1/2 day trip. Each guide has to live within their own skin and you the client can choose to not promote or book a guide again you feel is not putting out a good effort. It is a tough Biz for sure.

 

[Silent knots]

I wonder just how many people buy fishing licenses every year, fish regularly, and still wind up with no halibut(too many dogfish to count) in a season. I can't be the only one lol...

You're not lol!

 

[Califbill]

I have had guide skunk trips. And good days of guided trips. At least one of those guides on a great catching day, did not get more business from me. Just not the correct guide for me. Other guides I have used several times, even with a skunk trip. But your trip, sounds like a crappy guide. About 1970, fished with a guide in Campbell River. Probably worse guide I ever used. Would not have recommended him, or used him again. 2 of us and we both caught a nice Coho. Both fish hit within 10 seconds of each other. Guide is screwing around with his boat, doing some cleaning etc. not paying attention to his job. Guiding. Had no idea where we hit the school. Had to be a nice school we ran through, but we were a couple hundred yards away, when he finally paid attention to us being hooked up. His tip reflected it also. I have been on boats where the captain searched hard for biters, even if we did not find them. Great captain. Went on on a rockfish charter years ago, that my neighbor invited me on. Crap charter. Did not have good gear, little line on the reels, so he fished where he could reach bottom, not where the fish were. This was in the early 80's, when we could fish deep, and catch really nice fish. Sounds like your guide wanted to maximize profit, and guiding was secondary. It is fishing, not catching, but you hire a guide for help and experience. And we have a local guide who runs a couple boats who posts good and bad days. Flash fishing in San Francisco Bay.

 

[uclueletcharters]

Sorry to hear the bad luck sounds like a grinder of a day, that area isn't Ucluelet or Tofino and further north where your odds are a lot better in my opinion. Have fished all over the Island and it's hard to beat Ucluelet & north up the West Coast of the island production wise, it's a lot more bountiful. The down side of Ukee north is it's a lot further to travel to by car in most cases. The area you fished is great for ease of access and when it's hot it's hot when it's not it's not lol!

 

[Rum Buddies]

Could be a guy that know's his stuff. He know's that spot produces and he knows they'll take octo - it's just a matter of waiting for a bite to come on. Some days the bite just never turns on though.

Or it could just be lazy guy to set in his ways to extra the mile.


As per the chart plotter - if a guide is out fishing daily a lot won't keep trails forever. After a few days all your spots will be covered in trails. So don't read too much into that.


If fishing was that slow I would like the guy to at least pretend he's trying extra hard, just for the optics of it all. It helps to keep everybody on board interested.

 

[Clint r]

Too bad about your trip. We've been on two different thousand dollar boat rides. Don't have anything against guides, but the first one told me to buy the biggest cooler I could when I booked for halibut out of Hardy. Caught two 15lbers. No rockfish and a couple smallish coho. I though whatever, s$@t happens. Second time around we specifically booked for halibut out of Port Renfrew. Didn't get any, no salmon either and only 3 rockfish. Plus farted around for over 30 minutes trying to get his anchor unstuck. I new it was going to be a bad day when we first headed out and he( the guide) ran over his crab trap line and cut it off so no crab either. Did learn some stuff though. Maybe not a thousand bucks worth, but I know who not to book with and I learned enough to take my own boat out and try. Still never got a halibut by myself but did well on salmon and the GF caught a huge yellow eye last trip. We thought about trying a charter again but after being stung twice, you might say we're a little hook shy.

 

[thehook]

with regards to the chartplotter he said he got fish there the day before, I called him the day before, he was driving not fishing and there was a call on the radio wondering were he was the day before, either way I won't pretend to know what makes a good hali spot or where to go or not go all I'm saying about that is he said he was there when he wasn't and that makes me wonder

 

[SpringVelocity]

Not surprising if you went straight out or west. One of the commercial boats from Finest At Sea has been carpet bombing the area with set lines and cleaning the area out. He was charged last year for fishing the inside waters without the necessary paperwork and was found guilty, was fined and forfeited his catch. He is legal this time around and seems intent on negatively effecting the local sport fishing anglers. I won't be supporting his store in any fashion. The other halibut license holders understand that there is nothing to be gained by being confrontational with other user groups and take their quota where they don't effect others.

Not to mention setting up barriers to block the ramps and setting strings so we couldn't anchor out at Constance at the time of halibut allocation when were awarded our extra allocation.. I am sure people member those cement barricades... It's frustrating... I won't ever support the business either.

As far as charters go Victoria or Sooke do you honestly think no ones gets skunked.. Come on happens all the time... I am wondering who it was now...