Skunked? When to find a new charter...?

[Capt Sal]

What i find strange is the trend is toward open boat and this tread is about charters. I know for a fact every six capt. would rather charter than run an open boat. It is a lot of work to take individual reservations and get up early everyday and put your heart and soul into this job. When you know everyone your fishing with on a charter it much more fun with the ball busting .If your ocean side and get an early striper bite and it dies off you can switch to fluke.If you have stripers in the box you can not pass the three mile line! Wen you are in the bay in April and most of May it is Stripers and blues and that is it! Nothing to switch off to.Let me add this.I ran Head boats for bass also.You can not troll with a crowd on a head boat! It is bait or jigging and no other options.Now here is food for thought. You are running a six pack charter and you are going for stripers but might switch off being June.You need to carry chunking and live line rods,trolling rods and fluke rods. You also need clams,bunker squid and gulps plus tons of ice. Other than that it is a walk in the park lol

[SaltLife1980]

Some of the times you might get skunked due to user error. Hey i got 14 shorts and no keepers with Ron yesterday. Does that mean i am never going to fish with him again?? Hell no it doesnt. In no way was that his fault. He tried everything and anything. Just wasnt my day. And guess what. He will still see me Friday on the Bow like always. Im not going to jump ship...

[Uncle Nicky]

I'm not going to mention names (hate to ruin a good thing ), but there is 1 6-pack captain I like the most. He WILL offer a discounted or free return trip if we get skunked, and has done so more than once (but he usually does well). That says a lot to me.

[Chrisper4694]

Originally Posted by Uncle Nicky

I'm not going to mention names (hate to ruin a good thing ), but there is 1 6-pack captain I like the most. He WILL offer a discounted or free return trip if we get skunked, and has done so more than once (but he usually does well). That says a lot to me.

wow that's awesome! i certainly wouldn't expect that, but wow that act says a lot about him and his boat!

The other captain nailed it on the head...watch how upset they get if you're not catching and how hard they try to change that...that will tell you everything you need to know.

some guys just don't really care unless the charter is for a group of return customers and those guys don't deserve anyone's business honestly imo.

[O'Connor]

My favorite Captain where I live called me the day after our last trip which happened to be this past Sunday. He told me that @ 69 years of age he was done. Said his body could no longer take the long days and he wanted to retire before he was just a guy behind the wheel taking people for a boat ride. Recommended a captain for our group to take us on the four trips we do a year. That's the kind of guy you want.