charter boat tips

[jollyfrog]

gday all,

Looking to head out on a charter from brisbane in october, with about 10 people.

Have been doing a bit of reserach and I think I have narrowed it down. I'm after any advice or recommendations regarding the following:

Nitro

Reel Easy

Tom Cat

Happy to take any other recommendations if there are any out there I haven't thought of. Pretty sure I want to go out of Brisbane, although happy to travel to the Gold Coast if this would be better.

Thanks to anyone who can steer me in the right direction.

sincerely

steve :cheer:

[silver_rex]

Brisbane Bay Tours are a site sponsor...They run 2 boats and have a comp between the boats with biggest fish winning a fishing rod Pretty sure they only accomodate for 8 though ( 4 on each boat )??

Otherwise from the picks you listed... Definatly John from Nitro

[Sparksie]

Hello

Yeah pretty much what Silver Rex said....BBT take 4 per boat....

There is a spot on 12/8/2009 up for grabs with BBT jollyfrog if you wanna try before you buy.....if ya know what I mean....

[jollyfrog]

Thanks for the advice guys. I would love to get out on EKKA day, but the boss has me committed to taking the kids to the EKKA.

Hope you have a great day, and I can't wait to see the reports.

I am going to give 'reel easy' a call unless I hear anything from anyone else to the contrary, as they have the best price, deal, they head outside Moreton island and they leave from Scarborough, which is closer to home.

Thanks for the advice, any thoughts from others is very welcome.

steve

[raven]

Was onboard Nitro last Saturday and apart from the weather turning bloody awful and over 1/2 the people on board supplying ample burley I would still recommend John's service. He does everything possible to put people on to fish and the crew look after you well.

[chrissy_fisher]

i would listen to prior knowledge...because i booked a charter up north that seemed to be the best value and deal and what not...but the charter was SH1T! (fishing wise)..we were out for about 8 hrs and caught 2 fish....the guy had no idea what he was doing...had only 1 or two co-ordinates marked....he must have been a fill in for the usual skipper or something....

[jollyfrog]

Thanks chrissy and Raven. I certainly appreciate the advice, and now I am in doubt about Nitro or 'reel easy'.

It seems strange that nobody seems to have an opinion of 'reel easy' as a charter. I certainly would like to hear from anyone who has been out with them as to how their experience was, and whether they would go back???

[Cowfish13]

The most consistant charter I've seen is Smithy's one. It leaves from Mooloolaba. I can't remember it's full name, but a quick google search should find it

[jollyfrog]

Thanks for that Cowfish. Had a look on the net and I think it is Triton IV with Smithy out of Mooloolaba. Unfortunately it doesn't look big enough for 10 people, however I will certainly have a look at it for future, when we have a few less.

cheers

steve

[Cowfish13]

Woops, sorry didn't read that part in your original post :blush:

But yeh, if you ever are going out with only a small number of people, he is probably one of the best skipper's around (going from what I've seen). Some of the reports he puts up on here are awesome :cheer:

[noname]

dunno about tom cat charters, sorry there

reel easy! well you'd be better off giving your money to me to piss upi the wall.

have known john for some years now, and if your serious about catching fish, he'll do what he can for ya, but for him, he's old school. out there to catch fish not muck around, if you don't look like you know what your doin he'll move on. so if you work for your fish, so will he, to put you onto them.

[jollyfrog]

Noname,

thanks for the tip. I think you have made my mind up for me, looks like John and Nitro it is. Whilst I don't necessarily profess to know what I'm doing I am a keen amatuer and happy for John to put me and my family onto a fish or two, and to have a good day out on the water.I appreciate all the advice from various people and will ensure that I post a report when we get back.

cheers

[nadders]

jollyfrog wrote:

Thanks for the advice guys. I would love to get out on EKKA day, but the boss has me committed to taking the kids to the EKKA.

this is an easy one, just tell her with the recent outbreaks of swine flu you can't as a responsible parent and adult put your children in a situation like the ekka which caries a substancial risk of contagious diseases

and bobs your uncle you're on a charter!

[jollyfrog]

g'day All

we went out on 22 October with John and Riley the deckie on Nitro, from Manly, departing about 055 and back in around 330PM.

There were 12 of us, and we had an excellent day, the weather was very kind, and there was very little run in the tide, which made it easy to get down and back up without getting tangled, but may have accounted for the lack of snapper. Went straight out off of Moreton island and there was very little swell, maybe .5 all day. Saw some Whales and had dolphins buzzing the boat all day.

Tried a new way of fishing which I haven't done before, in float lining, where you have a ball running sinker on the line with a double gangy at the end on a baitcaster reel. Pillie goes on though back and mouth and the tail is split. Cast out and keep feeding the line off of the baitcaster until the ball hits the bottom, then wind back up a bit and repeat. Concept is that the sinker goes down faster than the pillie, and pillie swims down through the whole water column, therefore increasing the chance of a bite. Apparently it is good for snapper.

John worked his ass off to put us onto fish, and we were kept pretty busy all day, constantly bringing in fish.

Ended up with a reasonable haul, with the biggest being a 15 Kg kingy, caught using the floatlining,which put up a great fight, and just as we were about to gaff him, this 2-3m noah sharked him, subtracting about 3kg of great fillet right from ther guts of him. At this point I was pretty shagged and unsure whether to be more upset that the shark had stolen some great fillets, or that he had done it right at the boat, and left me to fight the thing up from aout 50m of water before he hit it. Anyway it was great fun, and an excellent way to celebrate my 40th.

Other keepers for the day included some maori cod, trag jew, squire and a couple of others.

excellent day and really enjoyed ourselves, and Riley and John worked hard to get us onto fish, with Riley the deckie helping out my mum (61) and son (11) all day, he was constantly in motion and baiting everybody up and helping with tangles etc, he certainly earned his pay.

Unfortunately no big nobby snapper for the day, but it was right at the end of the season, and to be honest having come down from townsville and Darwin prior to that, I think John was more upset than we were that we didn't get onto any.

In conclusion it was an excellent day out, and we all went home very happy, with a good feed of fish. I would highly recommend John and Nitro as a charter, as he and his team are good guys and very helpful, whether you are young old, a fisho or just along for the ride. the boat is good, with enough room for all 12 of us, and food was pretty decent, and could be eaten whilst you continued fishing, which was the main thing.

cheers steve

PS: I'll try and attach some photos but I'm a novice.

[jollyfrog]

a

[bootyinblue]

Good to read a report back as so often threads just disappear into the ether and we wonder what ever happened on with the reccomendations etc. Glad that you had a great day and shame about the shark having first bite of your fish literally!