We just finished a day trip with destinbowfishing and it was poor. We might have seen 6 rays 3 that you could shoot at and only got 2 small ones. I brought a 6 yr old that was excited to shoot his first ray. He watched us shoot a bunch at night 2 years ago at gulf shores but this trip was a huge let down. I don't know that it was the guides fault that it was poor but I know it was poor so that is where the blame will go. I have bow fished for about 15 years so I know how it is, you don't always succeed but if you are charging people $500 to shoot fish you better have a plan A,B,C,D and E to begin with. We had more fun once we got back to the dock shooting at small fish because at least we were shooting. I hate that my 6 yr old anticipated this for a month and left terribly disappointed. Of course, the other guides I checked with after the trip were all booked up with short notice (although I am extremely hesitant on spending another chunk of cash that big based on what we saw) so I guess he will leave Florida without a stingray this time and $500 poorly spent. Just a little frustrated.
Destin disappointment
1 - 16 of 16 Posts
Joined
·
2,102 Posts
Man sounds like a tough day fishing. Were the conditions tough or was it good conditions with just no fish. Did they move areas or did they just keep looking in the same area?
Joined
·
7,657 Posts
Sorry to here about your trip, but how was water conditions???? Clear or bad visibility??? Smooth or rough??? Also sun or overcast??? All makes a difference. Also did you move and try several areas or just hang out in one area all day??? And if had low tide in area did you revisit on incoming or high tide or vice versa??? A lot of times can make a big difference. Can tell you were disappointed but have had days like that myself and have traveled over 40 miles before to find and get on rays....they are normally pretty easy but can be frustrating at times also
Lol.....Louie ^^^^^^^^^^^ simultaneous posting
Lol.....Louie ^^^^^^^^^^^ simultaneous posting
Joined
·
2,102 Posts
Great minds think a like. Coming from two guys that shoot raya on some what regular basis we know day to day can be very different. Rays can be in one area onr day and gone the next. Some times they arnt in one area then you revisit the area a few hours later and they are there. Biggest thing I've learned shooting fish and even more so with rays you gotta Cover a lot of water. For instance two weeks ago we got on some nice cownose rays the day before a tournament. Wasn't lights out but was consistent. Guys I was shooting with were excited but I kept telling them don't get to excited till the game plan works out during the tournament. Day of the tournament we were the 1st of 4 boats to get to the spot. With 3 other boats showing up obviously other guys got on them the day before as well. We'll two hours in thar area produced one cownose for us and one cownose for one of the other boats. Took us 6 hours but we finally found the rays the last hour of the tournament 4 or 5 miles away from our original game plan
Joined
·
7,657 Posts
Exactly, this particular trip last year was on water at 7:30 am and only had 4 rays in boat by 1:30 pm when tide changed and found southerns feeding on a flooding grass flat on incoming tide that fished earlier on low tide and blanked, got the southerns and then running back towards the ramp found cownose off a sandbar "rip" off the tip of a small island with current running across it,shot the cownose but spent 11hrs on water and covered a lot of water that day....
It's easy when see the pics to go "dang" but a lot of times don't know the all the work to get into these
Ran over 40 miles total this trip this year,10 hrs on the water
This was another full day on the water and was tough conditions as can see by the chop in pic and was very overcast also making even for us a very rough day
Attachments
Joined
·
6,086 Posts
That sucks my first trip shooting rays was 2 weeks ago and we shot in destin Florida with lite the night Bowfishing charters and I was very happy but we also shot at night.
The conditions weren't bad. Water appeared to be clear to me. The places we went you could see the bottom easy enough. There was a little wind causing some choppy water but nothing horrible. We traveled a little bit but nothing more than a couple miles at most. Like I said I understand some times fishing doesn't work it just sucks to spend that much money and only really have a chance at shooting a few fish of any kind. It is what it is but I just had to whine about it and possibly get the word out in case it was a bit of lack of effort by the service.
Joined
·
7,657 Posts
Feel your pain, where you from???
Joined
·
2,102 Posts
My man that's fishing. I have drove 12 hrs one way to try to shoot big heads and never saw one. Then this year drove 4 hours each way to try again and still came up empty handed. Don't do many chartered bowfishing trips being 90% of my vacations are based around bowfishing so i bring my boat or jump on a friend's boat but I do quite of rod and reel charters and pay good money. Some trips are amazing but some are a struggle. Just all part of the game. Last example is when I spend a couple thousand to go on a hunting trip with no guarantee to tag out or even see something worth shooting. It's what makes it so much fun when you finally do have a great trip
Joined
·
2,401 Posts
X2. How many times have we all been on a flock of pigs the night before a tournament, and they vanish the next night? Bad trips suck.....even worse if they cost five bills.....but it's still called fishing, not killing. I do think it would be appropriate for the guide service to offer another trip, or at least a steep discount on another trip.
Joined
·
462 Posts
My uneducated opinion is the prices should be set so that a no-fish day will basically be at-cost for the client. No one can fault a guide for charging what it took to get the boat out on the water. Successful days should have a price tag high enough to make up for the bad days. If the guide does not have enough good days to make up for the bad, he's either in the wrong area or the wrong line of work.
Joined
·
7,657 Posts
But wasn't a "no fish" just a very "slow" fish with saying "seen 6 and had shots at 3,got 2 small ones" But would think that should be some consolation for a poor or bad trip....
Joined
·
462 Posts
I was just speaking in general terms on that, not specifically about this one case. True, getting a ray is getting a ray, and the guide did his job here--unless he gave the expectation that there would be more. What's really important is to be open up front and make the pricing scenario clear to any prospective client. I guess they could even have a base price and then charge per fish (or ray) after that up to so many fish. If both sides understand the terms and agree to them, sometimes one side (or both) may go away a little disappointed, but have to admit that they chose to enter the agreement. But from what I've seen these days, in a service industry you really have to be willing to take a hit on a bad day, because that may be what it takes to get the client back again or to keep them from dissuading others from using your service. The internet makes it very easy to get a bad reputation--deservedly or otherwise.
Joined
·
2,102 Posts
IM sorry but that's some bs. It's a fishing trip. There is no guarantee in fishing. It's the guides business and he makes a living off of it. I rather have a fair price to start then have to pay extra for a good trip. I'll tip the guide extra if I feel he went above my expectations. I might even tip extra if he worked his butt off and still had slow fishing just like if I feel he didn't put forth the effort the tip if any would reflect on it and I just wouldn't book again with that guide
1 - 16 of 16 Posts
Join the discussion
Join now to ask and comment!