Fishing Victoria Forum

Hello All,
Me and 4 other friends went on a PPB charter for an 8 Hr fish trip yesterday. Up early and at the Hotties ramp at 5:00 am. Operator tried a couple of spots with the 3rd spot producing only a few (Baby, well undersize) pinkies, Few more stops later and as hard as he tried we ended up with as, as I've noticed on this forum the term is "DONUTS" on the snapper. Had 1 run of something, but didn't make it to the boat. After 8 Hours fishing, all we ended up with was "less than a feed" of small flatties. Were not all that happy.

Bodz wrote:Hello All,
Me and 4 other friends went on a PPB charter for an 8 Hr fish trip yesterday. Up early and at the Hotties ramp at 5:00 am. Operator tried a couple of spots with the 3rd spot producing only a few (Baby, well undersize) pinkies, Few more stops later and as hard as he tried we ended up with as, as I've noticed on this forum the term is "DONUTS" on the snapper. Had 1 run of something, but didn't make it to the boat. After 8 Hours fishing, all we ended up with was "less than a feed" of small flatties. Were not all that happy.

That is understandable about being unhappy, but winding up with DONUTS is the risk we take every time we go fishing and for example I used the same charter 3 weeks apart, the first time we all had 3 snapper each and the second time, we caught few flathead and undesized pinkies, he extended the charter but by this time I was so tired I couldnt have cared less about catching a snapper. We did wind up with 3 just legal pinkies.

but it will not stop me from using this charter, as he works hard to put his clients onto fish.

Lots of people by all reports are finding it hard to catch snapper at present.

Hi Wolly,
I didn't want to bag anybody, that's why I haven't and wont name the Operator, caus as I stated he did work hard to try to get us onto the fish.
But as you can imagine it was a disappointing day.

Mate that's fishing! At least the bloke tried hard to get you onto them. You shouldn't be disappointed dude, just more determined for your next charter. Cheers

Mate I know how you feel.
I've been out on a charter from Mornington earlier this year and to say the skipper was useless would be a very polite understatement.
They were driving all over, didn't have burley and kept moving even when we had a few bites and were catching pinkies and I caught a small gummy 2cm short of legal size Bangg

How much do these charters cost?

Cost vary but some are $150 per person

it was 6 people @ 150ea

FishnMiss wrote:Mate I know how you feel.
I've been out on a charter from Mornington earlier this year and to say the skipper was useless would be a very polite understatement.
They were driving all over, didn't have burley and kept moving even when we had a few bites and were catching pinkies and I caught a small gummy 2cm short of legal size Bangg

From what you say, sounds like the bloke didn't give the spots a chance! And without using berley, he wasn't giving you guys a chance on the fish. As you have probably read in the werribee snapper posts, we berley hard! Give each spot at least an hour. The spots we fish consistently produce fish and it usually takes around 20 mins for the fish to get excited at nude ups spots. Anytime we try new areas, 1 hour min. I'd change charter operators. Cheers

tuna tube wrote:

FishnMiss wrote:Mate I know how you feel.
I've been out on a charter from Mornington earlier this year and to say the skipper was useless would be a very polite understatement.
They were driving all over, didn't have burley and kept moving even when we had a few bites and were catching pinkies and I caught a small gummy 2cm short of legal size Bangg

From what you say, sounds like the bloke didn't give the spots a chance! And without using berley, he wasn't giving you guys a chance on the fish. As you have probably read in the werribee snapper posts, we berley hard! Give each spot at least an hour. The spots we fish consistently produce fish and it usually takes around 20 mins for the fish to get excited at nude ups spots. Anytime we try new areas, 1 hour min. I'd change charter operators. Cheers

Thanks Tuna,
Yeah I'm completely weaned off charters now. A couple of months ago we hired a boat from Warneet side through Groupon & had about 6 hours of fun. We made our own Berley. Worked out at $30 each, def worth it :thumbsup:
Otherwise I'm sticking to my LB hotspots that land me a better feed than charters.