Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
After running two half-day charters, it had been a long and very busy day. That evening, as my mate and I cleaned up and worked on getting everything squared away for tomorrow’s trips, all I could think of was finishing up, getting a little dinner in me and then some sleep so that I could be ready to do it all over again in the morning. But when I checked the boat’s head I realized that the chances of actually getting to bed at a reasonable hour that night were now in the range of “slim-to-none.” The pump for the toilet, which I had been nursing along for the last week, had taken a dump (please excuse the pun) and knowing that it would not miraculously fix itself overnight, I knew the only thing I could do was grab some tools and get to work.
I certainly don’t have to go into details to help anyone understand why the task that evening was not exactly “enjoyable” work. It was just something that had to be done if we were to run our charters the next day, otherwise I had two alternatives; either cancel my trips, which wouldn’t exactly make my clients happy and would be a financial disaster, or I could just let everyone use a 5-gallon bucket, which I don’t think would go over too well with the folks who would be fishing with us the next day. As I hung over the back of the toilet and struggled with the plumbing in the close-quarters of the tiny bathroom I remember commenting to my mate something about “so much for the glamorous job of a charter boat captain!”
While an emergency repair of the head might be on the extreme end of the “yucky” type of tasks those of us in the charter business sometimes find ourselves engaged in, it’s only one example of the behind-the-scenes work that our clients seldom get to see us doing and for which most people probably never even realize are a necessary part of our job. While fishing a couple weeks ago, a 9-year old told me that when he grew up he also wanted to be a “shark fishing captain” which prompted his father to speak-up and say, “Yea, what a great job, out here on the water fishing every day, no traffic, hassles, no stress!”
Even though they usually “don’t know the half of it,” I like to hear our clients talk that way because it tells me that, at least in their eyes, everything aboard is as it should be and they’re having a good-old time. If it looked to them that we were struggling to make things work, it might give them the impression all was not going smoothly or we weren’t prepared for the day. I do, however, take such opportunities to relay an analogy I hope will put into perspective for them what being in the charter business is all about. I tell them that from the time they step on the boat in the morning until they get off at the end of the day, is for us, “the fun part of the job” and the payoff for all the time spent getting and keeping the boat, the equipment and ourselves ready for our trips. I tell them, “Running a charter fishing trip is like a farmer harvesting his crop. After spending a day cutting a field of corn he might end up with a pocket full of money, but it would be naive to think that all that money was the result of just one day of work. Charter fishing is the same way.
We spend most of the year working on our boats and equipment, promoting business, booking trips, paying our bills and all the other stuff that goes along with it so that when the fishing season rolls along we can hopefully “harvest our crop” by running our trips and making the income we need to get us through until the next fishing season.” That’s the behind-the-scenes stuff our clients seldom see.
It’s also an aspect of the business that some greenhorn captains don’t realize exists until after they’ve invested a bunch of time and money to get themselves set-up with a boat, a website, a corporation, a slip at a marina, an ad in the local fishing paper and a box of brochures, only to find out that they tremendously underestimated the amount of time, effort and money they would need to spend keeping their new business running.
A long time ago I had a friend who loved shark fishing, but after a few years of trying he had never caught a mako. He eventually got his captain’s license and went into the charter business. On one of his first charters, a mako swam up to the boat and took a bait which prompted my friend to quickly grab the rod, set the hook and announce to everyone aboard that the “trip was off” because “he” would be catching this fish! Unfortunately for him, on the first run the shark threw the hook and was gone, and so were my friend’s chances for collecting a paycheck that day. New captains quickly find out that running charters is nothing like the days when they take a bunch of friends or family out. And while most captains get into the business because they love to fish, they had better be prepared to possibly go through an entire season without cranking in a single one themselves - customers don’t pay for the captain to catch fish.
There are a lot of misconceptions about charter fishing, none the least of which is why someone might book a boat in the first place. Ask someone why they charter a fishing boat and the quick answer you’ll usually get is that they “want to go out and catch some fish.” But after almost three decades of being in the charter fishing business I’ve come to know that’s not the complete answer. Everyone wants to catch fish, but they also want to have a safe and enjoyable time doing it. The captain might be a great fisherman but if he or his crew members are total jerks, or if the boat is in disrepair, or even if, just by chance, the toilet is broken requiring folks to sit on a bucket, then enough of the fun-factor can be tapped from the day that no amount of fish caught can possibly leave people happy that they paid their money to step aboard that morning.
This blows the delusion held by many that someone who is a good fisherman should naturally be a successful charter captain. Just because someone is good at catching fish is no indication as to whether or not they can effectively handle the diverse array of other duties that keep the boat running, the business profitable and the customers coming back each year. Successfully catching fish is one thing; successfully running a charter fishing “business” is a whole different animal.
There will be a lot of cold and fishless months between now and the next fishing season. In that time, numerous fishermen make the decision to pursue a career as a charter boat captain just as many anglers will make the decision to book a boat for a fun day or two of fishing next summer. Hopefully both camps will be both “prepared for” and “appreciate” the fun and the not-so-fun parts of charter boat fishing.
By the way, I’d like to invite anyone who thinks they have what it takes to become a Coast Guard licensed captain to enroll in a captain’s course I’ll be teaching for the 3B’s Captain’s School (captainsschool.com) in Ocean City for three weekends starting November 4th. The course covers topics such as safety, navigation, rules of the road, boat handling and a bunch of other good stuff to know if you wish to be a competent mariner and have a shot at passing the Coast Guard exam for getting a captain’s license. Mixed in with the course, I always find time to throw in a few discussions about running a successful charter business. But if anyone wants to hear about fixing a head - it’ll cost them extra!
Captain Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
