Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
Last week tropical storm Elsa passed through and really messed up the fishing plans for a lot of fishermen. For some anglers the couple days of wet, windy, and rough conditions provided little more than an inconvenience when they stepped outside and concluded "Oh well, if I can't go today I'll wait and go tomorrow or the next". But for many other fishermen it would have been a major letdown because, for one reason or the other, they didn't have the option of going later and they really-really wanted to fish!
Those of us in the charter fishing business know too well the hassles of bad weather. Not only can we expect no paycheck for the period, we'll also have the joy of spending a lot of extra effort trying to make sense of the ever-changing forecast so we can keep abreast of the coming and goings of the nasty weather enabling us to make the right calls as we juggle charters by canceling, postponing, rescheduling, and doing what we can to make the best of the messy situation. We know that we're going to have a lot of disappointed clients. Fortunately, most will understand that a good day of fishing and boating is always dependent upon the right conditions.
Unfortunately some won't quite "get it" and that's why captains sometimes have conversations like the one I had with a client the other day who was bound and determined to go fishing regardless of how rough the ocean was. His booking was made months ago and he and his family were looking very forward to fishing that day. When I informed him that, due to the tropical storm, it was going to be way too rough to go he told me, "But we've been planning this for months and are really excited about going fishing. We don't care about the weather". When I explained that it was simply not wise or even safe to go out on the ocean he asked if he could pay me more money to take them out? When I said that there wasn't enough money in the world he asked if I could recommend another captain and boat that would take them out that day.
I'm sorry, but even though I've experienced it before, I still don't know how to deal with logic like that! Obviously the fellow simply didn't have enough experience on the water to fully understand what bad weather can do to boats on big bodies of water. Fortunately, even mildly experienced sportsman know that weather plays a factor in all of outdoor pursuits, at times it won’t matter if the fish are five-feet or five hundred miles from shore, if the weather forbids it there’s nothing an angler can do but suck-up the disappointment and accept the fact that there will be days, weeks, even entire months when conditions won’t allow them to get in on the action that awaits them just of our coast. It’s just what fishermen learn to accept.
Patience and the ability to handle disappointment are two of the greatest attributes sportsmen so often acquire, because no matter if they’re hunting or fishing, adverse conditions will always be a major threat to their outdoor plans. Depending upon what’s being pursued and where, it can be too hot, cold, windy, wet, dry, sunny, cloudy, rough, calm, too late in the day or too early in the morning. When planning out our adventures we try to maximize our chances for success by watching weather forecasts, studying tide and moon tables, and researching anything else we can about what we’ll be getting into. But Mother Nature is the great equalizer who doesn’t care if someone is rich or poor, a crack shot, the most skilled angler, has traveled thousands of miles to a destination, or been planning out a particular adventure for years, without prejudice she can pull the plug on our plans in a heartbeat and there's no sense in crying about it because the weather will always be just as unpredictable as the fish or game we're trying to catch or kill.
I was sitting in an airport terminal when I overheard a couple folks yapping about their flight that had been delayed because the weather at the place they were headed had the airport shut down. Apparently they were going there for vacation and if they didn’t arrive on time they’d miss out on some kind of side-trip that they were really looking forward to. To say that the two were “furious” would be an understatement, feelings that they surly didn’t try to hide from the airline personnel or anyone else within earshot. The fellow seemed to think that if he made enough of a fuss that he’d get his way. When that didn’t work he took the “high-roller” approach and asked the person at the counter, “OK, what’s it going to cost me to get there on time?” As if paying some extra money could change the weather at his destination. It was pretty obvious that the couple throwing the hissy-fit at the terminal weren’t sportsmen, and I was left hoping that if they ever decided to try fishing in Ocean City that they wouldn't call me!
