Bits and Bobs. What we do and how we do it

Our Job enables us to give a lot of pleasure to a lot of people during the course of a Year. Serious angler's are our main chosen target, as they will fish all year round and also because we are serious anglers ourselves, Other types of work with the Boat can give us a payday, Film Work, Ashes to sea services, children's Birthday parties etc. But the biggest part of our business is helping to entertain the many holiday visitors to Dartmouth who are looking for something to do to fill a bit of time. Hard work for the most part, but also very rewarding. Parents are sometimes pressured by their kids to go out on our boat, Dads often feel it's their duty to instruct little Timmy in the ways of the Hunter, or a whole family will come for a bit of fishing, Granny and all. Sometimes the parents are keen, often they are not. We see it as an important part of our duty to our ever dwindling and abused environment and fish stocks, to educate our guests who come out to sea with us in what we feel is the correct way to go on. Fish conservation is all important to us and is at the top of our agenda, we want our Summer mackerel fishing trips to be a success, but how many mackerel do people who are on holiday want to take back to where they are staying to eat? They are dead easy to catch, and are for the most part plentiful on our bit of the coast, despite the commercial greed. But we are not in the business of selling fish, indeed, it would be Illegal for us (or you) to sell anything caught in excess, without a Licence, and we can only find so many people to give them away to. So, our problem is how to give our visitors a chance to catch fish, without depleting the fish stocks in a wasteful way. Our way of doing it is a change to the traditional, wasteful, mackerel bashing trips run from most holiday Ports, we count up how many fish collectively our people want to take home, (not very many normally, when folk have had a chance to think about it!) let everyone have a bit of fun, and when they have caught the required number, and a couple for bait, we then go off and target the different species of fish that visit our shores through the Summer months.This gives adults and kids alike an insight into a very new world if they haven't experienced fishing at sea before. As kids are so much more impressionable than most of the adults, who have a little idea of what to expect, they can give such a warm feeling to any adult who's witnessed's their look of pure joy when they are lucky enough to see the many and varied birds that live out at sea and different types of fish and other marine animals that end up hanging on their lines, often things seen for the very first time. This is when we feel we should be educating kids and parents alike about what they have caught, and to respect it's right if not wanted for the pot, to be returned to whence it came unharmed. If you have visited the photo album page, you will see just what we mean by variety. A lot of the large fish caught by our experienced anglers are returned alive, 'To fight another day' some are of course taken for the table and we have no problem with that, but we all have to do our best to make sure that these youngsters have a fish to catch when they are adult, and want to become 'serious anglers'. Many will.

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