8/13/12
When the boat next to you isn’t sailing that’s a recession and when you aren’t sailing that’s a depression and right now things are pretty depressing for the Montauk charter fleet. Friday and Saturday are always the busiest days (Sunday traffic scares a lot of people) and when I made my early morning check this past weekend there were a couple of boats still tied up that shouldn’t have been. And this is August, normally the busiest month when most of the established boats would normally be sailing every day unless they were blown out. And now, most are lucky to get in four to five trips a week.
I run a charter service and most of my calls come after potential clients have gotten tired of calling boats only to find out they are booked. Back in the early spring I was getting inquiries which is very unusual so I thought that this would be a better year than last year, which was a pretty poor one. But I guess as all the poor economic news developed, people started to change their minds about how they were going to spend their $$$.
Now most of my calls are from individuals looking to join in with others on a shared charter, which we used to call a “splits” until they became extinct. Years ago when I started out splits were very common and all the old timers remember Tuma’s Tackle Shop where Mrs. Tuma would coordinate things. You’d hang around in front of the shop until she would call you and give you six anglers to take out. Nowadays there is no central booking agency where that can be done. All the charterboats are getting calls from singles or doubles that want to join up with some others on a trip, and undoubtedly every day at least one trip could be put together.
As I always say when I hear guys moaning and groaning about the business; “It could be worse, I could own a boat”.
As for the fishing, you could check back with last weeks report. It’s pretty much the same. There are a good amount of makos around and if you go sharking you will probably catch - and release - one. Tuna fishing is nothing to get excited about
Inshore striper fishing is still tough and Southwest Ledge isn’t looking as good as it was.
Bottom fishing is good for porgies and sea bass and OK for fluke.
I’m trying to get a forum up and running. It only deals with Montauk. If you fish here, check it out at
http://www.montauksportfishing.com/mtkforum.html and contribute.