This weekend was a joke. I just spoke with the reservation person I booked through and sent the following email. I know some of the other boats caught some beautiful fish- we just got the shaft.

I will post up their response if I get one.

______________________________

Megan:



I just wanted to follow up on our conversation with some information you can pass on to anyone who chooses to right this situation. With your assistance, we booked a group of 9 at the Canadian Princess Resort for two nights lodging ( May 21 and 22) and two days fishing (May 22-Salmon and 23-Halibut).



We arrived at the resort on the evening of the 21st, checked in, and went to the restaurant onboard the ship. We enjoyed a good meal with excellent service by a young man then turned in for the evening while looking forward to the next days fishing trip.



Fishing Day One - Salmon



We were scheduled on the Chinook Princess for the next day and arrived dockside for the mandatory 6:45AM boarding. When we arrived, there was one deckhand on the boat and I heard him discussing with another employee that the skipper had not shown up, and that they did not have another deckhand (apparently the salmon trip usually have two).



We continued to wait dockside for 10-15 minutes and the skipper finally showed up around 7:00AM. He got on board and got things going and we left the dock around 7:10. We headed out to the fishing grounds and began to fish. The skipper was constantly repositioning for drifts as he could not set up a drift so that gear would run perpendicular to the sides of the boat rather than parallel, while the other princess boats around us seemed to hold their drifts much better. Fishing for salmon was slow for our boat (2 Salmon, 21 people after 6 hours of fishing). When we returned to the dock we saw and spoke with other anglers on the other princess boats. They had much better success and mentioned the majority of their fish came first thing in the morning (before we were at the fishing grounds). Upon our return to the dock, he apologized to a father and son from Calgary who had purchased, but not received their box lunches. He mentioned that it was his fault they had not received their lunch. He said that it is his job to make sure everyone who purchased has their lunch before they leave the dock. The skipper went on that he just needed some extra sleep that morning.



Fishing Day Two – Halibut



We were again scheduled on the Chinook Princess. While I was not happy about the day before, I figured everyone can have a bad day. This morning was beautiful, the sun was up, we boarded on time, and we were soon underway. We were told that is about a two hour run to the halibut bank and to settle in and have a cup of coffee. We left the inlet and began making our way out. A friend and I went in for a cup of coffee only to find there were no cups. I asked a deckhand if there were and cups and was told that they asked other boats for cups at the dock but no one would give them up. We managed to use some water cups for coffee and settle in for the trip. Within 5 minutes the captain had shut down the engines and asked everyone to be patient while he checked an engine problem.



I spend a lot of time on the water and by my judgment we were approximately 2 miles out of the inlet. After the skipper and two Skippers-In-Training spent 30 minutes crawling in and out of the hatch, we proceeded out another mile or so on one engine. We were told to go ahead and fish, everyone onboard began jigging and the skipper and the two S-I-T’s apparently worked on the starboard engine.



After another half hour or so (and no fish hooked) we were told to reel up and as we would proceed on one engine! We went out another 1 mile or so out to where some other boats were and told to salmon fish at a depth of 70 feet. At this point we were probably three miles offshore, certainly not the two hour run nor the Halibut trip that we purchased. We repositioned a few times and one person on board did manage a 10lb. halibut after a couple of hours. About 10:30 the skipper asked us to reel up and we turned South and mentioned that we were going to fish for Cod. Three people on board caught legal ling-cod, there were other assorted small cod, maybe ten in all over the next 1.5 hours. At noon, the skipper asked for lines up and ran us back to the marina on one engine.



One other side note on this trip, the deckhand (Crystal, I think) did a first class job for us and the rest of the guests on Sunday. She worked hard all day, untangling lines, and tending to peoples needs. The father and son from Calgary (mentioned above) caught a nice Chinook while dropping to the bottom for Halibut. The kid really wanted to have it weighed at the dock and asked that it not be cleaned. I was in the rear of the boat and personally witnessed Crystal dumping water on it every chance she got. While we were cod fishing the skipper came back and saw the not yet cleaned fish in the box and just blew up at her. He made a large scene in front of everyone and really let her have it. It was not only unprofessional and totally uncalled for; it makes me wonder about his ability to handle stressful situations that will occur on the water.



I hope this gives you an outline to the experience we had and will be passed on to those who can choose to do two things.



Make this right with paying clients who very simply did not get near what we paid for.
Make any adjustments necessary with this captain and crew so that other clients do not face the same situation we did.




P.S. You may be receiving other correspondence from our party. Several people are in the seafood industry on a number of very visible levels and are constantly asked where to go sport fishing. Making this right would be an important step towards maintaining OBMG’s reputation.



I hope to hear from you soon,