Frequently Asked Questions
Do we keep our fish?
Will you prepare our fish for us?
Do you supply all our fishing equipment?
Do you supply life jackets?
You can take up to 15 people. Are you always full and how much room is there?
Do you have seating?
Do you do afternoon trips?
Fast Boat or Your Boat - What's best?
Do we keep our fish?
Yes. We encourage people to only keep what they need and try to ascertain each clients needs early in the trip to help us meet your goals. Fish can be marked so that you know exactly which ones are yours or they can be put in a common pool to be shared out amongst the other people on board. Always, the choice is yours.
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Will you prepare our fish for us?
Yes. A lot depends on how much is caught and how much time we have available. As a minimum, all fish will be gutted and gilled. We can fillet some or all fish depending on size, quantity and time available. Sorry but we cannot descale fish on board as fish scales tend to get in our bilges eventually and clog up our pumps.
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Do you supply all our fishing equipment?
Yes. We supply rods, reels and bait for the trip. People do sometimes bring their own and that is fine. We are happy to advise on the setups of people's rods to help them be more successful.
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Do you supply life jackets?
Yes. We have life jackets for everyone as required by law. If you have a young child coming and already a jacket for him/her then it is advisable to bring it to provide the best fit for your child. Apart from the bow, the decks on the Arline are pretty safe for kids of all ages, although we always recommend adult supervision naturally.
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You can take up to 15 people. Are you always full and how much room is there?
The Arline has walk-a-round decks which gives us easily more than 80ft (26m) of fishing space. Divide that by 15 anglers and when everyone spreads out we achieve spacings of around 5ft (1.7m) between anglers. Besides, we run a trip when we have a minimum of 4 people so the odds are you will have lots more room than that.
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Do you have seating?
The canopy in the middle of the boat (midship) provides shade, shelter from the elements and seating. The stern of the boat has fold away seating if required. Basically we have enough seating for everyone if required but generally once we start fishing the bow and the stern are available for those people wanting to stand. Which leaves midship for those who want to fish sitting down. A pretty good mix really.
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Do you do afternoon trips?
Yes but generally only for large groups or Sole Charters. Although the evenings can be stunningly beautiful, more often than not, a sea breeze comes up in the afternoon making the trip a bit colder and a bit rougher than the mornings.
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Fast Boat or Your Boat - What's best?
First of all, you are on holiday - do you really have to rush? We cruise along quite comfortably at 10 knots which gives people time to get to know their fellow travellers, brush up on the use of the fishing equipment and enjoy the scenery. Most of the time we arrive about 10 minutes or so after the "fast" boats so, to us, speed is not the issue. What it really comes down to is comfort and the knowledge that your Skipper has. Both of which, we believe, is unsurpassed by any other boat or Skipper doing our style of fishing in the Bay of Islands.
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