Pro:
- Good communication in English
- nice boat with enough space for 5 people and sonar etc.
- Captain & son prepared the catch for a delicious meal
Cons:
- Fishing gear (rod & reel) for simple mackerel fishing not suitable for kids (oversized)
- No life jackets offered for children
- touristic touch / fishing for amateurs.
- Too few rods prepared, not all could fish at the same time.
We had a relaxing boat trip on the beautiful Tuna 3, three adults and two children. From the harbor of Bar we drove to a first fishing spot, where we wanted to catch small fish/mackerel, which was mainly supposed to be fun for the children. However, also to collect bait fish for later hunting of larger fish. In my opinion, the boat approached this point very slowly - maybe to save some fuel. Some time elapsed unused, in which we might have been able to do troll fishing at least. Then only two fishing rods were prepared for mackerel fishing (but 5 guests!). But we were only able to use one rod effectively for the time being, as one crew member used the other, until I asked later whether we could use the second one as well. In my opinion, the rods were a bit oversized for mackerel fishing (rod too heavy, on one a large multi-reel was mounted). I’ve caught hundreds of mackerel with much lighter tackle in my life. In any case, my 9-year-old couldn’t hold the rod on her own and we pulled out a few mackerels together. Accordingly, she was not quite so happy. However, the schools of mackerel were found and approached quite reliably with the echo sounder. After that, not much happened anymore from fishing point of view. The boat drove quite close to the shore again to do trolling after amberjacks. To do this, the crew attached two of the caught mackerel ALIVE to the trolling assembly and began towing them behind the boat. We were not involved in this process in any way - I’m not a fan of live bait rigs. This is animal cruelty. Meanwhile, a delicious meal was created for us using some more of the caught mackerel. That in itself was the best moment of the trip. The accompanying salad consisted only of tomatoes, but the freshly fried fish was of course very tasty. We spent the remaining 2 hours or so watching the rods troll, but nothing happened. Well, it’s part of fishing that you sometimes don’t catch a target fish and in big game you often go empty-handed. That’s OK. In the end we gave up the attempt and used the remaining minutes to have a little bathing fun from the boat. We were allowed to take a few leftover mackerel with us (not gutted yet).
All in all it was a nice boat trip, although as a person with some fishing experience I didn’t get much fishing feeling. The program is geared more towards fishing for amateurs, which I feared given the offer. At least I had hoped that the children would have fun fishing, but that didn’t really came true due to the less than ideal fishing equipment and too few fishing rods provided. We have experienced a lot better in own rented boat, e.g. in Norway. The captain and his son were very nice, however, and communication with the son in English worked very well. If you are looking for a relaxed short fishing trip for mackerel etc. with a delicious, freshly prepared fish dish, where almost everything is taken care of (including the fishing ;-) ), this is the place for you. Last to mention that no life jackets have been offered (at least!) for the kids, but captain seemed to be a bit tense when our 5 year old was out on the boat. As you can’t really control a 5 year old, we digged out some wax wings and semi professional life jacket we brought with us.
Pro:
- Good communication in English
- nice boat with enough space for 5 people and sonar etc.
- Captain...