We had an absolute great time this weekend.
One of our scout dads loves to go deep sea fishing. So once a year usually around Labor day, he sets up a day to take the scouts fishing. The day coincides with a day that California has a no license day of fishing, so it is cheaper for everyone to go on this particular day. This year September 1st was the day you do not need a fishing license to fish in California. So we take advantage of this every year.
Dana Wharf Charter in Dana Point California is who we chartered a 4-hour fishing boat through. We had the boat all to our selves, all who were invited were families of cub scouts and boy scouts, I think the youngest one there was 6 years old. They all had a great time.
Usually on a scouting outing we collect parent consent forms and medical forms for any outing we have. When we have an outing that parents and siblings are invited to, we require all scouts to be accompanied by an adult, when this is the rule for the outing we do not collect the consent forms or bring the medical forms with us. The adults are responsible for their own children. As a troop leader, this kind of trip is a little more pleasurable because we are not fully responsible for all the scouts. We do, as always, keep an eye on everyone. It takes a tribe to raise children, all eyes and ears are always open to make sure everyone is safe.
Parking down at the warf at the time we took our tour, is free for the first 2 hours, then after 6pm it is free. Our fishing trip was in the late afternoon so we did not need to pay for paring. This made the trip a little less expensive.
Here are some points you may want to consider when taking kids on a deep sea fishing trip.
1. Be there early, the boat waits for no one. LOL
2. Most of us needed to rent fishing poles, so as we got there, we went to the rental office and secured the equipment we needed. I also got extra hooks and weights, good thing I did, my son lost at least 3 on the trip. Funny, how a 23-year old can still loose things.LOL Not his fault, they can get hooked on the rocks below and loose the rig. So make sure you bring extras.
3. We asked everyone to eat well before they arrived so that every ones tummy was well settled before the trip.
4. For those that might get motions sick, we also had them purchase the non drowsy Dramamine. I took a couple and I believe many of the others also took some and I did not sea anyone get sick on the outing. Dramamine also sells the chewable kind.
5. We were allowed to bring water and snacks on the boat with us. As kids are always hungry and thirsty, we were prepared.
6. Everyone was asked to bring sun screen, our trip was in the afternoon, but we still had everyone put it on. You never know how much sun anyone can handle.
7. Bring the camera or phone for pictures. We wouldn’t want the big fish tail to go unproven. LOL
8. Extra money because the boat we were on had a gally, a fast cook kitchen. The cook made some mean cheeseburgers when we were anchored, those that were looking for something to eat, more than a snack had a great hamburger.
When it was time to head back to shore, the helpers on the boat clean the fish everyone caught for tips. All who caught fish were able to take them home all cleaned up.
We got back to the dock about 4 hours after we departed.
The staff on the boat were great with all the young scouts, they were also great with those of us that are older and need some help too. They would tell us about the fish that were caught, some fish were ones that you did not want to touch because of spins or irritants on them. We were really glad they were so informative, so that everyone stayed safe.
Have you ever been deep sea fishing? I’d love to hear about it!
Yours in Scouting,
Mrs. Scoutmaster, Irene
PS. Check out my story here!