ANGLER TO TOP SKIPPER
In the second of his series, Kevin McKie tells how he got his first charter boat
Kevin McKie’s tells how he got his first charter boat.
IT WAS AROUND MARCH 1998 WHEN I put my first boat, a Warrior 150 called Gemini, into Pwllheli Marina. I was working full-time in Taskers Angling and had Sundays and Mondays off, so whenever the weather was good I would be heading down to the boat with a few of my friends who could drive. e first time I went out in it, the conditions were okay in the bay but as we passed St Tudwal’s Islands the fresh westerly wind was pushing 18 to 20 knots. Determined to fish, we put the anchor down and it was very rough. My two friends were seasick, so I was the only one fishing and caught bull huss to 12lb.
After a few hours, we headed towards the marina. After about 10 minutes the wind swung around to the south west and got up very bad. It was like being on a rollercoaster and scary at times because I didn’t have the experience of skippering a small boat in rough weather. is was a massive learning curve for me. For the next two years I was more careful when planning a trip. After those two years I decided to sell the boat because we only got out 27 times.
e boat was a big chunk of money sitting there all winter.
Soon after I sold the boat I passed my driving test and landed a job at Samlesbury brewery, near Preston. e shift pattern of four on and four off was perfect for having a boat. I was gutted that I had sold it. is gave me lots of time so I started to do more charter trips with Bold SAC to places like Plymouth, Weymouth, Exmouth, Anglesey and Liverpool.
In the summer of 2000 I went on my first fishing holiday aboard to e Gambia with my mate Jimmy from Taskers Angling. His aunt had a time share out there. We went armed with Shimano Beastmaster uptide rods and Shimano TLD 15 reels loaded with 30lb mono to fish Rapala Magnum lures and shad raps, the bigger the better.
We hired old wooden boats from the beach with local skippers and caught lots of barracuda, Spanish mackerel and trevally. On other days we fished the mangroves for up to 20 species of fish, mostly snapper, grouper and captain fish. It was an amazing time and set the standard for the fishing I wanted to do in the future. As soon as I got home I was telling my friends and soon I had eight lads who wanted to go. I booked again for the following year but when our group got there the commercial factory ships were working the coast. e fishing was terrible and we never went back.
OVERSEAS ANGLING
As I still had the bug for fishing abroad I looked for other affordable destinations. One of my friends had just returned from Cuba and told me the fishing was reasonable and hotels were great. I managed to get the fishing club involved and we went three years in a row and caught tuna, sharks, amberjack, grouper, sailfish, barracuda, snapper and mahi-mahi.
From then on each year the fishing club would go to different destinations around the world, such as Canada, Costa Rica, South Africa, Kenya, Florida, Norway, Spain and Ireland as well as all our normal charters in the UK.
Fishing was starting to get more expensive so I got a second job, at first security work and then I trained as a tiler. I remember in 2001 we went to Plymouth to fish with Graham Hannaford on his old boat Tiburon. Reg, the club chairman, had kept quiet about Graham’s new boat, so when we arrived at Sutton Harbour I remember seeing Size Matters and remarking about the size of that boat and how it looked so different with its Canadian styling. I said to Graham: “is boat is amazing. ere is nothing like it in the UK. is is what you call a charter boat.”
Each year the club booked more trips on Size Matters because it was so comfortable to fish off even in sloppy weather. We had some amazing fishing with Graham and his other two skippers Alan and Sean.
In 2008 I took redundancy from the brewery. Having always wanted to travel I got a working holiday visa for Australia. It is an amazing place and I worked doing tiling, helping on farms, and as a deckhand on boats. e fishing was incredible, especially on the Great Barrier Reef in the very far north.
When I got back from Australia I was 30 so I had a chance before my 31st birthday to get a working holiday visa for Canada, where I had friends in Alberta. When I arrived in the spring I found work straight away as a wall and floor tiler.
I would work six to eight weeks straight and then fish the Fraser River for the white sturgeon, before getting my working head on again to save like mad and fly to Costa Rica to fish for sailfish and roosters. I stayed in Canada until the winter before it was time to return to the UK. As I arrived home the country was just coming out of a recession and all my friends in the building trade were either working in factories or driving taxis. I decided to drive a taxi until the building trade picked up or I could find another job.
DREAM TICKET
I got back in contact with Bold SAC and started to do some charter trips. One of my mates in the club, Jimmy, had a boat, a Bayliner Trophy with a 150hp engine. He had never been out in it because he was not confident enough on the sea, so he asked me to skipper it on days out and let me use it when I wanted. I was happy with that deal.
We put it in Liverpool Marina so we didn’t have to launch it.
Every trip we did, the fishing got better, with tope to 67lb, huss, rays, cod, pollack, ling, bass. Jimmy suggested I was made to be a charter skipper. It was always my dream job but I never thought I would be able to do it. It was Jimmy who pushed me to get my day skipper’s ticket. At first I was like a duck to water and found the course fairly simple.
is got me looking at boats. In Liverpool Marina there was a well-kept 33ft Aqua Star built in 1974 called Brigand. I looked perfect for a charter boat, but it never moved. I got in contact with the owner to ask if he wanted to sell. At first he said no, but a few weeks later he changed his mind. I went out for a test run and knew it was the boat for me to start my charter fishing career. I then had to spend my savings and get a small loan to pay for it.
I took my powerboat advanced course with commercial endorsement and passed with no issues. en I had to get the boat coded to take out paying customers and this is where I learned a valuable lesson – try to buy a charter boat that’s coded because it will save you money in the long run.
Once I started chartering I realised it is not always a good idea to buy a boat that doesn’t get used very often. I had terrible problems with hoses bursting, fuel filters blocking, electrical faults… the list goes on. After all the issues in the first few months I was ready for action. I had plenty of friends who wanted to go out on the boat and word spread that I had a charter vessel and was catching some good fish.
At first I was chartering a few days a week and operating a taxi at other times, but eventually worked the boat full time. I passed my Yacht Master with commercial endorsement and could go 60 miles, which is when I started trips to the Isle of Man. After the second year I had spent just over £16,000 just to get the vessel how I wanted it, but in hindsight I should have spent more on a better boat. I was definitely a bit green around the gills. However, I was fully booked six months in advance and business was going well with the help of social media.
Out of the blue, I got a telephone call from Graham Hannaford to say he is thinking about retiring and he would love to sell me his boat Size Matters… ■
PART 3: SIZE REALLY DOES MATTER