Mofam River Lodge

[Kiall]

Morning Guys..

As you are all aware we have a constant uphill battle against abuse of the bass boats and are doing our utmost to ensure that they are kept in the best possible condition.

My question to all of you this beautiful Thursday morning is.

What would the general feeling be if from now on we insisted that at least one fisherman had a skippers licence which was presented on the day in order to hire a boat?

We are trying to look at all the options to get rid of that "abusive element" and ensure that we have 5* fishing facilities for you guys.

The little attachment is also there just to remind those who have not been here for a while..

all the best

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

[Valrath]

What has Mofam done to prevent the farm workers from fishing on their stretch of water.

My last few trips I always see them hauling the bass out one after another especially in the spawn when the bass are up shallow.

They are fishing from the Panorama Chalet all the way down to the House on the dam.

When I call in to report them I just get the answer "Oh no they are allowed to fish here".

So we the bass fisherman have to pay R380 per a day and the farm workers can just haul out and eat as much fish as they like.

This has caused the fishing quality to go downhill dramatically.

Can you please provide some feedback on this topic.

[Riprap]

Morning Kiall, lovely pic!

My $10 million zim dollars worth. I would hazard a guess that more than 50% of most social or serious bass anglers don't require a skippers ticket for their sport. They either don't own a vessel which requires one, are bank anglers or kick boat guys and the like.

The abuse you refer to is in-excusable and must be stopped I agree. Can the guys not pay a higher refundable deposit, the refundable part being subject to the condition of YOUR property once it is returned after a session?

[Rory]

Hi Kiall, I fish your venue often as you know. I do not have a boat and would find it difficult to get a skippers license in order to fish mofam. A license as far as I know is not required on a battery powered vessel? That's my opinion.

My suggestion would be to make the staff member and fishermen co sign the 'checklist' on your new indemnity form TOGETHER before and after the session as this is often just done at the bar counter without things even being checked. Perhaps a better idea would be to only allow fishermen with a freshwater license to fish. If the guys have gone through the effort of getting a license chances are better that they're responsible fishermen.

What is the current issue? General wear and tear on batteries and trolling motors is expected with boats being used as often as yours....if it's the boats themselves, perhaps some sort of 'cushioning' around the edges would stop the boats from being damaged on surface / bank structure?

[Riprap]

Valrath, stick to the topic at hand and fight about the farm workers later! You must remember boet that you are a guest and it's not a right that allows you to fish there.

[Southpaw]

Hi Kiall,

If Mofam starts requiring skippers licences in order to hire a bass boat there then you will lose a lot of business. Im sure the vast majority of the people that use the boats don’t have a skippers, myself included. And just because the people have skippers doesn’t mean that they wont abuse the boats.
I still say that having an inspection at the beginning of the day and before you leave is the best way to go about it. You or Danny take photos of the motors and props before the people head out and inspect at the end of the day. As big of a las as this might be you have photo evidence of what it looked like in the morning.
Or have a deposit system of say R800 and the balance of the boat hire is refunded at the end of the day if no damage was caused to the boat or motors.

Regards
Malcolm

[Rory]

What about having some sort of Mofam membership where annual fees are paid in order to build a data base of 'regulars' The annual fees could allow us a certain number of entries to the facility and you could then charge a higher price to the 'one day only' visitors....I reckon this would very quickly establish the who's, how's and why's of the undesireables....

[Kiall]

Riprap, we are just looking at options to try and reduce the abuse. Very good points, thank you so much..

Valrath - my question to you, would you rather they fished to eat or stole to eat? This is the reason why we have taken the stance of allowing them to do it. Mofam Farm staff fish for palang anyway and not Bass. Other farm workers fishing from other farms we can do nothing about what they catch....

I do not want this to turn into a general debate about fishing at Mofam, the point of this post was to discuss options to ensure that the boats are looked after and not abused, or left in a complete mess by people that do not care as it is not their equipment..

[KJSver]

Having a boat with better working motors would also be useful too. When I was there 2 months ago the boat hardly got anywhere. After about two hours both batteries were dead, after which we had to get them replaced. When the wind started picking up we could actually not even go against it as the motors were too weak, and at some stages we were actually moving backwards with motor at "full power". Mind you the wind wasn't even that strong.

We headed back to the lodge as it was useless if you can't even use a boat you paid R380 for. The guys that work there then tried to find the problem, and found a shedload of gut twisted on the rotors. We though we finally found the problem, but even with the gut removed we could barely get anywhere. Maybe we just got a bad motor, but it was still disappointing. No need in requiring skipper's licenses if you're basically just floating in the water.

[Riprap]

My point I was trying to make - Skippers tickets is not a legal requirement for these vessels. Kiall, a skippers will cost over R1 000 to do and is thus also prohibitive if you don't legally require one.

It takes all kinds of people to make up a world and unfortunately all sometimes suffer at the hands of what a few do. You are the baas van die plaas, you call the shots but I commend you on the open transparent attitude you have always shown to your potential customers.

[toph2o]

It's plain and simple.Check everything properlybefore ,sign to take responsibility,and properly check again afterwards.This has never happened to me and I've been there quite a few times.

[Q]

Killian
As a lot pointed out:
1. Asking for a skippers is just going to chase a lot of guys away, I would guess the majority of guys fishing there do not have there own boats and do not require to own a skipper license.
2. What difference is in having a skippers going to make to somebody looking after your equipment. It is just a piece of paper (at Mofam).
3. Asking for a fishing license will help up to a point. But it is also easy to get one.
4. I also think asking for a deposit is better and check boat before returning deposit is a good idea.
5 Having a annual subscribers list might also be a good idea. Then you have a list of people fishing and if anybody deliberately break something, they get banned.
6. KJSver. I also had broken stuff in the past. But I know Mofam try to upkeep things, thus the reason for this topic. And they were always bending backwards to accommodate you with your problem. But yes, Kiall, maybe the boats can be checked more regularly.

[theBee]

Sweet and Short:

> Ask for High Deposit upon booking
> First time users must complete a DETAILED form with personal details
> Person must have valid fishing license
> Boat must be inspected afterwards in order to get deposit back
> Detailed written feedback must be given after the day is done on the condition of the boat and the days fishing

Somebody doesn't like it, or doesn't comply. Send them on their way.

[Jim_From_Zim]

@ Kiall,

Best suggestion above is to charge a deposit.

A second suggestion to co-exist with the deposit is to number everything in an order. i.e: Boat # 1 has # 1 trolling motors x 2, uses 2 x # 1 batteries, has safety box # 1 filled with whatever is in there also numbered # 1.
Then, a guest hire's # 1 for the day, pays his deposit and uses the boat with everything marked # 1. If something is broken, damaged or lost, you will know which boat it comes off and will know which guest to charge/chase/ban from coming to your venue again.

Further, create a snag list per boat and equipment on the boat, so that every time it is used, you check out and back into storage the equipment with a column for snags. This will help you keep tabs at a quick glance to the history of the maintenance of the equipment.

Unfortunately it a mission as Southpaw says, but its your only way you are going to get any control over damages.

As for the farm bank anglers, its your land so you are entitled to do with it what ever you choose. Dont let the riffraff on this forum dictate to you how you manage your property.

@KJSver - the mofam equipment gets a beating purely because it is used so often. In most cases with your own boat, your batteries and trolling motor will get used probably a maximum of 20 hours or less a month, where as Mofam probably gets in excess of 35 hours per boat per week totaling 140 hours or more per month per boat. So its a matter of time before equipment fails due to excess wear and tear. I too have had issues in the past, but on chatting to Kiall and the staff about it in a decent manner gets you great service and willingness to assist and rectify. Bashing them on this forum wont help. The point being is that Kiall has openly asked for assistance to make things better for us to use the equipment, he never asked for a complaints list. This is not a dig at you, its just a corrective comment to perhaps stick to the subject at hand.

[KJSver]

You're right Jim. This maybe isn't the time and place to mention it. I appreciate the fact that Mofam wants to improve the fishing experience by maintaining the boats and gear properly as this was exactly the cause for my grief. My point of view was that why insist on a skipper's license to use a boat which is barely usable in the first place, but I agree this could potentially increase the quality of the rented equipment.

EDIT: Has this system of a deposit and before and after checks been in place, maybe I wouldn't have had any issues and improved my viewpoint of Mofam tremendously. So again I appreciate the sentiment of trying to improve the experience for all.

@KJSver - the mofam equipment gets a beating purely because it is used so often. In most cases with your own boat, your batteries and trolling motor will get used probably a maximum of 20 hours or less a month, where as Mofam probably gets in excess of 35 hours per boat per week totaling 140 hours or more per month per boat. So its a matter of time before equipment fails due to excess wear and tear. I too have had issues in the past, but on chatting to Kiall and the staff about it in a decent manner gets you great service and willingness to assist and rectify. Bashing them on this forum wont help. The point being is that Kiall has openly asked for assistance to make things better for us to use the equipment, he never asked for a complaints list. This is not a dig at you, its just a corrective comment to perhaps stick to the subject at hand.