What a Fishing Charter Website Needs

What the site is actually for

A fishing charter sells a day on the water to people who mostly live elsewhere. Many book months ahead from another province or country, often in the evening.

They cannot drop by the dock with questions. Every question the website leaves unanswered becomes an email across time zones, answered the next day, while they compare three other charters.

The site's purpose is to settle those questions so completely that a stranger can choose a trip, pay a deposit and find the right dock at the right time.

And it has to do that in July, when the skipper is on the water from first light and nobody is answering the phone.

Who books a charter

• Visiting anglers planning a whole trip around the fishing.
• Families on holiday adding a day on the water.
• Groups of friends or colleagues splitting the cost.
• First-timers who have never held a rod.
• Gift buyers booking for someone else.

The fourth group is the one charter sites forget. First-timers want to know they will be shown everything, that the gear is provided, and that nobody minds if they catch nothing.

Trips, lengths and prices

List each trip as a product: half day, full day, extended day, with the hours, the fish usually targeted, and the price for the boat or per person.

Say how many guests the price covers, what each extra person costs, whether the trip is private or shared, whether tax is included and how much the deposit is.

State the currency. Prices in Canadian dollars look attractive to American visitors with the lower Canadian dollar, but only if they are sure which dollar they are reading.

What is included

Guests compare charters line by line, and the inclusions are where charters differ: rods and tackle, bait, rain gear, snacks or lunch, and cleaning, filleting and freezing the catch.

Then say what to bring: warm layers, waterproof footwear, sunglasses, food if lunch is not provided, and a cooler if the fish are going home with them.

And say plainly what is not included, such as the fishing licence, so nobody discovers it at the dock.

Licences and limits, simply

Most guests need their own sport fishing licence, and in tidal waters anyone keeping a salmon also needs a salmon conservation stamp. Visitors often have no idea.

Explain which licence the trip requires, where to buy it before arriving, and whether you can sell it on the day.

Explain limits in plain words: roughly what a guest may keep, that limits and openings change through the season, and that the skipper follows them.

Rather than copying the regulations, which change, link to the official source and explain what they mean for a guest.

The boat and the skipper

Guests are trusting you with a day on open water, sometimes with their children. Show the boat: its length, the cabin and heater, the washroom, the seating, and how many it carries.

Introduce the skipper with a photograph, years on the water and the marine certificates they hold.

List the safety equipment in a sentence or two, including life jackets in children's sizes, and say from what age children are welcome.

Mention seasickness honestly, with a line on what helps. Plenty of guests wonder about it and few ask.

A worked example

A family-run charter with one covered boat for six guests works out of a small harbour on Vancouver Island, and takes most of its summer bookings by email, many from the United States and Europe.

The website consisted of one page: a photograph of a large salmon, a phone number and a price list in a PDF.

Every booking took four or five emails about inclusions, licences, rough weather and where exactly to meet, and each reply took a day, because the skipper answered in the evening.

Some enquiries simply stopped partway through the exchange, and the owners assumed those guests had booked elsewhere.

The new site gives each trip its own page with price, hours and inclusions, a short page on licences, a weather and cancellation section, and a calendar showing open dates with a deposit taken online.

The meeting point has a map, a photograph of the dock and the parking, and the confirmation email repeats all three.

Weather and cancellations

Weather cancels more charter trips than anything else, and it causes most disputes. Write the policy before a guest asks.

Say who decides and when: the evening before, or at the dock that morning. Say what happens to the deposit if the skipper cancels, and what happens if the guest does.

Distinguish weather that cancels a trip from weather that is merely unpleasant. Guests who travelled a long way want to know whether rain alone keeps the boat in.

Booking from a phone

Many guests plan on a phone in the evening, in another time zone. Show open dates in local time, and let them choose a trip and pay a deposit without emailing first.

Test the calendar on a phone with poor reception, the way a guest at a campsite or a ferry terminal will use it.

Send a confirmation with the date, the meeting time, the dock, parking, what to bring and a reminder about the licence.

Photographs and the season

Photographs of real guests with real fish, taken with permission, say more than any stock image of a leaping salmon, and so do pictures of the boat and the harbour.

Describe what is usually caught in which months, without promising fish. Guests know fishing is uncertain; they want to know whether they are booking the right part of the season.

The counter-case

A charter booked solid by returning guests every year needs less of this. Its site can be smaller: trips, prices, the boat and a way to reach the skipper.

Online booking does not suit every operation either. A skipper who prefers to speak to each group first can take bookings by phone, once the site has answered the routine questions.

At any size the principle holds: answer the questions a stranger far away will have, before they have to email to ask.

What to build first

1. Give each trip a page with price and hours.
2. List what is included and what to bring.
3. Explain licences in a few plain sentences.
4. Show the boat, the skipper and the safety gear.
5. Write the weather policy before anyone asks.
6. Add a calendar that takes deposits on a phone.
7. Describe the meeting point with a photograph.

Step three is the one most charter sites skip, and it causes the most trouble on the day: a guest who arrives without a licence cannot legally fish, however far they travelled.

The same approach for a shop that sells to parents is covered in what a music store website needs.

Frequently asked questions

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