goose70
04-30-2007, 07:53 AM
Gas to get from Annapolis to Fletchers, only to be turned away: $6.00;
Cost of accidentally waking the wife at 4:45am, all for naught: we shall see, but it won’t be cheap;
Having police stop traffic for you as you exit Fletchers after having been denied a rental boat: priceless.
So, you see, everything has a silver lining.
I want to preface what I’m about to say by stating that I continue to hold Fletchers and the regulars who run it in the highest regard. I also think that the Congressional Casting Call, which is occurring this morning at Fletchers, sounds like a terrific event. I have no problem that Fletchers reserves all boats for this event on this day.
Having said that, Fletchers (Guest Services) needs to work harder on its communication about this event to its customers, and/or work harder to coordinate its boat rental policies on this day.
Flying Fish and others warned me that today was the congressional event at Fletchers, so I called over the weekend to see whether it would be open to regular shad fishing customers. The first gentleman who answered the phone assured me that it would be. Just to be safe, however, especially considering the long drive I make to get to Fletchers, I called again and expressed some concern about boats being available. I was told by whoever answered the phone that boats would not be a problem, but I should plan to be at Fletchers by 7am just to be safe.
So, I arrived at 6:45am this morning. Just about every – if not each and every – boat was at the dock. Very few people were at Fletchers and those who were where milling around some tents. Nobody appeared to be anywhere close to getting ready to get into a boat. Great!
Unfortunately, however, as I walked towards the dock, the gentleman directing traffic – who I believe was from the National Park Service – told me that I could not rent a boat if I was not with the congressional event.:mad: I explained to him exactly what I just stated, above. He was unmoved and told me to fish from shore, but under no circumstances could I rent a boat. He lectured me on how the event has occurred since the dawn of time, as if I should have been infused with knowledge of the particulars and known to disregard what the folks on the phone assured me. Under the circumstances, I cannot fathom why I could not at least have rented a boat for an hour, since they were sitting unused. Nobody else appeared to be even close to going out at that point.
Again, I want to emphasize that this experience has hardly soured me on Fletchers. It’s a great place and usually well-run. I simply make this post to warn others for next year who, like me, may have been unaware that this day is off limits to the average Joe. I also hope that word gets out to Guest Services, the NPS and to the Fletchers, themselves, to please ensure next year that everyone is coordinated on the boat rental policy so that customers are not needlessly inconvenienced, and to clearly spell out the policy on the front page of the website.
P.S. One other silver lining is that I’m in the office earlier than usual, which means I’ll get a lot done today (after I stop ranting on TF). Pass the champagne!:wacko:
Cost of accidentally waking the wife at 4:45am, all for naught: we shall see, but it won’t be cheap;
Having police stop traffic for you as you exit Fletchers after having been denied a rental boat: priceless.
So, you see, everything has a silver lining.
I want to preface what I’m about to say by stating that I continue to hold Fletchers and the regulars who run it in the highest regard. I also think that the Congressional Casting Call, which is occurring this morning at Fletchers, sounds like a terrific event. I have no problem that Fletchers reserves all boats for this event on this day.
Having said that, Fletchers (Guest Services) needs to work harder on its communication about this event to its customers, and/or work harder to coordinate its boat rental policies on this day.
Flying Fish and others warned me that today was the congressional event at Fletchers, so I called over the weekend to see whether it would be open to regular shad fishing customers. The first gentleman who answered the phone assured me that it would be. Just to be safe, however, especially considering the long drive I make to get to Fletchers, I called again and expressed some concern about boats being available. I was told by whoever answered the phone that boats would not be a problem, but I should plan to be at Fletchers by 7am just to be safe.
So, I arrived at 6:45am this morning. Just about every – if not each and every – boat was at the dock. Very few people were at Fletchers and those who were where milling around some tents. Nobody appeared to be anywhere close to getting ready to get into a boat. Great!
Unfortunately, however, as I walked towards the dock, the gentleman directing traffic – who I believe was from the National Park Service – told me that I could not rent a boat if I was not with the congressional event.:mad: I explained to him exactly what I just stated, above. He was unmoved and told me to fish from shore, but under no circumstances could I rent a boat. He lectured me on how the event has occurred since the dawn of time, as if I should have been infused with knowledge of the particulars and known to disregard what the folks on the phone assured me. Under the circumstances, I cannot fathom why I could not at least have rented a boat for an hour, since they were sitting unused. Nobody else appeared to be even close to going out at that point.
Again, I want to emphasize that this experience has hardly soured me on Fletchers. It’s a great place and usually well-run. I simply make this post to warn others for next year who, like me, may have been unaware that this day is off limits to the average Joe. I also hope that word gets out to Guest Services, the NPS and to the Fletchers, themselves, to please ensure next year that everyone is coordinated on the boat rental policy so that customers are not needlessly inconvenienced, and to clearly spell out the policy on the front page of the website.
P.S. One other silver lining is that I’m in the office earlier than usual, which means I’ll get a lot done today (after I stop ranting on TF). Pass the champagne!:wacko: