John, looks like you may have overlooked some facts. I put up the real numbers from my last two trips.
"I paid $74 for a 4 day on Searcher and then $83 for an 8 day on Shogun. So that math does not work for your excursion permit. Might be $70.00 for the excursion permit and then $2.00 a day after that. There's also some sort of excise tax, a flat fee for each permit regardless of the length of the trip.
That pretty much lines up with more facts posted here by Jim.
Quote:
Originally Posted by titan05  I posted this last night and took it down;
The excursion permit is 69.74 for 4 days and longer with a 2.00 per day and 3.00 to 5.00 excise tax
A ten day permit should not be more than 90.00 - 95.00
That is straight from the Mexican Dept of Fish and game or Pesca.
Anything over that is cash to the boat.
Some boats play it straight up and some don't. You need to ask the questions and determine for yourself what boats you choose to ride. If the permit cost variation doesn't matter to you then just pay what the total price is and go fish....pretty simple. |
Here was what John Klein has to say the first time he chimed in on this subject.
"I would gently suggest when you call an office ask for the trip price and any added costs for permits and any other extras fees due for that trip, add them up and reach the total cost payable to an operation for that trip. Compare and make your decisions based on fact rather than rhetoric."
Other than some history you reported about last year, I don't see any other facts in your posts. Here's what you said:
"Last year I was on the Intrepid 10 day trip for $$2995.00 or about $300 per day.... My friend went on the AA 10 day for a $2495.00 or about $250.00 per day, then he paid a fuel surcharge and a mexican license fee and his trip was right up there with mine..."
Fuel costs were pretty high last year. Standard practice for all the boats is to establish their own fuel surcharge protocol. I don't know the exact figures your friend paid for fuel and permits because you failed to mention them. Fuel costs ar lower now, so we're not seeing the fuel surcharges we saw last year. Look at a couple of schedules and you'll see some price adjustments. Some are lowering prices, some are remaining the same as this year.
My final point, (Don't we all hope for that) is that I don't see much in the way of facts. This disturbs me that there is a general accusation of long range fishing in general being a business that rips us off. I get that you feel that way based on your statements, quoted here:
"For me it is more about honesty and integrity... I want to know what I am paying for, don't charge me some phony fee and pocket the cash...."
"...over the last few years this whole Mexican license thing has come to surface as a potential scam, and it bothers some... Some people don't give a shit if they are lied to as long as the trip price is in the range they desire..."
Ooops, I guess there's one more point that I want to make. Regarding this statement:
" Personally, if you are going to charge me a fuel surcharge simply be honest. Tell me up front how many gallons you budget for a trip based upon real data of previous comparable trips and at what cost per gallon.... If you use more and/or the price is up then charge me... Likewise if you set on anchor a couple of days and save thousands buck-up and be honest... If the fuel costs go down from what you estimated then you owe me a little cash back.... It can't all be one sided... If you want a moving price you have to take the good with the bad..."
It's been a while since we've seen fuel surcharges. If you want to be provided this information, go ahead and ask any of the boats that might be charging fuel surcharges now. If you seriously expect this type of accounting, good luck. If you really believe it's feasible for them to do this, that's a dream world. Get to the present, don't dwell on the past.
I think finally, it's OK to examine your statement, attempting to belittle my story about "one of my favorite boats."
"...we were off regardless of falsely charged fishing license???...
"Sorta reminds me of a story back in 07 and 2 years after that has nothing to do with the topic of mexican permits, so I am not going to tell the story...."
Cute. But what about getting to today? And how about some facts instead of some of the general accusations and innuendo about being scammed? I don't recall what the permit charge was at the time, but who said anything about a false charge? Really, there's so much misinformation getting tossed around here in this post as well as in other forums. It brings nothing positive to the table. Shit like this:
"One thing not mentioned by anyone (I think) is that SOME boats give $2-3 dollars a day to SAC for their work in supporting fishing. If thats true it accounts for some of the money overage we're talking about. Some boats take advantage tho."
"Lets say there are 5, 10 day trips on a boat and each time the boat had 25 anglers. Thats a total of 125 anglers for the the combined 5 trips. The excursion permit runs $95 per angler, but boats charge $150 worth of permits to each angler. Thats a $55 profit for each angler and multiply by 125. Wala! $6875 of added income just in 10 dayer permits."
"I think 3 days or more mexico issues a excursion permit which is $75 instead of the $15 per day thing."
"Very true ! Then it is $4.00 after that per day."
Statements like, "I think" and "Let's say" can be pretty scary depending on how correct your premise is. Does anybody remember paying $150 in permits for a 10 day this year?
Lew has a valid point when he says: "IMHO it's the boats biz as long as they don't surprise you at the end of the trip. For me, if the total price is right why fret."
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