North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

I have been fishing leaders creek and using the launch sevice for the past decade. I always support the operators so the $20 for someone to launch , watch your trailer and retrieve is reasonable .

Since Chris sold the business 2 years ago in my opinion the service has gone backwards . The new owners have definitely got room for improvement . I don't know how many times I have woken the owners up on the weekend to launch me after 6 am, only to be met by people who are virtually asleep and take half an hour to get going. On many occasions I have arrived an hour before the low, only to find the owners asleep and a few people waiting to launch before dead low. It took the owners a good 20-30 mins to get onto gear and showed no urgency to launch people to beat the tide.

To make things worse, every time I came back at the end of the day no one is on the look out to retrieve boats. I have a fairly loud whistle but can't get anyone's attention. It's a common occurence nowadays for the deckie to walk up, only to find the owners in his air con room.

I question myself why I pay the 20 bucks.

I was really p...ed last Saturday (mid morning) waiting 20mins to launch as Brian was MIA . Upon my return at 5.30 we found 5 boats waiting to get retrieved . Brian was no where to be seen and everyone was sitting there waiting. After about 15 mins and watching 3 boats launch themselves, we clicked that Brian didn't know we were there. Wtf we got out 6.30 as Brian made everyone drive on cause he told us there was a 3.5 m croc hanging around . Some tinnie are not designed or have enough power to drive on and took a dozen attempts.

I have no issues with this as safety comes first. My issues was that we saw the 3 boats launching themselves and people standing in the water and no one warned them.

I have given this feedback direct to Brian several occasions but still no improvement . I'm posting this on here hoping other people are experiencing the same frustrations and provide feedback.

Brian if you are reading this mate please lift your game as I'm coming close to not using sevice. I know a lot pf people who don't use your service anymore .

Totally agreed very poor customer service and no urgency at all.

I hope Brian gets this feedback and improves before his business suffers any more. I have never seen so many use the public car park and launch themselves.

I now use SWA more and more often.

Having to wake up the owners is pretty bad...! Thats some lousy service i wouldnt be paying for..!

Obvisouly they dont care much? Especially if youve voiced your concerns to them in the past..?

Tigger you have approached this issue very professionally being fair and reasonable. I don't fish there much but on the few occasions mirrored your story. Last trip I put it in myself, no service, no business.

Last trip we got back to the ramp just after dark and were unable to get attention. I got out and walked up to let them know and they gave me the keys and pointed out where the car was parked. I was a bit annoyed....not at having to retrieve the boat which I do any day of the week.....but at the fact that we paid for a service that we didn't receive.

Mud wrote:Last trip we got back to the ramp just after dark and were unable to get attention. I got out and walked up to let them know and they gave me the keys and pointed out where the car was parked. I was a bit annoyed....not at having to retrieve the boat which I do any day of the week.....but at the fact that we paid for a service that we didn't receive.

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I waited at the ramp yelling out while i could see him out the front. In the end i got out the air horn out and gave it a blast thnking he was busy but he was talking to someone else.
he finally came down and advised me that he closes at 6pm.
I told him that he should have mentioned that while he launched me in the morning.
he said everyone knows.
I told him that i didnt and there was no signage etc

still $20 for a secure lockup is ok but i now use Buff ck when heading to the Vernons or blueholes. Better road as well.
hes lost me

We had a similar thing happen about 6weeks ago..........when we got there it had been raining......not hard but good drizzle and who ever was in the lock up watching us had no intrest what so ever in coming down to launch us or take our $20.........Ahh well they must have enough money.

Afew people with similar experience with the service , I'm surprised there not a lot more to provide good or bad feedback.

270 people have read the thread so let's hope one of them is the owner of leaders creek. Im going out there this weekend .

I wasnt gonna jump on the bandwagon but stuff it. The service is poop and I wont be using them anymore either

If it's that bad how long will it be till someone walks in, grabs a set of keys and drives off with a new car and trailer!!??
Almost safer parking out the front.

I used it Sunday. I waited for 5 to 10 min when returning and had to get out walk up and get his attention. As I was by myself this was annoying. It was the first time I used it so I was a bit surprised. He was right about the croc though. It's was there when I put in and around when I came back.

Gregsy wrote:If it's that bad how long will it be till someone walks in, grabs a set of keys and drives off with a new car and trailer!!??
Almost safer parking out the front.

The issue isnt the secure parking, not for me anyway. Its the launch/retrieve service which has been non existent the last few times ive been there. Which is a pain in the arse because i usualy go by myself out that way.

It's interesting reading the feedback provided by other members. At present I use the service because I normally fish solo or with my young kids. So hopefully things improve because it's a beautiful place to go, crappy road to get there tho.