Had a family holiday in Picton and we went on a Sounds Connection Fishing Charter on the boat Tory with Skipper Mark. I booked us in for the 5 hour trip as I was told the 3 hour trip wouldn't allow enough time to dredge for scallops and this was our main focus. All was good when we arrived on the boat, scallop dredge at the ready, headed to the Tory Channel and on our way, my 4year old son was so excited he struggled to sit still. As any parent would do, I asked the skipper for a life jacket as these were "provided on the boat". The response took me some what by surprise as he said "no,because they only get damaged by children", looking back on it, no one on board was at any stage offered a life jacket I wish we all paid more attention to this at the time but as one can imagine the excitement was overwhelming. We fished, we moved around abit and finally in our last hour of fishing started to pull some fish in, luckily because we only had 3 fish on board. With 70 minutes (of our 5hour trip) remaining, we were told ten mins to call it a day. Obviously with scallops on our mind (and after talking about them most of our trip) I asked "do we just dredge our way home?" "no time for that" was the reply! After somewhat of an argument with the skipper and me agreeing to pay another $150 we got to do our dredging. A bitter sweet end to what was still a nice Sounds experience... Until we arrived at the dock where we were handed our catch, guts still in all the fish and scallops unshucked. Obviously only did the charter as we've never done scalloping before, or shucking. And when your staying in a hotel in Picton its one hell of a mission to gut and fillet fish! Atleast the skipper was nice about it though, as he handed us our catch he said "there ya go,I hope you have a sharp fillet knife". I suggested this was part of the charter (and costs) he replied "im off the clock now" thanks heaps Mark! If you're thinking of fishing from Picton I strongly suggest you try Toa Tai Charters as Ive heard great things about them and steer well clear of sounds connection!!!