I reached out to Rich to find out why he gave a poor review with no explanation given on Fishingbooker.
He did not return my call or text message.
Rich originally booked an offshore trip in early June, our offshore season has not even begun yet, and he wanted his 11 year old grandson to catch “big” fish. So I suggested that we fish Catalina Island in the hopes of catching Yellowtail. Season at Catalina has been off to a slow start with cool weather and water this year but a few Yellows have been caught. The fall back is always bass, bonito, and barracuda to at least catch some fish and we would have to work hard for the yellows. Changing baits, good casts, right positions, etc.
Rich also added 1 more extra person to booking, which made it 5 people by stating it was four adults and 1 child, I usually only take 4 with and extra charge for extra passengers but since we couldn’t do the offshore trip I felt bad and accepted the extra person.
We arrived at the Island and the wind and waves were up in the morning on the backside of the island, where the Yellowtail have been seen and caught in the days before.
While teaching the group of beginners on how to fish, one of the passengers started to get sea sick as we were starting to hook some bass and bonito. So, we left that area all together to make her feel better and went to the front of the island where we were greeted by the Sea Lions which made it difficult for the novice group. We bounced around the front of the island and fished in a dozen spots to avoid the sea lions. We caught a bunch of short bass(typical), a couple keeper bass, 6 bonito and lost a bunch of other fish. I handed off all the fish that I hooked and gave to his grandson to reel in, which the 3lb bonito was very difficult for him(I can only imagine him with a Yellow) I tried to coach the group on how to get bites but my tips and directions were often ignored which made the fishing very tough for them. I tried my best, and the group still went home with a nice bag of fish for our efforts. No yellowtail for us or even the sportboats. Thats’s fishing, its not a guarantee.
I don’t know why Rich rated the boat at a 3, I have put my heart and soul into making it the best platform and most comfortable boat I can. Every detail is listed along with pictures are on the site.
I am sorry he had an overall bad experience but he never explained to me what his issues even were.
I hope he finds a better 4pack with 5 people in the future, good luck!

I reached out to Rich to find out why he gave a poor review with no explanation given on Fishingbooker. He did not return my call or text message. Rich originally booked an offshore trip in early June, our offshore season has not even begun yet, and he wanted his 11 year old grandson to catch “big” fish. So I suggested that we fish Catalina Island in the hopes of catching Yellowtail. Season at Catalina has been off to a slow start with cool weather and water this year but a few... More

Where do I start on this?
Here we go, Wes booked a coastal trip for 7 hours and said he wanted to target yellowtail, seabass and dorado. All totally different trips.
I told him not much happening on the coast right now but offshore dorado fishing is all time.
Problem was that dorado would require a offshore trip, they are far and I would basically just being asking for the fuel cost for the trip. Just did 12 trips and came home with Mahi every trip. The normal offshore trip for 10 hours is $2000.
I told him I could do a 8 hour trip for and extra $400. He agreed to this and says he gets it and was eager to go one trip the day after we had a tropical storm/gale warning.
My initial message sent is the balance is due at departure along with the other details. I don’t see why the fuss of payment is even mentioned. Maybe for some reason, he paid half the day before the trip which was odd then another payment at dock. I don’t think asking for payment would be taken as all I care about.
I take pride in my vessel and I keep it clean, we just experienced an unprecedented heatwave with fires along with a tropical storm with high winds. There was ash and dirt on the boat from this, that is why I was washing down at fuel dock, it took 20 seconds. I always have people wipe feet when boarding because of the asphalt leaves marks eveywhere.. I don’t see the big deal here either. Who wants a deck with dirt, grease, rocks all over it?
As far as fishing, I guess you never saw me throw any chum in the water when the fish were near the boat? You never heard me from the tower say throw some bait, throw some bait either?
We had fish around the boat almost the entire trip except for traveling. I had to repeatedly say to get a new bait at every spot but Wes was very intent on using same bait till it could no longer swim. I said the key was to change your bait and get a good bait.The directions I gave him were rarely followed. I told him to have hook in hand ready to pin on a bait, he would leave rod in holder and grab bait then walk back to rod to pin bait. This technique does not work with picky dorado. I said use a bait that doesnt have blood spots, as well, he did not.
We actually hooked a few fish but were all lost due to angler error. I tried my best to coach, explain, demonstrate how to hook and catch these dorado as I do with every group but we came up short from getting tangles, holding rod upside down, taking to long to get baits on the hooks, wrong side of boat, not putting rod in gear when getting a strike, not following lines and baits, etc.
I worked really hard to be successful on this trip and we traveled 110 miles, burned more fuel than was projected, and used every bait we had.
We got back to the dock and told Wes that I was bummed that we didn’t bring home fish.
He said “Well we were on them, they just weren’t biting” as he handed me a tip which I tried to decline but he insisted.  So I am a bit confused.
on this review, I worked really hard to make a successful day for Wes, Julie and Nick.
I tried to call him to talk about this review but he did not answer the phone.

Where do I start on this? Here we go, Wes booked a coastal trip for 7 hours and said he wanted to target yellowtail, seabass and dorado. All totally different trips. I told him not much happening on the coast right now but offshore dorado fishing is all time. Problem was that dorado would require a offshore trip, they are far and I would basically just being asking for the fuel cost for the trip. Just did 12 trips and came home with Mahi every trip. The normal offshore trip... More

TJ with his first California Yellowtil, and a nice one.

TJ with his first California Yellowtil, and a nice one.