We had a group of five of us, and all but one had been on similar party boats previously. While we went in late March (more undersized fish than later in the season), Iโve still never seen so many undersized fish caught for getting so few keepers (photo shows our catch in a 48-quart cooler for reference/scale). But thatโs part of the experienceโฆsometimes you get a bunch, and sometimes you donโt. This doesnโt reflect on my review here.
What DOES affect my review are the behavior of one of the crew members, the way the fish were filleted, the fact that we found a USED BANDAID in our bag of fillets upon getting ready to cook it up that evening, and especially the fact that although we mentioned the nasty bandaid in our Google review, the reply from Pelican Adventures didnโt even mention this.
Our deck hand (went by the name of โRetroโ) was a very energetic type, constantly moving/doing. And while this is a good thing when youโre catching fish, it also included his mouth. Even on the way out, he was constantly yelling things or making loud soundsโฆrarely a break, which was fine at first but got more and more irritating as the day went on. Like I said, when youโre catching fish and the deck hands are trying to let everyone else know whatโs being caught, the yelling is understood (and even expected). But in between, you kinda like to be able to think and enjoy the waves and ocean. Not so much for us.
Retro also โtriedโ to help us with filleting our fish after the trip, but also obviously had little experience in how to fillet, or was in such a rush that he was making a mess of it. After he cut the side of one small fish into three silver dollar sized pieces as he was trying to remove the fillet from the skin (instead of a solid fillet), Captain Mike stepped in and started filleting them as well. Granted, we about a dozen small fish between five people; so there wasnโt much meat to spare! If we had known the crew was going to butcher our fish in the filleting process, we most definitely would NOT have had them fillet them for us. But you kind of expect that the crew of a FISHING boat would be experienced in doing this well. Live and learnโฆdo it yourself.
The absolute worst, though, was finally getting back to our kitchen to cook this small amount of fish up, and finding a USED BANDAID from Retro/Captain Mikeโs finger stuck in with the fish fillets. I had been willing to chalk it all up to a less-than-ideal experience until then. That was just too much. So I wrote a quick review on Google regarding a lackluster day of keepers (but still a decent day all told), and highlighting the bandaid in our bag of fillets. I didnโt even mention the deck handโs loud nature. The reply from Pelican Adventures addressed the fact that they canโt guarantee the amount of keeper fish you will catch (which we knew). But it made no mention of this nasty used bandaid floating around in our fish fillets!! if it had been in a bag of unfilleted fish, it would not have bee as big a deal. But this is contamination right up against the exposed fish meat. Several of our party didnโt even eat the cooked fish because of this; and it really put a damper on the end of what was otherwise a so-so trip.
If you donโt mind someone yelling and screaming for no reason and can fillet your own fish, give them a try. But if you want a chance to enjoy the sea and expect to leave with nice fillets, you might want to look elsewhere. Sorry if this review sounds negative, but when the used bandaid issue went unaddressed in my first review, that really said a lot about their interest in customer service. You got my moneyโฆonce.
We had a group of five of us, and all but one had been on similar party boats previously. While we went in late March (more...
