The fishing was decent. My friends and I each caught an inshore fish. No marlin hookups, but briefly had one or two follow the bait. The surrounding sea life was excellent, with a breaching humpback whale, pod of dolphins, a passing sea turtle, and a brown pelican and sea lion that came up on the back of the boat when nearing port. I would have given this trip four out of five stars had the two following listed things not occurred, which cost the deduction of a star for each. Otherwise, it was a good trip to Baja California Sur. Did some little trips with SunRider and Cabo Adventures that were excellent and highly recommended. If I fish out of Cabo San Lucas again, it will not be with El Budster.
1) Payment. Credit card should be accepted. El Budster has a store, which should support credit cards, especially since it was used for the reservation.
The following incident happened. Had made a reservation, so there was a $97 already paid for a full day trip (8 hours). I had paid $120 in cash and then went to the ATM. I withdrew $300 to pay the rest ($268 was needed at that point). Had a $35 fee from the ATM for withdrawal, which was very steep. Returned to pay $268, so I had used 14 out of 15 of the 20 dollar bills which amounted to a total of $280, only to find out that the owner recounted it and said I was $20 short. He obviously put away one of my original $20 bills I had paid when I ran to the ATM, so then he took the last $20 I had left from the withdrawal and then had the audacity to refund me $12, when it really should have been $32. I was plenty aware of what he had done at the time. However, since the payment is entirely in cash (no paper or electronic trail) and since I had already paid and had not fished a single minute yet, I figured his taking my additional $20 was better than making a scene and potentially losing everything. So, I was out the extra $20 plus the additional ATM fee of $35 for nothing- this would not have occurred using an actual card. Simply outrageous. I was half expecting some of this nonsense being an American in Mexico, but at least SunRider and Cabo Adventures were completely professional, including in the payment department, and pulled none of this horse manure.
2) Paid for a full day: 8 hours: 7 am to 3 pm. We were at the dock at 2:00 pm. I thought we may do some more nearshore fishing when we briefly stopped in the bay, but it was only for a moment, and then we straight went in. Ridiculous.
And who knows with fishing? Sometimes, that marlin could have happened in the hour that was lost, and this review would be ecstatic instead. Or, maybe another exciting fish or fishes would have been caught in the hour- and maybe not. The point is coming in an hour early is not being true to your word.
However, having fished plenty and knowing that you don’t always get perfectly lucky, I would have still given a four star review without the marlin and as the fishing was if items 1) and 2) had not happened. There is no better review I can give above 2 stars with such flaws. I was really expecting less shadiness with how good the reviews were.
The fishing was decent. My friends and I each caught an inshore fish. No marlin hookups, but briefly had one or two follow...
Thank you James!