May be good for inshore fish but big game, save your money. I go on 10 tuna trips a year. took a…read moregamble with DC and lost
Prebooked 3 trips because he was the cheapest. Caught 0 tunas. Spend the extra, go with someone who will put you on fish. (Triton Charters)
Importantly, doesn't know where the tuna is. He has not connections with other captains to get coordinates. Pissed me off on the third trip. No bites, so he takes us tile fishing, even though I told him not to. We saw an area where there were 3-4 boats fishing one spot. Common sense would dictate, go where they are. Instead, he takes us inshore. Tells us that he's going to stop by a buoy for mahi. Told him no and go right for YFT. He still stopped at a buoy. There were mahi boat gets on top of buoy, he throttles hard to move away, spooking all the fish. No mahi caught.
Can't read fish finders. At the canyon, he's telling us there's tuna marking at 50 ft down or at the bottom. It was all bait fish, no big red arches on the fish finder and his logic is, because there's bait there's got to be tuna. Takes us tile fishing and he's like " I don't get why we're not getting any bites. marking tons of fish" After not getting a single nibble, I looked at the fish finder, he points out, that's all fish. It's all blue lines. No arches.
Equipment is beat up. Doesn't maintain any of the rods and reels. Worst way to lose a fish is because you don't take care of your equipment. Lines on all the reels look like they're over 10 years old. We were tile fishing at a depth of 700 ft and his real couldn't drop down to the bottom because about 500 feet down, the lines were all tangled up. His trolling reels are at most 1/2 spooled. Clearly shows he doesn't replace the lines every season. Doesn't replace the hook on the spreaders or chains. Can't properly set hook if they're rusty or dull. Lost 2 fish on hooks not being set. 3rd fish, failed to hear his mate yell slow down. Second and third trip, I brought my own tuna gear. 8 rods. 26 rods in total but no dedicated rods for trolling, jigging, popping, etc. Waste time setting up each location.
Obsessed with trolling. He will start trolling 10 miles before the target point. Every other charters I've been on, we abide by find the whales find the tuna. I'm a jig and pop guy. He literally puts us next to the whale and he moves away so that we can drift on top of them. WTF By the time we drifted, the whales were gone and so were the fish.
Can't gaff. On the 1st trip, we find some mahi. 5 misses with the gaff then switched over to a net. We would've lost the fish if it was a tuna. At the dock, I asked him for some ice for the mahi. He said no. WTF
Unprofessional. Asked me to drive the boat 2x because he hasn't slept. I'm the customer have your mate drive.
Uncomfortable ride. Boat doesn't handle well in choppy water and the captain doesn't know how to cut into them to minimize slamming the boat and splashing his customers. Don't forget your rain gear. Calmest of days and he still manages to get you wet. The ice box that's in the middle isn't anchored so it slides towards the back bench area. This thing is heavy and can't be moved. End of the trip, you wont be able to sit in the back on the return.
Grimy. 2nd trip out, I gave him coordinates, it put us on fish. Less than 30 miles. 2 of my friends puking over the sides and the dad that paid for the trip calls it within 5 min. and we head back. 1st trip and 3rd trip we did over 200 miles. We get back to the dock, he told me if I wanted to go back out, we would have to pay for the gas. If we went back to where we fished, we would've been well under the 200 miles. We declined.
1st trip one of my friends gave the mate $100 towards the 20% tip. Dennis made a fuss about how he already prepaid mike. $2500 with tip of 20% going to the mate. Mike, you're supposed to get $500 tip on top of what Dennis is supposed to be paying you.
3 trips. 3 mahi. 0 tuna. 0 bill fish. $9k. Do the math.
