This is my 2nd time on the boat and while I had a good time, because I was with my baby and my sister, and it was a beautiful day, and we caught a butt-ton of salmon, it will also be my last.
I was with someone who, for the last 4 years, has been organizing an annual charter for friends and coworkers. She fills the whole boat! You'd think that would earn her at least a, "hi, good to see you again."
The mood was completely different this year. So I was unsurprised to see other reviewers saying that things had changed. It was not a happy boat. I'm wondering if they get enough crusty old regulars that they no longer need to molly-coddle tourists or newbies and are instead abrasive and dismissive of them. This was especially irritating for those who AREN'T newbies or tourists but were assumed to be. I'm no expert but I've done other charters before. At one point my line began to play out a little and I wasn't sure if I had a fish and I was just feeling the line to see if there was any twitching. The deck hand rushed up and chewed me out because he thought I was playing out the line. I didn't even respond to him because there was no point (,that's what Yelp's for). Like the other reviewer says, "if I want to get yelled at, I'll go to work."
There was a real, "just back off dummies and let us do it for you because you're just getting in our damn way" attitude and I understand they're working very hard to help land the fish but it really did become, "why are we even doing this? They obviously don't want us here."
I will tell you the plus sides. Captain Jim really knows how to handle a boat and put it on the fish. And the deckhands really know what they're doing as well. They're very competent all around and it's a great boat and well-cared for. But why do they have to be dicks?
We had one issue that might explain the sour attitude, which was that every year my friend's organized a trip, they filled the whole boat and were told to be there by 6am. This time there were only 6 of us and the rest were other folks. We were on our way but got a call from the captain at 5:35. He was enraged that we weren't there yet. Apparently this was the normal time for non-private charter cast-offs. But wow! The hostility! When we got on the boat at 5:50 it was clear that there had been bitching about us between the crew and the 4 or 5 crusty regulars. One of them whined like a little bitch to our face for a while about how all the other boats had already left and it was almost 6am! It made for a really unpleasant day because I kept wanting to slap that bitch's face after the way he spoke to us in the morning.
The other issue that I had was that they were calling some REALLY small fish "keepers." I was like, "Whaaahh? Are those *really* legal?" They also had several lines of their own out. This meant that the minute the boat hit it's quota (2 fish per pole), they were able to wrap it up and head back. And that was bull crap because it was a GREAT day of fishing and there was no reason that each person who had paid SO much money couldn't catch their own 2 fish, except that the crew had met the quota early with their own poles and had kept every dubiously puny fish they caught. They got us back very early and summarily doled out the fish they caught to anyone who had caught one or none.
They also made a big point of making everyone dole out $5 for the "biggest fish" pot but in the end there was no discussion about who won the pot. When someone asked, the deckhand jerked his head at one of their regulars and that was that. When I was there a few years before, there was also no attempt at weighing or measuring the fish to determine the largest. It was just eyeballed and declared a tie. So it seems they're about catching fish, not making it fun for their clientele.
Well, that's the end of us using this outfit. We were clearly not wanted. Still, if you're a crusty old tool who fishes with them regularly, you may fit in.
BTW, I strongly recommend that the 2 "unrecommended" reviews be read. They reflect our experience completely. read more