Fishing at Catalina Island

[pogieeh]

It's been quite something that I went fishing to Catalina Island on the Freelance off Davey's Locker. Got there around 5:30 am and the line was already out the door. Finally they started boarding around 6:50 a.m. It was comedy I overheard that they overbooked the boat and we had to wait for 15 minutes until they finally figured out what to do. Needless to say, the number of anglers was max to the limit which is 90. Finally got going to the bait barge and got live anchovies. Guy caught a nice size Halibut that ended up with the Jackpot. We headed to Catalina and boy was it a skunk. Freelance left Newport at 7:30 and got to Catalina around 10:30 a.m. We finally got to our spot and wow no bites. Few anglers by the Stern caught a couple. After 15 minutes we moved to another spot and caught small species. At this time it was already 12pm and I only caught a smelt which I threw back. My buddy caught a keeper finally. We move to the front side of Catalina and we were getting bites but there was hardly any keepers. The captain finally decided to head home with about 30 keepers that I'm aware from watching them clean the fish.

Finally got home around 8:30 tonight. Went to their website and read their fishing report. Wow, what I difference. They posted on the 3/4 report the following:
BOAT: Thunderbird THE CATCH
TYPE OF TRIP 3/4 Day 144 Sculpin 128 Rock Fish
# OF ANGLERS 48 281 Sand Dabs 96 Bocaccio
AREA FISHED Local 1 Lingcod 1 Sole

Total of approximately 700 keepers. This is just so over inflated numbers that is so frustrating just to lure in anglers to fish at Davey's Locker. Don't get me wrong, we only paid $35.00 plus $8.00 fuel surcharge with Living Social and $15.00 for all day parking. But, to post something that is not accurate is just BS. Never again will I set put in that boat. Overrated and not worth it.

[fishdo0do0]

lol this happens everywhere in socal...welcome to the fishing world...

[rusn007]

Wow, this is pretty bad. I heard that some boats over inflate their numbers, but by 200%?!?!?

I was going to jump on that promo, but after reading this, I don't think it's worth my $$ in gas to drive there. Thanks for the heads up.

[striker]

in response to your report/thread:

its called fishing not catching. if you took the time to read and follow the fish counts and reports you would know that weekend trips get crowded. add in the wfo limits style fishing on turds and barries, the boat will get crowded. i don't know why the freelance juiced up their fish count. let this be a lesson for future trips. no matter what kind of a "deal" your getting, always call ahead and get a count of folks that made reservations and avoid weekend trips.

[DockRat]

Wow, 90 people, I'll pass.



Finally got home around 8:30 tonight. Went to their website and read their fishing report. Wow, what I difference. They posted on the 3/4 report the following:
BOAT: Thunderbird THE CATCH
TYPE OF TRIP 3/4 Day 144 Sculpin 128 Rock Fish
# OF ANGLERS 48 281 Sand Dabs 96 Bocaccio
AREA FISHED Local 1 Lingcod 1 Sole



Says Thunderbird, not Freelance.

[pogieeh]

Thunderbird ran the 1/2 day and freelance for the 3/4 day. I ask when I got there.

[jaggerbub]

i went on a twilight trip last season and found out just how bogus the fish counts were. as we left the harbor, i took out my phone to look up counts for the morning session. i couldn't believe that they had already posted the count for our boat even before we got out to the oil rigs... now thats pretty bad. lol

as far as calling ahead and asking how many reservations there are for the trip, i they always tell me ... about 15 so far. amazing how many anglers show up later on... i havent had the urge to jump on another trip this season.

[WHAMMY]

i went on a twilight trip last season and found out just how bogus the fish counts were. as we left the harbor, i took out my phone to look up counts for the morning session. i couldn't believe that they had already posted the count for our boat even before we got out to the oil rigs... now thats pretty bad. lol

as far as calling ahead and asking how many reservations there are for the trip, i they always tell me ... about 15 so far. amazing how many anglers show up later on... i havent had the urge to jump on another trip this season.

they normally post the previous nights twilight a day after, so if you went fishing twilight saturday your counts will show for sunday's counts, which is why you saw twilight counts as you were leaving.

In terms of fishing, this is why i never fish with those stupid coupons and esp when they are out of davey's locker. would much rather spend 20 bucks more with free parking ( which evens out to around the same price as with the coupon) to hit up one of the long beach boats if I really wanted to get out. 90 people to catalina= can't win. hope you learned a lesson haha

[E.A.R.G.]

they normally post the previous nights twilight a day after, so if you went fishing twilight saturday your counts will show for sunday's counts, which is why you saw twilight counts as you were leaving.

In terms of fishing, this is why i never fish with those stupid coupons and esp when they are out of davey's locker. would much rather spend 20 bucks more with free parking ( which evens out to around the same price as with the coupon) to hit up one of the long beach boats if I really wanted to get out. 90 people to catalina= can't win. hope you learned a lesson haha



I stay away from them the best I can. Terrible operation IMHO.