overbooking by boat landing to ride the cattle boat...poor management . waiting list?

[BALLERONBUDGET]

rode local cattle boat lst week for the tuna/ytails craze but nearly almost didnt get on! some landings u prepay to reserve ur spot. some call to hold pay as u arrive , some guys just show up. some guys flake or bring more than the calld in for...... now i calld 2days prior, and was told im # blah blah blah of 75.. cool no prob... ; get up way early to secure a good spot. box office opens and and lady states im on waiting list!!! SINCE WHEN DO U GUYS OVERBOOK!????? not everyone after me in line 60people deep prepaid!, well we have to go thru entire list and then u may go on wait list if spots avail.....this is B.S!

why didnt they tell me to prepay, which i cuda done easily? why did they tell me theres room on boat when they wrote down info and cell #?? do u wanna go on other boat instead?? HELL NO!. if ur not gonna require prepayment to reserve spot but take call in reservation put me down every day next week for 10people, and ill change my name daily and decide which day to go on!!!!

some guys commit to a whole day fishing, day off ,drive 75+miles , gonna spend $ and u tell them . u on wait list ???????lame....; this unnamed landing just maybe lost a loyal customer.

top it off result was fairly poor .. not enuff live dines.. knew it wud be bad when captn said lets go for perch/bass with squid strips , knew we didnt
hv enuff quality live bait for entire day ($$$ saver for boat IMO)

[christainmetalhead909]

That suck so bad man!!!! i would be super pi$$ed!!!!! I noticed on one of the landings websites they say they overbook by two in case of cancellations but that would suck so bad to plan a multi day trip and have everything set up and you drive down to be put on a waiting list!!

[Marley]

Not cool on the landing's part to do that to you. But..... You knowingly and willingly booked a spot on a tuna/yellowtail trip that had the possibility of having 74 other people on board? As frustrating as I'm sure the experience was, you really can't complain and you're honestly lucky the tuna didn't go wide. What a mess.
Do yourself a favor and treat yourself to a mid-week overnighter on a name-brand overnight boat. Day and a half is a much better trip, but more pricey.

[jerryG]

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience.. All it takes is one bad experience like that and you likely never fish that boat/ landing again. I know I wouldn't. There are some really good boats out there though and they are catching a lot of fish right now.. I wouldn't let it get you down if anything I would say get right back out there ASAP... This is without a doubt the best season we have seen since El Nino of 97.. Don't let it pass you by because of one bad experience..

The better operations will require prepayment or at the very least a deposit to book a spot(s) on trip. With the fishing being as good as it's been to get a spot on a good boat right now it's necessary to book a trip at least a week ahead of time. The most consistent boats are the first trips to sell out especially during the prime of the moon phase. To get a spot on one of these boats you may need to book more than a week before the trip is scheduled. Watch the counts each day and look for boats which are consistently catching fish.. Stay away from boats that are not catching fish or only produce mediocre results.
Get out there and catch some fish..

[BALLERONBUDGET]

haha it wasnt even mutiday.. day local 3/4.. a few guys in line even asked paisan to add them into their 'reserved' spots since they didnt have either call in or prepay. not cool, while we waited for roll call if we were gonna board or not...

[Jig-Guy]

Lots of writing but no mention of the landing, HMMMMMMMM!:Confused:

[Perris_holic]

Lots of writing but no mention of the landing, HMMMMMMMM!:Confused:

Lol I see what you did there

[flybynight]

Cattle boats SUCK ,
had a party of 5 several years ago going out of Ocianside..had reservations..called beforehand to make sure all was O K ..they said yes all is O K..when we got there everything was closed ?????? nO MORE OF THOSE BOATS FOR ME

[fishingsurfing]

Dude I feel your pain. I reserved my spot for Davey's Locker Freelance 3/4 day a few days in advance and the exact same thing happened to me. The lady said we were the first ones on the list to reserve a spot so we knew for sure we were on the boat. When we got there, she said no we aren't on the list and sorry you can't get on the boat cuz the 80 spots are already filled up. We knew for sure we should have been on the list and we even checked my bro's call history prove to them we were reserved a few days before anyone else. They sent us over to Newport landing to see if we were reserved on their list and we weren't, so they said we have to wait til 10 minutes before departure to see if we could get on the freelance..... Luckily some people didn't show up so we got on, but by that time everyone had already picked their spots on the rail and almost every spot was taken, even the bow had every spot claimed. there ended up being 70 something ppl on the boat and over half of them were newbies but atleast its close to where I live and it was over half off the regular price to get on the boat

[shioda]

I usually fish the 3/4 day boats out of Long Beach but haven't all summer. I am not going to fish for tuna or yellowtail with 70 guys on a boat. You can' fish with that many people. Everyone needs to fish one side of the boat only. Imagine you are fishing the wrong side of the boat, your bait goes under the boat and gets bit by a tuna. What a mess that is going to be. I have gone on several tuna trips out of San Diego this year. Heck, even the half day boats done there are getting yellowtail. The landings reserve your spot when you book it, and they don't overbook. Some of the boats also keep your fish refrigerated. Who wants yellowtail that has been sitting in a gunny sack in the sun for three quarters of the day?

[lazyfisherman]

The problem with local boats are that it fills up. Jump on an overnight or a 3/4 day out of San Diego. They usually make you pay in advance for the ticket and your spot is reserved. overnights and 1.5 day trips are more pricier, so less people try to jump on those, but they still sell out weeks in advance.

[flybynight]

If your smart you will bleed them before putting in gunny-sack, even if not refridgerated they will taste better

[fishtales]

If your smart you will bleed them before putting in gunny-sack, even if not refridgerated they will taste better


This is exactly what turns me off about cattle boats: Putting fish in gunny sacks that are out in the sun and they sit there all day, baking.

Thank you, that's a great idea, to bleed them before you put them in the gunny sack.

[shioda]

Putting them in the gunny sack and bleeding them aren't going to save them. I wouldn't eat any fish raw if its been stored in a gunny sack all day. Taste is going to be bad. I caught a yellowtail on the San Diego 3/4 day on the last stop. It wasn't in the gunny sack for more than an hour before cleaned. You could really notice the difference in taste compared to the ones caught earlier in the day that had been stored in the RSW


This is exactly what turns me off about cattle boats: Putting fish in gunny sacks that are out in the sun and they sit there all day, baking.

Thank you, that's a great idea, to bleed them before you put them in the gunny sack.

[squirrellsgnwild]

Man that sucks. I havent been on a paid boat in the last 8 years due to my own experience. Went with about 25 people I knew for twilight. No one caught anything. What I could never understand was the landing sent out another paid boat before we left and anchored in the same spot we were in.

[crappiemike]

Just follow your bait.........




Cm