Enterprise 7/15 don't believe the counts.

[Bandwgn09]

Went out of Pierpoint landing today. Usually this is a really good boat, and Captain Andy is usually very good about searching for fish and does his best to get everyone fish in the bag. Today however, was not the case. As we left harbor I was very disappointed to find out we were going to Catalina. 6 and 1/2 hours of driving, and 3/12 hours of fishing is not a good deal in my opinion, but it could be worth it if the fishing is good. Not today. The current was unusually strong and nobody was saying anything about following your lines. This resulted in some unbelievable line tangles. Fishing was definitely off on this spot, and we never moved!! Very strange for Andy. The crew was also terrible. They never chummed because they were afraid we would run out of bait. Also, I am still unsure if the "deckhands" were actual employees or just regulars who were there helping out because they spent the majority of their time fishing and not helping the paying customers. The big cook was downright rude and obviously annoyed when we asked him to do his job and stop playing poker with the "deckhands".
Now, I would be ok with not catching fish, I know that's how it goes sometimes. If it were just the fishing aspect I wouldn't have posted anything. But when I read the fish LIE errr count when I got home I got pissed. The count said 28 yellowtail, more like 10 tops. 53 Calicos, doubtful and only if you count all the short bass thrown back. 8 cuda, again only if you count the shorties thrown back, and 87 bonito. No way. Maybe at best 40. With 60 anglers, with all catches combined, we had less than a fish per rod. I know i didn't see all the fish caught but I did survey all the bags on deck, and they were mostly empty.
Let me repeat, this is usually a very good boat. But if this was my first time at this location, I would never go back.

[Ifishtoolittle]

And, this is why I hardly fish PBers anymore. You pay some decent $$$ for a trip that should, ideally, put you on some fish. In addition, you shouldn't have to be on a boat where a customer isn't treated right. Anyways, that sucks dude. I hope you caught one of those yellowtail.

[shioda]

Used to fish the Enterprise 2 or 3 times a month for more than 8 years. Stopped fishing it last year and have not been out on it once this year. Why? Because who wants to fish a boat that has 60 or 80 passengers, 2/3 of whom don't know how to fish and have the wrong equipment. I would rather pay more and fish out of SD on a lighter load boat. Much more likely to catch and land something without losing the fish in a massive tangle. Also, when you do catch a YT or tuna it will not be sitting in a bag in the hot sun, ruining the fish for sushi. I personally liked the deck hands and cook on the Enterprise, but they give almost no instruction to newbies. I also don't like drifting such that everyone ends up in the stern. Boat should be set up so that everyone drops off the corner of the stern and follows their bait to the bow where they wind it in and get another bait. The Enterprise with Andy at the helm is great for rockfishing, but anyone who fishes the boat for YT and tuna is asking for a frustrating experience. When the fishing turns bad and the load drops to 20 passengers, I will fish it again.

[flyhigh123]

I'd like to put my 2 cents in on this one. I too was at Catalina the same day you were, but on a different boat. My dear friend was on the Enterprise the day before you rode her, so I sort of know what was going on with the fishing. A couple of corrections should be noted, the Enterprise runs out of Marina sport fishing not Pierpoint landing. As far as the fishing goes, I'm amazed at how many people get on a boat and have no idea at what's going on!!! The local fishing at the Horseshoe kelp is crap!!!!!!! After the big bite on those Yellowtail at the 150 spot dried up, the only thing left locally is Scupin and Rockfish!!!!! They occasionaly will get a few Barracuda and Bass and the odd Yellowtail but that's it. Catalina Island is the new norm for all 3/4 day boats. So your surprise at going to Catalina means you have done no research at all before getting on the boat. I don't think a 3/4 day boat from San Pedro to Long Beach has fished locally in over 2 weeks!! !!!!!! What you didn't grasp is what happened the day before on the Enterprise. My friend told me after having a fair fishing day at Catalina Island, on the way coming home what they saw was unbelievable!!!!!! They first hit a Kelp Patty that was loaded with Slug Yellowtail, unfortunately they had no live bait left and they couldn't get any of those Yellowtail to bite. Then they came up on Acres and Acres of boiling tuna and THEY HAD NO LIVE BAIT!!!!! So what Capt Andy did was cover his arse, he was first going to fish Catalina Island for some fish and then try to hit a Home Run on some tuna coming home. Unfortunately the tuna were a no show yesterday!!!! Hence a mediocre trip!!!! I was at Catalina yesterday also, that current was ripping all over the Island and hurting the fishing for all the boats. That's why they call it fishing!!!!!!!

Good Reply... It's amazing to have a great forum like this to see the view from both sides. If what you wrote is the case, what the captain should have done, is take 1 minute before launching and go over the game plan of the day. Fish catalina, then save bait for a possible epic bite. it would pump the boat up and if nothing hits oh wells.

You can never trust the reports out of the LA boats from my experience as they count everything, regardless of size. And sometimes pad the numbers. Take the counts with a grain of salt. I tend to trust the SD counts a bit more, but even they tend to exaggerate. It's the game they all play, unfortuante.

If one boat had honest counts but ended up being half of everyone elses's fake numbers, it's hard to stay in business as most of the people on these boats rarely fish and all they do is take a quick look at the counts

[etucker1959]

I'd like to put my 2 cents in on this one. I too was at Catalina the same day you were, but on a different boat. My dear friend was on the Enterprise the day before you rode her, so I sort of know what was going on with the fishing. A couple of corrections should be noted, the Enterprise runs out of Marina sport fishing not Pierpoint landing. As far as the fishing goes, I'm amazed at how many people get on a boat and have no idea at what's going on!!! The local fishing at the Horseshoe kelp is crap!!!!!!! After the big bite on those Yellowtail at the 150 spot dried up, the only thing left locally is Scupin and Rockfish!!!!! They occasionaly will get a few Barracuda and Bass and the odd Yellowtail but that's it. Catalina Island is the new norm for all 3/4 day boats. So your surprise at going to Catalina means you have done no research at all before getting on the boat. I don't think a 3/4 day boat from San Pedro to Long Beach has fished locally in over 2 weeks!! !!!!!! What you didn't grasp is what happened the day before on the Enterprise. My friend told me after having a fair fishing day at Catalina Island, on the way coming home what they saw was unbelievable!!!!!! They first hit a Kelp Patty that was loaded with Slug Yellowtail, unfortunately they had no live bait left and they couldn't get any of those Yellowtail to bite. Then they came up on Acres and Acres of boiling tuna and THEY HAD NO LIVE BAIT!!!!! So what Capt Andy did on your trip was cover his arse, he was first going to fish Catalina Island for some fish and then try to hit a Home Run on some tuna coming home. Unfortunately the tuna were a no show yesterday!!!! Hence a mediocre trip!!!! I was at Catalina yesterday also, that current was ripping all over the Island and hurting the fishing for all the boats. That's why they call it fishing!!!!!!!

[Bandwgn09]

@etucker
Yes I know where the Enterprise runs out of since I was on the boat. However, Marina landing operates under the Pierpoint umbrella. I do know what allegedly happened the day before on the boat. Acres and Acres of boiling Bluefin.........AAAAAARRRRRBBBBTTTTTT hahahaha. Almost said that without laughing. Boiling Bluefin in an area the size of a football field. Check that, football fields. Come on. What is this Blue Planet on Discovery channel? hahaha
But I digress. What you failed to grasp is the point of my posting (and the point of this entire website) is to give others an accurate report of my fishing experience.
1. The Enterprise is currently operating (at least on Wednesday) without deck hands.
2. The fish count posted by the landing is triple what was actually caught.
3. There is no 3.
that is all.

[etucker1959]

@etucker
Yes I know where the Enterprise runs out of since I was on the boat. However, Marina landing operates under the Pierpoint umbrella. I do know what allegedly happened the day before on the boat. Acres and Acres of boiling Bluefin.........AAAAAARRRRRBBBBTTTTTT hahahaha. Almost said that without laughing. Boiling Bluefin in an area the size of a football field. Check that, football fields. Come on. What is this Blue Planet on Discovery channel? hahaha
But I digress. What you failed to grasp is the point of my posting (and the point of this entire website) is to give others an accurate report of my fishing experience.
1. The Enterprise is currently operating (at least on Wednesday) without deck hands.
2. The fish count posted by the landing is triple what was actually caught.
3. There is no 3.
that is all.
I love to post on here because I like to help people learn about fishing. I brought up the Enterprise not leaving from Pierpoint Landing because I didn't want some newbie wanting to go on the Enterprise and end up driving to the wrong landing!!!! lol I do have to address your skepticisms about the Acres and Acres of Bluefin Tuna that were up boiling around Tuesday afternoon. For this we need a neutral party. Any volunteers out there!!!!!!!! My friend who was on the Enterprise described them to me as Acres and Acres of boiling Tuna. But that's not good enough!!!! Otherwise there would be no doubt that Bigfoot and little Green Men actually exist!!!! lol Are volunteer needs to be a little more computer savvy then the OP. I say that because no one in their right mind should ever jump on any sportfishing boat without checking 976-tuna first. Are volunteer needs to pull up the 976-tuna web page and scroll down and get to page 3. Once he's on page 3 go to the Southern Cal thread. It's dated Tuesday of this week, play it and see if Mitch the captain describes on his afternoon run seeing tons and tons of tuna out there!!! These would be the same boiling tuna my friend allegedly saw on the Enterprise coming home.
Any one out there willingly to look it up for us!!!!!!! Don't be shy!!!!!!

[TUNAVIC]

Wow,,sorry to hear about your trip,also sad about the inflated counts,I used to fish party boats quite often years ago,with skippers like,Paul Strauser,Mark Pisano,John Dipley,Rick Ofinger,Norris Tapp,of course, many of them are still fishing it just seemed different years ago,or maybe I was just younger and more tolerant,the only way I would do it now,is on a limited load,or private charter ie six pack,so glad to have owened my own skiff for years now,sure wish you better results next time out!

Cya Tuna Vic

[etucker1959]

I love to post on here because I like to help people learn about fishing. I brought up the Enterprise not leaving from Pierpoint Landing because I didn't want some newbie wanting to go on the Enterprise and end up driving to the wrong landing!!!! lol I do have to address your skepticisms about the Acres and Acres of Bluefin Tuna that were up boiling around Tuesday afternoon. For this we need a neutral party. Any volunteers out there!!!!!!!! My friend who was on the Enterprise described them to me as Acres and Acres of boiling Tuna. But that's not good enough!!!! Otherwise there would be no doubt that Bigfoot and little Green Men actually exist!!!! lol Are volunteer needs to be a little more computer savvy then the OP. I say that because no one in their right mind should ever jump on any sportfishing boat without checking 976-tuna first. Are volunteer needs to pull up the 976-tuna web page and scroll down and get to page 3. Once he's on page 3 go to the Southern Cal thread. It's dated Tuesday of this week, play it and see if Mitch the captain describes on his afternoon run seeing tons and tons of tuna out there!!! These would be the same boiling tuna my friend allegedly saw on the Enterprise coming home.
Any one out there willingly to look it up for us!!!!!!! Don't be shy!!!!!!

Let's also address your number 2. complaint. The fish count was grossly exaggerated!!!! It probably was!!!!! The solution is to cross check his numbers against all the other 3/4 day boats fishing Catalina Island that day. In that way you can get a better feel of what was happening out there that day. Don't just take one boats word for it, check the whole fleet!!!! After writing this I realized you didn't check anybody's numbers before you got on the boat. Otherwise you would have know that all the 3/4 day boats were going to fish Catalina Island!!!! So your argument against the exaggerated fish counts is a moot point!!!! Most people who are angry about false fish numbers, feel they were tricked into going on that boat. But since you didn't do your due diligence before you jumped on the boat, isn't the person your really mad at is yourself.

I just got back from one of my favorite tackle stores and I brought up your concerns. One of the sales person who goes on the Enterprise all the time, agreed that the deckhand issue on the boat as been an on going concern for a while. The question I then ask anyone else out there, "what's a better 3/4 day boat then the Enterprise?" There isn't one, even with the deckhand issue!!! If you think you've got a better 3/4 boat to gone on, I'd like to know who you think it is?????? lol

[parkermann2]

Etucker might have been exaggerating a little on acres and acres of tuna but not by much. You obviously haven't been paying attention to the fishing in the last few months. There are more tuna out there right now then aver before. Tons of guys have caught tuna from kayaks within 2 miles from la jolla to Newport. And the enterprise has had a lot of extremely bad reviews recently. Personally I don't know why people would ever go fishing on a boAt that is not limited load. Pay a little extra and go with way less people who know how to fish

[dpaulus9]

regarding the boat counts. i think you be suprise how many fish are actually caught. unless you are paying strict attn and do all the counting.

[kenopi]

I've been fishing on Enterprise for the past few months almost every week. A lot of times, I also have noticed daily fish counts were not reflecting the real. But I never thought about this issue seriously because I could tell whether or not it was real by looking at other landing counts in the same area.
Rather I was more intimidated by oversold tickets, way too many people on that boat.
I once fished on it with over 80 other people.(Crazy huh?)
It was total chaos. For me, I was almost impossible to fish livebait in the stern due to too many people there. (Imagine over 40+ people soaking the bait in the stern area.) I remember ended up throwing iron all day in the bow instead.
Deckies actually did try to sort it out, but it just didn't cut it. I even witnessed a couple of newbies yelling at one of the deckhands, Nick, when he asked them to follow the bait.
I also feel that Andy doesn't seem to move the boat as often as before specially when fishing in Catalina.
Anyways, despite of all issues, I still prefer to fish on Enterprise because it's one of the best 3/4 boats along with Victory and Pursuit IMO.

[ichthus]

If you guys are into excellent rockfishing and accurate fish counts you may find it worthwhile to make the drive to Santa Barbara and fish the Stardust. They don't even let you put your own fish in your sack. You leave the fish on the deck and Sal and the very attentive crew will bag it for you and mark it down on a talley sheet. Mostly limit-style fishing but even the Red Snapper/Rockfish ratio always looks right in the reports as well as the number of keeper lings! Its like a different world up there!

[lagunaCOCONUT]

regarding the boat counts. i think you be suprise how many fish are actually caught. unless you are paying strict attn and do all the counting.

I agree. I grew up fishing party boats and many times I use to think the boat increased the count and are not real. I then payed more attention on more trips and dpaulus9 is right. You would be surprised to ow many fish are actually caught. The original thread here, the author said maybe the Enterprise was counting all the short fish caught and released. I'm not sure what the rule is anymore for party boats to actually count a fish caught but I see no wrong in counting a short fish. I think all of us have experienced those trips where we were not happy. Motoring from our local shore to Catalina, boat not moving, crew not attentive, all of that. You are a paying client and you should ask the deckhand or ask to speak with the captain if you are wondering why the boat has not moved etc. The Enterprise is such a great platform with a great crew from what I hear. The captain has an agenda to put clients on fish. There were yellows, cudas, etc landed on this trip so I would say he did his part well. I guess to each their own in how you wish to look at the fish counts. I know we all bust our chops for our money earned and we want to feel like the amount was well spent on a fishing trip. That's just it, too high of expectations sometimes. Just enjoy the salty air and catching fish is always a bonus!

[bobabocker]

been on the Big E a few times this year and last as the tuna were cooking off. Andy is usually very attentive about letting the anglers know how they are screwing up in a big way and how to fix it. The crew is usually very on the button when you have a fish on and getting everyone out of the way. I've experienced them hanging 5-6 fish at a time and getting most of the fish on board without issues. Then again with each new trip there are new factors; you never know what happened the day before or the week before to make them react or in this case act the way they did. As for breaking fish, all over the place lets be real this year is frikking unbelievable they could go out with camera crews and shoot blue planet right now and talk about the record year we are having and people 10-15 years from now wouldn't believe our stories unless they saw the evidence themselves. This is not a normal year fellas... YT since Aug of last year... Tuna in our local harbors... Tuna and dorado within spitting distance of land... HECK YT caught off of piers! Its gonna be a memorable fishing year guys.

[TimmyBoy]

The Big E is one of the better 3/4 day boats out there IMO. Any 3/4 day boat you jump out on now is going to be packed to the brim with inexperienced fisherman that are chasing the fish counts. It's going to be inevitable. That's summer time fishing for you. Your options are to go find a limited load trip, get a bunch of your buddies and pay for mutiple spots to max out the spots, or just suck it up and not complain about how many people are on the boat. This is still a business and not a charity, and they need to MAKE money.

Your complaints about deckhand being nonexistant are confounded. Any 3/4 day boats will only have one PAID deckhand on board (which in my opinion is way too little, but this is out of the captain or deckhands control). Nick on the Enterprise works harder than any of the deckhands I've ever fish with and the times I've seen him throw in a line, he's promptly handed it off to some kid that hasn't had any luck catching anything. Did you consider tipping him as customary as this is how he makes a living? He's been dealing with summer crowds, and anyone that has seen some of the crowd that has been coming out of the woodworks knows how difficult it's been. You can only lead a horse to the water, but you can't make it drink. You should be going on these boats knowing fully well what you're getting yourself into, and learning to deal with it and how to avoid it. I've been seeing a lot of anglers coming out on these 3/4 day trips, who think they know everything cause they can catch fish with 20 feet of space between them and the next dude. 3/4 day trips are straight "combat fishing" and that's why they say a 3/4 day fisherman is better than a guy that only takes long range trips. So unless you want to go bring it up with the landing to start charging more per ticket, you deal with it or dont go fishing at all.

Also, the only way you're going to get an accurate count, is for you to sit there on the top and count all the fish being caught, and you're still going to miss 20% of the fish doing that. In my experience with the BIG E, they've actually underinflated the counts a few times.

[georgia_brown]

Few questions regarding these charters. Complete noob to ocean fishing so my apologies if I offend anyone. I've been on a total of 1 charters out of Newport Landing. What's with the crew fishing? Are they selling commercially or they just trying to win the jackpot they didn't pay into? When I went on Newport Landing I was fishing on one side of the boat and started to catch some decent sized stuff. Then a crew member and some of their friends who were customers started crowding our area and fishing there. Is this acceptable etiquette? Can I just go over and shove between people when they are in a good spot? And why were the employees fishing instead of helping people? Are they going to sell their catch and commercially fishing as well as running their charter? Was not a good overall experience. They seem to nickle and dime you on stuff too much too.

[etucker1959]

Few questions regarding these charters. Complete noob to ocean fishing so my apologies if I offend anyone. I've been on a total of 1 charters out of Newport Landing. What's with the crew fishing? Are they selling commercially or they just trying to win the jackpot they didn't pay into? When I went on Newport Landing I was fishing on one side of the boat and started to catch some decent sized stuff. Then a crew member and some of their friends who were customers started crowding our area and fishing there. Is this acceptable etiquette? Can I just go over and shove between people when they are in a good spot? And why were the employees fishing instead of helping people? Are they going to sell their catch and commercially fishing as well as running their charter? Was not a good overall experience. They seem to nickle and dime you on stuff too much too.
Let me help you a little bit on this one. Boats come in all kinds of flavor, I personally only fish on a few hand picked boats. Out of both Newport landings, I would only fish on the T-Bird and the Patriot. As for the rest of them, I wouldn't give you 2 cents to fish on. As for the crew members fishing, I personally don't like it. But you do have to understand, a lot of them are Quasi crew members called pinheads. They don't get paid much, but they can fish as payment for what they do on the boat. As for crowding you for a good spot, that's how the game is played. Numbers on boats are getting to be a thing of the past and rightful so. If your smart enough to know the current is flowing a certain way and the fish are biting there. In my book if there a spot open, cast your bait there. (it's dog eat dog on a sport boat!) lol As for nickel and dimming you, I beat them at there own game, I spend nothing except for fish cleaning!!!!! So they don't get any extra money from me, unless I catch something good!!!! lol

[georgia_brown]

Let me help you a little bit on this one. Boats come in all kinds of flavor, I personally only fish on a few hand picked boats. Out of both Newport landings, I would only fish on the T-Bird and the Patriot. For the rest of them, I wouldn't give you 2 cents to fish on. As for the crew members fishing, I personally don't like it. But you do have to understand, a lot of them are Quasi crew members called pinheads. They don't get paid much, but they can fish as payment for what they do on the boat. As for crowding you for a good spot, that's how the game is played. Numbers on boats are getting to be a thing of the past and rightful so. If your smart enough to know the current is flowing a certain way and the fish are biting there. In my book if there a spot open, cast your bait there. (it's dog eat dog on a sport boat!) lol As for nickel and dimming you, I beat them at there own game, I spend nothing except for fish cleaning!!!!! So they don't get any extra money from me, unless I catch something good!!!! lol

I suspected as much with the quasi crew members being compensated by free fishing. Are t-bird and patriot booked seperately (think i used a groupon). What are other good charters (not too many peeps, etc)? Didn't realize that with the moving around the ship. I thought if you were assigned a space. That space was yours and people stayed in their space. Didn't realize I could just wander the ship and cast where I wanted to.

[etucker1959]

I suspected as much with the quasi crew members being compensated by free fishing. Are t-bird and patriot booked seperately (think i used a groupon). What are other good charters (not too many peeps, etc)? Didn't realize that with the moving around the ship. I thought if you were assigned a space. That space was yours and people stayed in their space. Didn't realize I could just wander the ship and cast where I wanted to.
The T-Bird is an overnight boat out of Davey's Locker. (Arguably the best sport fishing boat on the coast when Jeff run's it) They max out at 30 people! The Patriot is out of Newport Landing, the priciest 3/4 boat on the coast. (sometimes he does Limited Load) Other then that, it's Dog eat Dog with a ton of people on every boat during the summer!!!!

[halikilla]

nickel and diming? this is how they make a living and feed their families. A deckhands wage is not nearly enough and the majority of their income is from tips. So by you saying you don't tip them and bragging about it is the first problem. You go buddy!!!!

[etucker1959]

nickel and diming? this is how they make a living and feed their families. A deckhands wage is not nearly enough and the majority of their income is from tips. So by you saying you don't tip them and bragging about it is the first problem. You go buddy!!!!
I just love first posts by people. I'm going tomorrow where it's $10 a Yellowtail to clean. They caught 40 Yellowtail today plus other fish, two deckhands plus Jackpot share. (they had 59 people on the morning run) Plus tips and what ever the boat paid them. Those 2 deckhand did ok today!!!!!

[TimmyBoy]

I just love first posts by people. I'm going tomorrow where it's $10 a Yellowtail to clean. They caught 40 Yellowtail today plus other fish, two deckhands plus Jackpot share. (they had 59 people on the morning run) Plus tips and what ever the boat paid them. Those 2 deckhand did ok today!!!!!

And in reality, probably only 15-20 of those yellows are going to be cleaned, out of those 59 people probaly only 15 of those people will tip $5-10, a roughly $3/hour wage, and a hope that the guy won't take the Jackpot home. The majority of the crowd going out today won't tip or pay to have their fish cleaned. Just the way it is these days.

[jaggerbub]

Personally I like to fillet my own fish. I don't care much for the hack job. On the other hand, I do tip well on the boats. I almost always get a handshake when I drop money in the tip jar. And I'm not talking about $5-$10 either... Lol.

[TimmyBoy]

Personally I like to fillet my own fish. I don't care much for the hack job. On the other hand, I do tip well on the boats. I almost always get a handshake when I drop money in the tip jar. And I'm not talking about $5-$10 either... Lol.

I agree with you on taking the fish home whole! There's just something about doing everything exactly the way you like it. It just sucks to do after a long day! It just irks me when I see people saying that they'll take care of the deckhands, and then give them $10 bucks on a $8 fish cleaning tab, and feel like they hooked the deckhands up.

[Kongo10]

Hey Guys,

I'm fairly new to party boat fishing scene, and just want to get your thoughts on what's the "norm" tipping courtesy for the deckhands. Is $20-$30 decent tip for a overnighter?

Also, how much do you kick back to the deckies for a JP win....(in case some day I ever get one...haha :Envious:)

[TimmyBoy]

Hey Guys,

I'm fairly new to party boat fishing scene, and just want to get your thoughts on what's the "norm" tipping courtesy for the deckhands. Is $20-$30 decent tip for a overnighter?

Also, how much do you kick back to the deckies for a JP win....(in case some day I ever get one...haha :Envious:)

I'd say about $20 for a 3/4 day, $40 for an overnighter, but this is all dependant on how you feel the crew worked, (not how the fishing was btw)
Also, its customary to give all of the jackpot to the crew, and they'll give you a # of passes that roughly equal the value of the jackpot.

[soimthatguy]

I'd say about $20 for a 3/4 day, $40 for an overnighter, but this is all dependant on how you feel the crew worked, (not how the fishing was btw)
Also, its customary to give all of the jackpot to the crew, and they'll give you a # of passes that roughly equal the value of the jackpot.

This. My friend hit jackpot on the enterprise on a full boat and got 3 free passes.

[georgia_brown]

Hmm, glad I didn't win the jackpot the one time I went (think i got 2nd). I'd have pocketed that after buying a beer. Lots of people don't like paying one price for something and then there being lots of additional fees and rules they stick you with and then them making announcements guilting you into a tip (I gave like $5 in spite of deckhands shoving into my personal space and casting in my area). Seems a little shady like buying a car to a lot of people. The American service economy is distasteful to people. I have no problem paying more to go fishing. Just don't sell the ticket for $25 and then bait and switch on me because you don't pay your employees enough. I realize that it incentivizes the deckhands to work harder but that all goes out the door when you start guilting people about how little they make etc. Like i'm in a strip bar or something (don't like tipping there either, i paid to get in and your drinks are overpriced and i'm not sitting at the stage so i'm not tipping) hearing the DJ go on about tips. Any places out there that hire deckhands that are there solely to assist, don't ask for tips, allow you to bring a cooler with beer and not too crowded? I'll pay the equivalent or even more not to put up with that BS. Been fishing in other countries (Sagami Bay off Tokyo for one) and you can bring whatever aboard (food and beer) and they weren't bugging you about tips all day.