etucker1959
09-07-2015, 08:00 PM
After riding on the Redondo Special twice in the last 6 months and have a horrible experience both times. (the captain was to blame) I wrote a thread about what a poor experience I had fishing on that boat!!! Not that the fishing was all that bad, a fair number of Yellowtail were caught on both trips. The captains attitude was just out of this world. So when I read a thread this past Friday praising the captain and crew, "I was feeling a little guilty!!!" Maybe I just caught the guy on a couple of bad day's and most of the time he is a pretty decent guy. So when his fish counts out shined everybody's else's over this Labor Day weekend, I thought I would give him another shot and be objective. That was my first mistake if I really wanted to catch a Yellowtail. I was paying more attention to the actions of the crew and not doing what I need to do. But I couldn't help myself!!!! lol Proving to myself if I was right or wrong is more important then catching another Yellowtail. (Coming soon is my damsel in distress thread!!!)
On to the fishing.
This was a typical afternoon Half-day trip that left at 1:00 pm (most half-day trips are scheduled for 5 and half hours) This one left a little late because he got bait from the receiver first. (most fishing trips usually make up the difference at the end of the day) After the captain gave his safety speech, he said he was only going to say this once. "Soak your baits and if we run out early that's it!!!!" That was probably the biggest lie I heard since, "the check is in the mail!!!!" That's all he said the entire trip, "we are burning up the bait too quickly!!!!" In going out to the Yellowtail spot he made no attempt to supplement his bait with additional Mackerel by snagging some more. (The spot was only 30 minutes away.) Once we got to the spot he put no additional frozen squid out for anglers to fish with. (I think many of the anglers would have fished with it) We had 45 anglers on the boat and a lot of newbies. There were rockfish and calico bass on all the spots we fished. So the Mackerel was the only real bait we had to fish with. (pinhead anchovy's are mostly just for chum) The Yellowtail came through 3 times and we would hook about 6-7 every time. Captain Eric was on the bait tank the whole time chumming and screaming at the passengers all day. If he wasn't screaming at the passengers when the fish came through, he complained about them using up all the bait to fast the rest of the time. Sure enough we were out of bait by 4:00 pm and we went home!!!!! He had the boat tied up to the pier at 4:30. The boat left at around 1:15 pm and we were back at the pier at 4:30 pm. That's a grand total of a 3 hour and 15 minute half-day trip when most landings will give you about an 5 and a half hour trip. It didn't matter, I was glad to get off that boat!!!! His screaming and complaining all day about the bait was just too much for me!!!! So that's 3 bad trips in a row for me on this boat. We did catch 10 Yellowtail on this trip, so the fishing wasn't that bad. But on all 3 Yellowtail trips for me on this boat the Captain had a terrible attitude every time. He also did something I've never seen a captain do before, a passenger hooked a Yellowtail on a spinning reel. You can't just reel them in on that kind of tackle, so after awhile the captain told the passenger to give him his pole and he would finish catching the Yellowtail. The passenger said, "I've got mono tied to braid and the mono is on the reel") In another words the fish was almost up and the passenger wanted to finish him off himself. (which he did) You can go on this boat yourself and come up with your own conclusions. That's just my story and I'm sticking with it!!!!) lol
On to the fishing.
This was a typical afternoon Half-day trip that left at 1:00 pm (most half-day trips are scheduled for 5 and half hours) This one left a little late because he got bait from the receiver first. (most fishing trips usually make up the difference at the end of the day) After the captain gave his safety speech, he said he was only going to say this once. "Soak your baits and if we run out early that's it!!!!" That was probably the biggest lie I heard since, "the check is in the mail!!!!" That's all he said the entire trip, "we are burning up the bait too quickly!!!!" In going out to the Yellowtail spot he made no attempt to supplement his bait with additional Mackerel by snagging some more. (The spot was only 30 minutes away.) Once we got to the spot he put no additional frozen squid out for anglers to fish with. (I think many of the anglers would have fished with it) We had 45 anglers on the boat and a lot of newbies. There were rockfish and calico bass on all the spots we fished. So the Mackerel was the only real bait we had to fish with. (pinhead anchovy's are mostly just for chum) The Yellowtail came through 3 times and we would hook about 6-7 every time. Captain Eric was on the bait tank the whole time chumming and screaming at the passengers all day. If he wasn't screaming at the passengers when the fish came through, he complained about them using up all the bait to fast the rest of the time. Sure enough we were out of bait by 4:00 pm and we went home!!!!! He had the boat tied up to the pier at 4:30. The boat left at around 1:15 pm and we were back at the pier at 4:30 pm. That's a grand total of a 3 hour and 15 minute half-day trip when most landings will give you about an 5 and a half hour trip. It didn't matter, I was glad to get off that boat!!!! His screaming and complaining all day about the bait was just too much for me!!!! So that's 3 bad trips in a row for me on this boat. We did catch 10 Yellowtail on this trip, so the fishing wasn't that bad. But on all 3 Yellowtail trips for me on this boat the Captain had a terrible attitude every time. He also did something I've never seen a captain do before, a passenger hooked a Yellowtail on a spinning reel. You can't just reel them in on that kind of tackle, so after awhile the captain told the passenger to give him his pole and he would finish catching the Yellowtail. The passenger said, "I've got mono tied to braid and the mono is on the reel") In another words the fish was almost up and the passenger wanted to finish him off himself. (which he did) You can go on this boat yourself and come up with your own conclusions. That's just my story and I'm sticking with it!!!!) lol