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Thread: Yellowtail on the worst Half-day boat on the coast.

  1. #1

    Default Yellowtail on the worst Half-day boat on the coast.

    This year is by far the Best Coastal Yellowtail fishing that has happened in my lifetime!!!!!! With that being said, "I'm now trying to spice up the fishing a bit." It can get a little boring going on the same 3 boats. The 3 boats I'm talking about are the Monte Carlo, (went on it twice last week) the Southern Cal, (which is my favorite) and the Enterprise. (went on it Tuesday of this week) WARNING!!!!!! The Enterprise has been infiltrated by a seedy element of fishermen!!!! They are mean and aggressive and done right rude!!!! Captain Andy said, "if one more person touches him" he is taking the boat back to the dock!!! In reality he kinda did. Let me explain that, when DocRat and friends were coming into the area to fish on the Southern Cal afternoon run on Tuesday. We pulled anchor and went home!!! DR and friends caught another 50 yellowtail after that and we were tied up at the dock at 4:00pm. We still had plenty of bait and typical the Enterprise get's in after 6:00pm. So with all that being said, I thought I would challenge myself and go on a different Half-boat to see if I could catch another nice Yellowtail some where else. After checking the counts and giving it a little thought, I came up with the perfect challenge. The Redondo Special captained by owner Eric Hodoay. He is by far the worst captain that I'm aware of!!!! It's not that he doesn't have local knowledge of the area that he fishes. (far from it) It's his attitude that makes him the WORST!!!! I first meet him as a deckhand in 1977 on the City of Redondo. We were fishing Bluefin Tuna and King Salmon not 2 miles off the break water. I went 3 times that week and caught and landed my first King Salmon and BFT right there!!!! In contrast the other deckhand was Rick Ofinger who is my favorite captain of all times!!!!!! (he now owns the New Del Mar and MDR sportfishing) couldn't happen to a nicer guy!!!

    I fished on the Redondo Special earlier in the fall for Yellowtail, so I knew what I was getting myself into!!! (that was the challenge) Now I'm not here to hate on the guy, but to laugh at him for being that stupid!!!! (the way we laugh at Donald Trump) But it does makes for a funny story, just how anyone can be that dumb is beyond me. Let me be fair and say some positive things about the other people who work at the landing. The ticket seller is the nicest guy that ever came down the pipe. The Captain of the other Redondo boat "Indian" is one of my favorites. (not that his fish counts lights the world on fire) he is just a real likeable guy!!! On the Redondo Special the deckhands are great!!! (tip them well) lol I ordered a cheeseburger from the galley girl Megan and it was really good!!! (I told her it looked good when she handed it to me) She said, "you acted surprised when I handed it to you!!!" She didn't know I had such LOW expectations for this trip!!! lol The paying customers on the boat were really nice. (not like those animals on the Enterprise) Now let's talk and laugh together about what happened on the trip.

    I always do my due delingence before I get on any boat. One of the best sources is 976-Tuna, especially if they do an audible on what happened the day before. On the trip before I went they did, bring heavy line and they have plenty of Live Bait for tomorrow. Who said this, "none other then the captain himself." So when I get on the boat the captain said, "we only have a little bit of Mackerel and we need to snag some more." (so much for plenty of bait for tomorrow) We get out there and start snagging some bait, it was pretty easy so I figured we would be good to go. (if we stayed long enough) We didn't!!!! He takes off after only 20 minutes, so we didn't have enough bait. We get to the spot and they break out the frozen squid. I have yet to see a toad Yellowtail this year eat a frozen squid. Rats yes, Toads no!!!! If anyone read one of my earlier reports they would know I have a policy, "NO RATS ALLOWED!!!!" I refuse to kill a 4 pound Yellowtail, so if I caught one and tried to release it, "I'm sure captain Kangaroo would have come unglued!!!!!" So I sat in the galley till they released some Mackerel to fish with, when they finally did I started fishing. Sure enough the people who were fishing the squid strips started catching Rat Yellowtail!!!! I stuck with the Mackerel, I would cast my Mackerel off the side of the boat and follow it around. It would eventually end up near the stern, Captain Kangaroo said there was too many people fishing the stern and he was going to check numbers. Great how do you fish Mackerel from a number??? (you can't!!!!) Eventually I found a nice spot on the side of the boat and the Mackerel would go out at an angle so I could soak it for a long time. The deckhand eventually said, "people should cast their Mackerel off the side of the boat and work your way towards the stern." A complete contradiction from the captains orders to fish your numbers. After catching 6-7 rats on the squid, the big boy's showed up and started eating the Mackerel. Now the captain is screaming at everyone who hooks up, everyone is fighting their fish all wrong according to the captain!!! If someone would lose one, the captain would chastise that person very badly!!!! Then he started giving people a hard time for requesting a Mackerel to fish with, he would ask them how many Mackerel they caught? (what a jerk) Remember he said on 976-Tuna, "he had plenty of live bait for tomorrow!!!!" It was then my turn to get bit, I let him eat it really good and hammered him big time!!! I had 40 pound test and a tight drag, this wasn't a 20 plus pounder so he came in relatively easy compared to the 150 fish!!! He wasn't a rat either, a good 16 pound Yellowtail and I was very happy!!!! (I caught one in spite of the captain) I could go on and on about the captain, but I think you get the point!!! I do want to say something about the Jackpot winner, this guy hooks up on 30 pound test and fought him really hard. The captain was chastising him the whole fight how he was doing it all wrong, the guy told him and the deckhand to STFU and get away from me, he didn't want any help from any of them!!! He later told me, "had had a triple bypass and was doing the best he could with that fish." He landed him and took the JP!!! I gave my fish away to someone who hadn't caught one and was very thankfull!!!! A person later shook my hand and said I was a gentlemen all day in my fishing. (that made me feel really good) Our fish count was 13 Yellowtail and 26 Bass for 41 people. A bit of a challenge but I thought I rose to the occasion. As a side note if anyone dares to go fish Yellowtail with this guy, he doesn't want you to use spectra line, don't Butt hook your mackerel and use at least a 5/0 hook or bigger. If you do any of the above, "THE CAPTAIN WILL PUT YOU ON HIS POOP LIST BEFORE YOU EVEN HOOK UP!!!!" Tight lines everybody!!!
    Last edited by etucker1959; 08-07-2015 at 07:22 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Rat Beach
    Posts
    7,272

    Default

    Lol, Great Venting Tucker
    Fished the Redondo Special a couple times, I always thought Eric was a decent captain.
    It can be pretty hectic on these full boats and tensions can run high.
    You'll get em next time.
    DR

  3. #3

    Default

    Nice report, and I give you the hero award for helping out the guy that didn't catch anything.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    South El Monte
    Posts
    67

    Default I went out on the Montecarlo yesterday PM, HORRIBLE CREW!

    Quote Originally Posted by etucker1959 View Post
    This year is by far the Best Coastal Yellowtail fishing that has happened in my lifetime!!!!!! With that being said, "I'm now trying to spice up the fishing a bit." It can get a little boring going on the same 3 boats. The 3 boats I'm talking about are the Monte Carlo, (went on it twice last week) the Southern Cal, (which is my favorite) and the Enterprise. (went on it Tuesday of this week) WARNING!!!!!! The Enterprise has been infiltrated by a seedy element of fishermen!!!! They are mean and aggressive and done right rude!!!! Captain Andy said, "if one more person touches him" he is taking the boat back to the dock!!! In reality he kinda did. Let me explain that, when DocRat and friends were coming into the area to fish on the Southern Cal afternoon run on Tuesday. We pulled anchor and went home!!! DR and friends caught another 50 yellowtail after that and we were tied up at the dock at 4:00pm. We still had plenty of bait and typical the Enterprise get's in after 6:00pm. So with all that being said, I thought I would challenge myself and go on a different Half-boat to see if I could catch another nice Yellowtail some where else. After checking the counts and giving it a little thought, I came up with the perfect challenge. The Redondo Special captained by owner Eric Hodoay. He is by far the worst captain that I'm aware of!!!! It's not that he doesn't have local knowledge of the area that he fishes. (far from it) It's his attitude that makes him the WORST!!!! I first meet him as a deckhand in 1977 on the City of Redondo. We were fishing Bluefin Tuna and King Salmon not 2 miles off the break water. I went 3 times that week and caught and landed my first King Salmon and BFT right there!!!! In contrast the other deckhand was Rick Ofefinger who is my favorite captain of all times!!!!!! (he now owns the New Del Mar and MDR sportfishing) couldn't happen to a nicer guy!!!

    I fished on the Redondo Special earlier in the fall for Yellowtail, so I knew what I was getting myself into!!! (that was the challenge) Now I'm not here to hate on the guy, but to laugh at him for being that stupid!!!! (the way we laugh at Donald Trump) But It makes for a funny story though, how anyone can be that dumb. Let me be fair and say some positive things about the other people who work at the landing. The ticket seller is the nicest guy that ever came down the pipe. The Captain of the other Redondo boat "Indian" is one of my favorites. (not that his fish counts lights the world on fire) he is just a real likeable guy!!! On the Redondo Special the deckhands are great!!! (tip them well) lol I ordered a cheeseburger from the galley girl Megan and it was really good!!! (I told her it looked good when she handed it to me) She said, "you acted surprised when I handed it to you!!!" She didn't know I had such LOW expectations for this trip!!! lol The paying customers on the boat were really nice. (not like those animals on the Enterprise) Now let's talk and laugh together about what happened on the trip.

    I always do my due delingence before I get on any boat. One of the best sources is 976-Tuna, especially if they do an audible on what happened the day before. On the trip before I went they did, bring heavy line and they have plenty of Live Bait for tomorrow. Who said this, "none other then the captain himself." So when I get on the boat the captain said, "we only have a little bit of Mackerel and we need to snag some more." (so much for plenty of bait for tomorrow) We get out there and start snagging some bait, it was pretty easy so I figured we would be good to go. (if we stayed long enough) We didn't!!!! He takes off after only 20 minutes, so we didn't have enough bait. We get to the spot and they break out the frozen squid. I have yet to see a toad Yellowtail this year eat a frozen squid. Rats yes, Toads no!!!! If anyone read one of my earlier reports they would know I have a policy, "NO RATS ALLOWED!!!!" I refuse to kill a 4 pound Yellowtail, so if I caught one and tried to release it, "I'm sure captain Kangaroo would have come unglued!!!!!" So I sat in the galley till they released some Mackerel to fish with, when they finally did I started fishing. Sure enough the people who were fishing the squid strips started catching Rat Yellowtail!!!! I stuck with the Mackerel, I would cast my Mackerel off the side of the boat and follow it around. It would eventually end up near the stern, Captain Kangaroo said there was too many people fishing the stern and he was going to check numbers. Great how do you fish Mackerel from a number??? (you can't!!!!) Eventually I found a nice spot on the side of the boat and the Mackerel would go out at an angle so I could soak it for a long time. The deckhand eventually said, "people should cast their Mackerel off the side of the boat and work your way towards the stern." A complete contradicting from the captains orders to fish your numbers. After catching 6-7 rats on the squid, the big boy's showed up and started eating the Mackerel. Now the captain is screaming at everyone who hooks up, everyone is fighting their fish all wrong according to the captain!!! If someone would lose one, the captain would chastise that person very badly!!!! Then he started giving people a hard time for requesting a Mackerel to fish with, he would ask them how many Mackerel they caught. (what a jerk) Remember he said on 976-Tuna, "he had plenty of live bait for tomorrow!!!!" It was then my turn to get bit, I let him eat it really good and hammered him big time!!! I had 40 pound test and a tight drag, this wasn't a 20 plus pounder so he came in relatively easy compared to the 150 fish!!! He wasn't a rat either, a good 16 pound Yellowtail and I was very happy!!!! (I caught one in spite of the captain) I could go on and on about the captain, but I think you get the point!!! I do want to say something about the Jackpot winner, this guy hooks up on 30 pound test and fought him really hard. The captain was chastising him the whole fight how he was doing it all wrong, the guy told him and the deckhand to STFU and get away from me, he didn't want any help from any of them!!! He later told me, "had had a triple bypass and was doing the best he could with that fish." He landed him and took the JP!!! I gave my fish away to someone who hadn't caught one and was very thankfull!!!! A person later shook my hand and said I was a gentlemen all day in my fishing. (that made me feel really good) Our fish count was 13 Yellowtail and 26 Bass for 41 people. A bit of a challenge but I thought I rose to the occasion. As a side note if anyone dares to go fish Yellowtail with this guy, he doesn't want you to use spectra line, don't Butt hook your mackerel and use at least a 5/0 hook or bigger. If you do any of the above, "THE CAPTAIN WILL PUT YOU ON HIS POOP LIST BEFORE YOU EVEN HOOK UP!!!!" Tight lines everybody!!!
    We went on the Montecarlo yesterday as all the other boats in the LA area were booked solid.
    I had been reading how great it's been, and there were 6 absolutely gigantic Yellowtail caught yesterday, but this captain knew the conditions had changed. They took our cash and took us on a boat ride. That wouldn't have been so bad and I know they do not control the Ocean's mood, but they are a service company. The service was terrible. My dad quit and I don't even know if he would have survived bringing in one of those fish (I heard it was wide open Monday, and maybe I would have excused the bad service then).
    These deck hands seemed to be more interested in fishing, talking about girls and fights they might have been in at a party or two, and talking about paying anglers on the boat with ME!
    I have never fished with Mackeral before and asked for some pointers during the boat ride to the spot. The deckhand told me, "nose-hook and let it swim out there, once you get far enough, crank slowly and repeat." Great advice to avoid the "birds-nests' that were all over the place. I can honestly say that was some good advice, and I got bit, but I guess I didn't want him haha (I brought my new Nikes and was concerned all day about blood).
    I wish this deck-hand would have had a little "fishing with Mackeral for Yellowtail 101" before we got there.
    So we get to the spot and fish for a good 2.5 hours with only 1 fish landed. Then the captain starts her up and we head to the Rock Pile. I loved that place when I have my 20' Wellcraft. It always produced Rockfish, Calico, Sandies, Whatever. It did. 5 more Tails. Conditions were aweful.
    I just feel; when a captain knows the conditions have changed (5 degrees lower water temp), he should be ready to give us the best possible experience; CREW AND ALL. And if he's done that and left us feeling as if he has provided the best experience WITHOUT a fish in our bag, he's done a good job. But his crew "he does not control". Those kids he has on that boat do not move there asses. My pop, who is 78yo yelled for a crew member, and no one showed. BS!
    I don't want a voucher although that would have been a nice jester, but a free beer or soda!
    MONTECARLO DO NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY.

    Dana Wharf great crew out there. I should have driven the extra 30min to get there.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Diamond Bar
    Posts
    536

    Default

    Thanks etucker. I'll scratch that boat off my list. I fish spectra so I'll pass... lol

  6. #6

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by SpinnerBaitKing View Post
    We went on the Montecarlo yesterday as all the other boats in the LA area were booked solid.
    I had been reading how great it's been, and there were 6 absolutely gigantic Yellowtail caught yesterday, but this captain knew the conditions had changed. They took our cash and took us on a boat ride. That wouldn't have been so bad and I know they do not control the Ocean's mood, but they are a service company. The service was terrible. My dad quit and I don't even know if he would have survived bringing in one of those fish (I heard it was wide open Monday, and maybe I would have excused the bad service then).
    These deck hands seemed to be more interested in fishing, talking about girls and fights they might have been in at a party or two, and talking about paying anglers on the boat with ME!
    I have never fished with Mackeral before and asked for some pointers during the boat ride to the spot. The deckhand told me, "nose-hook and let it swim out there, once you get far enough, crank slowly and repeat." Great advice to avoid the "birds-nests' that were all over the place. I can honestly say that was some good advice, and I got bit, but I guess I didn't want him haha (I brought my new Nikes and was concerned all day about blood).
    I wish this deck-hand would have had a little "fishing with Mackeral for Yellowtail 101" before we got there.
    So we get to the spot and fish for a good 2.5 hours with only 1 fish landed. Then the captain starts her up and we head to the Rock Pile. I loved that place when I have my 20' Wellcraft. It always produced Rockfish, Calico, Sandies, Whatever. It did. 5 more Tails. Conditions were aweful.
    I just feel; when a captain knows the conditions have changed (5 degrees lower water temp), he should be ready to give us the best possible experience; CREW AND ALL. And if he's done that and left us feeling as if he has provided the best experience WITHOUT a fish in our bag, he's done a good job. But his crew "he does not control". Those kids he has on that boat do not move there asses. My pop, who is 78yo yelled for a crew member, and no one showed. BS!
    I don't want a voucher although that would have been a nice jester, but a free beer or soda!
    MONTECARLO DO NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY.

    Dana Wharf great crew out there. I should have driven the extra 30min to get there.
    Let me guess, Bob Molla was running the boat!!! Big guy, big beard. I saw the same thing, when he runs the boat the deckhands coast!!! When Walt runs the boat, older gentlemen the deckhands work much harder!!!! The Conditions did change overnight, Tuesday I was on the Enterprise and it was wide open for all the boats!!!!!
    Last edited by etucker1959; 08-07-2015 at 01:06 PM.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Burbank
    Posts
    602

    Default

    that blows...what a way to run a business into the ground.
    fished both the enterprise and monte carlo but I do have to agree with SBK, their service sucks.
    haven't been on that boat in over 10 years because of an incident...
    the enterprise on the other hand, not so bad, cool people and cool captain/deckhands. it must have been a bad day for those guys.
    I heard great things about Native sun, Pursuit and ofcourse freedom....im my opinion, you're better off paying a little it more and fishing with less people.
    gonna try Gail force and or triton next...hopefully conditions don't change too much!
    no Redondo special for me....thanks for the tip.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Whittier
    Posts
    2,455

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    I agree totally with your statement about Capt Rick Ofinger,I've know him for many years,class act!

    Cya Tuna Vic

  9. #9

    Default

    Same experience here on the Monte Carlo. Never again. Lesson learned. Every cast would tangle with 5-6 other anglers. Got to the point where I sat in the galley for 3hrs watching the fiasco mess.

    As someone mentioned, pay more for a limited load charter. You'll be glad you did. Native Sun is an awesome boat with awesome crew and no numbering system!

    Gailforce or Triton will be my next boat.

  10. #10

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by slixx1320 View Post
    Same experience here on the Monte Carlo. Never again. Lesson learned. Every cast would tangle with 5-6 other anglers. Got to the point where I sat in the galley for 3hrs watching the fiasco mess.

    As someone mentioned, pay more for a limited load charter. You'll be glad you did. Native Sun is an awesome boat with awesome crew and no numbering system!

    Gailforce or Triton will be my next boat.
    Same thing happened to me on the Enterprise the week before, I eventually gave up. Next two trips were great because of small crowds. If it's a large crowd, you are screwed!!!!!

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