Got F#####d on the Pride!!!!

[etucker1959]

I know this is going to come off as an angry rant. (Some of you might say, "their is never any guarantees in fishing") I know that!!!! But when a trip is set up with a high probability to fail, someone should be held accountable! Why would someone set up a trip that is doomed to failure, before it ever left the dock! Money of course is the correct answer! Money makes people do a lot of stupid things we all know. Especially to a young business man who hasn't been in the ownership business that long! Practically ever sportfishing trip I ever been on in the last 50 years, was always designed to give the angler (customer) the greatest chance for that angler to catch a fish. (so I was a little naive in giving this guy the benefit of doubt) But this trip I was on, was only designed as a money making trip for the boat owner and was willing to throw his customers under the bus. Then just sweep his ugly trip under the rug, hoping no one would notice it! His mistake was Social Media was out there! Even though some ocean sport fishing sites, protect boat owners from negative comments. Fortunately this one doesn't.

Let me set the stage for you, so people know what I'm talking about.

The Pride is a smaller sportfishing boat that runs out of 22nd street landing in San Pedro. It offers Island trip and offshore trip in search of Tuna and Dorado. It use to be named the Orion and ran out of Seaforth landing for over 20 years. It was bought in the last year or so, by a guy named Shon who is now the owner operator of the vessel. (So as President Harry S. Truman would say, "the Buck stops here"!) As with Shon being the owner operator.

As the 2022 sportfishing season is winding down now, the only 2 species of fish that are still biting are Rockfish and Bluefin Tuna. I have a very good friend of mine, who use to be a solid ocean angler. The problem is, "time caught up with him" and his body can't do the ocean fishing any more! But his mind still thinks he can! So he goes on the sportfishing boats and stays in his bunk for the whole trip, except for maybe 30 minutes of actual fishing time. So in 10 trips this year, he's caught and landing 2 Rockfish in his 10 trips! I told him to give it up and start joining me on my freshwater trips. I'll give him some easy breezy ones, where their not too tiring and he will catch something good! Nope he doesn't want to hear that! So he's gone on 2 tuna trips in the last month up here and gave his 30 minutes of try on both trips. He actually hooked a tuna on 1 of the trips. He fought it for as long as he could and passed the rod to the captain, who then lost it! (he hooked it on too light of line for the size of the fish) Now he tells me, he is going to keep going till he catches one! I then tell him Einstein definition of insanity. Keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result! (he didn't think that was very funny!)

So I come up with a plan. If I see the counts look really solid and good weather. I'll invite him to go with a plan in mind. I'll let him lay in his bunk till they start to bite. Then get him up with his 30 minutes of energy. Hopefully he will hook a fish, "Let him fight it for as long as he can!" Then finish it off for him! Send him back to bed for the rest of the trip and hopefully I can catch one and then end his insanity over these tuna! That was my plan and probably would have worked. But I trusted an unknown owner operator named Shon, who was just in it for the money for himself! Hopefully people will figure this guy out and he will be out of the sportfishing game soon! These sport boats come up for sale all the time. So that tells me people go out of this business all the time!

Here is how we got screwed!

The Bluefin Tuna in the last week were biting the best they were all season and at a beautiful size! 50-100 pounds with the average fish being 60-80 pounds! (that's a nice size fish) So he had on his schedule a 12:30 pm departure and a 7 pm return the next day. It's all been an all night bite only all week. So fish during the night and early morning and then go home! I like that, "get the job done and then go home!" The 12:30 pm departure time did seemed a little odd to me. But I trusted the Captain that he knew what he was doing! That the boat would get to the spot at a good time and make a catch! Remember I got 50 years of experience, that told me Captains will make every effort to give their clients the best opportunity to catch a fish! They don't schedule trips, just to sell a trip and put their anglers behind the 8 ball in actually catching something. (This guy did!)

Here's what happened.

The fish are biting wide open for several day's, where every boat out of ever landing is making a good catch of Tuna. You just have to be fishing at dark early enough! (That's the key, "early enough!") The fish aren't biting in a 20 mile area. They are all schooled up big, in one little area! When we arrived on the grounds late, " I counted 7 boats in an 1/4 to 1/2 mile area. Every boat that night but "US" made a good to great catch! The captain of the boat Freedom (same landing) said on 976-tuna, it was the best night bite of the whole season! On our boat because we arrived too late, no one ever got a tuna bite on our trip! I'm sure some of you are thinking that's just fishing! Not every boat catches fish on the same day. I know that!!! But think of it like this. (Kelp paddy fishing) Who is going to catch the most fish off of a kelp paddy? The boat that get's their first, or the boat that hits the paddy for the 5th time that day? That was us!!! The only fish he saw that night on the graph, were small schools or induvial fish swimming fast! Our trip was scheduled, so by it's nature we were going to be the guy's who hit the kelp paddy 5th!

I know I still haven't convinced some of you about Shon's Evil intent on his scheduling of this trip! Here's the big Winnie, the fish are biting but he's got a holiday coming up. (Thanksgiving) So how does he schedule his trips with that Damn holiday coming up? What doomed our trip, was the trip scheduled before our trip! It was a day and 3/4 scheduled to come back at 12:30 pm the same day as our trip. (it was a turn and burn trip) Where we are waiting for the other passengers to get off the boat. Nobody I mean nobody schedules turn and burn trips for day and a half trips! (That's where his greed comes in!) It made our trip an hour late in leaving the dock! It was already scheduled too late, now it was an hour later. (He really doesn't want to give us a fair shot at these fish) Then so he doesn't have to hear our crapp. He then walks off the boat and turns it over to some other guy to run the trip. I wondered why the other guy never cracked a smile on this trip. He knew he was on a suicided mission right in the beginning! (He crashed the boat right into the Iceberg on schedule!) I'm sure their is still someone out their thinking, it was just bad fishing luck we didn't catch any tuna! No, because his next schedule tuna trip isn't schedule for departure time of 12:30 pm. It's scheduled for 9 am. The exact 4 hours earlier we needed to have left the dock, for us to have a fair shot at catching a tuna! Coincidence I doubt it! His greed of getting that 1 extra trip in just to make a few bucks. Is that really worth getting your reputation thrashed for??? I wouldn't want my reputation thrashed for some chump change!

The boat did offer us 2 bobby prizes for getting on his boat!

1. An hour worth of Bonito fishing at Catalina Island for all the 1 pound Bonito a man could want.

2. A $100 Voucher on any trip for a year on his boat.

I declined both of them! Give this guy more money?????? These are the kind of guy's you want out of the sportfishing business. Not give them more money so they can stay in it!

I guarantee Shon never thought he would get thrashed on the Internet for his Evil plan!

p.s. My poor dumb friend called me up this morning, asking if I wanted to go on his next tuna trip and use our vouchers. (He offered to pay the difference on my ticket) Thank God I told him, I refused to take the voucher. So it gave me an easy out! I don't reward bad behavior!