Have you heard of any Landings overstating their daily fish counts. I recently went on a ¾ day boat with around 40 anglers at one of Southern California’s Landings. The boat was lucky to catch 25 fish for the day, but when I checked the web page on Monday it listed that the boat caught 135 fish. I was dumbfounded. So I called the landing and spoke to the manager and he told me that they had no reason to lie on the count. I persisted and he said he would check the boats log book and I would call him back the next day. I called him back and he told me the owner of the boat verified the numbers in the logbook and with the deck hands. I said that was not correct, because I was on the boat and I saw what was caught and cleaned. The manager told me that they are professionals and since I am not he would believe them instead of me and it was a dead issue that it wasn’t worth tying up in court. I asked who said anything about court. I called him back and told him I was totally unsatisfied with my fishing trip and wanted my money back. He told me I would have to pound sand on this one that he wouldn't’t give me my money back. He said I could send the owner a complaint letter and he would give it to him. I said good and asked for the address and he hung up on me.

Are the landings posting higher numbers to increase their business? Or are the moving numbers to cover over limits being caught? Or are they trolling with nets that their not supposed to? I don’t understand this, but I do know that they got very upset very quickly when I questioned them.


I can provide you with the exact trip I was on, but I wish to remain anonymous.

Thank you,

Fishy333

That should'nt surprise you. We have labor day coming up and I guarantee you all the landings and lakes will have high fish counts just prior to the weekend. Big holidays or long weekends and they want john q public to come and spend $$$$ at their establishment. You'll NEVER see low counts before a holiday! NEVER!!!

I have seen this happen a couple of times. It sucks because it is false advertising. Good boats don't do these practices because they don't need to.

It may be a non-issue to DFG, but sportboat captains are supposed to keep accurate logbooks of their catch. You might want to call 1-888-DFG-CALTIP and see if they're interested (it's anonymous).

Also, to play devil's advocate here, did everyone on the trip have their fish cleaned? Could it be there were fish still in the burlap that weren't cleaned that you didn't notice? Was the crew fishng and was their catch included in the total? Was there catch and release going on but the released fish were still added to the counts?

even if all c&r fish, crew fish and hell knows what else was included in the dock total, the attitude of the landing towards an honest customer concern was completely Sh!tty, I wish the name of the landing was available to avoid it next time I plan to go out, if they are willing to lie (notice I said "if") about their daily totals and on top be real jerks when their customers inquire about, they are not worth the time and money,

what happened to honesty and courtesy nowadays?

I agree completely - money talks, B.S. walks. There are a lot of good boats out there and if a place treats me bad, I spend my hard earned dollar somewhere else! I don't need to be pampered on a boat, but a descent attitude and a little help plucking that sculpin off my hook sure goes a long way with me.

Money including:
Ticket Price
Tackle purchased at landing
Crew Tips
Jackpot Money
Fishcleaning Money
Money spent in galley
Recoomendations to my fellow fishermen

I was on a squid twilight trip about 3 weeks ago. Squid didnt cooperate...only 3 were caught on the whole boat. The report said 10 were caught, which was incorrect...don't know if an honest mistake or not.

also one thing I forgot to add is the latest trend of how jackpots end up in DH friends a lot of the time, I was under the impresion that guests of the boat were not allowed to participate and yet lately its been somewhat common to see 'em take the pool.

The Deckhands friends always get the best bait of the scoop, every stop thats lame if they get in on the pot.

if you haven't read my "1.5 day trip" report, you should. deadheads should be limited to only when the head count on the boat is under the scheduled limit. if you pay good $$$ to get on a limited load boat, just to have five extras (deadheads), what the hell is the point? especially if the "heads" are getting homie hookups at the bait tank. I PAID FOR THAT BAIT WITH MY BOAT TICKET AND IT BELONGS TO ME AND THE OTHER ANGLERS WHO PAID FOR THE TRIP, not some freeloaders who think they have the right to something they didn't pay for. next trip i go on, if this crap happens again, i won't be silent.

If you won't tell us which boat perhaps you can name the landing.

I couldnt agree more, if the landing wont pay attention to individual customer requests regarding the way them and their boats handle themselves, let people know of the situation, once they feel a loss in passenger numbers maybe then they will appreciate our concerns.

pierpoint-toronado

Oceanside is one of the worst.
I use to work for a landing down in San Diego. One summer the Electra out of Oceanside was using our landing to dock at and running 1day tuna trips. They would radio their reports in something like this:
If they had 10 people catch 20 fish they would tell us to write down they had 20 people catch 40 fish.
I never did that and the skipper would get all pissed off.
One day on my boat I hear one of the skippers talking to another boat saying, “I have a bunch of jarheads on board. Were going to sit on these mackerel all day” and starts laughing.