Halibut sucess but dissapointing charter

[Carrl]

Took a halibut charter out of Newport on Saturday (tradewinds) and came home with a 31 inch fish. I was happy to have a fish but pretty dissapointed with the whole experience, I wonder if anyone else has had this type of experience.
-- The captain and crew seemed totally focused on getting the boat limited out, which is good, but 80% of the paying passengers ended up with 15 lb fish, not really worth the nearly 200 dollars we all shelled out.
-- The boat was so slow, we literally spent 5 hours going to and from the bank and 1 hour fishing, again not the experience I thought I was paying for.
-- When I booked the nice lady told me the boat would hold 16, we set out with 20...meaning we had to fish in shifts and adding to the general feeling that you should be happy with a 15lb fish and just get off the poll so the next in line can pull something up.
-- As we motored 3 hours back to shore there was a constant reminder that the crew really would appreciate a tip and while they were nice and all I generally tip based on results.
-- Finally after paying this they expect us to pay and tip for plastic bags, filleting, vacuum packing, ice, air, views of the sea lions, etc.

So basically I drove home with my 6 lb of meat feeling like a total sucker especially given the 150 or so other private boats that launched out of Newport and seemed to be there and back before our lug of a boat even hit the fishing spot.

 

[osmosis]

You've essentially nailed on the head 9 out of 10 of my experiences with newport tradewinds. I will never go with them again because of so many sour experiences.

newport and depoe tradewinds were a combined company, and they split up 50 years ago and depoe is doing all that they can to get rid of any association with them while maintaining their name.

We bottom fished with depoe tradewinds yesterday and got 6 cabezon, a tiger rockfish, and completed our (two people) rockfish limit with black rockfish. not only did we limit while having a GREAT time (smiles and great conversation all around the boat) but we also got our lingcod limit, with a couple of them being pigs.
The way the depoe folks run their boats is a complete 180degree turn from newport. They explain why you are doing certian things, and give any one that needs it 1 to 1 instruction. I was very impressed. It was truly a fantastic day with flat seas, and happy customers with limits all around the boat. We all got 3 dungees on the way back in from the pots too.

They only charge you .50 cents per rockfish/cabezon to fillet and bag and it's $1.00 per lingcod. and a whole .50 cents per crab to get them cooked! essentially the only negative is they dont vacuum pack.
they dont ever ask for tips, they just have a jar on the boat that says "tips appreciated" on it.

can't forget to mention that we saw a whole bunch of wild dolphins while out fishing too. That was definitely the highlight of the trip for all the women on board.

 

[Fish Fight]

What you described was a good charter (Zoo Canoe). They were focused on getting fish for everyone. On a good boat the deck hands will work their butts off and should get a tip.

Those boats don't go fast and the rock pile is 38 miles out.

There were a lot of chickens caught last saturday.

You got 6 pounds of some great table fare

There's another type of Charter service called a 6 pack, they run smaller boats, take fewer people, there faster running and are focused on quality over quantity. You can learn a lot from them. They are more expensive and you need to book the whole boat. It is the closest thing you will get to fishing off of a private boat.

I haven't fished a charter for a long time, I'm a private boat kind of a fisher. The last charter I fished off of (I was invited) was a terrible charter, bad gear, lazy crew that didn't keep the paying customer fishing, bad bait, late leaving the dock, early coming back, dirty boat, no first aid kit on board, not enough gear, over booked, shift fishing (I hate that), got into an area with a lot of sharks and stayed there, bait was never ready so I baited my own (no big deal). The skipper kept telling me how much better he was than everyone else. It got so bad that when I wasn't fishing I was working as a deck hand just to get others fishing. What you had was a good, typical charter.

 

[Anyfishisfine]

My last trip with them was like that. We went bottom fishing and he put us over a school of tiny fish so we could limit out in about 20 minutes (we booked the 6 hour trip). They were hardly big enough to fillet. One of the guys on the boat wanted to go out to a reef where they catch nice lings, but the captain said he could limit us here real quick and get another load.

I haven't been back either.

 

[madoc]

Boy, I'm happy I'm chartered with the Depoe Bay group - and I'll bring my own vacuum sealer.

 

[Irishrover]

Did you go to the "Chicken Ranch". That's about 33 miles west of Newport. That is the usual hot spot. I've run out there a few times. It takes me about 2hrs to get there if I want a smooth ride and don't want to beat the boat up. If the water is down flat then I can cut my time down. We used to stop on our way back at Stonewall Banks aka the Rock Pile and fish for sea bass. That was closer about 14 to 17 miles west of Newport.

Depoe Bay Tradewinds Charts is the Original Tradewinds outfit. They were started in 1938 BY Captain Stan Allyn. His first boat was a former gillnetter with sails for and aft named "Tradewinds". He wrote three great books about his charter adventures. Fun reading. If you go out on another charter take Osmosis' advise and go out of Depoe Bay. Sorry you had a bad trip. I was stuck in Culver irrigating alfalfa.

 

[Carrl]

Thanks for the feed back and suggestion to run out of Depot. I think we went to the "Haceda Bank" (probably not the right spelling), sounds like the right distance from Newport to be the "chicken ranch" mentioned by Irishrover. I also apreciate the context provided from Fish Fight. I can imagine convincing paying passengers that they had a good time when they didn't keep a fish, trying to catch the 'big' one, is much harder than dealing with a few misaligned expectations. Good discussion, Cheers!

 

[the_intimidator03]

I can't say ive ever been to newport tradewinds. I have gone out with Depoe Bay Tradewinds and loved every minute of the trips... even if we didn't get to go haibut fishing and got escorted back by the coast guard they were very good about the refund and service.

 

[joeyota]

I have only been on 1 charter, I went out on the Misty. I had a great experience rock fishing. So far I have failed to catch as many fish on my own. If I was to do a charter again I would return to the Misty in new port or try it in Depoe bay.