Deep sea fishing! Where to go?

[anathema]

I commonly have people ask this question when they discover I work on the water. I recently had a friend ask. I have no idea, since I require payment if I'm going to catch fish. I know several people on here do fish though, and one even runs a charter boat iirc.

He's already complained that he called a couple charter places and was quoted $120. He thinks that's a steep price. I told him it seemed pretty fair, considering fuel prices. With this in mind, cheaper is better.

 

[JAR]

Not much to fish for right now unless you want to fish for sturgeon in the bay.
Crabs and sand dabs ore still good now. I would not pay to go and get them though. Salmon opens in April but the most consistent fishing is
June- October for salmon, halibut, ling cod and rockfish. 120 sounds low. I thought it was about 150 to go out on a party boat.

 

[jctse]

Sounds fair. My coworker just went a few months ago and routinely goes on the same charter twice a year. He pays $150, and leaves out of Emeryville to catch Rockcod. He showed me a picture (largest catch on the boat) but unfortunately it happened to be an octopus and the captain advised him to release it. As he described it like "felt like a snag but started moving".

 

[Borchers]

Any of the good Charters out of San Fran, Berkeley Marina and San Pablo will work. Summer months for Rock Cod/ Ling Cod trips. Hali's in the bay and deep sea at the Farllon Islands about 25 miles out.
100 to 400 feet. Sweet schoolies that come through. I have caught 30lbs lings and a 45lbs Hali out there. I go 3 times a year on the following boats

New Golden Eye
Silver Fox
Golden Eye 2000
California Dawn
Bass Tub
New Eldorado


$120-$150.00 is not unheard of and really a good price. What can save you money is bringing your own gear. I save about $30.00 because I bring my own gear.

 

[fingerwrinkles]

Regarding the skipper that used to be involved in BAR, you're probably thinking of Craig who runs the New Salmon Queen out of Emeryville. I can't recall his prices, but I took my daughters (17 / 13 at the time) out with him for a salmon run and they treated us royally. Never had any issue with safety or deck assistance, and the girls had a great time.

Right now aside from crab runs (which I'm not sure they are doing), there are rockcod runs if the weather is OK. Or if you want something really exotic, at this time of the year you may be able to join a squid trip if the Humboldt (aka Jumbo) squid are shoaling in the area. They get up to 7 ft and 100 lbs but usually are around 3 - 4 feet and around 40 lbs.

 

[anathema]

Cool, thanks for the info. I'll pass it along.

Yes also Craig is exactly who I was thinking of.