Dockside Charters and Whale Watching Tours — Attraction in Depoe Bay

Went on a fishing charter on 8/20 and it was a giant disappointment. We went on a boat called the Outer Limits, the captain didn’t seem like he wanted to be there. The crew rather fish for themselves then help people who paid for fishing. I was with a group and there weren’t enough poles set out for us. I asked Ethan for a pole after we had been told we could start fishing and he said no. I ran into the other crew member— Andrew? And he was nice and at least helped me find a pole. Several fish were caught and thrown out. It would have been nice to have been told what we caught. Even when we asked Ethan he never told us. Just said it didn’t matter because it wasn’t a keeper. Whenever we caught a fish we were told to say fish on— we did and half the time the captain came to help us. Andrew seemed to help the back of the boat while Ethan helped the front. However, Ethan was more keen on fishing himself or talking to his friend then actually helping. The captain constantly said we were on fish but he couldn’t do anything to help us. I have been on multiple charters where if you’re not catching much they switch up the bait or at least start double hooks on poles so the chance of catching fish goes up. I asked the captain if we could have two hooks and he just said legally yeah, you could actually have three and then walked away. On other charters the crew helped you catch fish instead of catching for themselves. Ethan often threw the fish we caught in other buckets and never asked which one was ours. He also either didn’t kill the fish or was very cruel towards them. He often whacked them 10-15 times and then cut the gill plate not even the blood line. Someone else who wasn’t part of the crew helped to whack the fish that were still alive and actually bled them. Ethan also threw the fish whacking stick and knife all over the place without looking to see where people were. I honestly don’t think he was even safe to have on the boat. When we got to the fish cleaning station some of our fish were actually flopping off the table because they weren’t properly bled. I even asked the captain to kill them and he said they were fine. When we were done fishing we were asked to put lids on… nobody told us where the lids were even though I asked multiple times. It was also disappointing hearing about other boats fish and crab catch of the day. Some boats had over 100 crab and we barely got 30. Most boats also had more then 3 fish per person. The most one person caught was about 4 except Ethan, he was there to fish and not work and pulled in more then that. We were told by the lady in the office who was extremely nice that crab pulling was a group effort and we’d get help. When it came to pulling the crew told us it was all up to us and they weren’t there to help with the pots. The bathroom also isn’t safe. There was absolutely no non-slip surface in the bathroom and if you hit a wave, you would slip and slide all over the place. Even a tiny rug would solve the problem. I am not sure if I should be disappointed or relieved when numerous other people were complaining about their same experience while standing in line for their crab. I had fished with Dockside a few years ago and was so excited to fish again. After this experience I won’t return. The crew didn’t even seem interested in being there and the captain had a very low moral. So disappointing! If you’re thinking about fishing with dockside please go elsewhere! I understand some days are better fishing than others but when the experience is drab due to the crews lack of interest in working and helping their customers it completely ruins the experience. I gave it two stars because we at least went out and got...

This was my forth Charter fishing trip. My first TIME with Dockside. It was recommended to me from someone on another trip I took a few weeks previous. so, I do have something to compare them to. The fact that we limited out in a few hours is good because that shows you that they know how to find the fish. But, that may not always be the case because other factors are involved in the process. So at least I know that they are good at that part. I do feel that Rock fish are easier to find than other species that move more. The positives first. The boat was clean, they had soap the in bathroom and they knew where to find fish. After we limited out on Rock fish they changed gear and let us target Lings (time permitting). NO other charter has done this!!!!! that was awesome. Sad I still lost a few. I give them 5 starts because the employees are outstanding. I don't want to de-credit a star because of things I think they can improve on because in my experience this seems to be the norm with charters. At least they had decent weight on the lures to get us down to the fish. But the things I think would have made it better - Letting me know ahead of time they changed my boat. I requested a boat and when I got there I was put on a different boat. Not understanding why, thankful the capt explained it when he heard me talking about it. Secondly.. being COVID times.. IS..Less people on the boat. I was not expecting 16 people on the boat during Covid. Some took off masks and not one employee asked them to put a mask back on and you can't keep 6 feet distance when there are 16 on the deck. Next thing ... IF You pay for a 5 hour trip, what they don't tell you is that (depending of how many people pay for crabbing) that will cut into your fishing time. If you have 16 people on the boat and several pay for crabbing, you lose your fishing time to have crab pots dropped and picked up. Now I don't want to seem selfish because we DID limit on rock fish early! But I wanted more time to fish.. and what bummed me out is when we went to target lings there were several spots that we had fish on or tons of lost bites in the area we were drifting and the captain kept moving us. maybe he was watching the bow not the Stern. He would say reel up and there was many times we were actually bringing fish in or getting tons of hits fishing for lings.. that was so frustrating. I don't want to keep moving every 5 minutes. I want to keep my pole in the water a little longer when we have big fish coming in and lots of hits. Many times I wanted to bring my line back in and recast so I wasn't tangled with others but I was afraid the minute I did We would be told to reel in and move. I just feel he called it too soon on a few drifts because I felt he didn't see the stern fishing action and only the bow. STILL this is by far the BEST charter I have been on for rock fish. The fact they changed gear and allowed us to try for lings gives them 5 stars. The guys are great. I don't know about the swell height limits someone else said. The ocean was calm this day. Thankful for mother nature as well for that...

Let me preface this by saying my review is for a single trip in which the ball was dropped for our family - our previous experience was very enjoyable and safe. This 1.5 hour whale watching trip, however, was not.

We got on the boat with 5 children - an infant strapped to my chest, two toddlers, and two elementary - aged. We were quite literally strapped and there were approximately 20 other people on the aft of the boat, so we made the foolish mistake of taking the bow area. This part has no seating. Neither captain nor his mate mentioned that it was going to bounce harder than a tricked out hydraulic Caddy up on that thing. Suffice to say, it was a mess.

The ocean appeared calm to us landlubbers, but belied a a temptuous underbelly shooting an onslaught of waves into our fair harbor. The boat hopped, we held on well for the first few minutes, until my 1.5 year old had his first experience with g forces on the Outer Limit. Screaming ensued. Minutes of sheer terror stretching seemingly into infinity...I sincerely thought one of my children might slip off the bow of the boat.

The mate eventually came and helped us after I had fallen to the deck with the baby and 1.5 year old. Some exceptionally kind fellow travellers saved the day by helping ferry the children to the back and bringing my abandoned camera bag and purse back. I was thrown off my feet on a particularly harsh assault while trying to make my way unassisted to the back with the baby and toddler, which left me with a very painful bruise on my thigh where I caught the edge of the deck trying to shield the baby as I lurched. I am very steady, which perhaps led folks to think I'd be ok on such waves with two children, but I was not superhuman today.

The rest of the boat was not as kind as the nice people at the front and we were mostly forced to stand, receiving dirty looks from a gaggle of inconsiderate trollops for existing. The kids were fairly calm most of the remainder of the trip and it was overall a very fun experience.

The boat trip alone is WORTH IT. If you like speed and g forces, this is a unique, exhilarating experience even if you don't see whales. They can't control the whales' migratory schedule, but there is generally some kind of sea life and THE VIEWS! AH! Unparalleled from a boat...Just use caution if you bring children. Sit at the back or you might end up like we did. Perhaps Dockside and their crew could be more forward in warning people that have children or might otherwise be unstable that they ought to have priority seating at the back? There's only a few seats and the cabin is just...icky. Not somewhere you can enjoy the ocean views...You could avoid this by asking passengers if anyone has stability concerns and asking other riders to give up their seats...because very few will do it out of the kindness of their...