J & M Sportfishing — Local services in Monterey

Ventured from San Diego to visit friends in Monterey and took the opportunity to jump on a rockcod and crab combo trip the weekend before Thanksgiving. Had a wonderful time and got an opportunity to see another style of party boat sportfishing. We were on the New Horizon on the half-day departing at 6:30am and returning at 2:30pm, the boat allows for a small cooler and that was a clue that the boat had limited galley. While you can grab chips, soda, bottled waters, and beers you would be missing the quinticentual boat burger we are so used to on Southern California party boats.

Our trip consists of dropping down on rock piles on a drifts with out dropping anchor. The tackle consist of 40lb. monofiliment line attached to double 4/0 shrimp fly dropper loop setup tied to a 10oz sinker tipped with strips of squid. Not much different what we do in half day trips back in San Diego. We consistently pulled up Vermillions and other rockfish at depts ranging from 120ft to 240ft until noon then we proceeded to go pull and reset the crab traps.

Our party had our sacks topped off with our limits of rockfish and 2 crabs per person, the crabs were devided at the end of the after all the traps were pulled and rebaited by the us on a rotation. The fish we had the deck hand filleted and left a few gilled, gutted, and scaled ready to steam which we did later...

If you ever receive this email on the day of your fishing trip, please cancel it! I understand that a waiver was required to be signed prior to departure, but this trip should have been cancelled. We were placed in unsafe conditions, and in very rough waters. It was poor decision making by the Captain. We left dock in the afternoon which gave the crew time to consider weather conditions. It was a full boat, with 30+ people, and it would’ve resulted in a productive day which implied that money was more of a priority than customer safety. It was a collaborative decision, between the company and the Captain. My husband couldn’t even stand still while fishing because the boat would not stop rocking. As a result of that, he did not have the chance to fish and it was a waste of money. The boat rocking caused my dad to fall and hit his head, which resulted in a trip to the emergency room. They only had one bathroom and my mom and I used it simultaneously to throw up. Since other people were feeling nauseous, while my mom and I were in the bathroom, they had no choice but to vomit in the ocean. Several people threw up and got sick on the boat. I will never consider this boat again...

FALSE ADVERTISING on time spent on the water! Deck hands were great. Very friendly, eager to help and very professional. However, the captain cut the trip short and few people limited out. (At least in the back of the boat where our group was fishing) We departed at 6:45, had fun, caught some rock cods, then we had to start reeling in to turn back at 11:15! This is no exaggeration. We docked close to 1:00 instead of 3PM as stated. Everyone was very upset. Some more than than others specially since we drove 3 hours from Fresno to get shorted on fishing time.

Just saw the results of yesterday's trip. 12 ling and 253 rock cod between 36 people. Which sounds good but do the math and that's 7.083 fish per person. I'm confident everyone would have limited out if we spent the advertised amount of time on the water.

A group next to ours complained to the captain and paid an extra 20$ each to fish for 4 more hours so a gesture was attempted to right a wrong. I just don't see paying someone more boat time when it should have been done in a timely manner in the first place. Very disappointed with this charter. Strongly do...