Virg's Landing, Fishing Charters, Tackle Store & Marine Center — Local services in Morro Bay

I took my son and grandson on our first ocean "sportfishing" trip on August 1, 2014. While I am not an avid fisherman, I have fished for years

I learned quite a few things from this trip both from the business operations and from fellow fishermen.

We went on a half-day trip. If you want to catch big fish, you simply do not have time to get into deep enough water to get them. The biggest fish on our boat that day was a whitefish which a passenger said "wouldn't even be in the running on a long range trip". (You throw $5 into the pot to gamble on who gets the biggest fish.)

The entire mission of the boat is to get the passengers out to the fish, get the bags filled, and get back to port as quickly as possible while taking every opportunity to separate you from your money. This is readily apparent on the half day trips. Your trip is over when everyone has caught their limit, so everything that is legal to keep is "a good fish", a "nice one", or a "keeper", no matter how small.

This version of "Sportfishing" is basically a real life "Goldfish" game from a children's carnival. There's nothing involved other than dropping your line overboard and seeing what bites. You fish with a one pound weight and a two jig setup...for $7. You're BUYING them, not renting. It's a P U R C H A S E. (I should have suspected something when those setups came out of paintcans on the counter instead of their tackle selection...more on that later.)

if you don't have your own rod, you can rent them when you check in at their tackleshop. To rent three horribly backlashed and poorly maintained rods that looked like they were from the 1980s and purchase three setups, it was $63 (apparently, it used to be $10 per rod which would have been fair).

When you get to the boat, you show the ticket stamped "ROD" and you pick out a rental rod. Then you're offered the opportunity to "trade your setup for a pre-rigged rod" by tossing the weight and jigs into....guess what....no, seriously...GUESS...I bet you'll never...you did...A PAIR OF PAINT CANS that are obviously taken to the shop and set out for the next group of suckers.

Would you like to guess what is NOT available at the end of the trip? THOSE PAINT CANS!

When I went back yesterday to pick up my frozen fish from the shop, I asked about getting the weights and jigs THAT WE PURCHASED OUTRIGHT back. I was told "Oh, you should have cut them off of the rods when you left." I explained that they were never installed on the rods and that there were, in fact, ZERO RODS THAT WERE NOT RIGGED available, so there wasn't an option available to rig it yourself, that didn't matter to Mr. Old and Suddenly Cranky with glasses.

The deckhand with the gravelly voice was helpful, friendly, funny, and firm, but still polite, with the passengers who needed it. The Pre-Boarding lecture about keeping track of the number of fish in your gunny sack and them getting fined by undercover DFG agents a couple of weeks ago for being over the limit drove home the point, but I cannot see how "even the children on board will ticketed" if it happened again. (I confirmed later directly with the Cal Fish and Game that this statement was a load of bullcrap. The F&G agent was floored that they'd say that.)

The only orientation about the wildlife you get is a brief list of what we cannot keep due to fishing regulations. Apparently, there's a lot of "on the job" training involved in this. I'm sure the lady next to me would have loved to have known that the red rockfish have poisonous spines BEFORE she tried to land it herself. There were also a couple of instances of "LET ME GET THAT!" with some particularly nasty fish that can break free and go nuts once on deck, flailing around and envenomating everyone in its path. Forewarned is fore-armed and a little info ahead of time would be great.

As they were pouring the coffee onto her bleeding wounds, I asked "Did they try to charge you for the coffee?"

It's a tourist trap, fishing GRIND, and By God, they will squeeze every nickel and dime from you that they can.

Find...

Although having grown up in the Los Osos/Morro Bay area and leaving 33 years ago, I had never enjoyed a deep sea fishing trip, thus, this year, after starting an annual (sometimes more often) pilgrimage to my "old stomping grounds" starting 2019, a reservation was made with "Virg's Landing", which I remembered from my youth.

As luck would have it, the day of our trip, some poor seas were predicted and we were notified the previous day that we would be leaving an hour early. After paying for our pole rentals and obtaining our tickets, we met at the dock for the "Rita G." to begin embarkation.

The captain held a briefing informing us that there might be some chop and should conditions warrant, we would be turning back rather than pursuing a foolhardy attempt at fishing in an excessive sea state. Having brought 3 of my grandchildren, this was much appreciated, being a big fan of safety...

We departed the harbor, and as expected, there was some chop, but nothing which indicated a quick return to port. My 3 grandchildren, who I warned regarding possible conditions and were adamant in their desire to "land the big one", quickly discovered they had much to learn about the "lore of the sea", as one after another, they quickly became ill, this was AFTER receiving Dramamine...

True to his word, the captain put us on the fish! Which I could only admire from the cabin as my grandson held fiercely onto a plastic bucket while emitting copious amounts of vomit. We were not alone, however, as another participant was in a similar situation! Having spent a great deal of time at sea aboard ship, I, fortunately, did not find myself affected by the "motion of the boat", which left me in the unenviable position of playing "mother hen" to my now reluctant grandsons...

The crew and captain were great! And we did leave with fish and met some AWESOME folks! A special "shout out" to Aaron, who promptly provided a "barf bucket" and paper towels at the first hint of trouble! We did not partake of the food, for obvious reasons, but the bratwurst was tempting, and breakfast as well as lunch were provided. The beer was much appreciated on my end, I could have used a drink before we got underway!

I will say this, just the ride alone, even without the fishing, was worth it, the views of the coast, which is beautiful in its own right from the road were INCREDIBLE! And the trip back was SMOOTH SAILING, given the swell on the stern...

By the way, the kids LOVED the return trip and WANT TO GO BACK, which will be provided for next year. HIGHLY RECOMMEND! Oh, and by the way, as I recall, EVERYONE who was fishing caught...

Just had a very interesting experience with this company. we were planning an awesome family fishing trip. we arrived at check-in, and the owner said he needed to see all going on the boat, so we all came into the shop to sign in as we are all standing in front of the owner 4 adults and 3 small children he said kids under 16 just write that they are under 16 on the sign up sheet we said 3 of our party is not fishing he asked if we know where the boat is we said no this is our first time going then tells us how to get to the boat we get to the boat and the captain pulled in as we walked in the gate and said is the 2year old going we said yes he said no children are allowed on the boat today because its a full boat we said huh we wasn't told that at the shop then he said NO children under 50lb can be on the boat the last time he did and it didn't work out and we said we was not informed of this so I asked for a full refund he said yes we can we went back to the shop we explained this to the owner and he said oh yes no children under 50lb per cost gard rules?? So crazy thing I called days before and asked about pricing for children 3 and under if same price as adults person on phone said it's the same on ¾ day No mention on under 50lb No go, as we sign up No mention of under 50lb can't go only found out from the captain so I asked for full refund and he said he can refund one ticket and I said I was told we would get full refund so im disputing the charge he said its on the website. And all it says is we encouraged children to go We only (carry) life jackets for 50lb and up... bad experience now i will fight for...