Fisherman's Processing — Local services in San Diego

I returned from an 8-day trip and used Fisherman's Processing for the first time. I generally arrange my processing well in advance, but I got on this trip with only a two week notice. I had a hard time reaching anyone by phone during business hours, and was only able to confirm that they would process my fish as I was on board my trip heading out. Fisherman's has a good reputation, so I was glad to have them squared away to take care of my fish.

Upon returning from the trip, Fisherman's was at the top of the dock as promised and took my fish for processing. I did not get same day, so each fish was weighed and put in the bin for processing and freezing.

About a week later, I receive a call to come get my fish. I drove to their business and arrived with three coolers (one for wahoo, one for yellowfin and one for yellowtail - which is how I store it in my chest freezer). As I am sorting my fish into the coolers, I ended up with about ten pounds of yellowtail (from 200 pound of whole fish). So I asked if they had given me all my fish. They said they had. Speaking with the front office staff, I explained my situation. Had I not sorted the fish into separate coolers, I am not sure what would have happened. They inspected all my coolers, and made me feel like I was trying to pull something over on them. Eventually they told me they would "make it right" by "giving" me some yellowtail that they had extra (not sure where this came from). In total, I received 52.2 pounds of yellowtail (about a 25% yield), which is at the bottom of the processing yield posted on their website for yellowtail over 15 pounds (24-33% processing yield posted on their website).

So, while I did end up with yellowtail to take home, I had to wait while they put the yellowtail into 5 mil bags (what they had was in 3 mil bags). I have to wonder what happened to my fish, and whose fish I ended up getting. I felt like they did this begrudgingly, and I felt they didn't really care about my business. There was no apology for the mix up, and I am very unlikely to utilize this business again.

So, check to see if you have all your fish before you leave. Hopefully this is a rare occurrence, but I can not give a good rating with the...

My group and I made reservations with Fishermans Processing 4 months in advance for a 3 1/2 day trip out of H and M Landing and we then confirmed our reservation for same day processing before our trip. I have used FP on other trips without any problems. This trip experience with FP was very different and we were disappointed with their customer service and the way we were treated. First, although they knew that I was fishing out of H and M Landing, they did not have anyone there to meet us and did not let us know that we needed to take our fish to Fishermans Landing to meet them. Second, when they saw our fish, they said that it was frozen and that they could not do same day processing for us. We disagreed with Shawn and asked him to do a test cut to prove to us that it was frozen but he refused, only saying that he has been doing this for years and what he says, goes. Because we were from out of state, we had already planned to pick up our processed fish the same day as we were promised and could not change our plans at the last minute. Shawn told us to take our fish and never make a reservation with them again. We had to cut off the heads of our tuna to get them into our kill bags and Shawn made a big stink about us doing it in his parking lot but he created the problem by not accepting our fish. We showed his workers that none of our fish were close to being frozen and all they could do was acknowledge it but also said that Shawn was the boss. Shawn’s attitude was horrible and put a sour ending to our fun fishing trip. I would not recommend FP after this experience and how we were treated as a returning customer. I am taking my fish to 5 Star after my next...

I was fishing on the Islander last year in August for bluefin tuna. I was fortunate enough to land a 93.7 & 31 pound bft on this trip & needed to have my fish processed. I did not have a reservation beforehand so the captain was nice enough to contact Fisherman’s Processing to meet us on the dock on a Tuesday morning for those who needed this service performed. For starters, the gentleman who met us there seemed grouchy & grumpy, at least to me. I asked him if FP would contact me when my order was ready. He said no, just show up to FP in 2 days. Really? What kind of customer service is that? At least give me a time or a rough estimation when I should show up to pick up my fish. I learned later that FP doesn’t generally show up to the docks on Tuesday so maybe that explains the attitude? This gentleman I had an encounter with is I believe either the owner or the main manager. I have seen him conducting virtual tours of the facility on social media so he must be someone of importance at FP. Anyway my fish was expertly packed & processed & the employees working there at least were friendly. 5 stars for the processing & 1 stars for the negative attitude. 5 Star Processing on the other hand was happy to see me on the docks when I did my next trip & they were kind enough to send me a text message when my order was ready. FP might want to take...