Venice Charter Operations - Who to use and who NOT!

[Earl]

Our January trip on the Delta Dawn booked through Delta Dawn charters was fantastic. It was a successfull trip on a great boat with a super crew. Three of the 6 of us on that boat caught personal bests that morning. I would not hessitate to fish on the Delta Dawn again.

Another charter service that likes to take credit for things supplied the mate for the trip and he was fantastic, professional, and extremely knowledgable (same with the Delta Dawn's Captain).

But the other charter service made claims that the only reason our team caught fish on a day when most boats did not was due to the mate. Point of fact, the reason we caught fish is we were an overnite trip and were setup at the lump before everyone else. It was an early bite..pure and simple. We had a 156lb and a 165lb yellowfin in the boat before the other boats were even anchored. Then things pretty well shutdown for everyone though we did pickup another 143lb slow trolling what few live baits we had from the previous nite. There is also a simple matter that we know out to catch fish, each one of us investing large amounts of dollars into our own rigs and gear which were used and spending every available chance we can out on the water in the persuit of tuna. We aren't tourists in other words.

The reason there were 6 on our boat was that our party of 12 had booked 3 boats. The Delta Dawn and 2 with Xtreme Fishing Charters. When we showed up at the dock neither of the Xtreme Fishing Charters boats booked (and deposit of $1000, $500 ea paid) (32' Topaz, 31' Rybovich) was available. One was down for repairs and the other was "unavailable" - ie, chartered. This we took as no sweat as our charter had been moved up 2 days in order to catch a favorable weather window. Another boat was made available and so we split our party up - 6 on each boat.

At the after charter dinner it was agreed with the head of Xtreme Fishign Charters that the deposit paid on the unnused boat would be refunded. All 12 of our party were in attendance at the dinner and heard the discussion between Al Walker and our Charter Master Scott Townson.

That was late January. It is now late April - 3 months later, and still no refund.

That will be our parties last charter with that particular operation.

Al Walker tried to take credit for the recent LA record yellowfin catch even though he had nothing to do with it.

He tried to take credit for the success of our January trip aboard the Delta Dawn when he didn't have a thing to do with it. One of his Captains - Eddie Burger did serve as the Mate but Eddie does this with many outfits in Venice and as my post indicated it wasn't relevent to our catch that day.

Also, even though we made our lodging arrangements seperate from Xtreme Fishing - made it ourselves through Delta Dawn Charters, he interjected himself in the middle and tried to obtain the full lodging fee to pass on to the lodging manager even though we had allready negotiated a discount due to other factors. He knew this and intended to pocket the difference.

He also attempted to gouge us on a 2nd trip. Some wanted to go out the next day. His normal charter fee is I believe $1200 per day plus gas/ice. The negotiated amount was $1k (gas and ice included). He then tried to get gas/ice added back in.

I'll say it plain and simple - he's scum and I won't ever go out on any charter remotely related to him again. Never - plain and simple. And I would not recommend him to my worst enemy.

He has grown too accustomed to catering to high rollers that either don't notice or don't care about the gouging or getting stiffed here and there.

I could go into more actions that aren't what I consider professional either - such as on that 2nd trip. You realize how serious us allcoasters and bluewater posters are. All with our own gear. All pretty knowledgeable about tuna fishing, techniques, etc. Well on that trip he baby footed these anglers as if they were 1st time tuna tourists - hooking and handoff. I'm glad I wasn't on it. He also made the mistake when one of the anglers had succeeded in hooking a nice yft on iron of cutting the WRONG line in a tangle - bye bye fish. This was no 1st time deck hand but the vaunted Al Walker himself.

Delta Dawn Charters on the other hand as I stated in the post on the link was and is an outstanding operation. I'd not hessitate to go out with them again or reccommend them to my best friend.

In years past our party has also had good luck with Reel Peace charters.

Earl