Davie’s Locker

I went on their boat redeeming a «sunset cruise» prepaid tix for a «holiday» boat ride around the bay. the sunset cruises are seasonal and has temporarily paused until the weather gets better in the spring. So super disappointed not to have had a sunset cruise. They should extend the «use date» since part of the season is not servicing sunset cruises. We also were not able to use our whale watch tour, too. Winter i guess may not be an ideal time for boating. Better luck in a warmer season.

Worst catalina fishing trip ever! did get about 10 miles from catalina! over booked over 80 people on boat max for 60, over 300 ft of water for first 2 hours, small fish, finally moved boat, tangles everywhere, only frozen squid for bait, gally made to fit small children! disgusting restrooms, dumped poo tanks in front of us, ½ hour of poo and toilet paper chunks! nice! 18 $ parking 8 $ gas charge, 2 $ burlap fish bag, chain smoking everywhere! san diego boats so much better in all ways, steer clear of this nightmare!

Amazing whale watching experience. Captain Larry was awesome. We saw the most majestic humpback whales — breach and tail breach. Captain Larry was informative and patient to allow our trip to enjoy this once in a lifetime experience! Definitely recommend to everyone.

Very disappointing in how certain things are handled… for instance I recently went out on an overnight trip on the Thunderbird. If you don’t show you have to pay… sounds fair doesn’t it? On the other hand bait is a huge problem of late… getting it for one and keeping it alive long enough to use. This was our problem right after leaving the dock… an issue the landing knew about before they took reservations for the trips… and all the fishing boats as well. I can’t blame Capt. Jeff, he’s doing his job to the best of his abilities given the tools he has available. It just not right that Davy’s Locker or for that matter any landing doesn’t have to disclose this kind of issue and you don’t find out until after they have your money and you’re underway… at that point what can you do? As soon as we were at the bait barge you could tell there was a problem, then the pep talk about how they’re doing the best they can with the bait available. The next morning everyone knew the problem had gotten worse, the bait was dying and the bait that was still alive wasn’t looking good and there was only enough to last a few hours of fishing. Which unfortunately turned out to be true but the Captain did manage to get a few more scoops from a couple other boats to help get us more fishing time but even the extra bait was in rough shape.
In the past the Thunderbird normally goes to fish the San Clemente Island which is about 60 miles but if you call Davy’s Locker they always tell you that it’s up to the Captain where he decides to fish but most likely it would be San Clemente Island which for me has always been some of the better fishing. San Clementie is normally an overnight trip because of the travel time which is about 6 hours. When you look up the fish counts the information given for area fished is local, offshore, coastal or island… island can mean Catalina or San Clemente. In the past week fuel prices have sky rocketed so are the boats trying to just go to the closet fishing areas to save on fuel? Catalina Island is about halt the distance of San Clemente Island so fuel costs have always been a consideration. Another thought is If there is only enough bait for 15 people don’t put 30 people on the boat. I’ve been on a few boat rides in the past because sometimes the fish are not biting… it happens.
In summary I think that any landing should have to disclose any issue that could impair the quality of a trip, then it’s up to you to decide whether you want to go or not. If the landing has been deceitful or not forthcoming with such information they should have to give a 100% refund… and not some voucher for a future trip, give me back my cash.