Marina Del Rey Sportfishing

As always, I give my favorite boat 5 stars. I’ve easily been on the Spitfire about 50 times in the last five years and each trip, whether I limit out, or go home empty handed, it is the best thing I have done all week.
Easily as much fun is my second favorite boat, the New Del Mar. I only like the Spitfire more because it is a ¾ day trip. Anyway, the NDM has the best deckhands anywhere. And the kichen is the cleanest kitchen ever. That means a lot to me.
They’ve got my business. Love these guys and gals.

The great boat. We did the half day which didn’t go out very far. We got lots of rockfish and even calico bass. The staff is extremely helpful. We were on the Delmar. You can get a fishing license on the boat if needed. Fishing pole is extra. Call to reserve your spot and show up a half hour early at dock 52.

Man, what an experience. Victor and Eric were the ones on deck who made this experience everything and more. And for the price of the trip, it was hands down epic!
To get there go to dock 52 15 – 30 mins before its scheduled to leave and pay on the boat. You can rent fishing equipment, they provide bait, and you can buy day fishing licenses if you don’t have one. The new del mar was the name of the boat where this entire trip took place and it was frickin awesome.
4 hours of pure joy and they clean the fish you catch so it’s ready to cook for some awesome tacos. I can’t emphasize enough how awesome Eric was and he made the entire trip completely worth it and I plan on telling everyone about this.

I bought the half day fishing trip as a Christmas present for my boyfriend and he LOVED it (so did I!!!)
It seems a bit disorganized at first but everyone ended up getting their rental rods and bait without an issue and we all caught a lot of fish! They have deck hands who come around, get your fish off the hook, untangle lines, and are just generally helpful and friendly. They also fillet your fish on the way back for a dollar per fish which was awesome.
Galley has really reasonably priced beer and food. We would have never expected it on a boat but the burgers were amazing!
Overall, we had a great time and plan on doing this again and again!

My friend flew in from Colorado and I wanted to take her whale watching. I found this place on groupon and I wish I didn’t. They had to cancel the trip because only 6 people showed up and they needed a minimum of 10 people to go out. Of course something they don’t tell you at all before you buy the ticket. One of the guys that worked for this company failed to show any sympathy and quite frankly needs to take a class in customer service. That is ridiculous and disappointing. I understand that you need to cancel (even though they had 12 people signed up to go) but at least offer some sort of bonus for us like free passes for another time or something.
What morons. I ended up going whale watching however and went through Redondo Beach Sportfishing. That company was amazing and knew what they were doing. Please don’t waste your time with this stupid crew.

Ahhhhh Shit!
This was a fun time
Get a fishing license, rent a rod and bait is included
They took us out for a long time and it was badass highly recommended

Lots of littering of fishing lines and the capt got pissed at some japanese guest and threw there pole in the water

This place is great for fishing all year round !
The crew on Del mar is absolutely best deckhand. They are very tentative to their customers, Especially with kids. I’ve come many times and they are very consistent on there customer involvement. What I mostly like about Del mar sport fishing they welcome new or experienced fisherman.

Great boat. Clean galley. Tidy bathrooms. Supportive skipper and crew. The boat is 90 years old. Runs like a champ. Super roomy. Relaxing. Great customers. Reasonable. Accommodating. Three of us caught 4 big yellowtail. 6 calicos. 1 barracuda. A few bonitoes. The fish were all around the boat. Skipper nailed it!

Went on a whale watching trip yesterday morning having just brought a groupon the day before and could not have been more pleased. I was worried we wouldn’t get to see anything because it is not the «season» for whale watching but we actually saw a humpback whale! We saw a ton of sea lions playing and swimming around, multiple pods of Dolphins, and we even followed a humpback whale for a little while. It was very cool to see all of these animals so close to the boat and all swimming around together. Extra plus that they serve beer on this trip! (Only $ 3 for an ice cold beer!)
I would definitely recommend this to anyone!

Ok, so the only spouts we saw on our trip were human :(I don’t blame the company or crew because it was my fault for waiting till long after whale watching season to cash in on our Groupon. FYI — Whale season is roughly December to April.
Despite the fact that I was incredibly seasick, a girl spewed on my husband’s arm and another on his shoe, the crew was extraordinarily friendly and helpful. The deck hand was very kind to me and helped me with my struggle not to loose it over the edge of the boat and once the nausea calmed down, I was able to have a wonderful conversation with the naturalist on board.
I would go again if (a) I were smart enough to take Dramamine the night before and (b) it were whale season.

The whale you never see before! That true cause we never see nothing, even a dolphin, or a duck…
That was the worst trip ever in our life.
been with the a big group of my college, everybody sick cause the boat was pitching a lot.
The people on the boat had try to give us hope and told us We saw a fin, but was only from there imagination, synergy they had to saw the movie Free Willy earliest in the day. Because no one of the boat see something … Was super hot and they don’t sell sunblock.
The boat was so small and too many inside, worst experience ever for 40USD
I’m sure you can invest your money in better even if you just give it to a homeless person.

Took my husband on a 3 hour fishing trip. The boat was very prompt. Everything can be purchased on the boat. Pole rentals, fishing licenses and gunny sacks. You can bring your own of course.
Children under 16 does not need a fishing license.
The cost is about $ 73 for everything (adult price for license, pole rental and gunny sack). We shared a gunny sack.
We sailed out for about 45 minutes or so. Helpful deck hands assist you in baiting your pole (all bait is included) while the captain instructs you how to fish. The deck hands will help you too. We caught 6 fish! It was so cool! The captain can see the fish, so if you listen, you will catch something.
You can even catch a bite on the boat. Even though I personally didn’t eat on the boat, Unilocalers rave about the cheeseburger cooked to order. I gotta try this on my next visit.
This adventure is great for families and just a group of friends. I would definitely do this again.

I almost don’t want to write a review because then everyone will find this little gem. But yeah, it’s awesome. It’s a 3-​hour boat ride — WITH BEER — and the captain/​crew are awesome and very good at finding whales.
They take you way out into the Pacific and tell you what to look for to spot the whales and it’s all a fun time. Parking’s free. The boat is roomy. Go. I think this is a really awesome activity for people visiting LA, too.

Just back from an AWESOME day aboard the Tortuga with Cap’n Steve and Ziggy. Booked the boat a few weeks ahead of time with Rick… sent in a deposit via PayPal and had a few emails back and forth, was really impressed at the communication and information he shared before we left.
For father’s day, my wife and I took out her dad, his wife and my mom (5 of us total) and had TONS of room…20 people could easily fit on this boat without worrying about being in each other’s way or getting their lines tangled. Steve kept an eye on his fish finder, and we moved around a bit between the Marina and the Palisades catching tons of rockfish and red snapper.
Ziggy was great, always ready to bait a hook if someone wanted his help, or to take a fish off a line. He also filleted everything we caught (60+ fish between the 5 of us, plus a few more that Steve and Ziggy caught in between helping us out) and sent us home with 6 big bags of fillets.
As an added bonus, the weather was beautiful and we had tons of dolphins and sea lions around us in the afternoon… really couldn’t have asked for a better day on the water!
I’d reccommend these guys to anyone… my father in law had an absolute blast, as we all did, and he’s excited to come back next year for a new father’s day tradition. Thanks Rick, Steve and Ziggy for an amazing time!

I really wanted to give this place more stars because there is a part of me that loves being out on the ocean, catching… or pretending to catch fish (on my last trip with these guys there were only a few caught) I didn’t downgrade my stars based on that, that’s just fishing.
The reason that I dropped this down to 2 stars is that I found some of the deck hands to be obnoxious, unprofessional and actually just rude. Toward the end of the trip while we were coming back one of them threw trash into the ocean twice while he was cleaning up the boat… seriously!!!
I’ve used MDRS three times and always referred them to friends and coworkers because it was a good time. That’s not happening anymore, I can’t in good conscious recommend that anyone spend their hard earned money to be stuck on a boat with people that will sass them and disrespect the ocean.

We had such a great time! We left the dock at 7:30am. Caught 15 fishes total some big some small. We had a blast!

On Saturday, April 25, 2015, my husband and I took a dolphin and whale watching excursion, hoping for a thrill. Bingo! During the 3-​hour deep-​sea tour, we saw sea lions, sunfish, pods of frolicking dolphins and a breaching humpback whale. The experience was educational, fun and stimulating. If you plan to take this wonderful journey, purchase your tickets through Groupon for a two-​for-​one offer. You won’t regret it.

A whale of a tail…
* YES — Offers 2 departure times daily: 10am and 1pm, book by calling in
* YES — Deals offered online (we went with Groupon — note: expiration dates & extra fuel fee)
* YES — Bring cash if you want to buy snacks onboard (or bring your own)
* YES — Dec/​Jan means chances of rain, which we hit during our trip (prepare accordingly)
* YES — Small simple boat with indoor & outdoor seating, friendly crew
* YES — Free parking at dock
* YES — Friendly dolphins swam up next to our boat less than 15 minutes into trip~
We saw whales! That alone merits a good review…

So I read Christian L’s review from 8÷12÷2014 and I can’t believe how drastic of a difference one week makes. I went this past Sunday for a half day of fishing. Purchased a Groupon so price was $ 25 a person including equipment. However, along with a fuel surcharge of $ 5, bag rental of $ 2, fish cleaning fee of $ 1/​fish, and a fishing license for $ 15, the total comes out to be closer to $ 40 a person. Still a pretty good deal for what you’re getting but just be aware of all the additional charges.
As with any half day fishing boat, this boat was packed. Shoulder to shoulder with numerous line tangles throughout the day. I will commend the deckhands though on their speediness with attending to these tangles. Just holla and they magically appear by your side.
So, why the lack of stars? Here we go:
1) No live bait! This is the third time I’ve gone out on a boat in the SoCal area and the only time we’ve not had live anchovies to fish with. Instead, they had cut up squid that unfortunately, after lying out in the sun all day, tend to turn more into squid jerky. The difference live bait vs dead bait makes is unbelievable. We went from catching fish as soon as the bait touches the water on past trips to waiting 20+ minutes without a single nibble. What a disappointment. As a result, a large majority of the boat ended the day without catching anything while the rest of us caught maybe 1 or 2 very small rock fish. And yes, I understand that fishing is a game of luck at times but if it is a game, might as well start off with the best odds possible!
2) Parking situation. We were told to park at Dock 52 however when we arrived, the lot was filled with a cyclist group called the Dock Riders who had just completed their ride and were loitering in the lot with seats and drinks. I am an avid cyclist myself and fully support the rights of cyclists but good lord, this is EXACTLY the reason why so many people hate cyclists. The boat literally leaves from this dock so if anything, I assume that customers of this dock should have first dibs with parking in the lot. However, no such luck. When asking a cyclist if they planned on leaving soon, the response we received was «well you can pay for parking down the street». Thanks for nothing, Mr. Cyclist.
3) No option of shallow fishing. On every other boat I’ve been on, they’ve always given us the option of floor or shallow fishing. Even though it might not have a made a difference this time, it sure is easier to shallow fish especially for beginners!
Once again though, despite the lack of fish and the difficult parking situation, I will have to commend the group again on their excellent deckhands. Very friendly, informative, and hard working. Unfortunately, I don’t think I will be back to this location.