Chris’ Fishing Trips and Whale Watching

Not much of whale watching. I consider it a dolphin watching. Not a very much glance of whale… very distant. We brought a Groupon so gave it try… I don’t think it worth whole amount. The boat is ok…

These guys are awesome, we plan on coming back in August or September to see the humpbacks. Seen tons of dolphins and a few feet whales, the deckhand on board was great and really informative. They actually have compassion for those who got sick and instructed them on what to do and not to do and even gave them ginger to chew on and relieve it. I’d highly recommend them out of any other on the wharf.

Had a Groupon deal, we were not disappointed. The ship may be smaller and not as new as other boats however we received excellent customer service from start to finish. We saws whales, sea lions and Dolphins so close to the boat you could almost reach over and touch them. Thank you Chris you were right we had a blast. Till next time :)

You want to go fishing you say? You want to catch the big fish you say? Well look no further… These guys have the ling cod game down so good it’s not even funny. To put it in perspective: the boat I was on had 96 ling cod on it when we came in with 32 anglers. That’s ling limits for everyone. It wasn’t a fluke because these guys put up ling limits almost every day. Their bait fishing method is where it is at. I have been on party boats with Chris’, Randy’s, Stagnaro’s and Half Moon Bay Fishing locally. While those companies will most definitely get you your limit of small rock cod to get a limit of ling is usually farfetched unless it’s an exceptionally awesome day. (I have never personally caught a ling limit with any other company than Chris’). On the checkmate we spent the first part of fishing getting live sand dabs and mackerel for bait. AKA THE KEY FOR THE BIG BOYS. Then we moved to the reef dropped our lines and BOOM we were in ling cod heaven. EVERYONE was hooking up. I had so much fun and caught so many awesome hard fighting fish. Last friday was hands down most fun fishing I have had all season. Thanks Chris, I can’t wait to come back! Roy the deckhand was awesome as well as the Skipper. Always right there to help you out when you need them. I would give these guys a million stars if I could.

Reservations made two weeks ago, 5 guys took 3 days off to go fishing… Chris’s cancels our reservations… Under booked, they said… Thanks for the lousy service…

I have never been so disappointed in at $ 37 + 3 hour whale watching — basically nothing. If you consider a successful day of whale watching seeing the top 4 inches of a whale and a small tail you’re in sad shape.

We enjoyed our Whale Watching trip with Chris. Saw a number of breaching humpback whale, sea lions, sea otters and hundreds of dolphin. We liked being on a smaller boat. Captain was very interesting and knowledgeable. We would recommend this trip if you are visiting Monterey Bay. A word of caution: DO NOT park and pay for parking in the City of Monterey Waterfront Parking lot unless you want to walk… fees are non-​refundable. There is another parking lot closer to Wharf #1 where you take a ticket and the gate rises. Parking is $ 1 per ½ hour. To get $ 2 off Whale Watching, mention the web site or use the $ 2 off coupon in the Chris’ Whale Watching brochure.
Visited September 2015

Took a bunch of guys from my company to fish with Chris today. No fishing for live bait, used just frozen squid. Only got 4 lings to keep for 15 people, while the other boat that Chris operates did 22 lings for the same 15 people. Why would there be such a difference? Bait, location, captain? Probably a combination.
In addition, every time we lost tackle on the reef, they were asking for $ 5 – 6 to cover a new setup. Really after we paid nearly $ 1800 for the whole shebang which is the full retail price?
Good thing is that the deckhand was very helpful. But I would clearly go back to Randy’s fishing next time for my team building, Randy’s personalized the trip for us, gave us live bait put on big fish, this boat (Caroline) and captain just wanted a slack. Even the parking validation, I had to come back ask for.

If you are looking quality rockfish (rock cod) fishing, his captains and this place knows where to go! Randy is new to rockcod fishing so they aren’t as successful in getting different kids of rockfish as Chris’ fishing trips! We had Tink and Roy was on our boat and they were so friendly and helpful. I love these guys and they totally helped with my research with vermilion rockfish. I’ll be back for sure!

100% worth it.
I was born and raised in the Salinas Valley/​Monterey Bay… and I’ve done a lot of fishing since I was a kid. Never have I ever taken a charter tho. Every year for fishing my brother and I plan a different fishing trip with our dad for Father’s Day. We decided to give it a try.
Totally worth it. We met up at 6am at the dock, loaded up with about 30 other people, and headed out.
Staff was amazing. Quick to gaft fish out of the water for us, and untangle lines for those who were less experienced. Everyone on the boat caught limits by 2pm. We were all extremely satisfied aboard the Star of Monterey boat.
I highly recommend them. Bring a cooler of food and beer, and your set!
Thanks again guys!

Fishing trip was scheduled but they cancelled at the last minute! It was calm out there but I only saw s few customers.
We drove 3 hrs from Sacramento to do this assured by a rude person on the phone… Yes, he was just rude!
Wish I saw the reviews first! Please don’t ever book with these people. I saw other reviews stating their rudeness which I experienced on the phone AND in person.
I also saw at least one report that thru lie about their catch of the day.
NEVER AGAIN

Fun fishing trip out of monterey… If you have any doubts about getting seasick definitely take meds BEFORE you leave… There were a few on the boat that could’t fish because they were so sick, and according to the deckhand it was a pretty mild day. The captain and deckhand gave good effort, and the fish we caught were not spectacular (mostly smaller rockies) but for the $ 75 trip charge I thought it was well worth it, and it is fishing so you never know what is biting… No problems with booking or departures as others have mentioned… I would recommend these guys.

We had a great time during our whale watching tour! Saw many whales, dolphins, and sea lions. I was a little nervous reading some of the bad reviews but was so happy we ended up using this company. We saw whales the last half of the tour and the size of the boat made it easy to go to the side where the whales were. On the way out to the whales we saw literally HUNDREDS of Dolphins and our boat was the perfect size to get close up to these amazing animals. If our boat were any larger, I’d be afraid we’d miss out due to size. I would choose them again in a heart beat!

Didn’t enjoy the Whale watching with my family today. 4 of us got seasick. I know that’s not entirely the boats fault… BUT…The Captain didn’t seem very proactive in searching for the whales. I believe we got sicker because we stayed in one spot for almost an hour. It was also odd that the captain would ‘reverse’ the boat every 10 – 15 minutes. Again, we ‘docked’ in one spot and maybe moving once or twice before heading back to land. We should have gone with the princess Monterey whale watching which had a significantly bigger boat. And we saw them cruised a lot further than we did. I believe, this company tried increasing their profit margin by using the least amount of gas by staying in one spot.

These guys weren’t my first pick for a whale watching tour (thanks to the Unilocal reviews) but I decided to go with them anyway since Monterey Bay Whale Watch and Princess were all sold out. I’d called on a Tuesday to book a 1.30PM tour the following Sunday. The person on the phone took my info and said that he’d reserved our seats. I was expecting to pay for the tickets right then but was told I’ll have to pay only before the tour starts. On a hunch I called them on Sunday morning to confirm the reservation and to my dismay found out that my name wasn’t anywhere on the list. There was no apology given and no effort made to accommodate us on the 1.30PM tour, they asked us to take the 3PM instead. No way was I going to make that mistake again.
The bad reviews are here for a reason, so beware if you’re planning on a trip with this company. I’ll never go back to these guys and neither will I ever recommend them to anyone.

Whale watching is all about timing. It’s being in the right place at the right time to catch those amazing tail flips. The whales were there. We saw quite a few of them. We even saw some flips. However, the most spectacular thing about this trip was cruising with hundreds of dolphins! It was amazing! Our captain kept us going right along with them.
I’m thinking if we’d been in a larger boat, we would not have had the experience we did with the dolphins.
It was a fantastic adventure and if in the area, we would go back with Chris’ Whale Watching. We’d also hope for another experience with the dolphins.
Amazing!

First of all we weren’t suppose to ride on Chris’ Whale Watching Tour. We’ve already purchased our tickets with Princess Monterey but 15 minutes prior to boarding, they informed us that they cancelled the tour. Unfortunately, they were unable to meet the minimum amount of passengers to sail so they refunded us our money and told us to go to Chris’. Chris’ boat is much more smaller compared to Princess Monterey. There were less than 15 – 20 people in our tour.
We set sail about 45 min to an hour away from the wharf. Along the way, we saw plenty sightings of Sealions, sea otters, dolphins, I even saw a porpoise, and of course whales! It was an amazing sight to see. Hundreds of Sealions and humpback whales working in unison to catch food. The captain which was also the educational narrator of our tour informed us that some tours there are none, a few, or a hundred whales around. He also stated that they are not allowed to get too close to the whales but they are more than welcome to get close to us. We got lucky to sight a few and they even got pretty close to the boat.
It was a perfect sunny day outside and it was a smooth sail round trip. Though, I highly recommend bringing a sweater or jacket because it gets pretty chilly! I enjoyed Chris’ very much and I would definitely use them again on a whale watching tour. Smaller tour makes the experience intimate and more enjoyable instead of fighting through crowds of people just to get the perfect view.

We went rock fishing last weekend. We caught a ton of fish, saw a huge pod of dolphins and briefly escorted by a small group of pilot whales.
Deckhands Dave and Torrey worked extremely hard and were helpful throughout, never taking a break that I noticed. Dave filleted our catch perfectly in the way back to shore. They must have been exhausted but you would never know it by how cheerful they were. They earn their $ on tips, not wages. I can only hope the other passengers knew this and tipped.
I only have a few small gripes. The boat was very crowded and easy accidentally catch another person’s line. Also bathrooms were very grungy — even considering its normal for people to sometimes miss their «target» while at sea. Perhaps some new paint and a good cleaning may help? Also it would be nice for captain to narrate a little more during the trip out where we are headed, interesting facts etc for us tourists
All in all I would use them again and have already recommended them to a friend

We had a lovely time on our fishing trip.
First off, many people DID get sick on the water. The water was pretty rough and the waves were big and people got sea sick. Unless you rent a whole boat out and aren’t on a charter, if you get sick you have to tough it out. Be prepared and bring meds and bread to calm the stomach if you are in fear of this. This is part of the fishing game and can happen.
We first fished for squid which turned out to be our bait. It took us quite a while to grab a bunch but it was a lot of fun bringing in more than one squid at a time and watching them squirt.
We caught a bunch of fish– more than we were able to keep and ended up sharing them with those that weren’t as lucky. Mostly rock cod– but a couple of big ones. We had to throw a bunch back because of fishing regulation (too small, or caught with the wrong hook).
We paid the deckhand to filet the fish at the end and he was super nice– a bit on the gruff side, but I found it charming in a way. We tipped him out and were surprised that many didn’t.
Next time we will bring our own gear and not do rentals.

We absolutely loved our whale watching trip with Chris’. We were originally booked on a Princess Monterey whale watching cruise, but they did not meet the minimum number of people to go out so they arranged for us to take this trip at the same day/​time after refunding our money.
First, Chris’ rate was a full $ 15 less for each ticket! The cruise still lasted a good three hours, was not overly crowded and we saw so many humpback whales to include a full breach and one that came up not more than 20 feet away from the boat. At one point we were surrounded by whales — to be honest I didn’t know which way to watch.
The staff was professional and informative. They shared information about Monterey’s history, the whales and other creatures we observed during our cruise. It was a sunny, calm day out on the water so it was a smooth ride and no one appeared to get seasick.
This is not the first whale watching trip we have taken in Monterey and will not be the last. I do have to say that by far this has been our best experience in a whale watching cruise yet and a must-​do for anyone visiting the area. We were seeing the whales every day from shore in Dec so taking the cruise this visit was a must. Just an absolutely wonderful experience all around!