Riptide Charters

I don’t agree with the other reviews that are based in the friendliness and cleanliness of a fishing boat. This boat has what you need to catch the limit of 10 rockfish per person. Our boat also caught 7 lingcod, saw whales, saw sunfish, and made it home safely. The deckhand did his job of cleaning the fish, untangling lines from our faults, and put on our fishing setups. No need for super friendly help at 7 am anyways. Good job Riptide!

Our mom passed away 6 years ago. I called Captain Smitty to arrange for the scattering of the ashes. I made a deposit. At the day of the scattering, we waited for almost 45 minutes and he never showed up. I kept calling and finally was able to get a hold of him. Guess what??? he forgot… worse things… he did not even apologize.
Luckily another boat Queen of the Hearts just came back and the captain was so kind enough to offer his help to do the scattering.
Although it has been 6 years, II could never forget about this experience. At that time there was no «yelp», to write comments.
I think one star was Riptide was too generous.
There are many ashes scattering options in Sausalito or at the Marina Berkeley.

I don’t know how all the reviewers so far saw the captain as mean, unless they are of course the tourist fisherman that fishes once a year or less. The captain was light hearted, funny, and never showed any signs of anger. The only time anyone yells is when there is a big fish on and that is simply to get the idiots out of the way (or anyone for that matter who just didn’t happen to notice) How would you feel if someone next to you caused you to lose your prize catch because they didn’t move or wind up their line? People would be writing a different story in these reviews if the crew stood by passively while someone clueless caused you to lose a monster. They need room to gaff or net! The Captain put us on the cod (30 lber landed that day) and provided depth information and the level of the fish at each stop. Then there is the deck hand Lee. Lee is awesome! He provided guidance the whole trip and he managed to keep a boat full of very inexperienced people fishing even when they were snagging bottom (I managed that a few times and he saved my rigs.) and tangling with people left and right due to inexperience or simply refusing to use the proper weight and gear. If you go out with this captain, the only factors that can sour your experience are out of your control, such as weather, or maybe not having the best luck that day.

I love going out on the Riptide with Captain Smitty! He is a great captain and tries his best to get everyone a fish. It is not his fault if the fish just aren’t biting, it is called fishing not catching. I prefer the smaller boat that the Riptide is because it means less people and just isn’t so chaotic. I go fishing yearly for my dad’s birthday and the Riptide is our first choice. I personally enjoy Rockcod fishing more than Salmon fishing because of the fact that you are almost guaranteed to go home with your limit, though I did go Salmon fishing last year and had a good time even though I didn’t catch anything (my dad did though). Captain Smitty is a captain that truly cares about his vessel and the people that are aboard.

just a killer time on the Riptide. The captain knew exactly where the fishes were. We caught our first lincod ever and also hit our limits on rockcod. Big thanks to Lee the deckhand for being super helpful and professional. Shout out to season fisherman Ted for being super helpful to me and my girl.
I’m definitely going back to the Riptide for my next fishing trip!

The absolute worst experience fishing and should be deem the ripoff fishing boat.
The captain was an overweight individual whom was pushing people around as if he never chartered a party boat when we had a fish on. The mini tug boat was over-​booked and was fishing shoulder to shoulder as if we were sitting in a bath tub. The diesel motor was roaring constantly that I lost hearing in both ears for the 8 hour trip.
The deck hand Eric was inexperienced and starting venting his frustration because the lines being tangled. What you expect when you over book 17 fisherman when at most should hold 12 maximum.
The Captain NEVER explained once what depth we should be fishing at and left it up to us to figure this out. Which explained why we caught 12 Salmon, less then one fish per rod.
Don’t spend and waste your money with this party boat as your are better off sitting at home where you are not being yelled, pushed about and screamed at by both captain and inexperience first time deck hand Eric.
Save your money, protect your hearing and avoid this boat at ALL COST. The booking company is Half Moon Bay Sportfishing and Tackle. I recommend asking FIRST which boat before you book. The queen of heart is 50′ and riptide is 40′ but about 40% smaller and a lot less experienced with both captain and deck hand.

We tried to fish in April and the wind blew us off the water :(. But this is not why I am giving 1 star.
We went back to fish again (we were given rain checks) yesterday June 26… we drove 1.5 hours leaving at 4 am to get there on time…
When we loaded the riptide we overhead the captain telling someone we had a 3.5 hour trip out… we couldn’t believe it! We were still excited though because the bite had been good and we were going to get fresh salmon!
So we took out 3.5 hour one way trip and fished for about 45 min & only 1 person caught a fish, so the captain decided to go find another spot.
We moved for about another hour before we finally stopped and fished again. For about 45 min… then guess what??? It was time to head back!
So we had a 7+ hour boat ride and got to fish for less than 2 hours… it’s not the fact that we caught nothing… it’s the fact that they drug us out for a 7 hour trip and we really had no chance to even catch anything!
Huge waste of time and money!!!
I wish they had told us ahead of time it’s a 7 hour round trip boat ride… we probably wouldn’t have even gone out.
BEWARE!!!
On a good note, the deck had lee and the captain were super nice and helpful…

We chartered Captain Smitty to go out and scatter ashes. He was late bringing the previous charter back but called to tell us he would be about 15 minutes late. When we got on the boat both he and his deckhand (I forgot his name) welcomed up and tried to be light-​hearted about what we were going to do and the rules of the vessel.
Once we got the the site where we were going to do the ceremony, they waited until we were done (which ended up going much longer than originally anticipated), did a circle around the site where we scattered the ashes and then took us back.
What I really liked is that the Captain gave us the coordinates of where we left the ashes.
I would recommend his service to anyone looking for a good boat to go out on.

Screwed up our weekend, cost us money and disappointed a kid. Boo hiss.
We booked three places on this boat to go Salmon fishing. At almost 6 o’clock the night before a scheduled 5 – 5:30 am departure, we got a call to say that the trip was canceled since they did not have enough people. Salmon is in season and the weather is fine if a bit blowy. Other boats were going out but are now full.
We had hotel reservations so we could roll out of bed for a 6am departure. Unfortunately, we were unable to cancel them due to the late notice.
I understand the reality of the situation that they would have potentially lost money given the cost of fuel and pay for the crew, but we could have possibly drummed up others if we were given some amount of notice. If we were told earlier, we could have possibly gotten a reservation on another boat. We were told that «the parents were away» and that somehow they either forgot to call us or didn’t figure out until late afternoon that they had too small a party
Running a fishing boat has to be a tough way to earn a living. I’m guessing that bush league stuff like this only make it tougher.
Maybe you will have better luck with these guys. I personally would stay away.

I’ve been on the Riptide numerous times and i have to say every time i went i had a lot of fun and caught a lot of fish. Each time I went everyone caught their limit of fish in no time. Captain Smitty is very knowledgeable and knows his boating and fishing. Zack, the deckhand is very helpful and will get your fish on the boat for sure. The times I went I was lucky enough that one of Captain Smitty’s friend/​Assistant named Ted on the boat. He knew a lot about fishing and helped out all at the same time he was reeling in a fish! Great place to fish for seasoned fisherman and even beginners just looking to have a great time. 100% Recommended.

Captain Smitty of the Riptide is not only a bad captain as far getting you into a good spot to catch fish (he took us to a place where there were about 6 or 7 other boats around all catching nothing) but he’s also an asshole in general to those who shell out there hard earned cash to go fishing on his boat.
Allow me to explain why I’m so quick to call him an asshole and I’ll let you decide if you agree. One of the people in our party wound up in the hospital two days before the trip and ended up needing major surgery. When our friend called to let him know that he was hospitalized and that he wouldn’t be able to make it Captain Smitty LAUGHED AT HIM when he asked if he’d be able to cancel his reservation (the guy is in the fucking hospital for Christ’s sake! Was it really necessary to laugh at him?) and then cheerily informed him that he would still be getting charged as if he had went out on the boat. I understand having this policy in place to keep boat reservations legit and prevent flakes, but maybe an exception considering his situation and the fact that there were still 5 other people still attending from our group may have been in order. Aside from that he had a bad attitude in general and didn’t make you feel welcome on board at all.
Next up on the list of disappointments is the fact that the boat is such a small little relic of a thing that you feel every single wave that he navigates through, and plow through the waves he did, causing not just the majority of my group to become gravely seasick but the majority of the other paying customers on the boat as well (never seen so many people in such unhealthy shades of yellow).
As if him being a complete sea-​faring douchebag and us all being sick as dogs weren’t bad enough we didn’t catch a fucking thing!!! He barely took us out that far from the harbor and there were about 6 or 7 other boats trolling around in plain sight! Maybe try taking us somewhere we can fish on our own Cap’n! A novel idea I know but one that obviously never dawned on Captain Smitty.
The only reason he gets an extra star is because his deckhand was cool as all hell and had a lot of helpful tips about what to look for in future fishing trips.
So let’s review what you get for 120 dollars aboard the Riptide shall we…
–1 Surly captain that makes you feel as though you are some scurvy stowaway that he’d rather not have anything to do with.
–8 Cases of extreme sea sickness
–0 Fish
With numbers like this I can’t help but wonder why this guy isn’t filling up his boat on a daily basis. I mean I just don’t understand why no one would want to shell out 120 clams to partake in this wonderful experience!
In all seriousness though I understand now why he kept our hospitalized friends money. He almost certainly never gets business because he’s an open seas grifter that couldn’t sniff out fish at the power exchange.