Last-Minute Fishing Charter Deals in Santa Monica Bay

Why Los Angeles anglers fish Santa Monica Bay

Marina del Rey exists because Congress paid for it. President Kennedy signed H.R. 157 into law, and the harbor was dedicated on April 10, 1965 — 807 acres, about half of it underwater, with 4,602 boat slips across 22 anchorages and marinas. Los Angeles County owns the whole thing and leases it out; the county's Department of Beaches and Harbors runs it. When it opened it was the world's largest man-made small-craft harbor, and it is still the largest man-made marina in North America.

Redondo Beach has something better than acreage: depth. The Redondo Canyon begins less than 525 feet (160 meters) from shore just south of the harbor, cuts more than 1,380 feet down into the continental shelf, and widens from roughly 2,165 feet at its head to about two miles where it finally bottoms out in the Santa Monica Basin. That is why a half day out of King Harbor can fish genuine deep water without a long run, and part of why the surf outside the harbor is usually calm — the canyon, the breakwater and the south jetty take the swell apart before it reaches the beach.

The practical appeal is drive time. From Santa Monica, Venice, Culver City, Westchester or anywhere near LAX, Dock 52 is minutes off Lincoln Boulevard. From Torrance, Hermosa, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes or the 405 corridor, King Harbor is closer than any other working landing. Nobody fishes Santa Monica Bay for a bucket-list tuna trip. They fish it because it is a half day they can actually get to before 7:30 in the morning.

• Two landings, about eight miles apart, both running open-party trips year-round
• The cheapest adult half-day tickets we found on a California landing schedule in October 2026
• Free parking at Marina del Rey; paid harbor lots at Redondo
• A bottom-fishing bay first — rockfish, sculpin, whitefish and bass carry the schedule, not tuna

Marina del Rey Sportfishing: Dock 52, three boats, $60 half days

Marina del Rey Sportfishing operates out of Dock 52 at 13759 Fiji Way, (310) 822-3625, and runs three open-party boats. The New Del Mar is the workhorse: a 75-by-25-foot hull built in 2002, owned and skippered by Rick Oefinger and Rick Carbajal, running two half days every day — one at 7:30 a.m. and one at 12:30 p.m. The Spitfire takes the three-quarter-day freelance trip, and the Betty-O runs a three-quarter-day bottom-fishing trip for rockcod.

Behind the open-party fleet sits the private side: the Free Spirit for up to six people and the Tortuga, a custom 42-foot sportfisher. The landing also runs its own bait boat, the Mona Lisa, which keeps the fleet and local boaters supplied — one reason bait is included with every fishing ticket here rather than sold as an add-on.

The fine print is short. Rod, reel and tackle rental is $15. Anglers 16 and older need a California license, and every boat carries one-day licenses — no ID required. Bring cash for anything you buy aboard. Ice chests, coolers, alcohol and anything illegal are not allowed on public trips. Parking is free. The landing asks for the obvious outdoor kit: hat, sunglasses, sunblock, a light jacket and flat-soled shoes with good grip, no heels.

Redondo Beach Sportfishing: King Harbor, and the $10.35 counter penalty

Redondo Beach Sportfishing is at 140 International Boardwalk, (310) 372-2111, inside King Harbor. The landing says it has been operating since 1955, and it runs four fishing boats plus two tour boats. The Redondo Special is a 65-by-18-foot boat that takes up to 60 anglers and has, by the landing's own account, been working this coast for more than sixty years; it runs an AM half day from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and a PM half day from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., seven days a week. The Navegante (65 by 20 feet, up to 30 anglers) handles the longer and overnight charters, the Pescador (50 by 17 feet, up to 20) runs the three-quarter day and the lobster trips, and the Betty-G is a 35-footer for groups of up to ten. El Rey and Vámonos are the tour boats.

One number is worth knowing before you drive down: a Redondo Special half-day ticket bought at the counter on the day of departure costs $10.35 more than the same ticket bought online. On a $62.10 fare that is a 17 percent walk-up penalty, and it is the easiest money to waste at this landing. Full-day tickets carry no counter surcharge.

Private charters are published here, which is unusual and useful if you are pricing a group. A weekday half day on the Redondo Special is $2,000 by check or $2,070 by credit card, rising to $2,500 and $2,587.50 on weekends, with a galley minimum of $300 to $450; a weekday three-quarter day is $3,600 or $3,726. The Pescador is $1,500 for a weekday half day and the Betty-G $1,100 — and the Betty-G is the one boat where you are told to bring your own food and drinks in personal coolers. The Navegante goes out to three days at $17,600, with meals included from the overnight up. Memorial Day to Labor Day rates run $300 to $400 higher.

• Rod rentals, a stocked tackle shop and one-day California licenses are all at the landing
• Galley service is aboard every boat and is cash only; no outside food or drink
• Harbor parking is about $2 an hour at the kiosks, or a $5 pass at check-in, cash only
• The ticket office is a short walk from the lots — the landing's own advice is to arrive early on weekends and holidays, because the lots fill

The state's top rockfish boat runs half days out of Marina del Rey

This is the fact that should decide where a Los Angeles angler books a bottom-fishing trip. In the 2026 year-to-date rankings on Sportfishing Report — the count network California party boats report to — the New Del Mar out of Marina del Rey leads every boat in the state for rockfish, with 37,832 fish on 134 trips, and leads every boat in the state for California scorpionfish, with 29,238 on 146 trips. The Spitfire, from the same dock, sits eighth for scorpionfish at 5,566.

Read the fish-per-angler column before you get excited, though, because it carries the honest half of the story. The New Del Mar took 10,944 anglers on those 134 rockfish trips — roughly 82 people a trip — and averaged 4.20 rockfish each. The Sea Wolf out of Emeryville averaged 9.90 on 1,991 anglers; the Coral Sea out of Santa Barbara averaged 8.73 on 3,188. Marina del Rey is number one by total fish because it is a very big, very busy boat running twice a day out of a city of four million, not because the rail is more productive than Santa Barbara's.

What that means in practice: book Marina del Rey for frequency, price and the near-certainty that the boat is going out, and expect a crowded rail. If you want elbow room and a higher count per person, that is what the three-quarter day on the Spitfire or the Pescador is for — or a port with longer runs and smaller loads.

What actually comes over the rail here

Both landings report their counts, so you do not have to take a brochure's word for it. October 8, 2026 was an ordinary Thursday at Marina del Rey: three boats, three trips, 122 anglers. The New Del Mar's morning half day put 65 sculpin, 25 whitefish, 5 sheephead, 4 yellowtail, 4 sand bass, 3 barracuda, a dorado and a mako shark on the deck for 57 people. The Spitfire's three-quarter day took 16 calico bass, 13 yellowtail, 8 sand bass, 6 bonito and a sheephead for 45. The Betty-O's bottom trip brought in 24 bonito, 20 whitefish, 5 sand bass and a sheephead for 20.

Two days earlier the New Del Mar landed a striped marlin on a half day, alongside 71 sculpin and 68 whitefish for 60 anglers. That is the kind of thing a warm year does to this bay, and it is not something you book for — but it is on the count sheet. On October 4 the same boat carried 130 anglers on a single half day and counted 155 sculpin and 51 whitefish.

Across at King Harbor on October 4, the Redondo Special's morning half day produced 51 bonito, 50 whitefish, 12 calico bass, 10 blue perch, 2 yellowtail, 2 sheephead, a sculpin and a black croaker for a full 60-angler load. Season to date the two landings tell the same story at different scales: Marina del Rey has reported 62,104 rockfish, 35,288 scorpionfish, 15,066 ocean whitefish, 8,313 kelp bass and 4,611 bonito for 2026, while Redondo has reported 13,695 rockfish, 9,298 whitefish, 3,827 kelp bass, 719 yellowtail, 597 sheephead and 344 barracuda.

Why fall trips here target sculpin and whitefish, not rockfish

Santa Monica Bay sits in CDFW's Southern Management Area, which runs from Point Conception to the Mexican border, and the 2026 groundfish calendar there has four phases. January 1 to March 31 is closed. April 1 to June 30 is open at all depths. July 1 to September 30 keeps nearshore species inshore of the 50-fathom line. From October 1 to December 31, nearshore rockfish, cabezon and greenlings are closed outright, and shelf and slope rockfish and lingcod may only be taken seaward of 50 fathoms.

That rule is the whole reason the October count sheets above look the way they do. California scorpionfish — sculpin — is not in the rockfish complex: CDFW's southern-region summary lists it as open year-round at all depths with a five-fish bag limit and no minimum size. Ocean whitefish is also outside the complex, open year-round at all depths, ten fish within the general twenty-fish daily bag. Neither species is glamorous. Both are legal in October when the rockfish are not, both live on exactly the hard bottom these boats fish, and together they are why a Marina del Rey half day still fills in the fall.

When rockfish are in season, the RCG complex limit is ten fish in combination per person, with copper rockfish limited to one, vermilion and sunset to two combined and canary to two. Quillback is zero retention year-round. Lingcod are two fish at a 22-inch minimum. Our bag and size limits guide has the full species list.

The advisory no brochure mentions: DDT on the Palos Verdes Shelf

If you are going to take fish home from this bay, you should know what is under it. From the 1950s to 1971 the Montrose Chemical plant in Torrance put DDT waste into the sewer system, which was treated and then discharged through the White Point outfalls off Palos Verdes; PCBs from other local industry went down the same pipe until they were banned in 1976. The EPA puts the total deposited on the sea floor at roughly 110 tons of DDT and 11 tons of PCBs, with peak emissions in 1971 alone of 21.1 metric tons of DDT and 5.2 metric tons of PCBs. That sediment now sits at depths of 150 feet and more as the Palos Verdes Shelf Superfund site. California banned commercial white croaker fishing near the shelf in 1990, and the sport-fish advisory that followed is still in force.

The Fish Contamination Education Collaborative, the EPA-funded outreach program for the site, marks the inner shoreline from Santa Monica Pier to Seal Beach Pier as a red zone — Santa Monica, Venice, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Cabrillo, Pier J, Rainbow Harbor, Belmont and Seal Beach piers included. For the shelf area it names white croaker, barred sand bass, topsmelt and barracuda as fish not to eat. Two of those four show up on the count sheets above, which is precisely why this section exists.

The species the program lists as healthier choices from these waters include rockfishes, California scorpionfish, kelp bass, California halibut, Pacific chub mackerel, bonito, jacksmelt, opaleye, sargo, queenfish, corbina, yellowfin croaker, Pacific sardine, black surfperch and shovelnose guitarfish — which, read against the counts, is most of what these boats actually catch. Serving limits are set per zone and per species by California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, so check the OEHHA advisory for the stretch of coast your boat fished rather than assuming one rule covers the bay. Eat skinless fillets, and bake, steam, fry or grill rather than cooking in the drippings.

• The advisory is about what you take home, not about whether to go fishing
• It is zone-specific: a trip that ran offshore or north of Santa Monica Pier is not the same as one fished on the shelf
• Ask the deckhand where the boat fished before you decide what to keep
• Sculpin, rockfish, calico bass and halibut — the bulk of these counts — are on the healthier-choices list

What a last-minute deal out of Santa Monica Bay looks like

Most deals here are open-party seats: you buy one spot on a trip that is already scheduled, show up at the landing and fish the rail alongside everyone else. Why those seats exist is visible on Redondo's own live reservation system. On the morning of October 9, 2026 the Redondo Special's AM half day had 23 of its 60 seats unsold and was flagged "this trip is a go"; the afternoon trip had 8 open; Saturday's two half days had 19 and 11; Sunday morning had 5 left. A 60-seat boat sailing with 23 empty places is the exact situation a discounted seat solves.

The small boats behave the other way, and that is worth understanding before you wait for a bargain. The Pescador's 20-seat three-quarter day was sold out on both Friday and Saturday, and its 10-seat lobster trips were sold out three nights running. On boats that size the open seat comes from a cancellation, not from slow sales — so the way onto one is a deal alert, not patience.

Marina del Rey's capacity works differently again. The New Del Mar runs two half days every single day and has carried as many as 130 anglers on one of them, which means there is almost always a trip and almost always room. Deals there tend to come from midweek softness, from weather pushing a trip and thinning the rebooked date, and from a private charter falling through and opening a date up.

When you click a Santa Monica Bay deal here you go to the operator's own booking page through an affiliate link or coupon code, you pay the boat directly, and Mixed Bag Sportsman earns its commission from the captain. Nothing is added to your price. Every submitted deal is reviewed by the owner before it is published, so the open seats you see are real ones.

• Open party, or open spot, means one seat on a shared boat — not a whole-boat charter
• Redondo publishes its private-charter rates; Marina del Rey quotes them by phone
• Buy Redondo half days online: the counter adds $10.35 on the day of departure
• You book directly with the captain, at the captain's price

Lobster nights out of King Harbor

Redondo is one of the few California landings that sells hoop netting as an open-party ticket rather than a private charter. The Pescador runs lobster trips from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. for $124.20 on a weekday and $134.55 on a weekend, with a ten-passenger load and a seven-passenger minimum, and the booking note tells you to bring a five-gallon bucket.

The 2026-27 recreational spiny lobster season opened at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, October 2, 2026 and runs through Wednesday, March 17, 2027. The limit is seven lobsters per person, the minimum size is 3 1/4 inches measured on the body shell, and everyone who fishes for lobster needs a Spiny Lobster Report Card on top of a fishing license. Our California lobster season guide covers the hoop-net rules, the report card and how the trips work.

Those ten seats sell out, repeatedly — they were gone three nights running in the second week of October 2026. If hoop netting is what you want out of this harbor, a deal alert is more use than refreshing the schedule.

Getting there, parking and check-in

Marina del Rey is the simpler of the two. Every trip leaves from Dock 52 at 13759 Fiji Way, parking is free, and the landing's guidance is to check your reservation for arrival instructions and to call (310) 822-3625 for anything the website does not answer. Leave the cooler in the car: ice chests, coolers and alcohol are not allowed on public trips. Bring cash for the galley, rentals and anything else aboard.

Redondo costs a little and takes a little more planning. Park in any of the lots marked red on the landing's parking map, pay roughly $2 an hour at a kiosk or buy a $5 pass at check-in — cash only either way — and walk to the ticket office, which the same map marks with a star. The landing's own advice is to arrive early on weekends and holidays because the lots fill, and to allow a few extra minutes to walk from the lot to the boat. The galley is cash only on every boat, and outside food and drink are not permitted.

Licenses are sold at both landings, so a missing license is not a reason to cancel. CDFW's current fees are $21.09 for one day, $32.40 for two days, $64.54 for a resident annual and $174.14 for a nonresident annual, plus the $7.30 Ocean Enhancement Validation required on annual licenses for ocean fishing south of Point Arguello — which includes all of Santa Monica Bay. Marina del Rey carries one-day licenses on the boats themselves and does not ask for ID.

Fishing Santa Monica Bay without booking a boat

Three license-free options sit within a few minutes of the two landings, plus one near-miss that catches people out. The Redondo Beach Pier needs no license or permit, but you have to fish the designated areas — look for the signs on the southwestern section of the pier. The Marina del Rey north and south jetties also qualify as public piers under California's rules, so no license is required there either.

The near-miss is the fishing dock at Burton Chace Park in Marina del Rey. It looks like a pier, it has a fish-cleaning station on the north side of the park's perimeter, and it is a perfectly good place to fish — but it is a dock, not a qualifying public pier, so everyone 16 and older needs a California license to fish from it. Either way, every other rule still applies: size limits, bag limits, report cards and seasons do not change just because the license requirement does.

If the trip gets blown out entirely, both landings sell whale watching. Marina del Rey runs it on the Betty-O for $50 an adult and $25 for children under 12; Redondo keeps two dedicated tour boats, El Rey and Vámonos, for the same job. Gray whales move through Santa Monica Bay in winter and early spring, and the dolphin and sea lion traffic is year-round.