These guys gave us an amazing trip! It was my husband and I and our two kids, 13 and 14, who went…read more We are a family of hunters, so we are used to killing our own meat, but not necessarily fishing for it. My husband was the most experienced of us, having fished in lakes and rivers at home. I could take it or leave it but I love to eat fish, and let's be honest, reeling in fish is fun. My daughter loves to kill meat, but is completely vegetarian, so she was into the sport of it. And my son...God love him...most of his fishing experience is the Wii Fishing video game. He was eager to try something new he'd never done before, but he went into it not knowing how to hold a fishing pole.
Mike and Ryan were able to meet us each at our level of experience and made it super enjoyable for all of us. It was totally worth paying a little extra over some of the other charters to be the only people on the boat. It meant we had 100% personalized attention. Mike drives the boat and is a good conversationalist while Ryan, a younger guy who has enough energy for five people, mans the fishing poles, baiting them, casting them, and then once we got a bite and reeled in the fish, he grabbed the fish, took the hook out, and took care of putting the fish on ice until we got back to the shore. It was so enjoyable to only have to do the fishing and reeling and having all the other tasks handled for us. We never had to touch a hook or a fish! Mike and Ryan were super encouraging, especially to my kiddos and made the trip really special. These guys had an intimate knowledge of the water around Indian Rocks and knew where to find fish. And you can tell they love fishing!!!
My husband and kids rotated the fishing duties while I mostly sat letting them have all the opportunities to catch fish they wanted and took pictures (I did reel one in...and it was the biggest of the day! ). I had been dreading the trip and was planning on just "taking one for the team" so my family could have a good time. I suffer from POTS, myalgic encephalomyelitis, and idiopathic hypersomnia and the thought of a half day on a boat with no where to go if I had an attack seemed awful. Fortunately, the boat was very comfortable! It was super clean, and well maintained. There is a little bit of shade on the boat, but many times the hot Florida sun did beat down on us. We went in the morning at day break, though, so it wasn't until the end of the trip I started to get hot. There was a large cushioned place to sit in the middle of the boat, perhaps 4'x5' (?), that was extremely comfortable, and if a sleep attack would have hit me, I wouldn't have had any reservations about lying on the cushion and sleeping. Luckily I didn't have to do that, so I spent my time cheering on my kids when they got fish and talking to Mike. I was even sad when it was over. I could have kept going for another hour or two. I loved seeing my family have such a good time and experiencing something new that we could never do at home!
When we got back to the dock, Mike took all of our fish and cleaned them and cut them into fillets right there at his butcher table on the dock. He threw the fish carcasses to the pelicans and my kids and I enjoyed watching the pelicans fight over the fish. When the fish was all cleaned and filleted, we left with two gallon size bags of fillets, both so full we could barely close them. When we got back to our condo, we looked up the market price for the fresh mackerel and kingfish we caught and we easily had over $300 worth of fish. Our condo had a kitchenette, so we spent the rest of the week eating fresh fish fillets cooked in a little bit of bacon fat...yum!!! We even still have some to take home (check Publix for dry ice to put in the cooler if you end up taking fish home too).
I cannot recommend these guys and their charter fishing trip enough! They really have something special here and I'm so glad my family got to experience this. Even after all the fish fillets are gone, we'll have tons of awesome memories, pictures, and experiences to keep for a lifetime!