Heading out of the Gulf tomorrow to do some deep sea fishing for the first time. Super exicted to give it a try, especially since I love saltwater fish on the table about 10 times more than freshwater fish. I'll take plenty of pictures and do a brief writeup when I get back.

ps, i know this is the freshwater section, but its the only area that I have people I consider friends and aquaintences.

Have a good weekend ya'll

Best of luck on the gulf. I did that last year and fished both the gulf and atlantic side of the FL Keys. Caught all sorts of stuff some of which I didn't even know what it was and wouldn't touch it. Spiney things coming out all over the damn thing.. The grouper are a blast to pull up and great table fare too. Caught some amberjack, snapper and mackeral too. We brought some of it in to a restaurant and they cooked it up. What a feast. I have been doing some fishing out of New England and have a freezer full of haddock, cod and pollock. Great eats too.

The feeling is mutual Aaron...about sharing on the freshwater site. Also, I agree, saltwater fish are much better than our local. Lakes as well..

I hope you catch a bunch..don't forget to flush your tackle and boat motor good when your done..

Here are a few reminders for ya that you probably may already know..

I took my boat out once a few years ago when the tide was right. A fellow teacher put me on fish..I was not prepared at all. I thought my 20 pound Power Pro would be fine..it wasn't . The snook would devour my shrimp and pull down the bobber..I was ready for the fight..there wasn't one...the sharp teeth bit the line into..Drag did not matter. One fish grabbed my other unmanned rod and ripped it clean out of the boat. One hour later my son goes, "Looky daddy, there's your rod sticking up." I snuck up on it and reeled in a decent sized lady fish. You may need a leader...a steel leader. A lot of those salts got teeth.

Have fun..you may even get a bull shark. A grouper, redfish or flounder would be a blessingg for sure.

I tried going out in the Bay up here and caught nothing but a pile of Mackeral. The bay used to be great for Haddock, Pollick, and Codfish. The draggers had come into back in the 70s and flattened the bottom out so not much coming into it now. They used to have sardine factories all over it as well and drew in all kinds of fish along with flounders. They were always fun to catch and great eating. Once in a while you may catch one still but that is about it.

Anyways I hope you have a lot of fun out in the gulf. I hope you get some great eating fish as well. I may go on a charter next year and see if I can catch some nice table fare.. Good Luck to you!

Good luck!

Man, that trip SUCKED!!! I'll do a writeup a little later today but jeez, I was not impressed to say the least.

Yep..I can relate..the reason I went once.LOL

#1 Lot of gas money..

#2 Stuck alot on sandbars..did not know the water.

#3 Every good fish bit the braid in two..literally. I did hold on to one a sting ray..best fight I've ever had..eventually tied me up on a buoy...the line on the reel was smoking..{ -;

#4 The bait shop only had one dozen of shrimp left } -;and I was there first customer..get that..

but I do like those charter boats with friends.

I was on a charter boat with friends so I didnt have to worry about gas or bait or anything. We used their equipment and didnt have any problems there.

I'll start this by saying something good...we caught a BUNCH of fish.

Since thats about the only good thing I can recall we will leave it at that.

Problems:
1) We chartered a boat for 12 people and paid our fees based on a 12 person fare. When we got there, there were 17 of us and no reimbursement of our over expenditure. No biggie, 20-30 bux aint gonna kill me, especially if we catch some nice fish I can take home to balance out the loss. (Their Fault)

2) They booked their large boat and left us with the smallest boat which was only supposed to carry a maximum of 15 people. We obviously were t over that limit and crowded. (Their Fault)

3) The water was rough, which isnt their fault, but when you intentionally over crowd a small boat the rough water magnifies any small issue you have.

4) The trip was 2.5 hours to get out there and 2.5 hours to get back. There wasnt a 15 second period during either trip where our butts didnt literally come out of the chairs and hover. Again, it was ROUGH.

5) We were supposed to be doing sport fishing, but since they over booked they decided that trolling with 17 lines in the water was too much so we would have to bottom fish. That was not was we signed up for and this was starting to look bad. (Their Fault)

6) Their equipment was sub-par. The lines needed to be retied before I ever even dropped a line in the water. The hooks were cheap garbage that had rust on them, and the reels didnt work properly and wouldnt hold drag no matter how much you tightened them down...GARBAGE. It was as if they didnt do any prep work at all on their equipment. (Their Fault)

7) We caught snapper, and more snapper, and more snapper, and more snapper, and more snapper. Great right? WRONG, snapper is out of season. We kept catching snapper out the butt and we couldnt keep a single one. So I mentioned to the quide "hey, we keep catching snapper which is a nice fish, but we cant keep them and thats all we are catching, this is a waste of time not to mention we were told we would be sport fishing". His reply "I know but were catching fish right? Thats the important part isnt it?". I about exploded. If I wanted to simply "catch fish" I would have saved my $200 and went perch jerking at the pond behind my office. My goal was to offset my costs by bringing home some nice table fare for my wife and kids while also catching a VARIETY of fish. My goal was not to stay in one spot "drop-shotting" all day to catch a thousand fish of the same species that I couldnt keep. (Their Fault)

8) Not once did we sport fish for king, tuna, mahi or anything, even after a large majority of us (12-13) said we were done bottom fishing and wanted a change of pace. (Their Fault)

9) Everytime the boat hands assisted getting a fish off a hook or re-tying (which should have been done before we ever got there), out came the words "no problem, we work for tips, just hook me up at the end and we are good". I tip, and I tip well because I worked in the service industry for the longest time and know how hard it is to make a living doing it, but cardinal rule number one is to NEVER ask for a tip and to NEVER discuss it with a client. Make your actions show that you deserve a tip and make your actions show that you deserve a little extra above and beyond a normal tip. If you do that then I'll hook you up fat at the end, but begging for a tip right at the get-go to fix a problem that you should have fixed before we ever left the dock is annoyingly obsurd. (Their Fault)

10) Once we got back and divided the fish out according to tags, 3 of the people who caught some fish didnt want to keep them because they weren't the species that we were told we would be targeting. Instead of giving those fish to the other members of the group who didnt catch a SINGLE species that they could keep, the deck hands quickly scopped them up then turned around and offered to sell them to the members who were empty handed. Talk about ludicrous! Those fish were paid for before anybody ever stepped on the boat. What was caught belonged to the members of the fishing party, plain and simple, not the deck hands, but they tried to sell them to make even more money knowing all along that they were the reason why we didnt catch, or even attempt to catch, the targeted species we were told we would be going after. As we left, they stood at the edge of the docks with their hands out like groveling children and for the first time in my life I was tempted to stiff them. Instead of the 25 percent I normally tip for guides, they got the standard 15 percent and I was reluctant to even give that I was so infuriated.

Needless to say, I was not pleased at all with the trip. If my 3 good friends hadnt gone and been there with me, the trip would have been an utter disaster. Luckily the companionship of friends made it worth while.

I am not burned on deep sea fishing, but I am definitely jaded and will do a much more thorough job of checking references next time before commiting the time and money to such an endeavor. This place came with good references, but obvisouly there was miscommunication somewhere and it left a very sour taste in my mouth that has yet to leave.

Wow that really doesn't sound like much fun. Over booking and sending you on the smaller boat was wrong and dangerous. I have been on many charters on salt water and never had an experience like what you wrote. 200 bucks is a lot of money for a party boat. Our 12 hour marathon trips with 6 people are only 160 each fishing for cod, haddock and pollock. In every case I brought home enough fish to nearly cover the cost of the trip. Sounds like the mates were bush league. Having crappy equipment kind of goes with fishing every day in a salt water environment. For that reason I bought my own ocean rod and reel. It gets thoroughly cleaned after every trip.

You have a generous heart Aaron.They would have gotten nothing from me.{ Unless it was part of the contract} I'm very sorry for your experience.

I had a hunting lease similiar this year..I threw 1200 dollars literally down the drain...but ..live and learn.
If it sounds too good to be true..it probably is. {-;