We are heading down to the Florida Keys next week for a change of plans vacation. We are thinking about hiring a charter and do some fishing, probably inshore for tarpon, permit, cuda, bonefish, etc. Anybody have some good suggestions for a charter? Any bad ones I should stay away from?
We are staying in Key Largo, but would be willing to travel a little ways.
TIA
I was down there a few years ago and fished out of Bud-N-Mary’s Marina. They have charters and a party boat. We went on the party boat for the easy of getting out and the cost. We caught a ton of fish, don’t remember the name of them all. If I would go back I would fish with them again.
I’ll second Bud and Mary’s. We did an offshore charter out of there. It is a hub for guides.
If you do, you might as well check out Robbie’s after and feed some tarpon by hand, Then go have a drink at Lorelei’s and watch the sun set.
I used Dreamcatchers out of Key West in late March 2018. It was expensive but we found great success and to my understanding its going to be expensive no matter who you use.
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I used Dreamcatchers out of Key West in late March 2018. It was expensive but we found great success and to my understanding its going to be expensive no matter who you use.
We used them years back for a fishing and snorkeling trip. I proposed to my now wife on the snorkeling part. The captain was amazing, fun, and put us on fish. I caught a yellow tailed jack that he cut up for us to bring to Dante’s for dinner on his suggestion and it was amazing. I also hooked into 2 tarpon but they both threw the hooks.
The receptionist, and owner, can go blow a donkey. Almost zero communication, after multiple requests after setting up the trip. I was hoping they could make a “will you marry me” sign and have it in the boat so I didn’t have to try and hide one and sneak it on. All it needed to be, was wrote on paper and “laminated” with packing tape because it would only be under water a minute or so. All I got back was “I’ll ask the captain”, and then nothing. The captain we had that day, didn’t even know about the proposal until he read the log that morning. He had to buy snorkel gear from the marina shop before we went out.
The hotel we stayed at down there had a lamination machine and was more than happy to help make the sign. My gf/now wife did almost find it though. In the end, everything worked out but it was pretty stressful. The captain was awesome. The owner and the receptionist, not so much.
Key Largo and Key west are over a hundred miles apart.
You’ll find more options in Islamorada about 20 miles from you. As mentioned, Bud and Mary’s has a ton of guides but read the reviews of the guides. Some are great but I’ve had so so luck there.
If you want top notch look up the guides at hawks cay resort. That’s close to 40 miles from you but they are top notch. I fished with mike Odell out of there last year. Jeff Malone is also good. It’s spendy but these guys will put you on fish.
After looking and checking for a while, we finally found a guide out of Tavernier. Captain Barry Hoffman. We go out Wednesday for a 6 hr trip. We’ll see how it goes. Thanks for all the suggestions.
We ended up going out of Tavernier with Captain Barry Hoffman out of flatsguide.com. All in all it was a fun trip, we caught a lot of snook and a lot of trout, and a couple of redfish. We fished the Everglades National Park, so that experience itself was fun. Was hoping to catch some bigger fish or some tarpon, but he said the tarpon didn’t get there until about May. He is strictly a catch and release guide, so we didn’t keep anything. He was a pretty good guide, knew what he was talking about, and took us where other boats wouldn’t go.
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