Reel Therapy – Reel Deal 

Our trip started out a bit late as the captain and mate didn't have the boat ready when we arrived (on time) for the departure. We then had to get gas before leaving. When we boarded the boat, some very miserable looking woman was sitting on the boat. No one bothered to tell us who she was and we attempted to introduce ourselves and she still didn't bother to say who she was, and I never have met a more miserable person. This immediately made us feel uncomfortable, we had booked a private charter and didn't know what was going on. We actually thought it was that captains wife and they had a fight or something. Only at the end of the trip did we find out that she was from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. The ride out to our fishing spot was quite long (2hrs). We first caught some Red Snapper, which didn't go as smoothly as you might expect. Our first snapper was cut off in the propeller, while another really pulled me around the boat. Sadly not much assistance was given by the mate. Very little guidance was given by the captain or mate and communication was poor. Never were we offered to put back the smaller Red Snapper in order to have the opportunity to catch the "trophy red snapper" that we paid extra to catch. The mate didn't even know the bag limits for Red Snapper. After catching the Red Snapper, our trip was delayed by the MDMR woman while she took measurements of the fish. We then moved on to trying to catch Mangrove Snapper, which wasn't real successful. It took 10 minutes just for the mate to tie off the boat so we stayed in place, and then only because my partner assisted. Often we were moved aside and away from the oil rig we were fishing, while the captain fished. Many times we were left waiting for the mate to bait or to re-rig our lines (he didn't have another rod ready for use). We spent quite a bit of time trying to catch mangrove, and it was frustrating. The mate was chumming the water, but we couldn't get in the area of where he was chumming due to space. We fished live baits, while the captain was fishing chunk bait. Almost no guidance was given to us with regards what to do or where to cast our lines. Finally we left there and were told we were going to go fish behind a shrimp boat. On the way back in we came upon a tree floating in the water, and the captain stopped to catch mahi. I really really wanted to catch mahi mahi, and was very excited for this. I never got to catch any, I was told to hold a fish in the water while the others caught fish...what? I am the one paying the charter. My partner at least got to catch 1 nice sized bull mahi. Instead, the mate kept casting lines out and the captain casted a line. We didn't stay there long, maybe 15-20 mins maximum. We were asking questions but we received no replies. I never got to catch one. When we left, the mate said we were going to go fish behind the shrimp boat for cobia. That never happened, and we returned to port, nothing was communicated to us about not fishing the shrimp boat. Neither the captain or mate offered to take pictures of us with our catch, which would have been nice particularly on the long ride back. When we got off the boat, the captain and mate were very interested in bragging about the Mahi they caught to others around the pier. Apparently these were larger than what they normally catch for the area. We were then delayed by MDMR again while our fish were weighed and measured. The captain mentioned settling up at this point, and I said I had what I owed and was just waiting for everything to be finished up. Then the captain and mate began fileting the fish. They weren't real careful about it, left a lot of bones in the filets and wasted a lot of meat. We kept our carcasses to use for crab bait. They wasted all the head meat on the bull mahi. They only had 1 gallon ziploc bags to put the fish in and the mate poorly handled the meat just grabbing fistfuls and shoving them in bags. All in all we brought home fish, but they really need to work on communication and tending to their customers, giving guidance and help when needed. This charter was expensive and a big deal for us. While the captain did put us on fish the experience itself was disappointing, often chaotic and unorganized. Captain and mate seemed like this was their first trip out, even though we know it wasn't. The captain didn't really talk to us at all, except to ask for us to settle up and to give them a good review. He promised to send us video of us catching fish, but never did. Bad experience.