Told Mike I was looking for peacock bass.

He takes us up to a stop and says they should be here. He threw a line in and within 10 seconds had a peacock on. We stopped by a spot to catch a clown knife fish, I managed to get a bite but it slipped off before I could get it to the boat. We ended up crushing it, hitting a spot where me and my wife (has never caught a fish) pulled in 6 peacocks within minutes.

Mike knows the water, he’s very easy going and made it a blast. 10/10 would recommend!

True local legend.

Thanks again!

I rated my charter with Captain Mike 5 stars, only because the ratings don’t go any higher. I would HIGHLY recommend this charter to anyone looking to catch exotics. Mike met me in the morning and already had a boatload of bait. We were quickly at the first spot and catching Peacocks. Laughably we thought we would keep track of how many peacocks were landed. We lost track after (I think) 12 in the first hour. We ended the day with around 50 peacocks, 4 or 5 Mayan cichlid, a few largemouth, 1 gar and ended the day with about a 6 pound snakehead. We were literally on fish all day and as soon as the bite would start to slow Mike had another spot to go to that was just as good. I don”t think you’ll find someone who knows the water better or could put you on fish faster.

We set out in search of a good sized clown knife fish and Captain Mike knew where to go. He was knowledgeable, fun, smart and attentive. Made sure we were on the fish as quickly as possible and made sure we had a great time.  As you can see by the pictures I got a couple of nice clowns but we also caught multiple peacocks, some stripers and some largemouth as well. It was a little slower than usual due to water conditions and wind conditions but Captain Mike still made sure we caught many fish. I would definitely recommend his charter. His boat was great also. We got where we wanted to get very quickly as we skimmed across the lake. Highly recommend!!! Thanks Mike! We will be back!

I booked Lake Ida fishing charters last minute the day before the trip.  I’ve been visiting Florida from Ontario Canada for years and always wanted to catch some Peacock Bass.  I booked this charter based on the reviews and my experience was 5 star just like previous reviews.  Captain Mike took us right to one of his hot spots, not 5 minutes later my son had caught his first peacock bass.  Not long after I was into one, we hauled in probably 25 fish at that spot before moving to another hot spot in search of a big Peacock.  Mike knows that water system well and as expected we tied into a beautiful sized Peacock.  My son also lost one there that was quite obviously larger than any we had managed to land.  In 4 hours we caught likely somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 fish easy,  including a crappie and the occasional Mayan cichlids.  If we were content to keep catching the 1.5-2 lb peacocks we probably could have bagged 40.  Not sure I could find a complaint about this trip if I tried.  The boat is perfect, huge decks and smooth, bait was fresh and lively and to cap it all off, Mike is an interesting guy who was great to hang out with for a morning.  I’d recommend this charter to anyone looking to experience fishing in the area.