I cannot recommend this trip enough to those who have not fished in the ocean before. Our group of 4 adults (I would say just the right amount for the boat we were on) came from southern Illinois. We river fish hand lines, hoop nets, bank poles, trot lines, etc.. this trip was so new to me and the guides were extremely helpful in teaching us how to fish and techniques used to catch them. All the gear was supplied, the captain was the guide and he had a deckhand both of which worked extremely hard to make sure we were at our destinations to catch bait and catch larger fish and hooks were constantly baited and in the water with no time wasted. The trip was fast paced enough I didn’t have time to reach in the cooler and sit around to drink beer in the cooler we packed because I either had a fish on or had to keep moving to get re-baited which the guides do for you to keep things moving and they rotate bait types based on fish that were fished for. We caught roughly 10+ different species of fish on hand line. Dolphins swam around the boat and were cool to see, occasionally sharks were seen under the boat but avoided by the guides to not interfere with the fishing.  We caught our limit of red snapper 3 hours in (2 fish per person) 8 total and we threw several back that were maybe an inch under the keeping size limit. Between the 4 of us I’d say we probably caught 30+ fish and caught 100 bait fish to start the day off. For someone who has only pond and river fished this experience greatly exceeded expectations and we’ll definitely go again in the future if we’re in the area. Thanks Van and Seth for a great day on the water!

I have been on a lot of both off shore and bay fishing trips, and this was by far the best! Just simply awesome! First launching off the shore was a wild and fun experience in itself. We caught fish! Lots of them. We caught a shark (big one) and was not even trying to catch it. But most of all we were so impressed by Captain Van and Fist Mate Seth. On the way in we say a huge sea turtle. Captain Van noticed it was not moving appropriately. The turtle was trapped! Without even a seconds thought he dropped down to his skivvies and sailed in. He cut the turtle loose from the bottom but the gentle giant was still wrapped up in some kind of rigging? A shark rig we think. So we hauled the great creature into the boat and with surgical skill they cut loose all the entanglement! We let this sweet beast back out to sea and we watched him swim away.  My profession being a Veterinarian, it brought tears to my eyes to see this all play out. Captain Van and Seth are wonderful human beings. I highly recommend you use their charter. For their skill but also because they are great people!
R.R.

We booked a 4 hour morning trip for four adults with Family Tradition Charters during a family trip at Grayton Beach and were extremely happy with our selection of boat crew.  They had some minor issues leading up to the trip but communicated with us openly and continually and really developed a great sense of trust.  We started with a fun launch directly from the beach and they had us catching our live bait fish, pulling in 3-5 fish per cast, within minutes.  From there we had a fantastic day on the water catching 4 or 5 different varieties of fish across a handful of spots that were all expertly navigated to.  Captain Van and Seth were fantastic guides and just really fun and interesting people to spend the day with.  Great choice of charter if you are in the Grayton area!