Booking with Brent and TJ was a home run for our family, and was the best part of our visit to Kona.  We had a 5-hour fishing trip for our family of 4 who are not fisherman (including a 13 year old and 11 year old).  The boat was plenty big for our family, and Brent and TJ quickly made our family feel welcome and taught us all the basics.  We caught 3 fish, including a marlin, barracuda, and short billed spear fish.  We also saw a pod of pilot whales. In between catching fish, Brent and TJ were easy to talk to and share the big island with us.  Would highly recommend these gentleman for your trip!
-Ryan and Jenna

The owner, Brent, was great.  He reached out before we left to be sure we were ready. We had an outstanding day with Rooster and Captain Dan.  These guys were on time and ready to go when we arrived, and they wanted to catch Blue marlin as much as we did - if not more. Very few boats reported catching fish, so after 5 hours without any bites, we decided to head back to the marina, and just as we were about to go in, we caught a 320lb blue marlin.  It was amazing!!!  To make things even better, Rooster had a camera with a telephoto lens, so he got great shots of the fish jumping out of the water.

We didn’t get to hear the scream of the reels during out trip, as we did not get any bites, which was disheattening,  Yet, Brent and TJ were attentive and did what seemed like their best to find a strike—even staying out a little longer on the water.  We saw a rainbow on the water and a handful of birds.  The water was, from what Brent told us, a lot choppier than it usually is.  Through it all, Brent stayed optimistic and hopeful we would catxh something ; I guess 75% of charters catch fish, so we were the one in four that came up empty handed. Brent and TJ are both very knowledgable.  Brent, the captain, has fished extensively on lakes and the ocean in Canada, Florida, and Hawaii.  T.J., who served as first mate on our trip, has his own boat and is unobtrusive, yet atrentive to people’s needs.  We would book with them again.  Brent also operates a manta snorkeling ship that visits the Old Airport site.  We didn’t know that ahed of time, or we would have booked our manta trip with him as well.

Brent called me the night before the trip and asked if it’s ok if we can leave an hour or more earlier because the fish had been biting earlier in the day. Sure, we have room in the schedule so we showed up 75 minutes earlier than planned. Well, good thing we listen to the captain because we caught our first 40lb Ono within 60 seconds of them showing us how to use the reel.

After bringing that fish in, Rooster reset the lines, and started cleaning the fish and suddenly, bam! Another Ono was on the line! All within that 60 minute window we showed up earlier per Brent’s suggestion. Had we stuck to the schedule we would have gone home empty handed. Instead we were eating fresh fish all week!

Brent knows his stuff and his boat gets the job done.

We headed out into the deep waters off Kona’s coast, and before long, we had a strike and it was a good one. After a solid fight, we landed a gorgeous Ono (wahoo)! We also got to encounter wildlife such as pilot whales ,hawaiian spinner dolphins, and even a iwa bird. The crew was just as excited as we were and helped us every step of the way. We had Captain Dan and Captain Corey who provided excellent customer service they also cleaned and filleted the fish once we got back and we even got tips on how to cook it! The boat was clean, well-maintained, and equipped with everything we needed for a successful day of fishing This is not my first trip with Reel Escapes and it will definitely not be my last. Whether you’re an experienced angler or just out for fun, I highly recommend this charter if you’re in Kailua Kona.