Had a nice trip with Capt Gordo. A friendly Captain with plenty of experience. Went 0 for 3 on the Wahoo bite. I’d take those chances again next time though. Overall had a good day.

We booked a fishing trip with Captain Gordo for a half-day in his 45-ft. boat.  Since we were staying in Westpunt, which is in the western part of the island, and the marina where we needed to be for the trip is in Caracasbaai, which is in the eastern part of the island, Captain Gordo suggested that we move the morning trip to the afternoon (1pm-5pm) to give us more time for travel.  We were so glad that we agreed to this as we allowed ourselves 2 hours to travel from west to east and we used almost the entire 2 hours travelling.  There were barely any street signs on our way there, and whatever you can pull from Google does not exactly match the little street signs you can find.  Anyways, we barely made it but we’re glad we did. Captain Gordo had two mates to help us with our fishing experience.  We left the marina on time and we sailed through the Spanish waters.  We were told that these waters are very deep so they don’t need to go far from the shore in order to catch a fish.  We were able to catch big black fin tunas (about 12 lbs.each) and some smaller Skipjack tuna. It was very exciting and a great experience.

PROS: We thought that the price for the trip was very reasonable.  It’s $600 for the half day (4 hours) with maximum of 6 people. You pay 15% upon booking and the rest on the day of the trip. The boat was well stocked with beers, sodas, water, as advertised. Small observation: although the FishingBooker website indicates that snacks are also included, no snacks were served (so bring your own snacks).  The mates were very helpful and knowledgeable, and Captain Gordo was very welcoming. He was also helpful with making sure that we get the trip information, as well as giving us direction to the marina.  He tried his best to help us catch fish and we did!  They took care of the fish by cleaning and filleting them as we requested.
CONS: Only one I can think of, and I am not sure if it’s even a CON.  As advertised in the FishingBooker.com, “Clients keep catch (client get fish for a decent diner ), catch and release allowed (all bill fish are released ).”  It’s true that we had more than enough fish to keep for ourselves, but we were excited and we wanted to be able to bring with us some of the fish we caught to St. Maarten where we stayed for a week.  We probably would have volunteered to give the crew some of the fish we caught, but the fact that the mates made us feel like it was not an option to bring with us all of the fish we caught, and the fact that one of the made even tried to tell us that there is no way that the airport customs in Curacao would allow us to bring the fish even if it’s frozen left a bad taste in my mouth.  We ended up leaving one of the big fish with them, as well as all of the other small fish.  I realize that the mates probably would like to take the fish for themselves, or even sell them.  But it’s not their choice.  It should be ours.  We gave them 20% tip as we still enjoyed our trip overall and was thankful for the experience. They all worked hard, especially the mates.

Warning-you may be required to pay the balance of the fee in cash so be prepared or don’t make the assumption that credit card payment will be accepted.  If it’s not mention, ask.  We had to stop by a bank to get some cash out because we were required to pay the balance in cash.  Not all banks in Curacao have dollars to dispense.  You have to go to a bigger bank.