This was an outstanding day of fishing.  As opposed to deep-sea fishing—where it feels like it takes a couple hours just to get on-site before you can even get a line wet—this was just a few minutes until we were catching fish.  ‘Positive Vibes’ is fast, so we could get where we needed to go on the off-shore reefs pretty much before the sun fully came up.  OK…so we weren’t reeling in big fish, but they were fun and plentiful, and ran the gamut from 3-5 pound yellowtail to grouper to parrot fish and even an amberjack.  Between the two of us (my wife and I), and in just three hours, we caught 14 (that’s fourteen) fish. Pretty much as soon as you dropped the hook to depth, you were on, and playing them with nice, well-maintained lightweight gear so it felt like an even ‘match’ and not just ‘horsing in’ the catch.  Kids will love this!  The skipper Sergio, and deckmate Jonathan, were incredibly helpful and patient, and clearly know the territory.  When we come back, we’ll do this again.  HIGHLY recommended!!

We booked this trip specifically to target bottom fish such as grouper and red snapper. When we arrived the first mate asked what we wanted to do and we replied jig for fish, thought we were on the same page but there definitely seem to be a language barrier. We rode out to the oil rig hoping to target fish there, unexpectedly that was not a viable option as there were divers working and we had to keep a safe distance away, totally unforeseen and understandable. This is where things became interesting, we seemed to be aimlessly riding around “looking” for holes, reason I bracket the word “looking” is the Garmin depth finder was not working, this is a crucial piece of equipment for fishing. It will store marks where fish were caught on previous trips and store those routes. Another great tool on the Garmin is relief shading where you can see the contours on the ocean floor to see drops where fish tend to hang out and it will also mark fish around the boat. Not having this piece of equipment working essentially made for fishing blind. Then the mate had 2 rods set up to troll for bait fish, having 2 rods set up for 10 people was the exact reason we chose this specific boat so everyone would be able to work their own rod, unlike a traditional 6-pack charter where everyone rotates on the rod and sometimes everyone doesn’t get a chance. The mate and captain however were trying their best and tried keeping the guest happy and we actually landed 1 barracuda.

Our crew was super nice and kept the bait coming on the fishing lines for my son and me- we are both pretty inexperienced. Fun trip with lots of fish!

Our crew chose to bottom fish as opposed to offshore. Got plenty of bites with assorted reef fish such as yellowtail, grouper, and trigger fish. Captain and crew respectful, and professional.