Alan, I’m sorry that you feel that way. A few things you mentioned were not accurate, though. We gave you the option if you wanted to see if we could catch any pilchards by throwing the cast net that you agreed to. (This is something we can’t buy nor get prior to the charter since the bait we are looking for is in the same area we are fishing. We always have a variety of bait on the boat and are ready to fish. We do give our guests the option to catch specific baits that can up your odds.
We spent 10 minutes tops and only threw the net once, so I’m not sure why you are saying we spent 2 hours trying to catch bait. That is completely not accurate. As far as the action and bite, you have to understand that not every trip is going to be amazing, especially when you pick a time slot online and don’t check with the captain or company as to when the best time to go. Tides, weather, and other conditions affect the fishing and determine the quality of the bite severely. Unfortunately, you picked a trip time where we had almost no tide movement, which is the worst time to fish here, and the chum had no major role in bringing the migratory fish in since it was juat falling to the bottom. Also, having to deal with dolphins in our fishing spot didn’t help either. We moved spots to give you the best opportunity and spent the entire trip chumming, using our blood/oil mix and using a variety of baits. The one thing we can’t do is make fish feed. If you look at our over twenty years of photos and reviews, you will see the majority of our guests have an amazing experience and feel we do everything possible to give them the best chances at catching big fish. The most important thing when booking a fishing charter is to speak with the professionals before booking and see what the best options are for success. Using an app or website to book is convenient, but it can’t help you choose when and what trip to choose. We would love for you to book a trip with us when conditions are ideal, and I am positive you would have a completely different experience. The last few days before and after your trip, when fishing the stronger outgoing tide, we had totally different results. They had hooked up with large sharks and goliath grouper, plus other larger fish. We would be happy to give you a special rate to show you our sincerity and gain you as a CFD customer for life.

Alan, I’m sorry that you feel that way. A few things you mentioned were not accurate, though. We gave you the option if you wanted to see if we could catch any pilchards by throwing the cast net that you agreed to. (This is something we can’t buy nor get prior to the charter since the bait we are looking for is in the same area we are fishing. We always have a variety of bait on the boat and are ready to fish. We do give our guests the option to catch specific baits that can up your odds.... More

We always appreciate your feed back but the day actually started out beautiful but did get a bit windy. The wind and wave forecast thw night before was nothing like what actually happened and there was no advisory for our area so there was no reason to have canceled based on the evening before forecast. The main issue why you didn’t catch alot of fish is you booked a trip without checking when the best time to be out fishing was. When you book a time slot with no information on what the tides will be like and other factors you can’t blame the guides. We obviously want everyone to have an amazing experience but it’s out of our control when the guest doesn’t communicate with us and get any information as to the best time to be out fishing. Saltwater fishing is all about the tides, lunar phase and other conditions. You can’t just go out anytime you like and expect results. The best time to be fishing on your day was the later afternoon when the tide was actually moving. You happened to book the worst time slot with no moving water. We spend a great deal of effort and money on our special chum blend and other gear, which if we have a good tide it will bring fish from far distances as you can read many reviews that will testify to the fact and see our results on Facebook. Also you failed to mention that we actually did bring two very large fish to the boat. For them to feed even though the tide was poor was because of our chum blend and the baitswe used. We had a huge Barracuda on and you fought a huge shark on 100lb tackle but lost it from inexperience. Big fish get big for a reason, if it was easy there would be nothing to it. Your wife also caught a nice Spanish Mackerel which you could of kept for lunch but you choose to use it for shark fishing which hooked the shark. I don’t understand why we got less than 5 stars when we did our job very well and gave you an opportunity to catch and battle 2 huge fish. Some people go out all day and never get a chance to fight one big fish. We are very good at what we do, have records to show for it, and thousands of huge fish catches and the pictures and videos to show for it. I thought you would be more considerate and thank us for going above and beyond for doing everything possible to get you out on the water and gave you the chance to fight a big fish.
As far as the weather,  we asked you several times after the wind kicked up around 11am if you both wanted to keep fishing or go in, but you and the wife said you were fine and wanted to keep trying to get the Barracuda you missed in the beginning of the trip. After we were done fishing we even went out of our way after coming in from the Gulf to Mexico, we cruised you both around the Estuary on the Cocohatchee River, found a dolphin for you guys, explained a little about our local wildlife and history of the area because we care about our guest experience. At CruiseFishDive we try to give an educational experience every trip. In the future I highly advise not to book a charter blind as you did but rather call and speak to the professionals and get feedback as to when would be the best time to go out and what may be biting so you can manage your expectations. At CruiseFishDive we have many options from nearshore, long range, imtercoastal, flats fishing with a variety of boats and Professionals for all different skill levels and experiences. For anyone reading this, don’t make the same mistake and book blind and just grab a morning spot or any time slot for that matter. Call and talk to the Captain or do so research about the tides and other conditions that will affect the fishing. Thank you, CMG

We always appreciate your feed back but the day actually started out beautiful but did get a bit windy. The wind and wave forecast thw night before was nothing like what actually happened and there was no advisory for our area so there was no reason to have canceled based on the evening before forecast. The main issue why you didn’t catch alot of fish is you booked a trip without checking when the best time to be out fishing was. When you book a time slot with no information on what the tides... More