Group of 4, ages 25-30, first time deep sea fishing.

Pros:
-Caught some big fish, mainly Barracuda, but also a Permit and small Snapper, despite the fish not biting as much as the Captain expected
-Captain Phil and Tim were very knowledgeable, you knew they were experts!
-(See the first two cons listed below) Though our schedules time was 7-11, our trip was more like 7:30-12:30. Captain Phil was sure to make up for lost time and be very accommodating. He even offered to change our trip from deep sea to inshore since I was feeling a bit of nausea.
-We had a great time and will be going deep sea fishing again!

Cons:
-Our reservation time was for 7. We arrived and had to give Captain Phil a call to see where he was. He thought the reservation was for 7:30 somehow, and claimed we discussed this but that never happened.
-On a similar note, before going out to get started fishing, we had to make 2 stops: to get chum and ice, and then to catch small Shiners for bait. We felt this should have probably been done prior to our trip.
-Captain Phil should have sent a message prior to the trip to say where exactly to park and to bring bug spray since you get bit quite a lot while waiting on shore..
-Prior to departing, there was no overview of anything. Our expectation at least was to explain the boat, safety measures, if there were life vests, what fish we could expect to catch, what to be mindful of (the barracuda we caught were very dangerous), where we’re going in the ocean, etc. but this largely didn’t happen.
-Our group didn’t mind, and of course this is a fishing boat, but given the language used by Captain Phil, I probably wouldn’t recommend bringing children on this boat.
-Again, this is a fishing boat so standard of clean may be different, but there were certain things that we felt could have been better: there was 1 towel on the boat for everything (wiping down seats, wiping hands, wiping your face from the sweat/water), there was some garbage on the floor of the boat along with loose bait and hooks.
-There we’re times when we sensed some impatience in showing us how to fish correctly.
-Our group caught a fair amount of Barracuda and Captain Phil threw them all back except 1. We used that 1 as bait to catch a Goliath Grouper. That one ended up getting eaten by a Goliath Grouper so we had no other opportunities to go for the Goliath Grouper since we didn’t have any more Barracuda. Our group was confused why we didn’t keep some of the other Barracuda to use as bait.
-This last item really irked our group and that was if there was any garbage that wasn’t thrown on the floor of the boat, it simply went into the ocean.

Again, overall we had a great time and Captain Phil and Tim were good guys, but since they are running a business some of the items listed above could be improved upon.

Hands down best guide you can have. Down to earth. Extremely knowledgeable. He put us on some monsters almost immediately. I personally will never hire anyone but him. All Around enjoyable! Goes out of his way to accommodate and make you feel
Like you are family. I don’t have enough words to enlighten his experience! This should be your first and last captain you will ever use!

Captain Philip and Tim did an amazing job of making sure we caught fish and always had bait ready to hook on the line! It was a beautiful day and so glad we caught a ton of fish!

Capt Philip was very helpful and a great teacher for our newcomers. He also blessed us with a manatee sighting and a great dolphin encounter. I can highly recommend him.