I enjoyed having you aboard Afishionado on Independence Day! Thanks for choosing Afishionado Guide Services, Inc.

I enjoyed having you aboard Afishionado on Independence Day! Thanks for choosing Afishionado Guide Services, Inc.

DO NOT LISTEN TO KAREN, BOOK WITH WADE!
It’s said, “there are two sides to every story.” In 28 years of guiding professionally, this is by far the most bizarre and outrageous review I’ve ever received.

I take pride in being one of the hardest working fishing guides operating in the Tampa Bay area. Whether I’m guiding one or six anglers to some of the world’s best inshore fishing, you’ll never catch me fishing or sitting on my butt. I’m too busy chumming, rigging, baiting hooks, releasing fish, and taking pictures of your catch. I remain on my feet tirelessly during your entire charter making sure you have the absolutely best fishing experience available. I’ve perfected a system that allows you to keep a bait in the water the longest amount of time possible to catch the most fish. So, when I get a negative review, I take it personally.

Before I meet my clients at 8:00AM, I’m up at 3:00AM for a 5:30AM launch at the boat ramp. Once on the water, I arrive at my bait spot before sunrise to catch bait. Some days bait is easier to catch than others. On this particular day it took a little longer than expected.

Usually, I clean the boat’s deck of grass and dead bait on the spot before greeting the client, but because I didn’t want to be late, I decided to clean it back at the dock. “I won’t do that again!”

Once I arrived back at the dock at 8:00AM and I greeted Oney and his family, I cleaned my boat’s deck thoroughly before placing a mat down for them to safely step aboard Afishionado. Prior to boarding, I made them all aware of the massive amount of bird poop on the end of the dock, and not to step in it. Not once did I get mad at anyone for stepping in pelican poop and tracking it on my boat. That’s ridiculous! I did ask that everyone wipe the bottoms of their shoes off upon boarding. I had to remind Karen twice. I guess that offended her and she misconstrued that as me being mad.

Since I just cleaned my boat’s deck, no there wasn’t dead bait, and grass all over the boat as Karen alleged, and the only pelican poop was what Karen tracked on. Which I immediately cleaned up. If you look closely at the pictures that I took throughout the day, it clearly shows a clean deck.

Once we left the dock at 8:07AM, we arrived at our first fishing spot within 10 minutes. The first thing I did was step on the front of the deck and tell everyone all I do is stand by the live-well in the back, bait hooks, and release fish. All they have to do is cast and reel in fish. I also explained to everyone how high to place the rod tip so I can easily bait the hook. Easy-Peasy! Most people get, a few don’t. Oney and Karen barely watched or even listened to a word I had to say.

I ask people to reel within two feet of the hook and place the hook in front of my face for a bait, not the rod tip. If constantly reminding Karen’s 12 year old son and mother-in-law to raise their rod tip for a bait traumatized them to tears, I didn’t see, or sense that. In fact, the mother-in-law was screaming and laughing hysterically throughout the trip while having the time of her life. Again, reference my pictures and the smiles on everyone’s faces. Does it look like anyone is having a horrible experience?

Regarding location services. One of the first things I ask people to do is turn off the location services on their phone to prevent geotagging. For some reason this offends some people. Depending on where I’m fishing, photography isn’t allowed at all other than by me. But, on this day we were not near any distinctive landmarks, so they indeed were taking photos and video. Again, this is clearly outlined in one of the pictures I took of Karen’s oldest son filming his grandmother.

Regarding Karen wanting to fake being sick. Who does that? At any time had she ask me to cut their trip short and take them back to the dock early, I would a have gladly obliged, but she didn’t. In fact. After catching fish non-stop for over two hours at our first stop, I pulled anchor and suggested that we head out another five miles into Tampa Bay in pursuit of Spanish mackerel. Not once did Karen say, no please take us back, we’re having a horrible time, please!

Once at the next spot, I started chumming and right away we caught Spanish mackerel, three stingrays, and a few other species. It seemed to me everyone was having a blast. Just look at that bend in the G-Lommis rod Karen’s mother-in-law was using. I actually extended their trip an hour at no charge.

Once back at dock, five hours later on a scheduled 8-12 trip. I thanked everyone and kindly asked for a five-star review. You can’t imagine how blindsided I was by Karen’s remarks.

Maybe I joked about something that led Karen to believe don’t like my job. My business hasn’t thrived by me being a jerk. Since Karen’s April 16 outing, I’ve received 11 five-star reviews on various platforms. That’s what keeps me going.

DO NOT LISTEN TO KAREN, BOOK WITH WADE! It’s said, “there are two sides to every story.” In 28 years of guiding professionally, this is by far the most bizarre and outrageous review I’ve ever received. I take pride in being one of the hardest working fishing guides operating in the Tampa Bay area. Whether I’m guiding one or six anglers to some of the world’s best inshore fishing, you’ll never catch me fishing or sitting on my butt. I’m too busy chumming, rigging,... More

James I’m glad everyone had a good time despite the slow fishing. The very next day, it was like someone flipped on a light switch and we filled up the fish box.
Thanks again for choosing Afishionado Guide Services, Inc.

James I’m glad everyone had a good time despite the slow fishing. The very next day, it was like someone flipped on a light switch and we filled up the fish box. Thanks again for choosing Afishionado Guide Services, Inc.