It was supposed to be an offshore fishing trip, but capn mark screwed up on the captain because the one he booked us with is backwater. This is the second time mark has done this. You don’t get what you pay for! They also make you pay and tip in advance so they get all of the tip even if the captain doesn’t do a good job. Terrible business!! Captain Barry did his best to accommodate us and make the most of the screw up on Capn Mark’s behalf.
The trip was to rough for us to be taken out, trip should’ve been canceled due to the weather. We caught three bait fish and couple other fish but never made it in the boat. Very disappointed.
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
Equipment was ok and boat was as advertised. Spent 25% of the trip bait hunting and only went out about 3 miles for the one bait fish as opposed to the 8-9 miles out as shown. Of course you can’t help what bites and doesn’t but once aboard it was made clear to the men aboard that this was a catch and release trip only should anything have even been caught. No request for type of fish or anything was EVER requested at any time…prior to or during the trip. Contacted the captain after the trip which was a Father’s day gift expecting courtesy and was taken aback at the rude replies. I would not have left a review at all until that. Very unprofessional and would not recommend. Had very high hopes for this trip and was left disappointed all around.
Equipment was ok and boat was as advertised. Spent 25% of the trip bait hunting and only went out about 3 miles for the one bait fish as opposed to the 8-9 miles out as shown. Of course you can’t help what bites and doesn’t but once aboard it was made clear to the men aboard that this was a catch and release trip only should anything have even been caught. No request for type of fish or anything was EVER requested at any time…prior to or during the trip. Contacted the captain after the... More
This is a perfect example of why you should call your Captain and get expectations up front. Without getting into the specifics this was a bad deal for us. Equipment is all brand new this season and is always serviced every year or replaced by Penn and Shakespeare. Thier first requests when they got to the boat is to go get red snapper. We would have had to run 100 miles to do so. They booked a four hour trip. These were supposed to be seasoned anglers from Florida.? We adjusted their expectations immediately to what the waters had available to catch in the ways of big fish and that’s what we did. In order to do so you absolutely need live bait which is not sold so it has to be caught which we did. We spent a total of 20 minutes catching bait so my math on a four hour trip doesn’t compute to 25% but that was requested by the guests for us to do so we could target certain species. We already had live shrimp and other frozen baits on the boat as well as a blend of chums which is why we had so many chances at big fish. Also we never said they couldn’t keep fish. We said we only take migratory species like cobia, mackerel and so on because of the red tides over the last few years have been depleting the inshore waters in the Gulf of Mexico, plus the FWC and NOAA advise against eating fish in a red tide zone. This is clearly stated on our page with Fishing Booker. At the end of the day we hooked them up each with a huge fish but unfortunately the fish got the best of them. When hunting for big fish it takes more than luck. Even with years of practice, that still doesn’t guarantee anything. We work hard to coach people as you will see from our daily pics of big fish caught but sometimes our help isn’t taken which then it is out of our hands. The lesson here is, always call your Captain before booking so you can understand what to expect and what type of trip to book. You can see by the reviews from the majority of our guests will say how hard we work and the dedication we put into providing the best experience possible.
This is a perfect example of why you should call your Captain and get expectations up front. Without getting into the specifics this was a bad deal for us. Equipment is all brand new this season and is always serviced every year or replaced by Penn and Shakespeare. Thier first requests when they got to the boat is to go get red snapper. We would have had to run 100 miles to do so. They booked a four hour trip. These were supposed to be seasoned anglers from Florida.? We adjusted their expectations... More
Just spent 3 days in Florida and did charters all 3 days. I would strongly suggest booking with anyone but this guy Captain Mark. What a joke. This man was so negative and his energy brought our entire trip down. Thank god we booked a different charter the last day to make up for it.
From the second we walked up to the boat this man decides to open up with “it’s suppose to be my day off” then it was “the tide is no good so we will most likely not catch much / going to be a very tough day” Which I understand the tide and there’s good days and bad. I get that. But to walk up all excited and pay $900 for the first convo to be this super negative opening was just a bummer from the jump. Then not only does this man just waste time driving the boat in circles the first hour and a half before we even had poles in the water, but then has us doing all the leg work. He just had surgery showing us his scars and how he has back issues and can’t lift an anchor.
Sweet so we paid 900 bucks for 4 hours to throw and learn how to be his first mate (who supposedly didn’t show up to work that day). Then the entire time this man preached to my and my 2 buddies about the planet is going to crap and all of us humans are ruining it. We were excited to tell him about our amazing charter the day before and he had every negative thing to say about that as well. “OH you kept snapper during a red tide and ate it? You must. be stupid and your captain must have not known what he was doing. Funny because that guy had us catching so many fish we didn’t know what to do. He preached to us about how we should be boycotting seafood at grocery stores and building bunkers to keep our families safe (start to stockpile). Like thanks man for the 900 dollar boat ride where we caught two mackerel and had to here this mans negative take on the world.
Thank GOD we had the best charter / experience the day before with Pro fish and Sea. I was so upset Captain Mark was so negative that while still on his boat I called southwest airline extended my stay and booked another Charter with Wise guys. Who was also like night and day from this guy. We did 3 charters total in our 3 days stay. 2 were amazing this one was beyond horrible.
Thank god we did one before and after because if not I would never book another charter again (and this was my first time). I will be going back to Florida in November and will be sure to steer clear. Me and and buddies had the very worst day of our vacation day 2 because of the energy and crappy 4 hour boat ride for 900 bucks cost. Online his rate shows 700 for 4 hour trip unless it starts at 11 a.m. which we did which would be 800. Someone how I paid a deposit for 70 and then gave this their another 900. So 970 total for the worst experience EVER. Steer clear of this negative Nancy if you are looking to enjoy your vacation or charter trip
Just spent 3 days in Florida and did charters all 3 days. I would strongly suggest booking with anyone but this guy Captain Mark. What a joke. This man was so negative and his energy brought our entire trip down. Thank god we booked a different charter the last day to make up for it. From the second we walked up to the boat this man decides to open up with “it’s suppose to be my day off” then it was “the tide is no good so we will most likely not catch much / going to be a very... More
We always appreciate any amd all feedback. This is unfortunate but the a lot was left out. I explained before we left the dock my deckhand got sick and yes I just had surgery and could not do the anchoring which is nothing more than setting it the water which we do at miship. At no time does anyone go up front. We also use an anchor ball to float the anchor when retrieving it even with a mate so there is no heavy lifting for anyone. But since I just had surgery I couldn’t lift more than 10 lbs. Back to the facts, I offered these guest a full refund due to the situation and had taken there trip as a courtesy which was booked last minute only less than 12hrs prior. I explained the tide was not going to be good and it would be very difficult to get a bite since we already missed the feed. I had a charter previous to their trip which gave a 5 star review and caught 3 Barracuda over 45lbs plus plenty of other fish. When the bite is off it doesn’t matter how great things were earlier, you can’t wish the fish into eating. Once again I offered them a full refund before we left the dock and once again while we were out due to the constant negative attitudes about how slow the bite was. Now for the best part. We spent a bit of time trying to get a few Spanish Mackerel to use for Barracuda Bait which we ended up doing. Also what they failed to mention was that we in fact did get two huge Barracuda to bite ( after tons of effort) also 5 other boats were on the reefs and not 1 fish. Both times there guests lost the fish. Ofcourse that is our fault as usual but unless we fight the fish and land it what is the point if trying? Fortunately this group is the 1% that complains because we are 100% upfront and honest because we do have the experience and education of what is happening in our local fishery and what impact it is having on the world. By now everyone has heard of the major problems Florida is having due to red tide especially in the Gulf of Mexico. If you read any of the warnings put out by NOAA, FWC, FGCU, Mote Marine and I ther environmental agencies you will read that is is highly recommended not to consume fish from a redtide zone which is one of the reasons we practice catch and release within 30 miles of the coastline in Southwest Florida. The other reason is in 2017redtide killed over 50,0000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico with the epicenter being the Calusahatchee River and we are 15 miles from there. They also didn’t mention the trip they did well in was out of Marco Island which is 45 miles from the Calusahatchee and they also went out in the morning, went our past 10 miles and fished the good tide as our morning trip did just as well. No one ever said the were stupid for eating fish or anything of the sort, that is a complete lie but absolutely we do try an educate our guests with the facts on what the current conditions are in the fisherybthey are visiting due to global warming and environmental contamination which is a huge problem in Florida. We the industry have been battling with our State Government for years trying to get them to cleanup their act and stop dumping toxic water into the Gulf of Mexico as wel as the Atlantic Ocean plus what most people don’t realize is that the ground water is highly contaminated from all the agricultural spraying, mosquito control spraying and run off which ends up in our ground water, springs and rivers that all end up in the lakes and Gulwhich is killing it. Anyone that has been coming to Florida for any period of time has noticed we have lost most of out marine birds amd wildlife including fish, Dolphins amd manatees. So yes we do educate our guests on the serious problem we are experiencing as well as the entire planet is experiencing. Anyone that is in love with our planet and cares about Mother Nature and another human being would have never made the ignorant and uneducated remarks this guest did. Fortunately most people can see this for themselves which is why we have been the largest growing Excursions Company in Florida, Alaska and growing worldwide with our new Provider Network. We thank everyone for their support and look forward to providing our CruiseFishDive Family Members with many more years of service. Here is a pic from the morning trip. CMG PS our rates he quoted are our backwater trips. All our rates can be found easily on on websites at CruiseFishDive.com.
We always appreciate any amd all feedback. This is unfortunate but the a lot was left out. I explained before we left the dock my deckhand got sick and yes I just had surgery and could not do the anchoring which is nothing more than setting it the water which we do at miship. At no time does anyone go up front. We also use an anchor ball to float the anchor when retrieving it even with a mate so there is no heavy lifting for anyone. But since I just had surgery I couldn’t lift more than 10... More