Captain Dumas did a great job guiding my wife, 5 year old son and myself. We were on the fish early and often, very little downtime between strikes. Captain Dumas paid exceptional care to my son who had the time of his life. Would recommend AJ’s Freelancer Bass Guide Service to anyone, especially those with kids.
Thanks Daniel, we really appreciate it. Glad you enjoyed your day! Captain Dumas always goes above and beyond for our clients.
I booked this trip for my son and myself and explained it was our first time doing one of these trips and I got a reply back saying everything was covered for the trip. Then The day before the trip I got a text message saying I would have to pay $75 when I got there for three dozen live bait. $25/dozen, which I did my own research on and they sell for $8 per dozen. He said they recommended it to “make the most out of our experience”. Then I got there the morning of the trip and they had double booked it and asked if it was OK if the other two people came along and I said no it wasn’t because I booked a private charter for just the two of us. That’s what you paid the $225 US for. The captain was not happy that I wouldn’t allow the other two to come and he was miserable the entire trip because he didn’t want there to be a bad review. He Barely said anything the whole time. I did not pay for all three dozen upfront and at the end of the trip he told me I would $75 for the three dozen live bait and we didn’t even use a dozen so I refused to pay for all three and paid him for a dozen as well as gave him a tip and told him it was strictly out of Canadian courtesy that he got the tip. We caught seven fish and that’s why the captain got his tip because he did his job in that respect but he was not friendly at all or made the trip enjoyable. No conversation and just seemed he didn’t even want to be out on the water. I would like to try another trip in the future but will not be using these guys. That’s an honest review
I booked this trip for my son and myself and explained it was our first time doing one of these trips and I got a reply back saying everything was covered for the trip. Then The day before the trip I got a text message saying I would have to pay $75 when I got there for three dozen live bait. $25/dozen, which I did my own research on and they sell for $8 per dozen. He said they recommended it to “make the most out of our experience”. Then I got there the morning of the trip and they had... More
Hello Len, I’m sorry you didn’t have a good experience on your trip. You did have the option of using artificials but we recommended going with the live bait because of the hard coldfront that had just gone through the day before and you decided to go with the livebait.
I’m not sure where you got that the wild shiners we use are $8 a dozen (I sure wish they were $8 a dozen). I believe you may have been looking up domestic shiners which are tank bred and are only about 2-3 inches. We don’t use them because they tend to die on the hook before they catch a fish and the fish they do catch tend to be tiny.
The large wild shiners that we use are 5-10 inches and are caught directly off of the lakes. Their bigger size makes them hardier and you’ll catch double the numbers and double the size with them. They’re $25 a dozen because they are wild caught and there is a limited supply of them. All the baitstores around here sell them for $27-$30 a dozen. We actually are able to get the cheapest shiners around.
The fact that you didn’t want to pay for your bait after you had already used it wasn’t very courteous as your captain had already paid for the bait that morning and any extras won’t survive the night in a small live well.
I apologize that your captain had booked someone else the same day and never marked it down. That is completely unacceptable and has already been resolved with the captain. I can assure you that will never happen again.
Hello Len, I’m sorry you didn’t have a good experience on your trip. You did have the option of using artificials but we recommended going with the live bait because of the hard coldfront that had just gone through the day before and you decided to go with the livebait. I’m not sure where you got that the wild shiners we use are $8 a dozen (I sure wish they were $8 a dozen). I believe you may have been looking up domestic shiners which are tank bred and are only about 2-3 inches.... More