I was so excited for this fishing charter.  I’ve only been fishing 3 times (only started in December 2020) and have been to Islamorada 3 times since then to fish.  I wanted to get a seasoned pro to take me around and show me some techniques, but unfortunately this was not the trip.  Despite sending Captain Ron a note about my experience and what I was wanting to do, he didn’t read it nor read the reservation since he had no clue how many people were coming on the charter (1).  The wind was brutal and I was having trouble catching my breath and Capt. Ron said we were going an hour away from shore and coming back into the wind.  I told him that I was not comfortable with that and politely asked him if he can just show me around the shore and bridges.  I told him catching as many fish as possible was not my goal, but to learn and figure out the local fishing spots.  He was irritated and wanted to cancel the charter asap.  As weird as this sounds, I had to convince him to just enjoy the charter and finish it out and I would pay him in full and even gave him 20% tip.  The whole time was awkward.  You could tell he didn’t want to be there and each question I asked was met with some type of unwarranted remark.

Capt Ron knows his stuff.  His equipment is great.  His boat is subpar and barely can seat 2-3 to be able to travel 1 hour away from shore.  Capt Ron is best paired with a seasoned fishermen that doesn’t like to talk and is best sitting in quiet and just fishing.  Unfortunately, I learned the hard way.  I wish him all the best.

Capt Ron really knows his stuff! Great fishing charter highly recommend him if your in islandmara!

Ron did a good job of finding us fish and we even caught some. He knows the business and area well and I am sure seasoned fisherman would have caught more. Love the spot he took us to.

Capt.  Ron states let’s move closer to the bay see if we can get more bites, but in reality he turned us around to head back in.  I spend lots of time on the water and it is never good to lie to clients.  Overall a good trip for trout fishing nothing else doing.  He wanted to spend half the time doing that the other half on shark fishing. I told him point blank we want meat on the deck; fished for trout 3+ hours.
Now I do believe he is knowledgeable but disappoint in the way we were treated, like we wouldn’t know the difference either way.

Had a great time with an afternoon charter with Capt Ron. We went out, used the cast net for some bait, and proceeded to catch plenty of Black tip sharks along with a rather large barracuda. I can’t wait to go back again next year.