Questionable Character

[alltackle]

Some friends of mine called me from their offshore charter in Florida on Sunday. The went 2-4 on sails and then trolled. They landed a 60" Wahoo.

The charter captain and mate attempted to convince my friends that Wahoo is full of parasites and is not a good fish to eat. The Captain said they would take care of "disposing" of the fish. After I told my friends that wahoo is one of the best eating fish in the ocean, they informed the Captain that they will take the fish, and they did.

When they got back to the dock, people were lined up to buy the wahoo.

IMO, this kind of dishonesty is not good for the overall charter fishing industry.

[LuckyLady]

Sounds like there is alot of uneducated charter guests that dont know any better and that is the normal drill for that captain.

Not right in my book!

[bigfish4me]

What a complete crock of sh!t, seems like there are a lot of unscrupulous captains around the tourist destinations....2 words for those types of people....NO TIP

[Squidnation]

Keith I don't mean to bash the florida guys but I have had more bad experiences fishing with charters in florida then any other place in the world.

In the keys the captain took us on a sailfish trip. we got into the dolphins and kings. He then said we would catch dolphins and kings even though we said we didn't want to catch any. He then proceeded to tell us it doesn't matter because they were going to keep the fish for themselves. You can imagine the tip they got. As well as their reaction when my group turned into the worst anglers in the world. The next three kings that hit our line somehow created bird's nests large enought to house a family of condors. We swore up and down it was an accident . It took the bonehead captain about 10 mysterious errors until he realized that he may as well move and try and find a sailfish because not one other fish was gonna hit the deck. I think the kicker was when I had a 25lb dolphin and my buddy had a deep fish. Both fish went in the opposite direction, one port and one starboard. Well of course my buddy and i didn't see it that way. For some reason we thought we were crossed so we had to uncross the lines about a dozen times. I thought the old white bearded cappy was gonna have a coronary and by this time the mate had called us every name in the book and kept reminding us how long it was going to take him to clean up our mess.

We ended up the day with a single sail bite that we caught in the last hour. You could imagine the cappy and mate's reaction when the sail took the live ballyhoo. My buddy elbowed the mate out of the way - made a perfect feed and hook up and fought the fish to the boat like a seasoned pro.

from that trip forward I vowed to only charter boats that I personally knew or came highly recommended by fishermen friends of mine. So now when I fish in florida I can get yelled at by prather and duffie instead of strangers

[giantfan]

I had a similar trip in Key West..... all they wanted was the meat and kept telling us that they were going to use them (Kings) for chum..... I didn't know that you gutted fish to grind up for chum

I should have known when we showed up to the dock and the mate was beating on an International 50 that was siezed on the rod, with a hammer to break it loose (which he couldn't do.... that reel must have been on that rod for years)

Well we got to bend some rods over christmas week and just being out on the water was nice..... needless to say we will never go out on that boat again.

[Bert Rodgers]

That's why I only go with RT when out of The Pocket when I charter in FL.

Bert

[gman]

Im just an angler dont own our own boat but I charter a lot ... in the end its up to you as a charter to do your homework and try to really find the right people to fish with. I normally only fish with people that I have been referred to and have a great network of captains around the globe I go to.

Now we are seasoned but for the not so seasoned its sucks.

Unfortunately just like there are bad cops, good cops bad companies and good companies the charter industry has its share as well

[gman]

We have been on trips in Mexico where the captains have tried to take our fish and said it was property of the boat and i replied that my tip was property of my wallet ... they always get the hint

[Capt Lindsay]

Years ago, the Ft. Lauderdale newspaper got a tip that a charter boat was "reusing" Sailfish to get mounts from unsuspecting tourist customers. The paper sent a helicopter out to follow the boat.

Sure enough, it wan't too long when the bow hatch opened and the mate popped out. He reached back in and pulled out a Sailfish. The mate then hooked the sailfish on a line that the captain fed to him from the bridge and tossed the Sailfish overboard.

The charter party reported that as soon as the rod bent, the crew started screaming that it was a "world record" and the party had to get the fish stuffed.

After the paper printed the story and the pictures, the Coast Guard held a hearing and pulled the captain's ticket plus criminal charges were filed against the captain and mate.

The close-up picture in the Lauderdale paper showed that Sailfish was a little worse for wear after the many times it had been "misused."

As always, let the buyer beware.

Capt. Lindsay Fuller
June Bug Charters
Beach Haven, NJ
http://www.Fish-JuneBug.com
609-685-2839

[Robja]

I don't know what posesses people to prey on people that don't know what is a good fish and what is not. I have heard similar stories on that happening to people who charter boats but don't know anything about what is a good fish to eat or not. When we charter in Central America if we catch any meat fish we usually keep enough to eat back at the hotel and give the capt and crew the rest(unless it is a nice yellow fin and it makes the trip back to the States). In Ecquador we did not keep any of the large Dorado because they only had the equivalent of 1 tray of ice to put on the fish. We let them have all the meat fish.