Response from Kelia:
As the owners we want to respond to the innate amount of the inaccuracies of this review. First, those boys caught over a dozen fish as the picture you posted proves. 2nd, when you first booked with us you tried to book the 4 hour trolling trip which Captain Experiences working directly with us, advised you we could not offer as they are not productive this time of year. Which is why we switched you
to a 6 hour bottom fishing trip as we wanted to ensure these kids the most opportunity to catch fish.
3rd, as the reviewer you were not aboard the boat and the ones aboard advised the crew to stop bottom fishing for snapper and wanted to "big game fish." Despite the advice we gave you at booking, before the rest of them left the dock that morning you pushed the crew to King Fish, to which they advised you that King Mackerel had not shown up yet and their best bet was to bottom fish.
During the bottom fishing the dolphins, which are a protected Marine Mammal were not allowing many fish to be harvested as they were taking them right off the hooks. The Captain made a 5 mile run to get away from them in attempt to harvest more fish. Unfortunately, they followed. (They do have tails and swim fast.) The Crew gave them the option to spend the last hour and a half attempting to troll and the group agreed, this was after the Crew reminded them that King Fishing was not productive but since that's what they wanted to do they would switch styles and give it a go. They did catch two Bonita during that time (the silver fish in your picture.)
The Crew absolutely did not dismiss or not want "to deal with" these kids, that is not how we run our business. On the contrary, they wanted them to have the best option at catching fish and tried to dissuade them from switching to a style that they knew would be unproductive. If they would have of allowed the Crew to continue bottom fishing they could have of mitigated some of the dolphin loss, which is a protected Marine Mammal and we have no control over.
Also--sir you booked this trip a month ago not a year. You booked our shortest bottom fishing trip and were advised multiple times that all this trip allowed time for was to bottom fish for snapper and that King Mackerel, Red Grouper and Cobia were not options on this trip. You also booked a lower rate as it shows in the review title it was at our Spring rate, but we honored it and ran for a lower price than we normally would have of. We hope next time you book with any operator, you heed the information they give you at booking and what is possible rather than holding them to impossible standards especially when you weren't even aboard the boat yourself. It's somewhat insulting to make an assumption about how the Crew handled things when you weren't there to witness it. We always strive to produce the most fish possible as well as the best experience possible for all of our guests, but we also always listen to them even when it's against our better judgement. Unfortunately, that can sometimes cause the "meager returns" as you stated. Which resulted in a ZERO gratuity for the Crew which you advised was "polite and nice," unfortunate for them they took the direction of the guests and it cost them part of their wages for the day.
Also I want to be super clear that I as the Owner was on the dock when this trip backed in and heard your wife and YOURSELF when you were picking the boys up, both say things to the sentiment of "great catch," "what a haul," "you guys look like you had fun," etc. If there had been any breath of negativity I would have of intervened and spoken to you directly however everyone was all smiles and taking pictures and yet you chose to slam us on the internet. I wish you would have of expressed any issues so that you could have of spoken to the Crew directly which would have of allowed you to have the Crew's actual actions rather than taking one side of the story to base an inaccurate 1 star review on when you weren't there to witness it.
