A rainy tropical wave put an end to my 49 day charter streak since we have reopened, allowing me to post an update. Yes, we have been busy, like as busy as we can handle for 2 months busy. I’ll try to keep this report simple and informative.

The basics, we passed the last test today for closures. No, we will not close the keys or cancel mini season. It depends on where you are in the Keys for what is open or closed. Many restaurants have closed and reopened for legit reasons. Some will be operating to protect themselves from the wave of visitors and may have special restrictions in place. I would say you should expect local business to protect themselves from our reality for the next 2 weeks. Many or most boat ramps will be closed

Do not expect this to be a normal lobster season. I see and understand people are coming here to relax and escape and enjoy their vacation. Maybe live like reality elsewhere doesn’t exist here, but it does. Just a reminder, Miami is the center of awful right now and Miami will be invading us, just like everybody from everywhere else. WE have no medical resources here, so you better be really really careful like you can’t afford to get hurt in any way….because you can’t. Do not expect anybody to be able to help you with any medical issue while you are here. Every resource we have will be overwhelmed and you will find yourself on a helicopter going to somewhere in south florida if you need urgent medical help. Understand? Not a joke. I say this for your understanding of what you are coming to.

So, lobstering. I have a million spots. I have had no time to check them. I have heard no reports. I did have a few lobster roaming around in my canal recently in the evening. Normally, I have a few chances to get in the water and get an idea of what is going on. I have been fishing every day possible to offset the damage from being closed for 10 weeks and preparing from our next closure. I just don’t have any data. I don’t see myself having any time to do research going forward. Not a big deal, but this puts more pressure on you for your lobster trip. Previous years, I could stack the odds in your favor with time I put in before your trip. This means your prep will be more important. Your performance will be much more critical. Your efficiency will determine if we dive 6 spots or 18. That’s a big difference and it comes down to you. I took spearfishing off of my charter offerings this year. I spent the extra money for the proper insurance for you to do it. I spent extra money maintaining the best equipment. I took the extra time to educate my customers the best I can before the trip. For spearfishing, 95% of my customers had no respect for the requirements and invalidated everything I did to make it successful, safe and legal. Lobstering is next in line to go off my list of offerings.

If you elect to lobster with me, you must be 110% invested into the success of your trip. You must be fully prepared. You must know what you are doing. You must meet the basic requirements. You must be willing to work your ass off as a team to be successful in the activity. If you make my trip more difficult than it needs to be, this will be the last year I offer lobster trips. I offer these trips to you because I personally really enjoy the activity and I give you a platform to be successful. Same as spearfishing though. Once it isn’t worth it to me anymore, I will no longer offer lobster charters. I’m super busy fishing and I’m catching fish. I can make anybody look good with a fishing rod. I will cut my boat insurance in half by getting rid of lobster charters. Do not ruin lobster charters for me. Don’t test me on this. Just show up 110% fully prepared as a group and lobstering will go on forever. I show up more than ready for your trip. Show some respect and be completely prepared for your trip with me. If you don’t care about being successful in lobstering, let me know by clearly spelling that out to me in your booking notes. You can’t have it both ways and/or after the fact.

Fishing has been good. Everything has been eating early and stops eating when it gets hot. Clouds and wind have helped us. We now have wind as our new longer term pattern going forward. Good for fishing, not good for lobstering! Book morning half day reef trips of 6-8 offshore trips. Do NOT book a 1-5pm reef trip. You can. I will run it. It won’t work out like a morning trip and you have been advised again and again in my recent blogs.

Lot’s of this information is 1:1. Not sugar coated. No salesmanship. I have earned my place and reputation as the highest level of custom charters you can get. I don’t need to bs you. I am a race car going full throttle at the longest point of the race with an unknown finish line. I have customers that appreciate how I present my information and can they get on board with the program and it all works great. I have other people that this is their first trip to Earth and I can make it easy for anything to work, but they need more help each step of the way. I can and will make it work, but customer cooperation goes a long way with me right now. I named my business Florida Keys Reel Adventures….because. you are my crew. I am teaching you how to be my crew and do what has to be done to achieve total success from your efforts. Your trial and error. Your perseverance and willingness to achieve success or whatever it takes to get it right. My format is for you to feel the reward of making it happen. That’s the moment that makes the trip extra awesome. It would cost you more money if I named my business Florida Keys Watch Kevin’s Mate Do Everything Required To Do Whatever And Hand It To You At The Last Second For You To Convince Yourself That you Earned That Catch. It’s hard to fit that on a sticker too! All of my trips are custom, so you are not excluded. Just properly communicate with me so I know what I am working with. I just don’t have the patience for lobster charters not go well this year because I was tricked and put in a situation to fail. There are less lobster each year, conditions are more compromised each year and my customers have higher expectations with less skills and abilities each year. I recognize the patterns. But despite anything, I can get my fishing customers to look like this the past 2 weeks…

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Just want to finish by sharing my position of how grateful I am in contrast how much I am at the mercy of how responsible our visitors choose to be during their visit here. I’m lucky to be working every day, even if it is every day for months in record heat during a pandemic and crazy amounts of stress. I just need you to be solid on your end and I will make this work.

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