The kids are back in school again. The air is still hot and humid. Traffic is light and you can go out to eat without a reservation locally. It’s off season!!!!! I have been working so hard to get to this point. I’m looking forward to getting caught up on my land chores, getting the boat back into peak shape and maybe coming to visit you!. September here on the water can be pretty good for nearly any activity when the right conditions line up. Attention to detail is what makes the difference. I do have one important change to lobster trips to announce at the end.

Our weather affects the conditions for everything I do. 2024 has been another really hot year globally and that record heat makes my activities more challenging and your experience with me, yes hotter. September is our last really hot month, but we get breaks with tropical activity. Either way, please prepare your entire group for what you plan to do with me. My website has TripTips to guide you and your 48 hour check in call with me is the time to fine tune your preparation. This should be easy for you. For me September is close to the most challenging month to operate. The impact of repeated hotter and longer summers has on what I do is extreme. My job is to figure it all out and communicate the best options for your trip to you. I am looking out for you. The success of my business comes from operating high quality trips that are worth repeating.

I’m going to lump sum my activities report because it’s all the same and conditional. The ocean is hot. Not a ton of good options, but the basic ones work just fine. Reef fishing, half day morning trip for yellowtail snapper is the way to go. Starting earlier than 8am is also helpful. Clouds and a breeze help that too. Offshore, blackfin tuna and mahi are pretty steady. In past years, the mahi fishing has trended better later and later in the year. I bet that will happen again. We need winds of 15mph or less to operate this trip. We generally are covering +60 miles in 6 hours. Fishing in the bay should start to improve for mangrove snapper. They will still be on the smaller side, but fun for kids and a day saver if the wind is blowing. Snorkeling has still been pretty good. We have seen many recent abnormal wind directions, which pushed dirty water around unpredictably in addition to recent strong tides. It is common to have green water in the 20-40 foot visibility range from the impulses of tropical rain we we have been receiving. Yesterday I had 60 foot of perfect blue, so you never know. I have also seen the first bloom of moon jellyfish. Not a big deal, but this is where your long sleeve rash guard or a long sleeve high performance shirt makes a big difference in having a few bounce off of you. Something worth preparing for.

Lobstering. This is what has forever changed. My August 2024 clients have really, really screwed that up. I triple filtered that last line. Out of the many trips I had operated, maybe 2 trips my guests were able to meet my minimum requirements for breath hold and we did fantastic. No problems. The rest of my trips we were mostly in the 6-12 second breath hold zone. Not much I can do with that. F’ing disaster. Additionally, a dump truck of problems came along with many groups and my experience……my experience was a nightmare, I lost a staggering amount of money in tips, multiple booked trips people abandoned because of my minimal deposit required and others that just never showed up. Never again will that happen. Lobstering is now a flat rate paid up front with everything included. I’m covered if you don’t show up, cancel your trip or totally suck at everything lobstering is and don’t want to tip me because you are mad at yourself. Despite my aggressive wording in my lobster information on my website, too many people discovered that they do not know how to swim in the ocean, snorkel, hold their breath, dive to the bottom or work with the members in their group to catch lobster together as a team. On 3 different trips I had people quit within 3 minutes on the first spot. We caught lobster on every trip. Not legal ones on a few. When I have to fine tune your trip down to 4 feet of crystal clear water with no current, chances are there are no measurable amount of legal lobster on those spots. For perspective, after these trips I hit a little deeper spots on my way home. 13-18 feet with 20-30 second breath holds. I have limited out by myself every time in 30 minutes. I can take you there right now. It’s fairly easy if and when you meet my minimum requirements and nearly impossible when you ignore them completely. To sum up my point. Go ahead and suck at lobstering. Ignore all of my requirements. Be you and I get paid despite the circus you bring on board. And…..I can turn the boat back to the dock once I’m tired of the circus. I’m running a business, not a circus.

Lobster diving is challenging, yet fun if this is your game. I enjoy watching my guests succeed. Having the wrong groups on board is miserable,. It’s not about being not good at it, It’s when everybody is incapable of doing the activity and the attitude on the boat falls apart. For me lobster trips are more work, more expensive to operate, tons more liability and comes with a million more decisions I have to make for the trip in real time. Some groups get it and some don’t. For my repeat customers I will make 1 exception for future bookings. Upon making your booking, link, screen shot, text or email your google or trip advisor review of your lobster trip with me and we stay on old system and rate for your trip. I take good care of all my customers. This is my thank you for going along with supporting my business. Everybody else, new system. Payment in full can be done via credit card over the phone, paypal, venmo and zelle. I want my lobster trips to be fun for you and me again. It is not as complicated as it has been made to be. We start on my system that works and end up where you can do whatever you can do. Any lobster trip you want to bail out on can be turned into a fishing trip or alternate activity of equal value to have a great day on the water doing something else. Deposits and trip costs will be refunded when I make a weather cancellation. It does not happen very often, but I make the call when necessary. I hate making changes to what has worked since I started this business. Times have changes since 2008, so now lobstering is 1 step closed to being axed if this does not go well. I have previously dropped spearfishing trips and hooka diving for reasons very well earned. I have been given every reason to drop lobster trips at this point. Time to tighten up our game so we can still do fun stuff.

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