I have a lot of comfort with the programs or trips I offer to you. One thing I try to not let myself get too lazy or comfortable with is the information I provide you and how it reads from your perspective. It is incredibly challenging these days with shorter attention spans, instant gratification needs, changing environmental factors and endless hurdles of operating a healthy and safe business. My goal with these blogs is to give you the best up to date information on what to expect for your trip in the near future based on what is going on locally and changes to my business. Sometimes it’s a bit wordy, but I’m trying my best to speak to everybody and certain people at the same time..

Halfway through September and things are better than expected. We have a beautiful forecast for the next 10 days. Almost too nice. About the same for the fishing report as my last one. I’m seeing bait showing up a little here and there and some seagulls and pelicans are returning from their seasonal break up north. Fall is a week or so away and I can see a little of that. Still hot as can be here, but a seasonal change is seemingly within reach. Summer rules are still applicable until late October. That means half day morning reef trips only. That means early starts are still best for all trips. Yellowtail snapper has been good on the deep reef. Mangrove snapper have been filling in on the shallow reefs. Offshore has had plenty of mahi and blackfin tuna. Sharks have been bad offshore on the tuna grounds.

One the main reef the water has been pretty clear with an abundance of moon jellyfish. A long sleeve rash guard keeps the majority of them off of you when you pay attention to what’s floating your way in the water. My deeper 12′-18′ ocean lobster spots have had mostly crap and undiveable visibility on many outings. A good tide here and there has made it ok, but compromised most of the time. Unfortunate because I was limiting out on the shallow reefs every time until the water got dirty.

Let’s talk about lobstering. The ultimate creator of havoc for my business. I finally had a great trip! 3 guys with some experience and no experience. No excuses and no complaining. Marginally better conditions than previous trips, but same profile and same program. They had their challenges, trials and errors just like everybody. It’s part of the activity. They worked hard. I worked them hard. They dove 27 spots for 16 keepers on a 4 hour trip. That’s about what I expect to be “normal.”

My normal for this lobster season has been 5-10 spots for 3-6 keeper lobster. Well, the math pans out if you did not consider most of my guests having less than half of my minimum breath hold requirement and most trips operating in the shallowest water or in areas of more pleasant visibility or less current because of lesser abilities. Let’s be clear about this. Lobstering is work and it is challenging when everything is perfect. We do not have perfect conditions anymore. Expect hot dirty-ish water. Expect current. Expect not perfect. I will always try to put you in the best conditions on what I know and understand. I try to find the balance of all the variables. When you and your participants are the majority of the sum of all the challenges…..the catch ration will reflect the reality of that. My last group made me a believer again. We all had fun. The mood was good on board. They all experienced and overcame and worked through the challenges they had. They knew how to snorkel. They learned and progressed through the entire trip. They worked well as a team. They understood my system and the mission. That ladies and gentlemen is lobstering. All this verbage is for you to read, process and prepare if lobstering is for you. 90% of my lobster charter participants this season chose to show up and find out how it goes. It is your choice. We live in the information age and I use YouTube and the internet to learn every day of my life. I can easily do things I never have done before and/or greatly reduce the learning curve. The learning curve on a 4 hour lobster trip if you come in knowing nothing is about 3 more 4 hour lobster trips than the one you didn’t prepare for. Finishing on a good note, conditions look great going forward as far as winds go. The daily recreational pressure is way down from August. Now is a good time to get a lobster trip in. I expect visibility to be a challenge, but I have been making the most of it and it works when you can do what I need you to do.

Now is also the time I will be doing multi day maintenance on the boat. Booking a last minute trip is risky, so get your reservation in asap. My schedule is open and I am reaching out to my resources to get major work done on their availability. Don’t count on my open schedule to be open is what I’m saying. Thanks for reading! I will be back to posting updates with pictures. I just left the past few months blank so customers that struggled did not think I was specifically speaking of them. Finally, my words and how it reads from your perspective. For income reasons, it would be great if I could have everybody on board doing all of the things I offer. That is completely unrealistic. I have way too many people that like the idea of the activities that I offer, but are unqualified for one reason or another. My wording is to strike reality and awareness into the minds of dreamers. I’m making a verbal filter to sort out within reason people that will struggle. Entry level requirements will ultimately decide if you succeed or fail on your trip most of the time. When my focus is on the mission of the trip we always do well. When my attention is focused on human issues we will have a proportionally different end result.

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