It is difficult for me to even think ow how I should begin this and how to word it. We are nearing the middle of a very hot and very busy season. There are so many moving parts to talk about and all of is it tough for me to relate properly to my customers. This summer is exceptionally hot and our water quality now and for the next few months is suffering. I am so used to having really high customer expectations and usually I exceed them. There are some good fishing patterns happening, but there are so many conditions needed to make each trip work. Our main enemy is the heat and water temperatures.
For fishing, it all about the early start. Currently I am ONLY INTERESTED IN BOOKING 4-6 HOUR MORNING TRIPS. Please, do not book an afternoon 1-5pm trip. It will not be good for either of us. The best things going are the 4 hour morning reef trips and
Spearfishing:
I don’t know. It is day to day, hour to hour. Water temp is 85-90 and the visibility is worse than it is better in most of my spots. The water quality this summer has been among the worst I have ever seen day to day and there is ZERO predictability. On average 10% of my areas are good vis, 10% is doable and the rest is junk. That’s a tough compromise and it doesn’t mean where there is vis there is also fish. Make sense? I am doing my best to adjust my customer’s unrealistic expectations, but the game is very different this year. If anything, I need my customers to be better, more prepared and willing to work harder than in years past. Spearfishing is more difficult this summer, end of story.
Lobster Mini Season:
Yes, I am booked. Expect hot water and less visibility I believe the lobster will be here. I believe Day 1 on mini season will be very good if we can see them in decent vis. I anticipate a huge volume of people for mini season and maybe overall there will be less success that will lead to a better regular season opener for lobster. It all depends on how hard they get wiped out on mini season. For regular lobster season, I want my customers more prepared to be in the heat, dive harder and realistically, expect less. That is the safe bet. Each trip is different, I can’t predict how many lobster show up this season. I look at trends and patterns. We have a lot of hot dirty water and that does not mean anything is going to be easy. So be prepared for “not easy” and we will be on the same page.
Snorkeling and other in the water activities are under the same umbrella. It changes so often that I can’t say how any conditions will be on each trip. I hope they all go very well, but being prepared and having the right attitude go a long way to make each trip special. I’m in the fun business and I sure do like to have fun on my trips. My customers this year have challenged me much more than I have anticipated. I do a great job in my preparations and I know how to deliver the best of what waits for us out there. The hardest thing to overcome is a group that is not prepared, gives no value to the trip, has participants that don’t want to participate, has no personality or does not want to communicate or interact, gets seasick or is generally problematic and not able to pick up on what is being taught. I have had many of these trips this year and it is way more work than fun. I understand that doing as many trips as I operate now, I will come across more of these kinds of people. I’m just putting it in print so you understand. I like to do fun trips with fun groups of people because they go together well. Very well. A fun trip with not so much a fun group of people yields a so so trip that is just work for me. See the difference? You know your group the best. Recently, I had a problematic type of family book a trip after I directly told him “there is no amount of money you can pay me to take you out.” Really, they still booked me!! I was taking his seasick wife back to the dock an hour later on a flat calm day and I got no tip for my extra efforts and gamble on this group. I will not make that mistake again. You know your group, I do not. If you are not a good group, please go be not a good group on a different boat. I have plenty of other good groups to take the place of the not so good ones.
I want to thank all of my customers, good and difficult! I have been really blessed to be so busy this year and there is no slowing down this month. You are my business and you make my business successful. Please help me be the best I can be by filling out your details in the contact form for your reservation to help me be informed and make decisions well ahead of time. I’m managing so many moving parts, so the more I know means the more you care to have me care. Zero information on the notes means you do not care so……I get too many phone calls and I have a system in place to keep me finely tuned to your trip. It’s the notes you give me on your reservation. Otherwise, you have a ? placed next to your reservation. Seriously. That’s how it works.
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