If you’re reading this, you are ahead of many of my customers that book trips with me. Providing you with quality information is a never ending quest that I heavily invest in. The more you know, the more you prepare, the better my trips go. It’s all related. It all makes a difference.

Let’s start with the fresh wound of lobstering. Mini season has come and gone with what I will describe as a never again experience. I am offering specialty trips that I do not have to offer. I offered spearfishing for 10 years. Enough people ruined it to where it wasn’t worth my time anymore. Mini season just joined that club too. I can make anybody that knows nothing about fishing look pretty good at catching fish. Once I put you in the water, you have to perform what needs to be done. If you are well below my minimum requirements for the activity of lobstering, you should expect to struggle beginning to end. I can’t seem to get my customers to understand that at all. First day of mini season my customers had a very expensive snorkeling trip. They were fine until the trip was over and then it got ugly at the dock. Second day of mini season, same issues, but my customers had a much better attitude. For all that went into those 2 trips, not for a second was it worth all of the problems that come with mini season. I would rather have the entire week off. There is no dollar amount that makes it worth it to me anymore. No more mini season trips.

I am still honoring my regular lobster season bookings. There is a good chance this is my last year of offering these trips. Lobstering can be really fun and easy. It is NOT FOR EVERYBODY. The reoccurring issue is I can take you to the lobster spots. I can completely outfit you with the equipment that you need to catch lobster. I can give all of the verbal instruction to make it easier than hard. You have to catch the lobster. If you have no ability to give yourselves 10-15 seconds of bottom time each dive to catch the lobster or you blow nearly every opportunity through poor technique, there is nothing I can do for you. I have a proven system that works. It’s not complicated at all. I use aggressive language and specific requirements on my website to make certain you understand this trip requires more of you than just showing up and snorkeling on the surface. I prefer you have fun and success in lobstering. That’s what it is all about. For the past 5 years I have learned to be ok with my customers having no ability to do what needs to be done to catch lobster. I’m not interested in you being upset with me or having any negative consequences because you fell short of success. I set my customers up for successful outcomes. Way too often now my customers are setting me up for a failed trip. I do not want to be a part of that. It makes me look bad and it hurts my business when you finish a trip with a shit attitude. It really upsets me. Ultimately, it’s not worth my time to offer a trip that works against me. All of my lobster info is here LOBSTER INFO . Read it all. Understand it all. When you do it all wrong, you are your worst enemy and success will be minimal to impossible. It’s a choice you make. I’m in the fun business. Mini season was not fun. Regular season needs to be fun. It starts with you. No fun for me means no more lobster trips for you. Very few people offer this anymore for a reason.

Big positive transition, let’s talk about what is good. Morning reef trips have been really productive. The first week of August is the last chance at volumes of mangrove snapper. The spawn is ending around the 13th, so the clock is ticking. I expect to be switching back to yellowtail snapper fishing by the middle of the month. Heat and conditions dictate what we do on our morning trips. Once the sun gets up around 10am we typically transition into other fisheries to finish the trip. Please, do not book an afternoon half day reef trip. It is absolutely too hot. I will open these afternoon trips again typically near Halloween when conditions are more reasonable.

There has not been many offshore fishing trips that I have run in July. I understand the price point probably has reduced the amount of bookings I have had as gas has been insanely expensive. 50 gallons of fuel burned at $6/gallon makes this my least profitable trip and most challenging to operate. The trips I have run have been good. Tuna at the humps and dolphin all around the 30 mile out mark have made some good catches. Better catches of dolphin have been coming in from this time of the year and have lasted up to October. It’s just the way the pattern has been evolving and trending.

On the wrecks we have been catching a little bit of everything. Our mutton snapper have dispersed, but still can be caught when we put our time in and get lucky. Jacks have made up the majority of our catches. Some are good to eat, some are not, but they fight like crazy. The sharks have been an issue eating our fish. Some days are sharkier than others. You never know until you get eaten.

Snorkeling has still been a good option to cool off and beat the heat. This July was a rather windy month, so I’m expecting August to have a more flat water days. The long term forecast shows more wind, but that is really uncommon. It has to settle down eventually. Other than bumpy seas, the visibility has been consistently good with plenty of 30-40′ days. That’s good for this time of year. Moon jellyfish are starting to show up, so a long sleeve rash guard is a great idea for in the water protection from the sun and jellyfish encounters. Keep in mind I offer sandbar trips and can add mermaid tails to any snorkeling and sandbar trip.

Thanks for reading. This wasn’t the report I wanted to put out to the world. My business is called “Reel Adventures” because I do not have a mate. You are my crew. I can teach you to do the skills that make us a team. The challenge IS the reward. It never is perfect. I offer the experience where we plan for a goal, take what we have for conditions, work hard, learn, evolve and execute to create a result. That is how every trip goes and 99 out of 100 are great. I only deal in reality. My job is to soften the harshness of the way the ocean operates and provide you with a kinder experience than if you were to rent a boat and do it on your own. I offer easy entry level trips to advanced trips. If you are not sure, pick an easy 4 hour morning trip and work your way up the ladder. The more you know and prepare…..the stronger team we start the day with. The more you invest in your trip, the quicker success will come.

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