305.747.3668 [email protected]

While charter boats such a mine have actually been “Open for Business” all through this shutdown, (groups of less than 10 people), in reality, we were shut down by the lack of visitors. While most boats, myself included, have a few “local” customers, by and large, the bulk of the charter boat business is visitors and tourists. Locals own or have friends that own boats, so they don’t usually charter. So, we were “Open for Business”, but the people that are our customer base just weren’t allowed in.

Anyway, as of today, June 1st, 2020, The roadblock at the top of the Florida Keys is gone and other American Citizens, aka taxpayers that helped pay for US1, are allowed to drive down the Keys to Key West and hopefully, some will want to go fishing.

I’m starting off with a bang. I wasn’t booked today, but I have 5 full days and 2 half days in the next week. I did run 4 charters since late March. That is not a lot of “Cash Flow”, but I am very thankful to the locals that did book me. Every little bit helped. I guess I averaged $1,500 per month for April and May. Of course, I spent about $6K in the boatyard, so the “bottom line” wasn’t great.

But, I am alive and healthy. I was able to pay my bills and June should be a good month and I realize I have over 100,000 reasons to not complain. Now If I can just find some fish.

As I mentioned, we have a full day tomorrow. I think we will be offshore looking for Dolphin, (Mahi). I can’t wait. Offshore trolling for Dolphin is one of my favorite fish to target. Dolphin are a blast to catch, they fight hard, are beautiful to watch and are great table fare. Also, Dolphin, Tuna, Wahoo and Billfish, (Marlin and Sailfish) all eat the same food as dolphin and, Wahoo and Billfish eat dolphin. So if you find the dolphin, you always have a chance of the others.

Check back tomorrow to see how we did