I've read some negative reviews on charters, so thought I would give a good one. I am from Tennessee, a friend told me about allfishcharter so another friend and I booked a trip with them. When we met, I semi-jokingly told him I wanted at least a 6'+ shark and a limit of grouper. We went out about 28 miles so it did take us a little over an hour to get there. The grouper fishing was like fishing for bream. If you didn;t feel a bite in under a minute, chances are they took your bait. Obviously most were under 20", but we did limit out in about 3 hours.
Could have been sooner, but after probably an hour tops on the spot, one of the shark poles took off. I had never caught anything like this before - it only took me about 10 minutes to get it in but it turned out to be a 9-10 foot Lemon Shark. I didn't want to keep it and couldn't wait for them to cut the line - my arms were literally like jelly. No way I was handing off that pole tho - youtube video of it is here (edited for time of course) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ5xA8SEbmw&feature=youtube_gdata_player -
Was a fantastic trip - even got to watch a barracuda circle the boat and take our bait, jumping straight up like he was shot out of a cannon - it was like watching a nature show live.
The shark did wear me out though. Coming in I was wore out and couldn't get the smell of squid off of me, so he stopped by Sanibel Island and we went for a quick refresher dip.
Can not say enough good things about the trip. Captain Dan and 1st Mate Lance could not have been any nicer or better. They started out baiting my hooks for me until I told them I would do my own. Hook a fish and 1st mate Lance was immediately on top of it, getting it off the hook. Once I saw their mouth's, I did start taking the smaller ones off my own hook, but they offered to. I did let them take the 20+ inchers off. Never had a problem with any of their gear. Was surprised how much room was in the boat. I had seen a picture of it and just knew it was 25 feet long. I own a 19' fish and ski so was thinking his boat would not be much bigger than mine - wrong. It would probably take about 2 1/2 of mine to make one of his - the thing is huge on the inside. It is also 8' wide and that makes a huge difference. Not sure what I was expecting but the boat was also very clean. They were not going to, but I asked them if they would fish with us. After talking them into it(I really just wanted to see how they fished and if I was embarrassing myself), we had about 6 lines in the water for grouper and 2 lines off the back for shark. We often doubled and tripled up on the grouper and more than a few times they would have a fish on, drop their rod and come take ours off (I pretty much took all of my own off, my friend did not take any of his off). As it should have been, we were just their main priority and they did everything they could possibly do to insure we had a great, memorable trip - and they succeeded. I honestly did not really expect to catch a shark that big. I figured if I could catch a couple of 3-4 footers it would be a good day. Instead we caught 2 9-10 footers. We actually had 3 more hooked, but I lost them (taking that pole out of the holder was really hard and I don;t think I ever got a good hook set) On the one I did catch, I let captain dan set the hook and get it out of the pole holder and I took over from there. He would have klet me miss them all day long, but I was not sure how many more I could miss before they quit biting - I've caught some fair size fish before, even had a 50 pound grouper, but until you hook a 10 foot shark, headed the other way at full speed while you try to get the pole out of the holder - you just can't really imagine it. He told me over and over how to do it, but once you reach down and grip the pole, trying to pull it out with all your might and the pole doesn't budge - worrying you may get the drag too loose and lose the fish......I still remember that exactly (I will also always remember the Barracuda). After that one barracuda jumped and got off, Capt Dan was telling me how a few weeks earlier they were out with a man and his wife and a barracuda started circling the boat then also. He had a pole with a steel leader out, so he threw it in with a ladyfish on it, giving the pole to the woman. Apparently just like I saw, the barracuda took off like it was shot out of a rocket, taking the bait and leaping into the air - the only problem was it apparently was leaping right at the boat. Capt. Dan said that barracuda jumped just right and was coming straight at the woman's face. He pulled her out of the way and the fish landed right in the back of the boat. The fish was obviously not happy and they said he was snapping and gnashing his teeth as fast as he could. Flopping around like that, very pissed off, Dan said they had no choice and he immediately had everyone run down into the cuddy. The boat may be a good size, but not when there is a pissed off barracuda flopping around in it. Capt Dan said he waited a few minutes for it to settle down a bit, then got his gaff and removed it from the boat. Was a really funny story plus he was driving home the point that a barracuda is mean and not to be taken lightly. I could be wrong, but I am thinking he said he was more worried about barracudas than sharks. I guess so if they are jumping in the boat with you.
Anyway - I give them a 4 thumbs up. At first I just liked their prices, but now I consider them friends and can not wait to go back down. My wife will never keep me in Tennessee now.
Well, my shark video says it all