Never again in Port A!

[MikeC]

A group of us traveled to Port Aransas on 6/4 and 6/5 for a charter. On 6/4 we had chartered 4 boats to cover 11 fishermen. Now, I'm not saying that the guide we had didn't know what he was doing, but catching 13 trout in 8 hours for 3 fishermen is not saying a lot about his prowess. Especially when the other 3 boats limited out and actually were throwing fish back because they already had their limit. He even had us pulling the anchor for him! He would anchor the boat 40 yards from the fishing hole and tell us to cast our baits to it. Now, you can imagine, it was the first saltwater experience for 2 of the guys on the boat and casting a croaker 40 yards is not even in their most remote imagination! And from their comments, I don't think they're going to be trying saltwater again. But since we were 50 miles from the docks and the capt was a "professional", I kept my mouth shut! That will never happen again!
I made a few "suggestions" to him and it seemed like he had already "pre-judged" the city slickers as guys that wouldn't know which end of the pole to use! What he didn't know is that I've been fishing saltwater for over 30 years and would have been doing it for a living if my wife wouldn't have wanted a more steady paycheck.
I'm trying to make the experience a pleasant one, but I just couldn't bring myself to make anymore excuses for Capt Daryl!
One of the guys on the boat only caught 1 fish for the entire day! Now, when you figure that your paying premium dollars for the guide service, 1 fish is not an enjoyable time unless the one fish is something like a 400 pound marlin or tuna! NOT a 20" trout!
But it was good to be on the water and enjoy the company of a great group of guys!

[Channelcat]

I had a similar experience with a guide on E.Matagorda Bay several years ago. The company I work for had chartered three boats for 10 fishermen. The three of us on one boat have been fishing the salt for probably a combined 80 years or so. After a couple of stops at "good holes" and not catching much and listening to him talk to us like a bunch of babies, We shut the trip down and explained to him we came to fish with a professional and if he couldn't do any better than he was doing to just take us back to the docks and we would get our boat and go fishing. The rest of the day went well, even enough for us to win the pot.

[curtis77566]

shoot we had the same thing happen down in seadrift a month ago. we forked out $490.00 for four guys and one of the guys didnt even catch a fish. now the weather was bad, but that is still alot of money.i look at it like gambling.... if i cant afford to lose it , i dont go.

[TexasDux]

"Especially when the other 3 boats limited out and actually were throwing fish back because they already had their limit."Lack of teamwork between your guides, when the other parties limited out he should have been calling your guide over to the spot. Please post up his full name and outfit to save us the grief.

[Channelcat]

shoot we had the same thing happen down in seadrift a month ago. we forked out $490.00 for four guys and one of the guys didnt even catch a fish. now the weather was bad, but that is still alot of money.i look at it like gambling.... if i cant afford to lose it , i dont go.I can recommend Debbie Watson on Lake Conroe and Phil King on the Tennessee River. Both of these are a pleasure to fish with. They don't just go catch fish, they teach. TBill

[Goags]

Don't give up on using guides...most are good, honest and hard working. Unfortunately, there are some that have a boat and no clue. My experience, a few yrs. ago, w/ a Port A group is similar. Probably my fault, since I didn't go into detail of what we wanted to fish for and how, when booking. Mid- July trip w/ 2 boats: As we leave the dock, I asked the guide how the trout bite had been. He laughed and said he hadn't caught a trout since the first of the year. Oh boy, this is gonna be a good trip. Both boats soaked cut mullet for most of the morning w/ no luck. My guide gets a call that kings are at the jetties, and do we wanna change gear and go for it? We go, the other boat stays and catches nada until the last stop before home. The kids catch kings, so all is not lost on my boat. The other boat finally gets into the reds, and catch non-stop until time to go. My bro-in-law said the guide was culling the reds out of the cooler, if they caught a bigger one. Made a nice picture for the local paper! Since that trip, we have been using guides out of A Pass, who fish w/ live bait, artys, whatever you wanna do. My general impression is Port A is looking for the tourist who is happy w/ a boat ride and the guides prefer to book half day trips, to increase profit.

[Sight Cast]

It sounds like he went with a lesser known guide. IMO it is best to stick to proven guides that have earned a good reputation. Especially when one spends 4-500$. And I can think of a hundred spots in the Port A area that I could have caught them some fish at. Why 50 miles? Sounds like a long boat ride.

[MikeC]

The guide who set up the other 3 "filler" guides was Capt. Byron Hough. Now, Byron had a problem with one of the guys on his boat coming down with sun poisoning and had to cut 2+ hours out of the charter in order to get him to the hospital. But he still caught more fish than we did with only a half day charter! The other 2 filler guides that he paired up were absolutely top-notch guides. The guys on the other boats could not say enough good about them! That made our experience just all that much more tough to take! Byron called our capt on the radio and cellphone a couple of times while we were out checking on him. I should have suspected something at that point!

The capt I would stay away from is Capt Daryl. (Sorry I don't have a last name). He had a borrowed boat, because the engine on his blew up, and he didn't have a real firm grasp on how to operate the one he borrowed. He tried the trolling motor first thing in the morning and since the toggle switch didn't turn the prop, he figured the battery was dead. Ok, borrowed boat ... dead battery ... I can accept that! I was there to fish! But later on, one of the guys happened to step on a floor switch on the bow and low and behold, the trolling motor came on! But Capt Daryl didn't bother to use it to get us closer to the fishing spot! I guess he figured we were having too much fun wearing our arms out doing 40 yard casts!:headknock

There is a list of things that I could detail, but suffice it to say, if I ever charter a capt with the first name of Daryl again, I'll be laying eyes on him before I lay out any cash!

[WillFish]

Hind sight is always 20/20 is it not? Thanks for the heads up.

You are problably right, next time a heart to heart early in the trip may help get better results.

Sounds like a lack of experience in this case.