Was told it would be better to fish for sharks in-shore on a half day, due to weather.

Heard people on the radio catching wahoos and tuna, etc, while we caught baby snapper.

Came back to the dock, and watched others get photo ops with some decent mahi mahi.

Just bummed we were talked into a half day, instead of the full day trip we booked months earlier.

Totally capable crew… Seemed like wild bill had some other business to attend to that afternoon or something.

First off, when I booked through Fishing Booker, I received a text message shortly thereafter straight from the Captain saying he wished I had booked directly with him and not through Fishing Booker. So that was a bad sign right off the bat. I should have heeded the warning and listened to my gut that was telling me this didn’t sound good.

We arrived at the dock right on time expecting to jump on the boat and take off shortly thereafter. The first mate was busy getting things ready to go. But, the boat wouldn’t start. Someone left a switch on the night before and it drained the battery. The Captain messed with it for a while then left to go get a battery charger. He was gone 20-30 minutes then came back with a charger and hooked it up. And we waited. And waited. And waited. He’d try the engines every so often, but it was a no go. All the other charter boats had left long ago.  Finally, two hours later, (yes, two hours….) they canceled and made arrangements on another boat. I have to say that was nice and our day of fishing wasn’t completely ruined. We did get to go out.

So we went down to the other boat a few slips away and the First Mate started getting everything set up while we waited on the Captain to arrive. He wasn’t expecting to go out that day so he had to scramble from home to the dock, which took a while and it wasn’t the Captain’s boat and the first time he’d ever been on that boat. It was a bigger boat than the one we booked with Wild Bill, and we caught some fish but missed the early bite. Overall, the boat not starting and the two hour delay while they tried to fix it was unacceptable.

I don’t recommend this charter and won’t book with Wild Bill again.