Mike is a genuine, honest, knowledgeable guy that put us on fish immediately. Pretty much every drop of the bait was a catch! Had a blast from the get go. Nice boat and setup, everything was in order, just a fantastic afternoon trip. Ended the trip with a 40 min fight getting in a trophy Cobia! Can’t say enough good about First Shot Charter!

I have been fishing the gulf during different times of the year, from the bay to 80 miles offshore every year since I was 14 years old. I’ve never had a bad captain, but there are a select few that go above and beyond to make sure you have a good trip. Captain Mike is one of those elite few that even if the targeted species aren’t biting he will make sure you reel your arm off and catch fish, case and point we target Mackerel and Mingo Snapper. As you can see in the pictures we had a tough time catching those, but we caught over 60 fish and had a blast! Captain Mike’s knowledge and catalog of spots to go to that hold fish in the gulf is mind boggling, he’s got atleast 20 different spots for each species and will do anything he can to put you on the fish. He’s by far and away the best Captain I have charted since my son started fishing with me and I couldn’t possibly recommend any one better to spend a day in the gulf with! Thanks Captain Mike, we will be coming back year after year as long as you’re in business!

My brother & I had a perfect fishing trip first thing in the morning with Captain Mike! We stopped at our first spot to catch live bait. That was even a blast! We reeled in 40 bait fish within 5 minutes! Next we tried some trolling which didn’t result in anything, so Mike brought us to a marked location and we started getting bites right away. We started by catching a couple of nice snappers. Next my brother caught a large grouper which ended up getting bit in half by sharks on the way up. Mike decided to use that grouper to bait a shark line. Within 5 minutes we had a shark on! It was the fight of a lifetime, but after 30 minutes we reeled in an 8 Foot/200 Pound Bull Shark! This was obviously the highlight of our event. We needed with another nice spot where we reeled in a couple of fish each. I fish every time I go on vacation, and this trip with Mike was probably the best one yet! 🎣

We booked a 6-hour morning trip with Captain Mike.  He was honest with us when we contacted him early in the week letting us know that the weather was not looking promising for our booked morning.  A strong stormfront moved through Wednesday evening and kept the Gulf churned up through Friday morning.  Captain Mike let us know it wasn’t safe to go in the Gulf so we tried the Bay.  Nobody was catching fish that morning, not just our boat as several other captains contacted Captain Mike throughout our trip.  Captain Mike did everything he could to try and get us on fish for my 12-year old son to catch, taking us to several different spots, and while we had 3 bites, nothing hit our hooks.  After two and a half hours of trolling Captain Mike told us he didn’t think it was going to happen for us that day and we made the decision to head back in.  Captain Mike was entertaining during our trip and answered all of my son’s questions.  Even though we didn’t catch anything he made it a very enjoyable trip. 

After 3 hours out, Captain Mike only wanted to charge us for 2 hours out since we didn’t catch anything, even though he had been upfront with us about the weather earlier in the week and that morning.  We hope to get back in the warmer months with some better weather and give it another shot with Captain Mike.  My son is looking forward to catching some Mahi Mahi with him.