Hello, My name is Joey Viviano. I am originally from Dallas, Texas and am currently a student at the University of Arkansas. Fishing has always been a a passion of mine and I am actively looking to pursue this passion to the next level as a career. I am an experienced fisherman and am looking to work my way up to guiding. I am a very hard dependable worker, and would love to come work as a deckhand and wherever I can be of use to learn everything I can. Any responses, recommendations and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Please get back to me at your convenience I am always available. you can contact me at...

direct message or
joey.viviano33@gmail.com

Most of the charter boats are looking for experienced deckhands especially with big tournament money and paying clients on the line. Your best way to start is to find people with offshore boats who'd take you along and under their wing and be a sponge for info...learning how to leader fish, gaff fish, rig baits, drop back to a hot billfish etc, ect, etc, etc, etc. There are SO many technical skills behind offshore fishing and one weak link can be the difference between happy clients on a charter who will return or frowns and lost business in a competitive market or worse a loss in a tournament where the pots are in the million $$'s plus ranges.

Where are you looking to get on a boat out of?? Not a lot of offshore boats running out of Fayetteville, Arkansas...you on the TX coast for the summer?

Thank you very much for the response and advice I really appreciate it. And i will be on the coast if I can find work there!

Joey, LMG covers a bunch of good stuff. There's more, but what he mentioned you need to be able to do as a deckhand is more than enough to see there's a lot to know on being a deckhand.

Suggestion: contact the various docks in Galveston, Freeport, Port Aransas, and SPI and see if they'll hire you on a party boat. Definitely a grunt job, but you'll learn a lot and deal with a lot of things exponentially faster that about any other way. Once you get some months/years experience under belt you can talk to the 6 pack and private boats about decking. you'll learn to deal with all types of folks, from a TOO type to the completely clueless tourists.

SuggestionII: contact the various 6 pack charter guys, especially the CC charter guys. some of them prefer a complete newbie regarding the offshore game so they can train them their way. Know one offshore captain was looking for a new deckhand this year and while we would never book or fish with that captain, there's no denying a deckhand on that captains boat would learn a lot. Just be completely honest about your experience and understand that it is about the longest hours vs pay job outside of a midget hooker.

Thank yall so much for the advice I really appreciate it!