The "new" dolphin express

Anyone been on a 12 hour with these guys and this boat recently? Looking for some input between this and the scat cat for a quick day trip. Been a while since I've been on either one and I'm not up to speed with either of those. Thanks!

Bryan .... Just my opinion but the Dolphin Express (Captain Timmy) does a great job on 12 hr trips. It would be superior to the Scat Cat IMO.

But being stingy I like the Pelican at DSH for 12 hr trips because it's cheaper. Captain James is a fish hunter and goes all out to make the crowd happy. Some of my friends and i are already discussing plans to start doing 12 hr trips with James after school starts back up.

He is already catching Blackfins at the shrimp boats BTW.

I'm leaning towards DD or DSH vs FW. I may have a chance in a couple of weeks to take the kids down for a long weekend. I had kind of figured in my head already about those guys vs FW. Nothing wrong with FW but I've always caught more with DD or DSH. Good to hear about the blackfins behind the shrimpers. Thank you for the information.

Leave the big stuff at home. They just announced that AJ's will remain closed until next year .

Give me a heads up before you come down if you do.

Bobby

Well great! I was hoping to put my boys on some AJ's. Yes sir I'll definitely give you a shout if I get headed that way.

Daughter and I booked for the Dolphin Express 12 hour night trip tomorrow!! She is stoked. Her first offshore trip. We chose to go this weekend since snapper season is expired.

Did y'all have any luck?

Left feeling greatly disappointed. First time I have been disappointed with this group in 30 years of going. With snapper season over I asked them previously if they would be going for shark, kings, etc. I was told yes. Instead they went 4 hours out for vermillion snapper. Drop a big weight in 300 ft of water and wait for a small nibble. Current was strong so even with anchoring we still had a lot of tangles. Boat was late leaving and early to return. Deck hands were drinking on the way out. Can't believe how dissatisfied I am with them.

Im surprised to hear that deck hands were drinking, that does not sit well with me and may put me off from trying dolphin docks.
I was able to go out on the Pelican with Deep Sea Headquarters 8hr trip sunday. We went out past the oil rigs over a reef and drifted. I was able to hook up with 5 kings but lost one and the boat caught a total of 40 kings, two where massive, and a small cobia with ~30 people. After talking with the staff it seems that the 12hr trips with DSH may target tuna too bad its on a Wednesday.

That's pretty serious. I've been fishing head boats for 40 years and I don't think I have ever seen that. You can bet that if the captain knew that was going on then those deckhands would have made their last trip.

I believe you're right about that Bobby. Seems like it might be a federal no no for part of the crew to be drinking on duty. Sure enough at least get the boss's attention

James Wheeler down at DSH is a top notch dude. His deckhands Lloyd and Alex are super helpful. All three work hard to fill the boat.

Thanks for the reports guys. I had a trip booked for next wed with dd but after much research I switched to dsh. They seem to want to put their customers on different fish other than anchoring off and catching vermillion the whole time. I was real impressed with talking to them and I even asked them to send me pics of the last few 12 hr trips they have ran and it was amazing the difference in fish caugh vs the 12 hr trips with dd. I have been a dd fan for many years and have never used dsh but Gonna give it a try.

There are four (4) of us other board members here that will be on that 12 hr trip at DSH next Wednesday.

cant wait.......

Keep me posted on how you guys do. My daughter and I may need to plan another trip down there.

Like many of you said, I was very surprised to see the guys drinking beers on the way out. They had a "buddy" on the boat that I believe was a former deckhand and he was the instigator it seemed and really had his buddy's going during their card game. This trip I really didn't feel like I was the customer and the business had really no intentions of making the customer happy.

12 hours of fishing for vermillion snapper and to not even limit out. Unable to target any other species because the captain went 4 hours out and had no time to go elsewhere, boat leaving late then arriving early.

This will be the final trip I will take with Dolphin Docks after 30 years of loyalty.

Man. I just was told my DSH that even kids get charged full price, I don't understand that. My party has 2 kids, both my brother kids, both can barely hold a pole and would possibly help reel in a fish but will be more of a spectator than anything. I really want to use DSH over DD but can't justify 145$ per kid when they will just be watching their dad.
(If it were me I wouldn't being kids but it's my brothers kids so I gotta go with it)

I hear that. We did the share pole thing with DD. Next trip I will gladly pay full price for my daughter to fish if it is not for vermilion snapper, but she is also 13 so she is old enough to fish and hold a pole.

At DSH they have a "spectator" rate that I think is about half of the full price.

its 80$
I really wanted to go on the 12 next week but my brother cant pay the 80$ a kid for 2 kids, 7 and 8 years old. Kinda makes me wish I was going solo so I can go with you guys, that's the trip I would rather be on, but for now I am on the 12 at DD. Wish us luck, I will report back if it is descent or not.

I'd prefer DSH but my possible time frame won't put me there on a Wednesday. I probably won't win any popularity contest when I bring a few goodies aboard and don't fish for what they want me to although Vermilion's are tasty little devils.

Agreed, very tasty and I can even accept fishing for them for a couple hours to get some fish caught. However, I can't accept taking a full 12 hour trip to catch these fish. I took my own rod & reel and threw out squid and even a few swimbaits, but when you are in 300 ft of water and the structure is at the bottom, no chance of catching anything. Especially when we got to our 2nd spot to only find a big pod of dolphins (porpoises).

I will be heading in from ohio was supposed to be on the 80 hr from dolphin docks but that didnt get enough people. Since i was coming in for a long stay with the kayak and jetski rig anyway I figured id jump on the 12hr next weds. How are the DSH guys with bringing your own gear. Do I need to load one or 2 reels up with mono so the dont jump ship about the braid. I have topshots but dont want any crying about it.

If you go on the 12 hr trip it will be on the Pelican with Capt. James Wheeler. He's OK with braid if there are mainly experienced fishermen on board but if he has a full boat of folks who are a mixed crowd then he likes to see topshots of at least 30' or so. You should be fine with two reels.

PM sent, jp123.

Probably will be on DSH Wed with my partner. I've fished with Dolphin Docks mostly, but sometimes with DSH. Always caught fish.

Minor annoyances with each, but my new rods and reels should minimize that. Rigged with sturdy mono to avoid hassles with deckhands.

Last trip with DSH I got an old rod with a loose front grip and old brittle line. Large King broke off, got frustrated.

Don't want to ride 4 hours to catch small fish in 300 feet. Lots of reeling isn't good return on investment when kings and more near shore in summer.

I'm recovering from move and haven't found my salwater tackle box. Will deckhands supply terminal tackle?

Yes .... but right now the Pelican is only fishing for tuna at the shrimp boats. And that can mean a lot of boat riding.

I was also told yesterday that the A/C is not working due to a faulty generator

and a lot of reeling.........

Sure miss that Big E boat ride/quality ! Damn shame
Anyone interested in a hooter/tuner trip to Venice in Jan with Capt Eddie?

Did this thread just get hijacked?

Update: Last week I went to the DD website and wrote my feedback under "contact us". No response. I guess I need to tag their Facebook page next. Or they just don't give a I honestly don't care that I got the "smoke & mirrors" sales pitch before arriving. I am more dissapointed that my intent was to share and pass on my love of offshore to my daughter. Although she enjoyed the boat ride, she was eager to feel the tug of a kingfish at the end of her line. Something I have bragged about since she was 5 and started fishing. We saved up for this trip, yes even she saved money for her first offshore trip, planned accordingly around select soccer and basketball.

She has caught carp and bass bigger than the snapper we caught.

I booked on the 12 hour DSH tomorrow, even though DD had the best catch today on the 8 hour boats. DD did have several nice Crevalle jack's vs 4 ling on the DSH boat. Somewhat more and bigger Kings on DD boat.

The counter people at DSH were clear that their captain would target blackfin tuna behind the shrimp boats first and then switch to Kingfish. The counter people @ DD simply said it was up to the captain what fish to target. We talked briefly about some anglers being upset on a long ride to fish for smaller snapper in deep water, but again said it was up to the captain what fish to target. I wasn't going with DD without a definitive agreement on what fish to target, so I booked with DSH.

We are probably doing a 8 hour with one outfit or the other Thursday.

My partner and I are looking forward to meeting some other TFF folks.

So how did the trip go?

Short version: long boat rides, some excitement, but few fish caught,

We left the dock about 10 minutes late because a group was late arriving. Mostly a pretty veteran group of fishermen with their own gear. I met several TFF guys, but I’m not good with names. I think we had 28 total fishermen.

We cruised out and south for several hours before finding a couple of shrimp boats where we could get bait. While we were getting bait from the shrimpers, one of the guys hooked up with a nice ling, but got broke off quickly as he discovered he had failed to change the drag after having switched spools from braid to mono. We ended up getting bait from two different shrimp boats.

We cruising some more and then set-up to drift fish behind a shrimp boat. About five people got bit hard at most at once and the captain and deck hands worked very hard and effectively to help those with fish on to move with their fish. I had a big fish on and he took a lot of line off me initially and I used the lever drag to increase drag somewhat on my 50 pound mono. The captain helped me move from the starboard rear corner to the port forward corner and fought the fish for me for a few minutes to give me a breather because was winding me (I’m 60 years old and not as tough as I used to be). Together we fought the fish down the port side to the rear port corner. By this time several of the others who hooked-up at the same time had been broken off, but one of the fish on had been briefly sighted as a large shark. I fought my fish from there for several minutes and it was pretty much a draw. I would pump and get 20 or 30 feet and he would run and take that back. One of the deckhands saw I was wearing out again and fought the fish for me for a couple of minutes and then gave me the rod again. He didn’t gain much line either and the stalemate continued for a couple more minutes before the line popped. None of the fish from this 1st encounter were landed, but we believe that they were all big sharks

We tried several other shrimp boats, both anchored and pulling nets and eventually the boat caught about 6-8 Blackfin Tuna and serval Bonito (released).

Long boat ride home and arrived back a little late, so we got the full 12 hours, even after leaving 10 minutes late.

Final thoughts:

Captain and deck hands worked very hard for us, but the captain’s single mindedness towards catching Blackfin Tuna meant that no efforts were made to catch some Kings that could have gotten more people some fish.

My complaint about the boat was the air conditioning was down and has been for a couple of days without getting it repaired, Also 28 fisherman is really too many for drift fishing on that boat.. 24 would be much better. I won’t go drift fishing on this boat with 28 again,

Smbcruise's post pretty much tells the story. So I'll just add some different slants to the same story.

Here's the rack ...



This was my keep ....







I also was one of those that hooked up to sharks right away. I could see them behind the shrimper and knew from the strike what it was. For the first 15 minutes or more it was just a standoff from one side of the bow to the other with short bursts of give and take. Then we went around the boat 5 or 6 times (maybe it was just twice ) but then after about a two hour battle (but maybe it was just 30 minutes ) I finally worked mine up and to the boat but just out of gaff range. By this time we were off the stern and James knew I wasn't having fun (I am 71+) and told me that the guy standing behind me was dying to fight a big shark so I couldn't hand him the rod fast enough to suit me. About 2 - 3 minutes later the shark spun and cut off right at the hook. The ID'd it as a spinner. I would guess he was between 7' - 8' long and would have weighed 125 - 150 lbs. My guess only. I hate sharks



The boat got 10 Blackfin .... see above. I caught and released 5 world class Bonito and would estimate at least 30 - 40 were caught.



Deckhands Lloyd and Alex are always on their game and this was no exception. I disagree though that it was singlemindedness on the captain's part that was the reason we didn't fish for kings. The Pelican is a 'charter only' boat and does not do any open boat trips except for the Wednesday 12 hr trip. That means it is the only day of the week he can access fish like tuna and Amberjack (if the season were open) and maybe the only trip of the week that he has control (say-so) about where the boat goes and what they fish for. Most of his charters are 8 hr and folks just want to catch sharks and kings.

If a person wants/expects to catch kings I would say that the 12 hr trip is not the trip to do because many of the folks doing them are harder core and are not as big on catching kings as others might be. I know I'm not nor do I think any of my group of buddies are either.



James felt bad about not being able to get the generator fixed but could not get a mechanic to do the work during the hours he was not at sea having charters every day.



I agree. We checked at 2 PM Tuesday and there were 22 signed up so we were thinking it would be good. but another 6 signed on late.

I asked James if he ever considered splitting the group in half for drifts like some past captains have before him and he said he doesn't do that because it's not fair to the fishermen when some drift can be real hot and some are cold.

The moral of this is do these trips after Labor Day and the crowds are much lighter .... 12 - 20 people.

I usually pass the deckhand's tip jar at the end of the trip and I can always tell when someone is not happy .... and yesterday there were some that were not happy.

I had fun though but do wish we could have found the tuna. To come in with 80 - 120 tuna can make it a trip of a lifetime and that happens a lot.

Update: So I posted my complaint again under "contact us" on their website, posted on Facebook, Yelp and Trip Advisor yesterday. Got a response today stating they were not sure what happened to my first complaint, but will look in to this issue and get back with me. I will continue to post my dissatisfaction with them on social media until I can get a simple apology for deceiving me as a customer and for the deckhands being intoxicated on the vessel.