What do you expect for $75?

Everyone gets on here whining about the party boats, but honestly what do you expect for a boat that packs 150 people on a boat w/ 4 or 5 boat hands.

You complain about getting knotted up with other people and yet again complain about not getting put on other fish... Lets see, the only fish your going to catch with that many people and not get tangled up are going to be small snappers.

Just TRY catching a King or a Bonita on a boat like that and see just how many lines get tangled up.

Spend the extra money and get a REAL charter, I can guarantee that short of rough water your only complaint is going to be that you had to come in while the fish were still biting!

Personally, I'd love to see some of the partyboat operations out here follow the lead of SoCal and run limited load trips. Sure you'll pay a bit more, but you'd be guaranteed not to be crowded and would have a shot at more variety.


After all, the idea of a partyboat is for someone who can't afford an expensive charter trip. Just my 2 cents

The only comment I have is that I used to be a private offshore charterboat captain out of Port A. I spliced line all the time on the reels on my boat. It was common practice among most boat captains. I'm now out of the business and fish freshwater only. I still splice line on my reels. It's no problem if you know the right knot.

Kim

Zeek;

I WISH the party boats would cut the number of people in hald, but even then it would be too many people. I'll usually include a party boat trip in my vacation planning, but rarely do I try making it the focus of the vacation because I know what to expect and it's nothing even close to the private charters.

The problem I have is that too many people watch TV, see the shows with the private charters bringing in 200-300 pound what-evers, then they see the party boat @ $75 and think that they are going to do the same thing. Then they throw a fit and complain for weeks because all they caught was barely legal fish. Party boats are never going to put you on a huge variety, they are going to put you on the easiest fish to catch that doesn't ruin the trip for everyone...

It's not uncommon for someone on a party boat to land a big shark or ray or something, but if you ever pay attention, when it happens that one person's got the trip of a lifetime, but the 30 or 40 people around him just had their trip ruined because they have to sit and watch him for 20-30 minutes. Let him be using his person rig and bait and him lucky enough to be landing several of those and you have a lot of upset fishermen on the boat.

People taking these cheap charters should keep this in mind from the start, but they rarely do... We see the complaining in here all the time.

Instead of waisting a $1000 vacation on a $75 trip skip a year to the coast and spend that $1000 the next summer on a private charter and you will NEVER go back.

I struggle most of the year saving so I can spend $2000-3000 on vacation each summer to take my son on a private charter vacation, and I wouldn't have it any other way

Michial Thompson, that is one of the most intelligent posts I have ever read on the subject of party boat fishing.

Kim

If you want to target multiple species on a Texas headboat you need to do an overnight trip, (24, 40, 36, 60-hour). These overnight trips are limited in the number of anglers due to bunk space. They still should cut back on angler numbers a little but these trips are better than the day trips. On my recent 40-hour trip on the Dolphin with my son and daughter we limited out on kings, red snapper, beeliners as well as caught a few other species. Took me all day to clean and package our fish.

Phantom Fisherman

Phantom, most of my partyboat trips in the last five years have only been on overnight (or 'safari') trips because of the problems involved on 12hr or 8hr trips. However most of these are still badly overcrowded. 40 people trying to fish one rail on the Big E while drifting for tuna is just tight quarters, especially for the time & money one puts into the trip.

That said, I've gone on a few 12hr trips and most of them are quite fun, even if the fishing isn't very good. Best customer service on these boats IMO is still Capt Williams (boat Capt John) or Capt Elliotts (boats Big E & Capt Casey). A couple years ago I took my girlfriend (the redhead I refer to sometimes) on a 12hr on the Capt John ... since she's disabled, I was worried about all sorts of problems. Well, the captain & crew went a little extra to ensure she was safe and had a good time - she even caught her first red snapper.

However, I've had some really crummy 12hr trips that didn't need to be bad. Even taking into account that I 'only' paid $80 and had to take three days (one to drive down from DFW, one to fish, and one to drive back home) I still expect a certain level of professionalism and customer service.

Some good posts here..

Personally, I try not to take out party boats anymore unless it's a family trip and we need someone to accomodate 15+ people.

Now, what I do is go dutch with local fishermen and found it to much much more rewarding for the dollar. However, it can cost almost double from what a head boat will charge but.. but the trip is 95% more productive and exciting. Besides you get to hang out with new people and learn new things.

A typical offshore day can range from $300-700 depending on range but once you break that down 4 ways or more.. It's Cheap!

Also, South Padre Island usually has the least crowded head boats at any given time but it's a long drive from N. Texas.

*** Note to people Capt. Murphy's is going to be offering trips out to see THE TEXAS CLIPPER sinking! ***


-Z-