For our charter, we did the 3 hour shorter tour as we were not sure how long our 10 year old would last on a boat. It was my myself, my daughter, and my husband’s first chartered fishing trip in the Tampa/St Petersburg area. We are so glad we booked with Captain Bobby given he made the experience so wonderful, helpful, and accommodating.  He took us to several areas where the fish were pretty active and each time we had quite a lot of bites even within the first 5 minutes we cast a line!  We successfully caught 4-7 Spanish mackerel but kept 4 and threw some back: we also were lucky enough to catch 2 medium size speckled trout (1 we had to throw back due to its size), and our daughter who really seemed to have the most luck out of all of us also catching a decent size Snook (the Snook of course is protected and we threw him back but he was a beautiful fish to see up close).  We also caught a few Jackfish (1 was really big, see photo) and happily threw them back given they are not known to be tasty. 

Overall, we all had a great time learning how to cast reels and reel in the fish with strength and precision, even with the bigger fish who would often fight pretty hard, and Bobby was always there to help us out!  He was super helpful in casting long distances for myself and our daughter who couldn’t quite cast out very far; he added bait to our lines, and pulled out tangled lines when needed when the current would drift lines together.  Bobby comes well prepared and has a lot of knowledge on where to go in and around the bays so the time is filled with lots of fun fishing activity making it more exciting!  At the end of the trip, Bobby fillets all your fish so perfectly and gives them to you in a zip block ready to go just like you went to a fresh fish market (bring a cold storage bag, especially if you catch quite a bit like we did as they will stay fresher when it’s hot outside).  All in all, the chartered trip with Bobby was really fun and there was never a dull moment for sure and we luckily had a great seafood dinner at our hotel with the freshest Trout we caught that afternoon.  It definitely was one of most memories experiences we had visiting Tampa Bay and Bobby was the perfect host, especially when you bring a 10 year old who had never fished from a boat before.  Next time we are in Tampa, we will definitely book a fishing charter with Bobby again given he really knows how to make your fishing experience fun and enjoyable!