The Channelmaster

We went yesterday with Captain Al and his first mate Justin. We had a blast! I and my two sons were first timers for deep sea fishing and after a short lesson, we were pulling fish after fish up from a small reef area. He and his crew were great teachers and when I caught a 40 lb shark, they became especially useful by giving me tips to fight the large fish. Was an experience my boys and I will never forget!
I recommend taking your fileted load and taking it to the KingFisher Grill next door on the dock and have them prepare it for you. They’ll make it in three styles and a side for $ 10/​piece and ask for the platter.

This is a little overdue since we went fishing back in February 2014 but I could not let another day pass without warning people about The Channelmaster! This trip was what my husband calls a «fakey fakey.» My husband is a very avid fisherman in Northern California. He guided trips here for over 10 years, has his own boat and has been all over the world fishing. He had never been to the East Coast and wanted to fish while we were in FL for the Daytona 500. Although February is considered the off season, he wanted to see what options there were to catch some fish. He called a few Captains and ended up talking to Captain Al 4 or 5 times. Captain Al said bottom fishing was hot and guaranteed a great time! My husband explained that we didn’t want to go on a «fakey fakey» and weren’t going to be taken advantage of like so many of these charters try to do. Most of these charters prey on tourists, and people taking their kids and are not avid fisher people so they get excited with catching anything and everything no matter what it is or how big it is. The first thing my husband asked was if the boat was a cabin boat because we were taking my 70+ year old parents and he wanted to make sure we would be protected by the wind. Captain Al confirmed that it was in fact a cabin boat. When we got to the dock, it was a center console. After my husband asked him about this, his answer was that it has a cabin but you couldn’t ride in the cabin; it was a center console. This should have been our clue to turn around and not get on the boat but we wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt since he sounded so promising on the the phone. We were all left out in the open in the middle of February at 6 am with the wind and cold. He told us we were going out 10 miles. My husband tracked this on his phone. We went out less than 5 miles. I guess he meant 10 miles round trip?! We get out there and my husband caught a fish right away… the problem? It was no bigger than the palm of my small hand. Same thing 3 more times! His rods and reels were West Marine $ 45 set-​ups. Junk for any real fisherman! The reels were all corroded from salt, the drags would not even work and the fishing lines tangled like bird’s nests on most of the reels. His «first mate» smoked like a chimney… never asking if we minded her cigarette smoke. Nice. We spent about 10 – 15 minutes before my husband told him to turn the boat around! Captain Al turned it around and said he would just charge us for fuel. My husband already had the fuel calculated since we knew how far we really went but Al tried to tell him it was further. When we got back to the dock, Al told him we didn’t owe him anything until he found out we were going to write a truthful review online and he said he was going to charge our credit card for the full price if we wrote a review! We paid him $ 100 to cover the cost of the $ 67 fuel charge and the deckhand cost. My husband told him that if he is going to be a captain that he should take some pride in what he does! His gear shows that he doesn’t. People need to be aware of this crook who doesn’t know much of anything except how to rip people off! We then asked some of the local fishermen about him and they have never heard of him! St Augustine isn’t that big! Be aware! If you’re just looking to catch a lot of fish and don’t care about the size or much of anything else, call Al, otherwise do your research and don’t let these charters take advantage of you!

We set up a fishing charter for the Friday after thanksgiving. Captain Al saved our trip after our previous reservation with another charter fell through. We had a group of 5 adults, 2 women and 3 men. Captain Al and his first mate Ivonne showed us a great time. Almost instantly we we were catching fish and frequently. We caught black drum, flounder, trout, and one robin fish. Not only were they knowledgable but the were fun to joke around with too. We would definitely recommend them to anyone looking to have some fun on the water.