Inshore Charters with Captain Chris Haught

We had a phenomenal time out for a half day charter earlier this week. Captain Chris makes it so easy from start to finish:
I made the reservation by phone after a conversation with him about what we wanted out of our charter experience: sharks! A CC is required up front to secure your day but it is not charged so you can pay how you wish at the end of the trip and the price was $ 400 for a half day for up to 4 people on the boat. His website is clear and accurate about the services and pricing.
He sends an email with detailed instructions about what to expect and bring with you (hat, cooler with drinks and snacks, plenty of sunscreen — but not the spray kind etc) as well as where to meet: Maximo Park — NOT the marina — just off 275 at the bottom of the exit 16 ramp in St Pete with free and easy parking for the day. The boat will be tied up at the dock ready to go.
First you travel about 15 min in the Tampa Bay to an area where Chris uses a cast net to catch the fresh bait and then travel another 10 min or so to get to the right spot to start the real fun: fishing! On our way, we saw some Dolphins and two sting rays launch themselves completely out of the water including a gorgeous spotted Eagle Ray no more than 6 ft from the side of the boat. WOW!
As soon as we got situated and cast our lines out (and all licenses, equipment, bait and helpful training /​advice you need is provided), we started catching fish left and right. My boyfriend’s first cast resulted in a spectacular Spanish Mackerel which is the favorite snack of sharks, so that was a great start to catching the larger fish we needed to secure in order to keep moving up the food chain.
After a quick casting and hooking lesson, I was also successful in landing Spanish Mackerel, tons of ladyfish which leapt out of the water and even quite unexpectedly a small Atlantic Sharpnose Shark using a 3 inch little bait fish! It fought hard and was great fun to catch, take a couple of pics and release it.
We started fishing for sharks when Chris cut up one the larger fish we had caught and used the chunks on a big shark reel set up which just stays in a rod holder until a shark takes the bait and takes off with the line.
My BF caught the same species of shark that I had caught earlier but his was larger.
We caught 9 species of fish — at least 60 total! The highlight of the day though was catching a 50 lb Southern Stingray! See pics!
We had a wonderful time and even kept 5 Spanish Mackerel which the captain filleted for us back at the dock so we could enjoy them as sushi and fried over the next two days. Great fun and great experience! We can’t wait to do it again!

Disappointed. I used Capt. Chris last year and had an amazing experience. This year was a different story. We originally booked for 4 people and a week before our trip I inquired about fishing with 5. After some back and forth Chris said it would be crowded, but was OK with it. Then the day before the trip he backs out because he did not want 5 people in the boat. I wish he had said something earlier. All 5 of us come from different parts of the country and had extended our stay after a week of class to fish. Now we are without a guide. I was very disappointed in how this was handled. We come back to Orlando every year to fish and we will certainly look elsewhere for a guide in the future. The only reason i didn’t give him 1 star is because last year he was great. Chris lost a regular customer.

We picked Capt Chris based on reviews on-​line and he turned out to be at least as good as rated. We have done a lot of fishing «up-​north» in Michigan and watching Capt Chris at work revealed a depth of fishing knowledge that stands far above average. He was also fun to hang around with and patient with a foursome who made some pretty tangled up fishing lines a couple of times.
Fishing is all about thinking like the fish. Where do I want to swim? What am I looking for to eat? Where do I like to hang out and what time of day? What tide and water conditions do I like? Captain Chris knows his fish.
Great fun on a four hour charter in Tampa Bay, many thanks to Capt Chris.

While I usually write something pretty lengthy I’ll keep it short here as most of what I would write has already been said.
Bottom-​line up front: Chris runs a great fishing experience.
We signed up for a 4-​hour trip in-​shore trip last Saturday and it was worth every penny. We caught everything from Spanish Mackerel to Sharks to Bass, we kept about 10 that we took home and cooked up the following night.
I loved it because it got me out in Tampa Bay on a boat for the first time, my father, who is an experienced in-​shore fisherman loved it because Chris took care of everything and we didn’t have to worry about anything (to include cleaning the fish).
Some details: Not sure how it works everytime, but it was just me and my father that signed up and that was all that was on the boat. Chris and the 2 of us, so that was a plus. While we signed up for the 4 hour trip, he didn’t actually start the clock until we got our bait fish, which was about an hour into the trip, so we were on the boat for about 5 hours (no complaints there). When we got back, Chris cleaned all of the fish and to his credit (he was bragging about this), there wasn’t a bone left in the fillets he gave us.
Can’t say enough about the trip. It was great, looking forward to the next guests that come down, we’ll definitely be looking to sign-​on with Chris again.

Went out on a cold front and a windy day, so I knew going out it was gonna be slow. We still managed to snag some decent sized fish and had a great day on the water. While Im not as big of a fan of inshore fishing as I am offshore, this was still a great experience and I recommend it.

My father and I decided to take a trip to Clearwater for Phillies Spring training last year and wanted to schedule a fishing trip. I struck gold by randomly choosing to book Captain Chris for a 4 hour charter. We had such an amazing time that we immediately knew would we back the following year and sure enough, here I am writing a review after our second trip (6 hours this time) with Chris.
The price may seem steep if you are used to going out on party boats, but let me assure you that it is worth every dollar. As another Unilocal reviewer noted, every little detail is accounted for and covered in the cost. Chris will go out before you even arrive at the dock and catch some live bait. You then join him at the dock and are out in the bay fishing in 5 – 10 minutes. He is incredibly efficient at baiting the hooks, bringing the fish on board, retackling lost rigs, and filleting the fish at the end of the day. He’s also surgical with the boat and puts you in a position where the wind and tide take your cast exactly to the best point of the shoal, island, or even a bridge pylon. The whole time he is doing all this describing in detail exactly what is going on in the fish’s head and why certain things work and other things don’t.
I am not exaggerating when I say this guy is a fishing genius. He know’s exactly what they are looking for and formulates a plan to get them on your line. We caught so many fish last year and I thought we were just unusually lucky so I decided to take a tally of what we caught this year: 20 Spanish Mackerel, 15 Sea Trout, 6 Blue Fish (Snappers), 4 Lady Fish, 3 Sheepshead Fish, 3 Pinfish, and 1 shark. We kept two of the mackerel and two of the trout. The mackerel we ate as sashimi back in our hotel room and the trout we took to Cooter’s Raw Bar in Clearwater Beach and had them cooked (I HIGHLY recommend doing the same). Last year we didn’t catch any mackerel but we did catch 2 massive red fish and Chris put a picture of us with the fish up on his website.
As a final word of advice, use Chris’ directions to get to the dock. We went a different route and ended up accidentally missing the exit, which ended up being a half an hour out of the way with no place to turn around. No worries though, he didn’t start the clock until we got on the boat.

I have nothing but good things to say about my experience! My girlfriend and I recently visited the Tampa Bay area and wanted to try fishing in the ocean. Being from the Midwest and having only fished in rivers and lakes we looked for someone that had good reviews and would show us what to do. I picked Inshore Charters with Chris because of the glowing review he had here on Unilocal (the previous reviewer said they had been on 4 fishing charters so that resonated with us since it was the best of their four trips). The website was informative and listed the prices upfront — I don’t have time for «call and ask». One reason I always look up places on Unilocal before going is, I am always worried about being taken advantage of being some sucker tourist. Everything was quoted upfront, and included EVERYTHING from bait to a ziploc of filets! No surprises and no BS! Chris was very patient with my girlfriend who had only fished once previously and made sure we both were catching fish. What a fun trip, we saw a ray and numerous dolphins swimming around in the bay! We had great weather that day and caught Ocean Trout, Mackerel and some other fish. Probably our favorite part of the experience was how Chris explained exactly why we were doing what and how to do it. He really explained things and really demonstrated a lot of knowledge about all the native species and what would be biting during certain conditions. Anyway, we had a great experience and would certainly use this guide again!

This was my fourth fishing charter to the Tampa/​St Petersburg area in the last few years and was by far the best. We did not have good weather, too much wind, but Captain Chris Haught has 15 + years experience and guides full time so he knew exactly where to fish to minimize the wind effects. We caught drum, ladyfish, shark, redfish, seatrout and a couple of others that I cannot recall. The seatrout were particularly aggressive even in the middle of the bay with winds exceeding 25 knots. We had multiple hookups every drift.
When I return to this area, fishing with Cpt Haught will always be my number one choice. One final comment Cpt Chris does not smoke so it made the trip extra special for me.