Planning a trip the last week in July to Orange Beach. We were suppose fish on a family members boat the 27th or 28th and they had to cancel due to Covid concerns. Any recommendations of someone there. It will be about 3-5 people in our group. Not sure if 1/2 day or Full would depend on cost probably. Thanks for any recommendations?

Walk on out of Zeke's

you know a average cost say for 1/2 and full day about per person? I’ll call down there and try ask. Thank you

Eagle Express. Capt. Doug Price, it's out of Zeke's. Great guy and will put you on fish

With tip. Half day around 200 per angler. Been several times and never had a bad trip.

A member here capt Jab, on the Aquastar.

3 guys can't afford Jason for a half day. Although it would be a great trip.

May just do a walk on looks like if we do one at all. Damn China Flu

Boats going out every day. Book a couple days ahead. Keep an eye on the weather and sea. They will call you late afternoon day before the trip and tell you which boat you will be on and time to be there. Take you some snacks. Cooler with soft drinks, water and beer. Also carry you a small towel from the room to wipe you hands after baiting you hook. Also some pliers to unhook smalls so mate can be helping others.

sounds like the family boat may be on again. Hope so I’m looking forward to it. Grew up fishing the gulf about every wknd. Only get down maybe once a year now. Yea on the towel very important along with all purpose bucket or two lol. Thanks for that tip on Zekes in case we have to go that route. Now if we can just find somewhere to eat down there. I may have to start a post on that lol.

i wouldn't rule him out, until i talked to him. He has two boats now. I don't know his prices, but the smaller boat may be cheaper. By smaller I don't mean its a rowboat, it's still a very nice operation.

How much does it cost? Also how would you know what they can afford.

Well excuse the hell plum out of me...................

I get asked the rate question several times a week and here's the ballpark numbers for six hour bottom trips which is whats most boats want to run until snapper season goes out August first because they can run two trips a day. Multi passenger, 250 to $300 an hour, six passenger vessels, 175 to $220 an hour, walk on, 90 to $100 a person, combined group charter, $200 and up depending on how many people are on the boat. Add another 20% for tip and fish cleaning. I have well over a hundred charter accounts, and a lot of these guys and ladies are friends of mine, so if you need help narrowing you choices down, shoot me a PM of what your looking for and how much you want to spend. Time is running out and most all the good charters are booked, so act fast. Another thing for all to keep in mind, most captains and deckhands are hunters. If you have some very good property, it's amazing how much better the fishing gets and harder the hand works once they find out.

Exactly. If 3-5 guys want to pony up and drop some extra $$$ that's fine. Jason WILL put you on fish. Caught my biggest snapper with h a few years ago. But if i happen to be able to go on short notice I wall on

So 360 bucks to clean fish? Negative on that ghost rider

If your share of the cost of the trip is $200. then 20% of that is $40. I think that often the mate works for tips only. I can't speak about all of them on that, but on the boats I have been on, their day starts before you arrive at the dock and last until well after you leave it. I usually get with the other fishermen before we leave the dock and see if we cant go ahead and pass him $100 or so depending on how long the trip will be. This tends to ensure that he will do a great job that day. If he doesn't want to, that is his pay for the day, if he does well, there will be more when we get back to the dock. Cap'n will appreciate a tip for a job well done also. I know I was the only one that tipped at all on a walk on trip out of Clearwater one time. Cap'n did a great job too. Five fishermen 6 hour trip bottom fishing. No deckhand. Cap'n worked his tail off. I gave him $50. When he wasn't busy helping a greenhorn take a Grouper off the hook he was pulling in Grunts to go in the icebox to be added to our coolers at the dock. There's no reason not to tip those guys well for a job well done.

No doubt they need to be tipped well for a job well done

Not sure where your coming from. Based on $360 for tip and fish cleaning, that be a multi passenger charging $1800 with up to ten or twelve people depending on boat. There's normally two and sometimes three hands on these trips so they can regroup fast. Breaking big numbers into small, that comes to 30 something $'s per person for T&FC. If you want to take the fish with you, at least give the hands$20.