I’’m looking for a good deep drop trip for myself and 2 kids. Dont care what we catch just want the kids to catch some fish. Who do yall recommend from Gulf Shores or Panama City? Thanks.

Check into the Fairwater out of Orange beach. Captain Tom Ard is a great guy and can put you on the fish.

At Zeke's marina. May just want to do a walk on. Done it many times. Never a bad trip

Do you mean a true deep drop trip? That means 300+ feet of water and electric reels.

PM John G, he deals with this question every day.

Check out MSC Fishing Charters out of Ft Morgan, they have a Facebook page. He's big into swordfish etc deep. 251-508-1674. Vlad also owns the Mediterranean Sandwich Co restaurants and is the biggest redneck Romanian you'll ever meet.

I think I bought some silver from him. Honest fella.

The deep drop for hire expert in our area is Shane at Necessity Sportfishing. You need to be able to go fast and their 42’ Freeman with quads does exactly that. Be prepared to pay for what you get. This is no regular operation.

If you are looking for a good snapper trip or something like that I would recommend Chris Sours on the Killen Time. His contact # is 850-527-8347. He has always put us on the fish.

As stated, if you are looking to truly deep drop with kids then heed the advice and get a charter with a big quad powered catamaran. You will have a long run to deep water and that will not be fun with kids imo. Be prepared for a significant charter cost plus fuel bill though.

My advice with kids is to start with snapper. Short run and plenty of bites. Let the captain know the age of kids as most should have an electric reel or two. AND have them take Dramamine the night before and the morning of the trip.

For those that might not know, a "deep sea" trip and a "deep drop" trip are two different things. Deep drop means going after deepwater groupers, tilefish, driftfish, etc in water too deep to comfortably use conventional rods and reels. Electric reels are used because of the heavy weights and amount of line out to reach the fish. Deep sea trips have historically meant getting on a boat and going after red snapper, mingos, triggers, and the like using conventional tackle in 300 ft of water or less. For those trips you have party boats and private charters. Party boats are the least expensive, then private charters, then deep drop charters. You can walk on to a party boat and pay per person for 3 people. Private charters mean you pay for the whole charter even if it's only 3 of you. Deep drop charters are usually limited to 6 people and only two may fish at the same time.

Bryan reeves on the wild orange. Gulf shores fishing with wild orange charters is his social media page and pretty sure he post pictures from every trip. After last year….if he’s booked we just won’t go.

Like Daylate said, apples and oranges between deep sea and deep drop trips.
For kids, closer to shore snapper trips are better and considerably cheaper.
I know a charter that runs out of Crystal River on a 42 Freeman, they charge $3600 a day plus tip.
And this is for regular bottom fishing, not deep dropping.
BUT, they load the boat with 6 anglers and almost always limite out on grouper and snapper in season.

Red Eye charters out of Fort Morgan Marina are reasonable/good.

Yep! Good guy.

A good buddy of mine charters out of Treasure Island Marina in Panama City. Great guy and he flat out kills fish. Capt. Jack Sanders, I’ll pm you his #