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Old 06-23-2021, 03:28 PM   #1
grey2112
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Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

Any suggestions? I want to put together a trip for me and 4-5 buddies to spearfish the Tortugas. We are all experienced.

Live-aboard preferred with good food, AC in the cabin, etc.

Have read good things about Adventure Watersport Charters
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Old 06-23-2021, 03:34 PM   #2
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

There used to be a good one, but I think that "ship" has sailed!
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Old 06-24-2021, 12:26 PM   #3
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

might know a guy on a sailing cat out of Islamorada...i'll send him your way if he's available.
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Old 06-24-2021, 04:38 PM   #4
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

The Playmate and Ultimate Get Away from what i understand are no longer in Florida. Adventure Water Sports charters in Stock island has fairly new owners. I did 2 trips a few years ago before all the fish laws changed. Eric, if you've never been and go with the mindset of enjoying all your friends company along with diving the Tortugas as a new experience. You'll have a great time. Even thou you go on a 3 or 4 day trip. You'll have a 2 day limit. The daily hog limit was reduced a few years ago from 5 to 1/person. 2 hogs per person for the whole trip vs. 10 hogs. My friends stopped going. They use to book The Playmate every year. Total expenses per diver was around $1600. Fare, tips, nitrox extra, truck gas, tolls and meals driving round trip from St. Pete.. The guys I went with have MG capable boats. They figured that at $1600 each. It'll buy a lot of fuel for the MG. Make sure to take a copy of the newest Atlantic fishing laws. Looking forward to your upcoming trip video. Forgot to mention that some of the guys were self employed. So, they also lost a few days of wages. I was lucky using company vacation time.

Last edited by sharpshooter; 06-25-2021 at 06:47 AM.
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Old 06-24-2021, 04:59 PM   #5
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

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The Playmate and Ultimate Get Away from what i understand are no longer in Florida. Adventure Water Sports charters in Stock island has fairly new owners. I did 2 trips a few years ago before all the fish laws changed. Eric, if you've never been and go with the mindset of enjoying all your friends company along with diving the Tortugas as a new experience. You'll have a great time. Even thou you go on a 3 or 4 day trip. You'll have a 2 day limit. The daily hog limit was reduced a few years ago from 5 to 1/person. 2 hogs per person for the whole trip vs. 10 hogs. My friends stopped going. They use to book The Playmate every year. Total expenses per diver was around $1600. Fare, tips, nitrox extra, onboard meals extra, gas, tolls and meals driving round trip from St. Pete.. The guys I went with have MG capable boats. They figured that at $1600 each. It'll buy a lot of fuel for the MG. Make sure to take a copy of the newest Atlantic fishing laws. Looking forward to your upcoming trip video.
Thanks, man. That is certainly a number of things to consider. Might be better off going down for a few days and just do some daily charters.
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Old 06-24-2021, 08:01 PM   #6
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

You could shoot a lot of grunts though....
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Old 06-25-2021, 04:38 AM   #7
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

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you could shoot a lot of grunts though....
lol
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Old 06-25-2021, 04:42 AM   #8
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

The funny thing is, over the past decade, most of my friends who I started off diving with have sort of transitioned into divers who don't eat as much fish anymore, and don't care about filling the cooler. They want to see and experience neat stuff underwater, take the occasional interesting or big fish, but have come up sometimes from a dive without a single fish and still said, "Great dive!"

I have found myself becoming like this as well.

So maybe something like this would be a lot of fun since we wouldn't care as much about the total catch vs. just seeing some really neat stuff and enjoying each other's company.
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Old 06-25-2021, 06:42 AM   #9
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

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The funny thing is, over the past decade, most of my friends who I started off diving with have sort of transitioned into divers who don't eat as much fish anymore, and don't care about filling the cooler. They want to see and experience neat stuff underwater, take the occasional interesting or big fish, but have come up sometimes from a dive without a single fish and still said, "Great dive!"

I have found myself becoming like this as well.

So maybe something like this would be a lot of fun since we wouldn't care as much about the total catch vs. just seeing some really neat stuff and enjoying each other's company.
You'll have a great "adventure" thinking like that. Ben Bateman (Fishkilla) of the former Holy-Spear-It charters to the MG. Would tell clients, if you need to shoot enough fish to pay for your trip. You're not going to have a great time. If you're going on a "adventure" with friends. Maybe, shoot a personal best fish. You'll have a great time. So, you may get a chance to shoot a personal best black grouper down there or mutton snapper. See Fort Jefferson and maybe something rare or unusual underwater.
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Old 06-25-2021, 07:18 AM   #10
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

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You'll have a great "adventure" thinking like that. Ben Bateman (Fishkilla) of the former Holy-Spear-It charters to the MG. Would tell clients, if you need to shoot enough fish to pay for your trip. You're not going to have a great time. If you're going on a "adventure" with friends. Maybe, shoot a personal best fish. You'll have a great time. So, you may get a chance to shoot a personal best black grouper down there or mutton snapper. See Fort Jefferson and maybe something rare or unusual underwater.
THAT is what I am thinking
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Old 06-25-2021, 09:31 AM   #11
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

We've in a lot of ways adopted the same thinking with the handful of trips we've been able to make it out to the middle grounds. Enjoy the dives, shoot some fish, and hope that a couple people on the boat shoot a "middle grounds" fish each time we go. Would love to do the Tortugas some day in my boat but you don't want to go all that way and not see anything.
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Old 06-26-2021, 06:24 AM   #12
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

We did two trips with Capt. Jack aboard the Emily Anne (Adventure Watersport) about 5 or 6 years ago. We had a great time! He mainly was SCUBA and rod and reel fishing guy at the time, but we told him we wanted to freedive all day and fish the nights. He was very accommodating and we did extremely well the first year, and still very well the second year. Conditions were tougher the second time. Capt. Jack worked very hard to keep on fish. He and his wife Kelly are very personable. We chose to bring our own food and then he cooked it up. Our cost came out at the time to about $700 apiece, if I remember correctly. You can see by my avatar that I had a lot of fun. The first year it was mostly family and the second year my son and I teamed up with some other buddies from the fire service and DEA.
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Old 06-26-2021, 06:30 AM   #13
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

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We did two trips with Capt. Jack aboard the Emily Anne (Adventure Watersport) about 5 or 6 years ago. We had a great time! He mainly was SCUBA and rod and reel fishing guy at the time, but we told him we wanted to freedive all day and fish the nights. He was very accommodating and we did extremely well the first year, and still very well the second year. Conditions were tougher the second time. Capt. Jack worked very hard to keep on fish. He and his wife Kelly are very personable. We chose to bring our own food and then he cooked it up. Our cost came out at the time to about $700 apiece, if I remember correctly. You can see by my avatar that I had a lot of fun. The first year it was mostly family and the second year my son and I teamed up with some other buddies from the fire service and DEA.
Thank you - still waiting to hear back from them - have made multiple online attempts via FB, their website, and email address. May have to break down and call them next week - hopefully they are still in operation.
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Old 07-15-2021, 01:33 PM   #14
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

you can try
Fish Quest Charters out of Key West
I did a multi day trip with Capt. Robin we had a good time and around the clock fishing.
305 879 4397 or Don at 989 780 1516
Good luck
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Old 07-15-2021, 02:02 PM   #15
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Re: Live-aboard spearfishing charter Dry Tortugas

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you can try
Fish Quest Charters out of Key West
I did a multi day trip with Capt. Robin we had a good time and around the clock fishing.
305 879 4397 or Don at 989 780 1516
Good luck
Checked out the website. Didn't see any mention of spearfishing/scuba diving for multi day trips. Looks like a nice boat set up for multi-day fishing trips.

Last edited by sharpshooter; 07-15-2021 at 02:13 PM.
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