In Key West, ALL private charter fishing vessels must operate under a Coast Guard regulation, that absolutely limits the number of passengers onboard ANY vessel to 6 maximum. There is simply no way around this regulation either. It does not matter if the person is fishing or watching, does not matter if the person is 6 or 60, does not matter the size of the boat, it reads “six souls onboard” however this does not include staff.
Light tackle vessels operate with a captain only, no deck mates are onboard so with the duties of operating the boat, baiting hooks, rigging tackle, landing caught fish, etc. regardless of how talented, one pair of hands can only achieve so much in a timely fashion. For this reason, we suggest 4 passengers as a maximum for the ultimate fishing experience. We are most happy to accommodate your group up to 6 guests per vessel on our reef & wreck and offshore charters, as we have a few larger boats that can accommodate that many.
Backcountry charters can comfortably accommodate up to 4 passengers. In general the backcountry is calm very shallow water and therefore by design our typical backcountry or “Bay Boats” at 24′ in length are 4 passenger vessels allowing us to access 100% of these remote and isolated fishing grounds. Larger center console boats are somewhat limited to the areas we can safely fish.
Clearly as the largest and certainly best equipped charter fishing operation in Key West for the past 26 plus years, we long ago refined the art of running multiple boat outings for larger than 6 passenger groups. We are recognized as the “go to outfit” for larger groups, family outings and corporate affairs and for good reason. We have the staff, fleet of boats and understand the idiosyncrasies of providing great customer service ensuring that 1 big group ambiance so important to most large group outings.