American Spirit — Local services in Destin

We have a a really great time every time we’ve ever gone. , and it’s early so you still have a whole day to go to the beach or walk around Harbor Docks if you want. It was Red Snapper season when we went, and everyone caught a ton.

You can watch as they clean all the Catch on the dock after getting back (for a completely reasonable extra fee they’ll do yours too) filet it and ship it on dry ice for you if you ask them. We had them clean ours and took some to Sealand for them to prepare us for dinner that evening, did our own fish fry & chips another night or two later and still had plenty for my brother, who’d been in town visiting, to to take some home frozen again!!

The crew, captain & their Anglers are genuine, experienced, helpful, and super nice. All the things that we initially loved about going out on The American when we first moved to the area with 7th Group — when we were first introduced to y the Owner & Captain, is genuinely the way it still is.. From it being the perfect size Charter fishing boat, the quality of people his staff are that he’s chosen to surround himself with, the made to order breakfast, coffee and then burgers served daily that aren’t price gauged, the personal help you have available and just, the laid back, demeanor and transparent style in which the operation is run is refreshing. You know that they have their priorities straight. They know you’re not up at 5:30a on vacation to be miserably seasick in the rain. Everyone’s there to have an exciting, informative, successful, and most importantly safe fishing trip. Everything but what you’d like to be drinking from out of your own cooler at grocery store prices is provided (poles, bait, 5 gallon buckets to put your catch in as you reel it in, etc…).

Part of the time I usually sit up on the top level where you can’t help but be reminded why the area is called The Emerald Coast. I watch the dolphins and sometimes sing-rays or a shark and then, while looking down at everyone’s excitement as they catch fish, measure anything questionable, announce anything cool to see that has to be thrown back bc it’s off season, and often it’s entertaining watching those who are really, really trying but are struggling the first few times they attempt to rebait their hooks with live smaller fish.. regardless I personally enjoy having my camera ready while soaking up some rays of sunshine and listen to everything all at once. And I definitely appreciate my husbands skills & love eating fresh catch...

What a joke. As someone that used to work a party boat, wow. This was the joke that kept on tellin. Started out with the captain holding the boat for 30 minutes past 7. No respect for other people’s time. We hustled to get here by 645. E-mail clearly states boat left at 7. We assume this was held for friends of the capt. First stop we were ON good fishing. The whole boat. Big red snappers, a ton of Vermillion, Amberjack, BIG trigger. Then for some reason, probably greed Capt Stubing moved. The entire boat didn’t catch much the next 4 stops. Unbelievable. The mates, god they were pathetic. There was FIVE mates. One mate for every 7 ish people. We were untangling ourselves, pulling our own fish so many times, they were non existent BUT If you want to be and hear people getting shouted at this is your boat. Young Nicky was the best. He was awesome. He was really working the boat, the rest not so much. Some loud mouth guy with a gravel voice was mostly eating and on his phone. HE SLEPT the whole trip out. I was actually surprised, thought he was a customer. The others were non existent. We actually saw two specific mates mostly while THEY were fishing. Captain was non existent, not typical. Kids don’t seem to get much extra attention on this boat. We left late, didn’t stay late. Then we get to the dock. You get held hostage. You can’t just take your fish and leave. They specifically tell you NOT to take your fish but instead let everyone take group pictures first. Then, it’s not first come first serve it’s whatever string they feel like calling. They validate your parking, but for some reason you have to wait for Capt to come. But first, because your time isn’t valuable, he needs to go fetch a drink. Gotta wait for the deck girl to come with your debit card too. You can expect to be on the dock about an hour after getting back. So don’t plan anything...

The owner of this boat is a good guy and I enjoyed his conversation first thing in the morning. The boat boarded at 7 am didn’t leave until 7:10am which to me is late . Most of the deck hands were great , except one of the deck hands constantly was making political remarks and another smelt like a bag of weed. On the cruise back someone was smoking weed on the boat you could smell it. The pilot of the boat was terrible he continued to let the boat drift off fish area and when he would adjust he would full throttle forward or reverse not very smooth at all. The crew said the pilot was distracted watching football and playing on his cellphone. The pilot had our lines tangled all day constantly moving the boat and not small adjustments. Pilot back over my line 3 times striping the line off the rod. we paid for a 8 hour fishing trip 2 hr ride to get on fishing grounds. We were allowed to fish for 45 mins at first fishing area then moved to the next and same scenario about an hour at the next three areas .we probably spent 3 hours of an 8 hr trip fishing . As boat moves the crew are trolling for some kind of other fish. We stopped on the way out for 10 minutes waiting on the crew to reel in a fish which got off. Several people made comments say I thought we where the people that should be fishing. The Galley Lady was excellent. This trip isn’t worth the money spent. In my opinion maybe some of these positive reviews are fake or people friendly with the crew or the owner. Also whoever was making announcements at end of trip on intercom repeatedly kept commenting 3 or 4 times to tip crew and 15% to 20% was customary. During announcement he said the tips where for the deck hands basically doing their jobs. Doesn’t the crew get any of the admission fee? I have two stars because they’re nice people...