The Reward Fishing Fleet — Local services in Miami

So let me preface my story of how our full day fishing experience went. My buddy and I are long time fishermen, we both fish in the Northeast on docks, as well as in boats (20-25ft). We both have our sea legs (albeit my buddy's sea legs are a little better than mine). So we got to the boat about 8:45 a.m. on Saturday 27 April 2024. The captain informed us that we would be switching boats to the bigger boat because the 4 -hour trip was canceled. The captain at that point told us that it's a little rough of a day, but all of the charter boats are heading out because these are Good fishing conditions. Which got us pretty excited for the day ahead. On this day we had Captain Ryan and the first meet meet was a younger guy with curly hair. I didn't catch his name. I will say right off the bat that Captain Ryan was great. Spoke with us with respect and the first mate was also really good and informative to the boat's rules and how to use rods. The captain also took his time getting us out of the bay and to the channel which was appreciated because it was beautiful and we got to take in more of the Miami view from the water. So this is the point in the story where things start to get a little bad. As we were crossing the channel it got a little rough which is fine. These were between 1 and 3-ft waves. Anybody that has been on a boat will be fine with this amount of chop. Now, as we continued out of the channel, my buddy and I noticed that we're not in 1 to 3 ft waves anymore. We are in a minimum of 3 to 5 ft swells which is uncomfortable to say the least for a party boat with people that are non-commercial fishermen and out here to have a good time. Now we get to our first drift and we drop our baits in the water, The boat at this point is rocking pretty hard... We get through our first drift and I noticed that one or two people are seasick at this point which is understandable in 3 to 5-Ft seas at about 11:00 a.m.. The captain then decides that it's time to move to our second spot, which again at this point it's about 11: 30 and we get to our second spot and now the boat is rocking hard. We saw a little bit of action on our second drift not catching anything that we could keep but signs of life and really good indicators that there may be some fish here. But like I said at this point it was starting to get very rough and about half the boat was sitting trying to keep their mind off the seasickness and the other half was actively trying not to throw up. At about 12:30-1 pm the customer s asked the captain to take a vote to go back in because almost everybody on the boat at this point had some form of seasickness and I don't think there was any way that we would have been able to make it another 3 to 4 hours. So I understand that the weather and ocean conditions are completely out of the crew's hands. However, this is where I have my biggest gripe. Remember early on in my story that the captain said it was a little rough. Well that was an understatement. I went and checked the national data buoy center and came to find out that they had issued an advisory for seas that were 5 to 7 with occasional 9ft swells at 6sec intervals with 20-25knot winds. For a recreational fishing boat to go out in these conditions and tell people it's a little rough is just not okay. Realistically we paid $100 each plus the cost of live bait which was $20 each to fish for a total of generously calling it 2 hours. Is UNACCEPTABLE. Realistically, the captain should have made us aware at the dock before we left, that conditions are bad to go fishing. At a very minimum at that point, people that still wanted to go fishing in those conditions could have and the people that did not could have at a bare minimum saved their money and time. Again I'm not complaining that we didn't catch fish because at the end of the day it's called fishing. What I am complaining about is not getting the information and...

Avoid at All Costs: The Worst Fishing Charter Experience Ever

My experience with Reward Fishing Fleet was beyond disappointing—the worst fishing charter I’ve ever had. We booked an 8-hour trip on the Reward Won boat for a group of 7 people, but what we got was a disaster from start to finish.

The crew consisted of Captain Ryan, his 10-year-old son Luke, and an older woman deckhand. From the beginning, the lack of preparation was evident. The crew didn’t bring any food for themselves, leaving the 10-year-old kid hungry midway through the trip. One of my friends had to share some beef jerky with him because they were unprepared.

Within 30 minutes of setting off, we encountered electrical and plumbing issues. The live bait well stopped working, causing the live bait fish to die. Captain Ryan began yelling profanities while trying to fix the problem. The crew scrambled to save the fish, but never communicated what was happening. We were left in the dark until I asked the deckhand about the situation.

After a chaotic 30-minute delay, we met up with another boat to fix the plumbing issue and finally arrived at a buoy, but by then, it was 11:00 a.m., and we still hadn't fished. Instead, we watched as the crew caught baitfish with a small pole. We never got to catch baitfish ourselves despite asking. After more waiting, we started trolling around noon but didn’t catch anything for the next 30 minutes.

The captain was dismissive of our requests to fish for Mahi-Mahi and Kingfish, despite our specific booking instructions. They only used 50% of the poles on board, claimed they didn’t want to risk tangling lines, and mostly used dead bait instead of the live bait we had. Crew interaction was minimal; I spent most of the trip asking them to bait hooks and deal with tangles, while they mostly sat around.

We caught a total of 2.5 fish, including one that was half-eaten. We ended up with only 3.5 hours of actual fishing during our 8-hour trip. Communication was non-existent, and the crew’s attitude was apathetic at best. The captain even mentioned he was mentally and physically exhausted and couldn’t wait for the trip to be over—definitely not something you want to hear as a paying customer.

The company charged an 18% tip upfront, which they claimed was necessary due to people not tipping if they didn’t catch anything. I was charged $2,400 for this experience, and the lack of follow-up or accountability from the owner made it clear that customer satisfaction is not a priority for them.

Overall, this was an abysmal experience. The crew was unprepared, unprofessional, and uncommunicative. I wouldn’t recommend Reward Fishing Fleet to anyone. Save your money and look elsewhere—better yet, rent a boat and do it yourself. This charter is a...

BEWARE!!!! The most important factor to consider in this lengthy review is that this company appears put thier profits over the customers safety! I've been on 5 deep sea fishing trips over the past 5 years. This was by far the worst! The meeting time & location is unclear. I called over 1 month out before signing up, an emplyee said meet at 8:30am for 9am trip. I called the day prior (after signing up) an employee said 9am meet up. We ended up missing the boat. No refunds were allowed but Reward Fishing did allow us to reschedule. We rescheduled 48 hours later. Captain gave an announcement that we would be riding in about 2-3 ft high waves and to decide if you wanted to go or not. In hindsight, I believe if this was an knowledgable, experience company, they probably wouldn't have even had to ask this. Thier integrity would've led them to cancel the trip. We continued on with the trip. Of the 4 hour trip, we drove 1 hour 15 minutes to the first location, the last 20 minutes of the 1hr 15 mins were very choppy as the Capt described. When we stopped in an area, none of the 40ish people caught anything for the 30 minutes we were there and most didn't even get bites. We moved to a new spot. Still no fish were caught. The frightening part about the area we stopped in is that when the waves began to get over 5ft they crashed into the boat and made the boat violently slam up and down. The clouds were dark and ominous as if a storm were coming. At this point, we still had about 40 minutes left of our time on this tour and the unnervingly, unsafe part about this excursion was that the Capt asked the assistant to take a vote of who wanted to stay and who wanted to go back home during what was obviously unsafe weather conditions!!! (Note: The largest party had 10 people and were in the age range of 20 to 25 years old and they wanted to stay.) Others began to fear for our safety. I found it baffling that the Capt would even ask this question of the assistant with an obvious view of the weather conditions. I was absolutely pissed when the assistant stated "we've been out in worse conditions than this". This was the most insensitive and dumb response to customers who are already nervous about the weather conditions. Fortunately, brain cells began to turn on in the Capt because he ended up deciding to return home despite the vote (from a majority of 20ish year olds) and the time that was left on our tour. The vote shouldn't have ever happened and the safety of customers should have been considered FIRST! I gave this review because the price is fair, the company did allow us to reschedule and they did physically take us out on the boat. The customer service, safety, experience and knowledge is...