Swift Fish Charters — Local services in Tampa

I was down from Rhode Island last week (late Feb.) visiting my son in Tampa. We went for a half day of inshore fishing with Capt Tim and had a terrific experience. Tim is easy going, pleasant to talk to, good sense of humor and a wealth of information on fishing, of course. His boat is clean and comfortable. He took us to the west side of Tampa Bay where we we spent the first 2 hours bringing in lady fish, pompano, trout and more. The first 10-15 minutes we were continuously reeling in fish as fast as we could rebait and cast. Tim said he provides "country club" fishing, so he helped unhook and rebait as we went along. It was also fun to see the dolphin and manatees nearby. We moved a few minutes further west to go for some shark and got one black tipped shark and my son hooked a couple of stingrays. My son fishes in Tampa Bay and Tim was showing him some rod/lure moves and some knot-tying tips which he was glad to learn from the pro. We then went north of the Gandy bridge and hooked a couple of trout before the tide shifted and things died down about the time we needed to go in. Overall a great memorable day. Tim is a real pro and does whatever he can do to make the fishing fun and an overall a pleasant experience. ...

I moved to Tampa close to 7 years ago. Very early on I discovered Swift Fish Charters and was overjoyed to find Capt. Tim. He has guided me several trips always guaranteeing a good catch (I don't know how he does it). Many of my out-of-town or out-of-country visitors have enjoyed Capt. Tim's charter's and swear they want to go back. On a recent trip we were four people representing six nationalities (yers, it's possible :-) ). Two of us were re-peat clients including myself. My friend Marcus jumps at any chance to get on-board with Capt. Tim. Again, the day was exciting and the catch we caught were couple of sharks, and nearly brought up a cobia, to mention only a few. The dinner that evening was fresh trout! And, to top the story: One of the people fishing with us was fishing for the first time in his life and he caught the his first fish (and the boat's first one, too) on his very first cast! How can you beat that feeling!! With Capt. Tim's guidance and expertise, I will never hesitate to make a recommendation for...

I wanted to take my boys flats fishing in Tampa Bay for spring break and really didn’t know where to begin selecting a charter company except by reading google reviews. Swift Fish Charters has earned every bit of their 5 star rating. We went out on the water today with Captain Buck. While our charter started at 9am, captain Buck’s day started at 5am catching bait fish so the live well would be stocked when we got on the boat. I mention this because, in reading other reviews, some charters wait to catch bait until the boat leaves the marina. We literally spent 3.5 hours of our 4 hour charter with lines in the water! The marina was so close to great fishing spots. It was amazing! Captain Buck was professional, patient, funny and ultimately put us on a ton of snook and redfish! You can tell that he loves his job and works hard to give his customers a 5 star experience. We could not have asked for a better day on the water! We will definitely be back to see Buck and Swift Fish...