We stopped at Big Major's Spot near Staniel Cay in the Bahamas. Besides its stunning beauty, the island is best known for its population of swimming pigs. I shot this video of one of them "attacking" our dinghy in search of food. The pigs are funny, but what happened off camera was even funnier, which was four grown men all rushing to the other side of the boat in fear of the hungry amphibious pig. Enjoy...

Here's the ridiculously cool, don't we wish we could all have a boat like this and catch all these fish so we didn't have to charter someone else's boat, video of the day.

A 39 Venture out of South Florida making a trip over to the Bahamas for some sport fishing...

WARNING: I am about to gloat. If you live north of the Mason Dixon line you might want to stop reading.

The weather in Florida is freaking fantastic. It's always about this time ever year, January and February, when I'm reminded why I put up with the humid summers. The winter months in South Florida could please anyone. It's not too hot. It's not too cold. It's warm during the day but mild in the evenings. It barely rains and even when there are clouds the sun seems to wiggle its way through.

This morning I woke up and looked at the weather and saw a 50% chance of rain and 70 something degrees. OK...not too bad unless you live in Florida and this is basically as awful as the weather gets (save for those pesky hurricanes). As usual though the forecast was wrong, and it turned out to be a gorgeous day. I had to resist every urge to ditch work and hop on my boat for a little pleasure cruise.

It seems that wherever I go, locals say "Ya know what's great about ______?.... If you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes!" Hate to be the one to break it to you, but that just ain't true. Unless of course, you live in South Florida.

So my fellow fishermen and women, I recommend you take a break from those "few minutes" of bad weather, grab a cheap flight on Spirit or Southwest or Jetblue or the oft hated (but my personal favorite because of the Biscoff cookies) Delta, and head on down to South Florida for some R&R&F(ishing). We'll set you up with a good boat, recommend a good hotel, and give you the royal treatment. Come on. You deserve it.

Here's some extra motivation:

Hit the Miami Boat Show yesterday to check out the boats. Boat shows for the last few years have been kind of depressing thanks to the great recession, but yesterday it seemed like there was more energy than last year.

There are some gorgeous fishing boats on display and a close friend of mine is in the market for a new center console. Most people who know me know I am an Intrepid owner and therefore have a bias, but I'll tell you, I saw some great stuff at Everglades, Sea Vee, and Yellowfin as well. Truth is, any of these boats would make a bad a$$ fishing machine and would be great for fishing charters in Miami. I'd love to find some of these high end center consoles available for charter, but there are not a lot of them out there.

The weather yesterday was perfect boat show weather and from the looks of this morning, today might be even nicer. Even if you're not in the market for a boat the Miami Boat Show provides a good time and gives you a chance to get a taste of the toys that most of us can't afford.

If you're looking for a fishing boats in Miami near the Miami boat show, we offer several fantastic options. Follow the link below to request a quote and we'll be in touch with you right away.

Check out this sweet video montage of sailfish chasing a dredge outfitted with a GoPro camera. I especially like right around 4:10 seeing the other baitfish schooling with the dredge. So cool!

We've heard from our captains that they've been having good luck with sailfish fishing and dolphin fishing in Fort Lauderdale. We need to buy one of our boats a GoPro!

Our Deerfield Beach fishing charters are located just south of Hillsboro Blvd on A1A at the inlet.  All of our boats are located in close proximity to all the major hotels in Deerfield Beach.  Our fishing boats in Deerfield range from 32' up to 53' feet giving anglers all different fishing options.  Right now most of our fishing captains are targeting sailfish, tuna, wahoo, kingfish among others.  The bright blue water off of Deerfield Beach is the perfect location to spend a day on one of our top rated boats, with our world class fishing captains.

We get tons of fishing charter requests for bachelor parties in Miami.  Our Miami fishing charter is the perfect day time activity before or after a long night of partying in South Beach.  The saying "The best detox is a retox" has some truth to it.  At VIP Fishing Charters we have boats located near all of the major hotels along Miami Beach, and downtown.  All of our boats are equipped with coolers and refrigeration if you want to bring some drinks and keep the party going.  Florida fishing charters allow up to 6 guests but we would be happy to arrange multiple boats leaving from the same dock.  We can even set up a fishing tournament between boats.  Our fishing bachelor parties are always an amazing time.  Come spend a day on our boats in the beautiful Miami sunshine.  Your new tan might even help you pick up some women in the clubs!

The majority of our Pompano Beach fishing charters are coming back to the Hillsboro Inlet Marina with some wahoo, kingfish, and tunas.  As of now the sailfish haven't come far enough south to reach our Pompano Beach fishing boats and charters.  The drift boats out of Pompano Beach are reporting yellowtail, mutton and magrove snappers.  Any day now a nice cold front could drive all the sailfish south off the coast of Pompano Beach.

Fishing charters in South Beach is the most exciting activity a tourist can do while on vacation.  South Beach Fishing Charters leave out of Government Cut or Haulover Marina.  We have tons of bachelor parties, corporate groups, and families that head out every morning from South Beach.  The gulf-stream at our doorstep allows our boats to fish for the biggest, coolest and most fun fish the ocean has to offer.  Right now we are crushing the sailfish, tuna, wahoo, kingfish and more....

All of our fishing captains have chosen this particular career for their passion of the outdoors and fishing.  Ask any of them and they'll tell you they are not in the business to get rich.  At VIP Fishing Charters we understand that fishing charters aren't cheap. We want to shed some light on all the expenses our captains and owners incur as to justify the price of their fishing trip.  First off fishing boats aren't cheap.  There is the long running joke that the two best days of owning a boat are the day you buy and they day you sell it.  All boats require constant maintenance and repairs, which don't come cheap.  Unfortunately fishing charter boats get even more wear and tear because of the amount of time the captains spend running them.  Any major repair to a boat can really eat in to any profits the captain has made that year.  All captains need to pay for their annual insurance and licenses.  Dockage fees are also big expense to any boat.  Fishing charters generally keep their boats at the most expensive docks because they need a ton of tourist foot traffic and exposure.  All the business they don't receive from people walking buy or repeat customers they must get through advertising.  This business is very competitive and advertising costs don't come cheap.  One of the biggest expenses for any boat is the fuel the burn.  As the price of gas goes up so does the expense for the captains.  The majority of our charters have two man crews and board and crew members a percentage of the charter or a salary.  Lastly every boat has to continually buy fishing supplies including bait.  So next time you dream of getting rich by becoming a fishing charter captain take into consideration and the expenses and hard work these captains put into their business.  

The majority of our fishing charters start at 8am in the morning or around 12 in the afternoon.  They range from a minimum of 4 hours, which we consider a half day, up to 8 hours which is a full day.  We also do 6 hour fishing trips which are referred to as 3/4 days.  A common question we encounter from our clients is "Is it better to fish in the morning or afternoon?"  We usually recommend the morning fishing charters because we generally notice the fish to be feeding a little more at the earlier time.  Afternoon trips catch plenty of fish as well and often times can exceed the morning bite.  We usually recommend the afternoon trips to our clients that know they will be out partying the night before or for those who have trouble waking up in the morning.  Many of our captains also provide specialized night fishing charters.  For example night time sword fishing trips are popular because our fishing boats have great success in the later hours of the day.  Our customers choose all different length charters.  Some of the key factors one should consider when determining how long to fish for is there budget, ability to handle the seas for long periods of time, and type of fishing.  Four hour trips are successful in South Florida because the majority of our rich fishing grounds are not to far offshore.  In many other states fishing boats have to travel hours to get to the fish.  We often recommend 6 or 8 hour trips because this give the captain more flexibility the ability to adapt the fishing conditions on a particular day.  If one technique is not working he can switch to another.  If a captain knows the fish are biting a little farther north or south he can go to the best spot with plenty of time on a longer fishing trip.  We can often times plan multiple types of fishing on longer days.  No matter what trip length and time you choose we are pretty certain you will have an awesome time no matter what!

Congratulations to Mark Deblasio and Joe Miele for their awesome catch. According to WPTV news, these intrepid anglers caught a 510 pound swordfish off of Stuart, Florida. One hundred and two pounds short of a record, but still the type of catch we all dream about! Check out the video embedded below!

Since you landed on vipfishingcharters.com  website you obviously searched for fishing charters on the internet.  Everyone is searching for the best fishing charter in a particular city.  The majority of people end up calling a few fishing charter captains and get a biased response "we are the best fishing charter in this particular area." Of course you could book directly through the captain and have a great experience and catch a ton of fish, on the other hand you may have called a captain that all the locals know is horrible, unpredictable, unsafe, and unreliable and have a miserable experience.  Nobody wants to have the fate of their fishing charter to be determined by a coin toss.   

VIP Fishing Charters put simply is a booking agency that specializes in fishing charters throughout Florida.  We send these captains lots of business and they understand the importance of a company like ours.  This is how we guarantee that any charter booked through our company will be the same price if not less as if you booked directly with a captain.  No captain in their right mind would risk losing their relationship and the amount of business we provide for them week in and week out.

VIP Fishing charters allows anglers to find the best fishing charter that meets their specific needs.  No need to call around to 10 different boats.  We will educate on the differences among each operation, boat and captain and help you determine which would be the right fit.  We want happy clients and repeat business!  Remember a charter booked directly through a captain has no quality control.  VIP Fishing Charters has done all of your homework for you!

We take the guess work out of booking a fishing charter!

Many people ask, out of the hundreds if not thousands of fishing charters how  does VIP Fishing Charters select their boats and captains.  Here is the criteria and methodology we use!

Captain

The most important aspect of any fishing charter is the captain.  Traditionally if you have a good captain all the other parts of a successful fishing charter will follow.  Steve the owner of VIP Fishing Charters has grown up around fishing boats and captains his whole life.  He personally interviews and interrogates each fishing captain prior to allowing them to join our service.  Being a South Florida local Steve knows the reputations of most captains and takes this intro great consideration when selecting the best available.  We are able to be very selecitve due to the amount of traffic to our website generates.  We typically use captains that are owner operators of the vessel.  This insures they will take the utmost pride in the fishing charter and their boat.  Another key attribute we look for when selecting captains is the passion for fishing.  We don't want captains that strictly do this for the money.  VIP Fishing Charters wants fishing captains that will put in 100% effort and fish like it's the last trip they will ever do. Our clients range from kids to grandparrents, springbreakers to honeymooners.  Our captains have to adapt to all of their clients needs, wants, skill levels and personalities.   

Boat

Safety is our number one concern for all of our clients.  We inspect and visit all of the fishing boats on a regular basis.  A tell tale sign for a well maintained boat is well maintained fish gear.  If you step on to a boat and see fresh fishing line on the reels and immaculately maintained gear you will find the same kind of care throughout the rest of the boat.  Since we want customers with all different types of budgets to be able to fish with us we select a range of boats from small to large and old to new.  This affords everybody the opportunity to fish with us.  One thing they all have in common is that they are safe, well maintained and comfortable.

Reputation and Customer feedback

What really separates us from any other service is our ability to get honest customer feedback about each one of our fishing trips.  Prior to using a captain we take into consideration their reputation and longevity of the captains career.  We do not work with fly by night operations.  We only want the best captains who continuously run and maintain successful charters.   Continuous feedback from our clients allows us to make sure our boats performing at the top of their game.  We can track the amount of fish our fishing charters are catching as well as how hard they are working.  The majority of the time our clients rate each charter as excellent but if they are unhappy with anything we definitely will look into it and make sure the boat is a good fit for VIP Fishing Charters.

The Jupiter Billfish Tournament tourned to out to be another exciting event.  This year "Doing It All" took home the first place prize and close to $40K in prize money after catching 39 sailfish in the two day tournament!  The majority of the fish were caught off St. Lucie Inlet in 60 feet of water using live bait.  Congratulations to everyone that participated.