Salty Rods made our experience unforgettable. The captain made sure we understood what to expect. He was friendly and talkative, telling us about some of the history of Galveston and where to find local hangouts. Can't wait to book another trip with them!!

Great experience. This was our second trip. Dave makes sure everything goes smoothly and you have fun catching fish.

I booked a 4 hour fishing trip with captain Bill Perkins for Sept 2, 2022. His company name is “Hooker Charter & Guide Service”. The booking was made via a third party web hosting and payment service named “FishingBooker”. The webpage presented by FishingBooker for Captain Bill Perkins/ Hooker Charter & Guide Service” quoted a total cost of $590 and provides the following verbatim description of cancellation terms: Cancellation policy Customers can cancel or modify their booking up to 7 days before the trip date free of charge. If the trip is canceled or modified later, or in the event of a no-show, 100% of the deposit will be charged. Book with 10% deposit, pay rest to captain When the captain confirms your trip, FishingBooker charges your credit card a 10% deposit to guarantee your reservation. The remaining balance is to be paid directly to the charter operator on or prior to your trip date in one of the following payment methods: My wife and I had a change of plans and cancelled via live phone call with Bill Perkins on Sept 1. I fully expected to pay a cancellation fee to Mr. Perkins for the inconvenience. Per the website language, that fee should have been 10% X $590 = $59. During the online booking process, FishingBooker strongly pushes customers to pay 100% in full up front. Customers are warned of added fees to pay the balance with a credit card at the dock. They make it sound like not paying 100% up front is highly undesirable by FishingBooker and the Captain. Regrettably, I fell into the trap and paid 100% of the full $590 fee up front. The instant I paid 100% up front FishingBooker and Mr. Bill Perkins decided to redefine the “full payment up front” to be the new “deposit”, and they plan to keep the full $590 I paid. Yes…. really. Language as to such is only surprise revealed to customers after they pay 100% up front with a credit card. Captain Bill Perkins did zero work, bought zero expensive marine gas, bought zero live bait, had to clean zero fish and had a free morning to sleep late at my expense of $590. I corresponded with FishingBooker and Mr Perkins with several texts and emails trying to reach a more fair and reasonable solution. It was all a waste of time. In the end Mr. Perkins gleefully kept 100% of my money while doing NOTHING in return. I even made a very generous offer of paying 50% of the full fee. Nope—he kept it all. FishingBooker came up with endless excuses of why they could do nothing- so sorry. Below is an excerpt from a marketing blog found online for FishingBooker. Basically the heavy handed push to get customers to pay 100% up front is a powerful selling tool to attract fishing captains to use their service and get paid in full when trips are cancelled. Online Payments – The Captain’s Perspective Updated on Mar 12, 2021 | 5 minute read | Written by Cat Earlier this year, we made it possible for customers to pay for their fishing trip right away, as soon as they reserve their trip. We got really excited about this. Now our customers have more options when paying for trips, and captains get more security against cancellations! My advice is stay far away from Captian Bill Perkins, Hooker Charter & Guide Service and FishingBooker. None of them are honorable people. And under no circumstances pay more than a 10% deposit up front. If anything changes you can be certain they will keep all of your money! Further evidence of the shady operations of FishingBooker can be found in negative captain reviews and also negative BBB and Trip Advisor reviews. They are based in Serbia according to various posts. Even though I was charged $590 for NOTHING I was unable to post a review on the FishingBooker website so they can preserve a misleading perfect review record for this captain. Shady, shady, shady people!

Easy to book with. Website easy to use. We booked a trip which the captain canceled 15 minutes after it was supposed to start. These things happen. I was refunded quickly which I appreciated. My concern lies with the explanation as to why the trip was cancelled. Fishing booker told me that the captain had a flat tire and no cell coverage. 7 hours later the captain told me that his boat wouldn’t start. Somebody is lying, at this point don’t really care, won’t use either in the future.

Great trip and well organized!

We all had a great day fishing on The Early Riser. Capt Kenny was the best. He always put are safety first while letting us be hands on from the beginning to the end of our trip. We all highly recommend Captain Kenny and The Early Riser.

Anthi and Mohammed were so much fun and very knowledgeable. We love fishing and it was great to experience hand lines and net fishing. Great experience and highly recommended.

Four hour trip with captain was a great experience as well as a learning experience in casting lessons

Good captain knows his stuff.

Communication between Red Door Charter and Fishing booker was poor. After I made the initial reservation I had to change it to one two days earlier. I confirmed it with Red Door. Fishing booker and Red door kept both reservations just two days apart. Even after a second phone conversation with Red Door to straighten things out. The information provided by Fishing Booker in preparation for the charter was incorrect on the time of departure and what was provided. FishingBooker said 6:30 am and Red door said 6:00AM. Fishing booker said drinks would be provided and Red Door said no drinks were provided. When I asked about the discrepancy Red door told me to just ignore FishingBooker. I got follow up texts and emails reminding me of the original reservation even though it had been cancelled.

The trip was fun but cut short. The ocean turned out to be too choppy and one in our party got sick almost immediately. We gave it time but their condition did not improve. Without any question to our decision, the captain turned us around and we headed back to the marina. My wife and I were able to catch two huge Dorados so it was not a complete loss. Plus we got great photos of the arch, divorce beach, and lovers beach. So all was good.

I booked a trip through fishbooker. You give them an area and instantly like a travel site, you get a list of availability with rankings, descriptions, and reviews. When you decide who you want to use, you book it and they wait for the captain to confirm that availability. Took less than 24 hours for response. Highly recommend them.

ZERO stars!!! According to CL Guide service/Cap. Gabe, he was never informed of our 1/2 day reservation made the day before on Fishingbooker.com. My husband & 2 boys bought sun shirts & were so excited for the highlight of our trip to Corpus. Warning: Do NOT wait at the pick up location assuming your guide will show. After 1/2 an hour, sent email (the only way to contact), he responded that he was never told about our reservation. When my husband asked about the deposit, no response. The people at the pick up location called to the restaurant next door where he was eating and they said he had already finished & left. Who’s at fault??? No one made it right. ***Make sure you contact the captain & hopefully he won’t be dining on your deposit money during his free time. Extremely disappointed and TERRIBLE (non)experience.

I had to cancel my charter due to the fact my daughter got COVID, and instead of an easy system to cancel, like every other excursion I had planned for the week, Fishing Booker required me to submit on the site, wait 15 days and then gave me 24 hours to submit proof, which with a self test I had none. After 4 different agents gave me excuses, even when the captain agreed and understood, they still kept my deposit over a technicality. I recommend you use this service only to find charters. Book direct with the Captain but do not give them your money. Update- I appreciate the apology and the refund from Fishing booker. Unfortunately, it came after I posted about my experience on several websites. So let’s just be clear about that. You declined before I went public. I hope they mean what they say here about looking at their cancellation policies. It would make all the time I wasted worth it to help the next customer.

So happy I found Captain Nelson on Fishing Booker. He was the best! Speaks perfect english. Picked me up and dropped me off, I was an hour away. Was out for 6 hours, we caught 2 mahi, 2 wahoo and 1 barracuda. The boat is gorgeous and the mate was awesome help too. I love this crew. I also felt very safe. Will be coming back for sure!

Bad low quality website. Trying to get money of you. Can't communicate normally with people it's block all messages.

I booked a trip at a local lake with a guide and he cancelled on me the night before, Evidently, the captains use multiple sites for booking and he was already booked with another. My kids were so disappointed. Fishingbooker uses total amateur captains. 100% bubblegum!

I didn't realize how much Fishing Booker was doing for BGS South Charters until I had a hiccup with the USGC...Fishing Booker has strict requirements for their Captains and at nobody's fault I (BGS South) was put on ice so to speak and I immediately saw a difference in responses and bookings ... Keep your paperwork and credentials up to date, and you'll see results with F.B. !!!

Fishing Booker provides great exposure to BlackH2oDog Charters which operates on Lake ¹Erie.

Although everyone wants 5 stars, and works hard for it, there are going to be days there is just no way to please everyone! Most guides make an extra effort to get on fish and get a limit, but it’s called fishing not catching! I feel FishingBooker weighs each day fishing with a guide and they know the when and where of each adventure and stands with most guides to insure there is a positive result out of each trip! I commend FishingBooker on their handling of each trip as I have had only one trip in a 100, that I just could not please one customer no matter what I did! Again Hats off to the personnel with FB, and Great Job.