Hey guys, just wanted to let you know I loved the FNN group dynamics that I got to see on the Spitfire. Yep, I was on this boat on the same day as you guys were but since I was a newbie to the forum, didn't officially sign up when ghetto dad made the announcement here and most people would not have recognized my forum name anyway I just remained anonymous. What can I say, I am little shy by nature, hahaha, anyway I thought I stay hidden to see the much talked about enthusiasm among FNN members that I have been reading so much about. Well, right down to meeting the group on the parking lot to the enthusiasm shown to the fellow FNN member who had a fish on line it was definitely genuine and the support was awesome.

As for my personal fishing diary, while we had live squid on board, I started off on irons and plastics. Only nibbles were from bunch of tail biters but I tried to stick with it until late afternoon. Then I finally switched over to live squid and when the captain put the boat basically above the rocks I started seeing some action and ended up with 2 good size sand bass, 21 inch and 17 inch.

Anyway, I have been on other moo moo boats before and I truly liked the Spitfire. And for those of you who never went on the Spitfire, lot of things the other FNN members said about the quality of the crew and the captain was not an exaggeration. The crew and the captain were very enthusiastic and helpful. From greeting the fishermen (some boats do not do that the crew just sit around and collect the tickets), taking care of the gunny sack and putting the numbers on them, assisting people caught up on some structure below and being right there to cheer you on and once you bring the fish on board the crew promptly put your catch in the gunny sack. While all this was going on, the captain doing his diligence to find the hot spots, what more can you ask for in a crew and the captain! The galley was great also, good service and yummy food. But what impressed me, while it might not be significant to some people is towards the end of the trip when people were getting off, the captain came out and thanked everyone. Most places that I went to the captain usually gets on the intercom and thank the fishermen. Spitfire captain didn’t have to do that and getting on the intercom would have been sufficient but I like that extra touch of service.

The only thing that put a mild damper was towards the end of the trip. The damper was NOT from the experience on the Spitfire, it was the darn parking cost. It ended up being $20!!! Yikes! :shock: That might be the going rate around that vicinity but that is pretty steep. Upon researching further on the FNN forum, ghetto dad had a thread about another Spitfire trip where he mentions about the validation ticket which would have brought down the parking price to $2! Like I said, even if it wasn't the landings responsibility to remind the customers about the validation ticket, it would have been nice for them to make that effort.

But my overall experience with the Spitfire was very positive and I look forward to going on the Spitfire again and this time I will get to say hi to the fellow FNN members!

Hawkeye :D