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Destination Travel Florida Keys Guides  Chris McCready Bob Paulson Dean Burton Doug Kilpatrick Capt. Carter Bates: Being born and raised in the Tidewater region of Virginia, fueled a love for the outdoors that has shaped Carter Bates’s life. His earliest memories were of riding and hiking into remote sections of Virginia’s backwoods in search of bass, pike and trout. These early experiences laid the groundwork for the development of a passion for the outdoors and in particular fishing. Through middle and high school Carter began to expand his interests into saltwater fishing, in particular fly fishing. He acquired his first boat at 12 and began to ply the many rivers flowing into the Chesapeake Bay- catching Striped Bass, Bluefish, and Redfish. At age 16 he found himself pulled towards offshore fishing and he began to work as a mate on a 56’ T&D sport fisherman-fishing up and down the East Coast and throughout the Bahamas, all along learning the ropes from an expert captain.. After two summers as a mate, he acquired his captain’s license and he and a friend began to fish tournaments in the Virginia/ North Carolina region- The Red, White and Blue Billfish Tournament and the Pirates Cove Billfish Tournament were the two he started off fishing. These were big money tournaments with purses over 1 million dollars- expert captains from all over the world compete in these events. After learning the conventional methods, Carter started to pursue the pelagic species with the fly rod and he has found great success and excitement in this area of flyfishing. After high school Carter went on to the University of Miami and graduated in May of 2004 with a Business Degree, majoring in Entrepreneurship. After spending four solid years, five days a week fishing the Keys and The Everglades National Park he has acquired the skills and knowledge needed to be a professional guide. Much of Carters’ expertise lies in the waters of Everglades National Park pursuing Tarpon, Snook, Redfish, and Bass in shallow water bays and coastal rivers. He also has a broad range of knowledge in the Keys, in particular Florida Bay to Biscayne Bay fishing for Bonefish, Tarpon, Permit, and Snook. Fishing numerous light tackle tournaments including the Herman Lucerne Tournament, Carter has proved his fishing prowess. Through these events he has gotten to now many other guides and form a network of information sharing. Section II – Operations Nomad Charters operations involve providing fishing enthusiasts with a quality fishing experience aboard one of three top of the line fishing boats. Boats: -Hells Bay Boatworks, 17.8 Professional- shallow water skiff used in South Florida operations -Lake and Bay, 20 ft flats boat- shallow water skiff used in South Florida operations -Ocean Master, 31ft sport-fishing boat- used in Virginia operations Pricing: Nomad Charters pricing strategy involves two components- North Carolina rates and Florida rates. ` Florida: $400 for a full day charter (8hrs), $350 for a three-quarter day (6hrs), and $300 for a half day or night trip (4hrs) North Carolina: $600 for full day inshore (8hrs) $400 for half day inshore (4hrs) $1000 for full day offshore (10hrs) |
