Southbound Sportfishing

Southbound Sportfishing has docked at the Key West City Marina, the stretch of Garrison Bight better known locally as Charter Boat Row, since 1992, when Captain Rich Houde first took ownership of the boat. More than three decades later, the operation is still built around the same captain and the same stretch of water, a longevity that is not universal in a charter fishing scene where boats and captains change hands more often than that.

The business offers several ways to book a trip, including private charters for groups who want the boat to themselves, split charters that let individual anglers or smaller parties join others to fill out a trip and share the cost, and family-friendly outings aimed at guests who may be fishing for the first time. Offshore and deep sea fishing form the core of the operation, using trolling and live bait techniques to target species including sailfish, wahoo, tuna, mahi mahi, and barracuda, along with reef and wreck fishing for grouper, snapper, and the occasional shark or tarpon closer to shore.

All charters include complimentary fish filleting, a detail that matters more than it might sound, since it means guests who catch fish they want to keep and eat do not need to track down a separate fish cleaning service after the trip ends. Given the boat’s location right on Charter Boat Row, it sits alongside a long-established row of similar operators, all competing for the same pool of visiting anglers, and Southbound’s decades of continuous operation under a single captain function as a real point of differentiation in that environment.

For anglers researching Key West charter options, a boat with more than thirty years under the same ownership offers a certain baseline of reliability that newer operations cannot yet claim, from knowledge of seasonal fish patterns to relationships built with repeat clients over the years. The mix of private, split, and family-oriented charter formats also means the boat can serve everyone from a serious group of anglers chasing a specific species to a family with kids looking for an introductory fishing experience, without needing to specialize narrowly in one type of trip at the expense of the others.

Anglers are generally advised to bring sunscreen, a hat, and non-marking deck shoes, since offshore trips can run a full morning or afternoon in open sun with little shade beyond what the boat’s cabin or bimini top provides. Seasickness can be a real consideration on rougher offshore days, and first-time deep sea anglers are typically encouraged to take a motion sickness precaution beforehand if they are prone to it. Tipping the mate is customary in the charter fishing industry, generally in addition to the base charter price, reflecting the physical work involved in rigging bait, netting fish, and cleaning the catch at the end of the trip.