Captain Chris White is a Florida native and comes from a commercial and charter fishing family so you can say that saltwater runs through his veins. He started out working on his uncles’ commercial boat as young as age 12, mostly bottom fishing for grouper, snapper, and mackerel in the Florida Panhandle.
From there his family moved to South Florida where he had the opportunity to spend a few summers on the busy head boats out of Fort Myers. After gaining a stellar reputation as a hardworking and witty deckhand on the head boats, Chris was hired as a deckhand for sport fishing boats out of the high-end Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Florida. This is where his talents really started to shine. Eventually, Chris worked his way up the ranks to become the captain of his own boat and crew while honing his skills on the offshore waters of Key Largo. Soon, Captain Chris became one of the top sailfish captains out of the Ocean Reef Club by not only consistently catching fish, but also by breaking multiple sailfish records around the club and winning the Ocean Reef Cup Sailfish tournament on multiple occasions.
Speaking of tournament fishing – this has been Chris’s primary occupation for the past 15 years and he is well known from Stuart to Key West as one of the best. Outside of fishing the sailfish tournament circuit, Chris’s other passion is chasing big snook and tarpon on light tackle in and around the backwaters. As a young boy, he even held the Florida All-Class record for the largest snook taken to date (see story below).
Over the years Chris has chased snook and tarpon down the Florida west coast from Tampa to the Keys and back up the east coast to Stuart and after many years of hunting, he finally decided to settle down in the Stuart area primarily to take advantage of the awesome snook and tarpon fishing that takes place during the summer months.
When it comes to fishing, experience counts! Yes, anyone can catch fish when the fish are chewing the paint off the hooks, but an experienced fishing guide can catch fish even when the bite turns slow.
From Childhood Dreams to Record-Breaking Catches: Captain Chris’s Epic Record Snook Tale
The fishing was simple … just walk the beach trailing a bucket of live shrimp and cast the surf until the shrimp ran out. One evening turned out to be something that would stick with a 7-year-old Chris for the rest of his life as he felt the hard thump of a big snook. As he fought the fish, he knew that it was going to be a whopper but had no idea at the time that it would turn out to be a 42-pound state record! The record stood for several years until it was finally broken by the local bridge tender off of Big Carlos Pass, the same area where Chris caught his fish. Since then Chris has honed his snook fishing skills and caught hundreds of 30-plus pound snook throughout South Florida.
As a young boy, Chris was always on the water scoping out new fishing spots and trying to figure out how to catch monster-sized fish. As a favorite pastime, Chris and his family would head out to the inlets and passes around Fort Myers Beach in search of the big snook that patrolled the beaches. 1980 turned out to be a banner year for giant snook off of Florida’s west coast when the family landed several snook over 35 pounds.
The Sweet Relief: T-Craft Bay Boat 24'
A Sarasota-based boat builder, T-Craft Boats have been around for decades and are well known as stable and comfortable inshore and nearshore bay boats. With room for up to 6 passengers and tons of gear, you’ll be very happy aboard Sweet Relief.
There are a lot of different boats out there but for us, this boat is perfect for light-tackle spin-fishing throughout Stuart’s intercoastal waters as it allows us to cross open water comfortably, but still gets us into the smallest backwaters. Sweet Relief offers plenty of room for the avid fly fisherman as well!
Features of the Sweet Relief Charter boat include:
- 24-foot long
- 300 Mercury Motor
- Minn Kota Trolling Motor
- Live wells for fresh bait
- Plenty of storage and seating
- A cooler
- Meticulously clean
What Tackle and Equipment is Aboard Sweet Relief?
As you would expect we only use the highest quality tackle on our fishing charters, because who wants to hear the story about “the one that got away”? It’s also considered a light tackle for the fish we are going after.
For spinning equipment, we primarily use 10-20 pound class custom-built Crowder rods matched with Daiwa reels.
On the fly, we primarily use 7-10 weight Orvis fly rods matched with Orvis reels and matching fly lines for the task.
Though we do provide all tackle for your fishing trip, feel free to bring your own rods if you prefer. Simply speak with Captain Chris while booking and he will let you know the best class of rods/reels for the day’s fishing.
Ready to fish with Capt. Chris on his awesome boat? Book online today or call/text (786) 402-1915.
