Captain Mark Zorn Crystal River Fishing Charters

Always a great time fishing with Captain Z (Mark Zorn). Would recommend him to anyone. If your wanting to book a fishing trip in the area of Crystal River-​Homeosasa get with him you will have a great time with the best best fishing guide around.

We have fished with Captain Z (Mark Zorn) 3 times when we’ve been visiting relatives in Ocala. Always caught a big mess of fish, always had a great time. You’ll find Mark to be honest and friendly. Most importantly, because he’s fished the beautiful Crystal River-​Homosasa Springs area since 1980, he knows where the fish like to hide and how to get them to bite your line. You will catch them. Like both times before, we are headed home with a big bag of red, sheepshead, trout, and grunt filets.

Purpose of visit: a day of fishing with friends before gearing ourselves up for a week long of intensive tax planning education lectures. The charter was organized by friends prior to a conference in Orlando. It was, in summary, a great way to kick off the week. The early morning drive down to Crystal River was a quick hour and forty five minutes. We met Captain Z and his partner Rick. They took the 7 of us out on two flat boats to chase downs some red fish, porgies, Spanish mackerel and whatever else the river was going to offer. The weather was amazing 80 degrees with no winds. They said we got extremely lucky since this time of year the weather is a bit unpredictable. Took us about an hour and half into the gulf, passed a manatee as we headed out and anchored off some underwater rocks. Within minutes the boat with the ladies in it was reeling in some yellow striped fish. We spent the rest of the morning on this rock and caught a variety of fish including grouper, blow fish, trigger fish, squirrel fish, porgies and most exciting of all Spanish mackerel. These fish were amazing off the hook, speeding out when hooked and giving us quite a battle to bring on board. The struggles of one fish even brought out a curious five foot tiger shark that swam right up to the boat. What a sight. All told both boats caught over 50 fish. We kept a few mackerel and porgies to bring back to fry up. After about four hours of fishing we arrived back to the dock for a late lunch treat. Captain Z and Rick filleted the fish and created an awesome fish fry. We started out with some homemade hush puppies and bacon served with guava jam. The porgies were fried up with some breadcrumbs. Tasted amazing with some tartar sauce. the Spanish mackerel was grilled with hot and BBQ sauce. Fresh fish doesn’t get any better than is. We had homemade cole slaw and BBQ beans with homemade pork sausage to add to the menu. Captain Z and Rick prepared an amazing meal and really brought out the best that Crystal River can offer from a fishing perspective. this is an amazing way to experience the nature and bounty of what this part of Florida can offer while sharing some great experiences with friends. definitely recommend a side trip to break up the Disney experience if you are in Orlando. next year we may try scalloping on top of the fishing. Good times and thanks to Captain Z, Rick and the friends at Christies that organized the trip.