Why JawsToo?
42+ Years Don’t Fit In An About Page.
Why JawsToo Fishing Charters? Five photographs tell the story better than we ever could.
The Years of JawsToo Fishing Charters
Every Picture
Has A Story.
Pick up a photograph. See where it leads.
Choose A Chapter
2006 · Father’s Day
Two Dollars A Tarpon.
Seven-year-old David spent tarpon season alongside his dad, helping wherever a seven-year-old could.
THE PAY?$2 FOR EVERY TARPON
THE BOAT LANDED.
Then came Father’s Day.
BUT THIS ONE WASN’TSOMEBODY ELSE’S.
David caught it. He fought that monster all the way to the boat himself. As luck would have it, Bay News 9 was aboard to capture the moment.
Somewhere between the hookup and the boat, the kid earning two dollars a tarpon got hooked, too.
Father’s Day · 2006
And Yes.
We Have The Tape.
This isn’t a recreation. This is seven-year-old David, on Father’s Day, bringing that tarpon to the boat.
The Teen Years
He Never Really Left The Boat.
The little kid earning two dollars a tarpon got older.
TARPON SEASON.KINGFISH SEASON.
TOURNAMENT DAYS.
Some days meant fishing aboard JawsToo. During kingfish season, though, a faster boat could take them farther, trolling the Gulf and looking for where the big fish were holding.
Boats changed and seasons came and went, but David was still fishing alongside his dad.
By his late teens, he wasn’t the seven-year-old helper anymore. Instead, years of watching, learning, rigging and fishing had taught him a life that couldn’t really be learned in a classroom.
JAWSTOO WASN’T SOMETHINGHE’D INHERIT SOMEDAY.
He was already growing into it.
Father + Son
The Dream Took The Long Way Home.
For Dave, fishing wasn’t simply a career. It was in his blood.
The Gulf. The boat. Salt air. Fishing. And for years, one of his biggest hopes was that David would someday love this life as much as he did.
But David had his own road to travel. College. His own interests. His own path.
THEN DAVID CAME HOME.He earned his captain’s license and began running trips with his dad and for his dad.
And the thing Dave had hoped for all those years happened naturally.
HE GOT TO FISHBESIDE HIS SON.
Not as a little boy anymore.
AS A CAPTAIN.
Tournament Years · King Of The Beach
Then He Brought Home The Crown.
King of the Beach is part of Indian Rocks Beach fishing culture — a spring-and-fall kingfish tournament where the leaderboard matters.
Dave knew that leaderboard well.
NINE TIMES SECOND.Nine times close enough to taste it.
THEN CAME THIS FISH.The one in this photograph.
DAVE MISTRETTA WASKING OF THE BEACH. “It’s all about the smile.” — Dave Mistretta
Find the fish. Fight the fish. Bring it home.
Bring the smile home.
The Tournament Years
One Fish.
Four Decades Of Competition.
King of the Beach was one chapter in a tournament history that stretches back decades.
Explore The Tournament Years →
2021 · Second Generation
The Boy Takes The Helm.
By 2021, David wasn’t learning how to become a captain.
HE WAS ONE.The boat, the business and the responsibility of running JawsToo were now David’s. With that, the second generation was already underway.
Dave, however, didn’t disappear from the story.
For the next five years, father and son kept doing what they had always done together — fishing aboard JawsToo.
ONLY NOW,DAVID WAS AT THE HELM.
For years, Dave had hoped his son would find his own love for this life.
HE GOT FIVE YEARSBESIDE HIM WHEN HE DID.
From Father To Son
Years Changed. Stories Got Bigger. Still JawsToo.
Two generations built this story together. Now there are plenty more days on the water waiting to be made.
Your Own Story.
ROOTED IN INDIAN ROCKS BEACH.
FISHING THE GULF FOR GENERATIONS.
Based at the Holiday Inn Harbourside Marina in Indian Rocks Beach (IRB), Florida, JawsToo Fishing Charters takes families, friends and serious anglers offshore into the Gulf of Mexico. Depending on the season, trips can target grouper, snapper, kingfish, shark, tarpon and other Gulf species aboard a 40-foot Dorado built for the job. Whether you’re visiting Indian Rocks Beach, Treasure Island, Clearwater or elsewhere along Florida’s Gulf Coast, you’ll fish with local knowledge shaped by generations on these waters. From family fishing charters to deep-sea days offshore, the goal is simple: put you on the fish and give you a day worth remembering.