Fort Lauderdale Offshore Fishing Report
Monster fish caught off of Ft. Lauderdale Beach!

Newly wed's Tony and his wife came all the way from Texas to come fishing on the 7am-1 pm charter. We started the morning out catching lots of live tinker mackerels around a freighteranchored off shore of Ft. Lauderdale. By the way, catching tinkers like we have been doing the last few days is unusual. There was no wind to fly the kites so after catching all the bait we needed we decided to slow troll the live baits. Within 15 minutes of having all six baits in the water we got a bite on the right long rigger. It was a nice sailfish and Tony's wife jumped into the fighting chair to catch this beast. After a good 10 minutes of reeling she was getting too tired, so we swapped the rod to Tony, but that's when the sailfish got away.

We kept trolling the live baits and hour later we caught a nice 15lb kingfish. Fishing on the troll slowed down so we decided to try our luck wreck fishing. The first few shipwreck's we went to did not produce abite, but we kept on trying. At the last wreck we finally got a few bites, landing a big amberjack.Overall, the fishing was slow, but we didn't get skunked! Way to go Tony!

Brad and some business clients came fishing yesterday afternoon on a two boat charter here in Ft. Lauderdale. We went right out in front of Ft. Lauderdale to 140 feet of water where there was just enough wind to get the extra light kites up in the air. The wind was blowing south with a 1.5 knot north current. Good sailfishing conditions if we could keep the kites up.

Pauly was running the boat and I was in the salon when I heard a lot of commotion in the cockpit. I ran out just in time to see a sailfish jumping into the horizon and we lost it before we could set the hook. I was a little mad, but no big deal, as it was early in the trip. We put a fresh rack of baits back out,waited right there, and another sailfish took the bait. This time the fish was well-hooked so Brad got into the fighting chair. This fish really put on an exciting show, jumping all over the ocean. Once it was landed we tagged the sailfish and let him free to catch another day. Pauly then ranthe boat back to the south hoping for another bite, but that was it for the day. Brad and his friends still had a trip that they will never forget. Brad said that growing up as a kid his dad had a big sailfish mount on the wall and that had he always dreamed about catching one himself. Now, after 55 years of coming to Ft. Lauderdale beach, he got to catch a sailfish, just like his dad.

Traditional trolling using fresh strip of squid, bonito, and or mullet, fished behind a combination of planer boards and surface baits continues to be productive. We are landing plenty of mahi-mahi, wahoo, sailfish, and kingfish. We are also seeing a few blackfin tuna in the mix, particularly as we troll offshore of the deeper reefs.

Kite fishing

The past few days were a little slow for kite fishing because of the full moon. Even so, we still caught two sailfish out of three of our boats. A dry cold front is expected the next day or two, and that, coupled with the back side of the moon phase, should really kick off the sailfish bite. Live goggleyes suspended on 30 lb Sufix(TM) fluorocarbon leader is our go to bait for the sailfish action. It is always exciting to see these billfish crashing the surface after these baits! Come see for yourself!