This Friday we have maxed out reservations for our Friday Night Swordfishing trip out of Ft. Lauderdale.  Because it is such a popular trip, we are going to run a swordfishing trip on Thursday night (8/2/07)this week too.  It will be the same deal as the Friday night trip, $100 per person and $15 if you need heavy tackle.  You can read about it on our Swordfishing page or check out pictures from our trips on our swordfishing photos page.  Anyway, this is a great moon phase for swordfishing, and Thursday night should be a good trip if anyone wants to go fishing with us that night.  Give us a  call to reserve a spot for that night.  Good Fishing to everybody…

What a weekend.  Lots of action, lots of fish, lots to tell.  It was a great weekend fishing off Ft. Lauderdale this week.  The Catch My Drift took out Boy Scout Troop 406 yesterday on their open boat morning trip.  The boys did pretty good catching some big bonitos, but their chaperones,  Diana Acierno and Bob Peyton caught a couple LARGE kingfish.  The bigger one,  caught by Diana was 39  pounds and the other caught by Bob was a 24 pounder.  Drift fishing was good in Ft. Lauderdale this week.  Those were the biggest 2 kings of the weekend, although many more average sized ones were caught.  Lots of bonitos too.  The night trips on the drift boat had a great couple days anchor fishing in Ft. Lauderdale and have been catching a lot of yellowtail and mangrove snappers.  No muttons this weekend, but they usually have a week or so in August or September where they spawn and bite really good.  I remember last year we had a week or so when we were catching over 70 muttons a trip on our night anchor trips. 

The sportfishing boats had a good weekend too.  A couple of good catches.  Capt. Erik gets the prize this weekend with a 65 pound cobia he caught bottom fishing on one of the shipwrecks off Pompano beach.  Just as most cobias do, this one did more fighting once he got in the boat  than when he was on the line.  We got the bite on the shipwreck while dropping a live blue runner.  The boat pulled ahead to pull the fish out of the wreck like we normally do, and the fish came right up to the surface.  When a  fish does that, it either means its a small amberjack or a cobia.  Well, the fish swam right up to the boat without much of a fight and John, the mate gaffed him.  As soon as the gaff went in him, the fish went ballistic thrashing every which way but loose.  I gotta give John credit though, cause he held on.  And right when I thought he was going to let go and loose the fish, he yoked him over the side and got him in.  But the fight didn’t end there.  The fish knocked everything that wasn’t bolted down to the cockpit floor everywhere.  John took more than a few good whacks to the shin.  Capt. Erik ran down the ladder and whacked the cobia in the head to kill it.  An awesome fish and the guys that caught it got some great dinners off that one. 

The kings were biting really good today.  We caught our limit on kingfish this morning on our charter and then went to hit the wrecks.  The kings were pretty nice sized.  Most were 4-8 pounders, but a couple probably weighed 10-12 pounds.  On the wrecks we caught one nice snowy grouper, an almaco and a vermillion snapper.  Only had time for a few drops but we got a few.  The charter was the owner of the Pelican Beach Resort, one of the hotels here on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale.  If your looking for a nice place to stay while your down in Fort Lauderdale, they’ve got a beautiful hotel right on the beach and near everything you’d want to do while your here.  Its a nice place to stay, check it out. 

Thanks everyone who fished with us this weekend, hope you all had a great time and come back fishing with us when your back in sunny ole’ Fort Lauderdale.  Cya all tommorrow, this week looks like it’ll be some good fishing.

We went out Friday night looking for the big swordfish.  We couldn’t find a swordfish out there that night to save our lives.  In fact, there were a lot of fishing boats out there on Friday and not a one of them caught a swordfish that  night.  It was just a slow night, the swordfish were taking a night off I guess.  Anyway, we didn’t get a swordfish, but we caught a huge wahoo.  It was the first bait we set out, a rigged squid.  Thats amazing because squid is hardly the best bait for a wahoo.  Wahoo are the fastest fish in the ocean and usually prefer a fast moving bait.  A dead squid drifting is not the bait of choice.  Well he ate it, and screamed a huge run off, smoking the reel.  We were using monofilament leader.  It was a miracle the wahoo’s razor sharp teeth didn’t cut through it, but we got lucky.  The fish ended up being about a 60 pounder, huge for a wahoo out of Ft. Lauderdale.  Wahoo are irridescent in color when they come up to the boat and are really beautiful fish.  Anyway, this guy caught him and it was a beauty.  Unfortunately, this was the only fish of the trip that night.  We were after swordfish, but if the swordfish aren’t going to bite, I’m glad this fish did.

 Our deep sea sport fishing boats have been gettting good action too, during the day.  This was a catch from yesterday, lots of action on the reef.  We caught a whole mess of bonitos and kingfish.  A couple of those kingfish are pretty nice size.  Everyone got to catch a couple fish though, and we had action the entire trip.  The fishing rods were bending every time we put a bait down.  It was hard to actually get a full spread of lures out there.  Chuck, the mate on the boat earned his money on this trip.  We also caught some medium sized barracuda that we released.  Everyone got some fresh kingfish for dinner tonight. 

Fish are still biting so catch them while you can.  This is the hot time of year in Fort Lauderdale for action.  Soon it will be fall and the bonitos and kingfish will be gone.  We’ll be spending our days fishing for those elusive sailfish and tuna.  But for now, the action is hot so Lets Go Fishing!

Well everyone, another great day today.  We caught so many fish on the Catch My Drift that the anglers were complaining of their arms being sore when they got off the boat from winding in so many fish.  The action fishing out of Ft. Lauderdale right now is fun and exciting.  I love the summer months here because there are so many fish out there to catch right now.  Today we caught about 30 bonitos in the morning.  If you’ve never caught a bonito, they are HARD fighters.  They are in the tuna family although not the best eating.  We use them for strip baits, chum and chunk bait for yellowtail snappers.  But they are a blast to catch and it kept everyone busy the whole trip.  We also caught some kingfish today but just a few.  The lines weren’t in the water very long without getting a bonito on.  The guys that were fishing the bottom caught some porgies and a few snappers.  It was a great day deep sea fishing off Ft. Lauderdale beach.

 The sport fishing boats did good too.  We caught a few nice kings, some bonito and a huge barracuda.  We had a sailfish on today that gave us a few good jumps and few goof minutes of pulling drag but alas, he jumped us off.  Can’t catch every one I guess.  We’ve been catching all our fish trolling the reef with planers and surface lures.  The best bite has been on the rigged ballyhoo and the bonito strip baits.   No tuna today, but I heard of a few on the radio and we’ve been catching them this week here and there.  Cya all later.

Drift fishing is going pretty good this week off Ft. Lauderdale.  We caught some nice kings today, a couple pretty big ones.  We also caught lots of bonitos, which we’ve been catching for the past few weeks here.  I’m glad we’re catching so many bonitos.  They aren’t the best eating fish, but they are excellent bait.  They are great for strips, make excellent chum and we use them whole for bait when someone wants to go shark fishing.  This week, I’ve dumped all the heads and carcasses from the fileted fish at the same spot.  Its probably booming with shark activity by now and I can’t wait till I get a shark trip. 

Along with the bonitos and kingfish, we also caught a really nice blackfin tuna.  It was a pretty nice one, about a 30 pounder.  The guy that caught that one is gonna eat good tonight.  Capt. Vic was very proud of himself for putting the boat on that fish.  There have been a few nice blackfin tuna caught this week and all of them have been 25-30 pounders.  Good to see fish like that migrating through Ft. lauderdale. 

Our night trip gets the hot vote this week.  On our night time anchor fishing trips on our drift boat, we’ve been catching a lot of snapper.  Not the yellowtail snapper that we’ve been trying for either.  In fact, even though we’ve been fishing in prime yellowtail water, we haven’t caught but a handful of yellowtails this week.  The snapper we’ve been catching these past few days are the mangrove snappers.  Mangrove snappers tend to be a bit bigger than yellowtails and every bit as tasty.  Last night we caught a nice pile of mangroves and the word from the night fishermen is that the mangroves are spawning.  All week they’ve been biting and they finally just told me today.  I guess that I ought to go night fishing more often.  Mangroves have been 3-6 pounders and are biting just about anything. 

Tommorrow all the sportfishing boats are going out, so hopefully we’ll have a few fish stories for ya all.  Thanks for reading and I’ll see ya all tommorrow. 

Well guys, the summer time action is still in full swing.  Lots of bonitos and kingfish are biting on the reef.  Our average has been like 20 bonitos per trip.  Bonitos aren’t the best eating fish, but we use them for strips, chum and shark baits.  Quite a few kingfish though, most of them in the 6-10 pound range, although we have been catching a 20 pounder here and there.  Every day something or other that is odd jumps on the line also.  Yesterday we caught a nice wahoo, 20 pounder or so.  The day before that we caught a decent sized blackfin tuna.  All in all it has been some really good fishing. 

Our sportfishing boats have been catching mostly the same as the drift boats.  Bonitos and kings with the occassional odd-ball fish here or there.  The reef trolling has been so good, we haven’t really tried much else.  Like my dad always told me, never leave fish to find fish.  The sportfishing boats have actually been catching a few big game sharks too.  Big bull sharks and a couple hammerheads have been landed this week.  On our sportfishing trips we’ve been trolling for a couple hours, loading the boat up with fish and bending the rods for everyone…  and then going to either the shipwrecks to fish for barracuda and amberjacks, or soaking the big baits out deep for a big shark or something.  Its been going good. 

Friday night swordfishing was a decent trip this week.  We only had one swordfish bite.  It was a nice one, about a hundred pounder.  We fought him all the way to the boat.  He put up a good fight, a very strong fish.  When he got into harpoon range, just before we could throw the harpoon, he shook his tail and took a deep dive.  Ended up cutting us off on the bottom of the boat.  That was the only swordfish bite we had that night.  We also caught a cuban night shark on the trip.  My buddy “Doc” was out fishing that night also, drifting right next to where we set the lines.  He caught one swordfish, that he said was tiny, maybe a 20 pounder that he released.  It was a slow night, but there are some swordfish around guys.  We’re going out tonight on another private swordfish charter and I expect it to be good fishing.  Friday night trip still has some open seats if anyone wants to come.

There is a huge air craft carrier anchored off the Ft. Lauderdale beach right now.  We’ve been fishing around it(well as close as we can get to it without them running us off).  Its an amazing sight and we’ve been getting some cool pictures with it.  A few of our charters have been the crew of the boat.  They are just back from Iraq and are coming home, which is good to hear.  To all the men and women in the armed forces overseas, keep up the good work.  We’re proud of ya all.  Thanks, and see ya tommorrow. 

Capt. Adam went out on a private charter the  night before last with Farley, one of the guys who fishes with us a lot.  Check out these swordfish they caught out there.  They are absolutely humongous.  The smaller of the two is a beauty.  The larger swordfish is insane.  Its good to know there are fish out there like this. 

The guys caught these fish out about 15 miles while fishing off Ft. Lauderdale.  Swordfishing has been really productive these past few weeks out of Lauderdale.  Almost every trip we go on, we bring back one or two, sometimes more.  Guys, you can be proud of that one, it is one awesome fish and a great trip.  Pretty work Farley and Adam.

Guys, the fishing was just plain old awesome today.  We caught so many fish, I don’t know which trip to write about.  Our Drift boats are catching tons and tons of bonitos and kingfish.  I didn’t even count them, but there was a huge pile of them on the dock.  Everybody got off the boat hooting and hollering about how many fish they caught.  We’ve been getting all our action on the reef, about a mile offshore.  120′-200′ of water has been where the bite has been the best on the drift fishing trips.  Most of the fish have been bonitos ranging from 10-18 pounds and kingfish ranging from 8-15 pounds.  We’ve been fishing the baits about 1/2 way to the bottom and jigging.  Ballyhoo, sardines and squid have been the best baits.  Whenever we got the bait to where we wanted it, BAM!  Either we would catch a king or bonito or get a big strike and miss one.  We literally couldn’t keep a bait in the water for more than a minute.  The mates worked their butts off today keeping hooks tied on and baits going out.  But everybody that went got to catch something nice. 

 Our Sportfishing charters did great today too.  They were catching the same stuff as the party boats were, lots of kings and bonitos.  However, they did catch a couple nice fish the drift boats didn’t get to catch.  They caught a 25 pound wahoo and a big blackfin tuna today.  They also caught a nice silky shark.  The biggest king was about an 18 pounder with most of ‘em being 5-10 pounders.  It was a helluva day at sea today.

 Capt. Adam took out a 10 person private charter today that wanted to catch some fish for dinner.  They started off trolling and caught a couple bonitos but the customers said they wanted to catch some snapper or grouper.  Well, you don’t have to mention snapper to  Capt. Adam  twice.  He went out to one of his secret spots (he still won’t tell me where), and he caught 110 vermillion snapper.  It was an awesome day for him aad the customers went home with enough snapper for a neighborhood fish fry.  The deep sea fishing was great today and everything we tried today worked great. 

Tommorrow night is the Friday night swordfishing trip we run.  I’ve been hearing the swordfish are biting great this week and if we have a trip like we did last week, I’ll be tickled pink!  The swordfishing trip is my favorite trip of the week.  We still have 3 seats available last time I checked if anyone else wants to go.  It should be a great trip.  Thanks everyone who fished with us today, hope you guys come back and fish with us again.  Cya all tommorrow.

Wow, today was a great day of fishing.  The reef fishing is going off out there.  On our charter today we stated out trolling around.  Right off the bat, within 3 minutes of putting the baits out we hook up to a sailfish.  I couldn’t believe it.  There are always a few sailfish around, but the summer is certainly not the best time of year to catch a sailfish.  After a few nice jumps we caught the sailfish and released it.  The trolling baits went back out and non stop action the whole morning.  Bonito, bonito, kingish, bonito, bonito, kingfish.  We caught a lot of bonitos today.  Heheh.  Some small-medium sized kingifsh were caught too, most being 4-12 pounds.  All in all, I think we caught about 20 bonitos and around 10 kings.  As well as a couple small blackfin tuna.

 By midday, the reef fishing was slowing down and everyone had caught a whole bunch of fish.  We decided to go do some vermillion snapper fishing around one of the local Ft Lauderdale shipwrecks.  We were fishing with chicken rigs baited with chunks of squid.  Every drop we caught a couple.  After a dozen or so drops it was time to head for home.  We had a lot of fish to clean.  It took us about 45 minutes to filet all those little snappers. 

Our other boats had good catches too, most of the same stuff.  Kingfish and lots of bonitos.  Capt. Eric caught a big wahoo today that weighed maybe 25 pounds and a larger blackfin tuna.  I spent a little time shark fishing today, with no luck, but the sharks are still here.  There is just so much food out there for them, they are stuffed.  We’ll be catching the big sharks till around the end of August and bonitos and kings should be biting for a few more weeks.  Swordfish trip is going out on Friday night which I think is gonna be a great trip this week.  Good luck everyone, see ya’ll out there.   

Our Swordfishing trip last night was a blast.  I heard from most of the charter boats that it was a slow night, but we did great.  The weather was nice, the fish were biting and we had a lot of first timers out there last night.

We basically made just 1 really long drift.  We just kept getting bites throughout the night.  We ran out there, to our normal fishing grounds in the middle of the Gulfstream current.  We set out the lines baited with rigged squids and live bait blue runners.  As soon as it got dark, we hooked up on our first fish.  We pulled the hook on him pretty quick.  About 10 minutes after that, we get a double header on.  Both  seemed like nice fish, although we never got to see them.  About 10 minutes into the fight, we pulled the hooks on both fish.  We were disappointed to loose them, but only a 1/2 hour into the trip and we already hooked into 3 fish, we were getting excited and we knew we were in the right spot. 

A little while later, once we reset the lines out there, we hooked into our 4th fish.  We fought him for about 40 minutes and it was a good fight.  We gaffed him and got him into the boat.  It measured out to be a 56″ forklength, about a 80 pounder.  Willie Coleman was the angler on that fish and he did a great job fighting him.  This was his second swordfish he’s caught with us I believe. 

We were catching fish, no sense in moving, so we set the lines out again.  About an hour later we hooked into a huge swordfish.  It came up jumping right away, tailwalking and putting on an awesome jumping show for us.  It was jumping about 20-30 yards off our stern and everybody got to see it.  It looked to be about a 100-150 pounder.  The fish ended up shaking the hooks on us, but we got 5 really good jumps out of it.

 Around an hour later we got our sixth fish of the night on.  We ended up catching that one as well, which measured out to be 54″ forklength, probably a 60-70 pounder.  Jim Reckert was the angler that caught that fish.  By then it was time to come home, but it was an exciting night.  Lots of bites and almost everybody got to do battle with a swordfish, even if just for a few minutes.   Thanks to everyone that came and I hope to see you back out there with us again soon.  

Anyone interested in going out with us next Friday, make reservations soon.  Within the next few weeks we are gonna change how the swordfishing trips are run.  We’re going to  raise the price a small amount, but limit it to 12 fishermen, instead of 15.  This will work out better I think and if we have to, we might start running 2 swordfish trips a week.  They are biting pretty darn good out there and the weather has just been absolutely gorgeous.