Today was awesome out there on the sportfishing boats.  We went out there and did some trolling right off the bat.  We had a little action on the troll, but the real story today was what we caught when we went bottom fishing.  The shipwrecks were alive with fish today.  We went bottom dropping on one of our favorite shipwrecks and caught a couple nice golden amberjacks.  If you’ve never caught a golden amberjack before, these fish are some of the strongest fish pound for pound in the ocean.  They are great fighters and they get big too.  The ones we caught today were around 35 pounders.  There have been some bigger groupers around too, but we didn’t get to catch any of them today. 

A totally unexpected fish we caught today was a huge tiger shark.  I have only personally caught one of these fish, and it was only about 4 and a half feet long, but the crew of the Keeping It Reel caught a giant one today.  The Jones family from Virginia were the fishermen today, Chris Jones and his two sons, Tyler and Conner.  The boys were the ones that got to fight this big sea monster.  It was a great fight and what a cool fish.  We certainly don’t get to catch giant tiger sharks every day fishing in Fort Lauderdale.  The fishing is really good right now with some big fish biting and some good action on the reefs and wrecks.  Give me a call and I’ll get you out on one of our trips

The fishing out of Fort Lauderdale today was pretty good.  The drift fishing boats have been catching a lot of variety out there, mostly a mixed bag.  The vermillion snappers have been hitting good out there while bottom fishing.  We’ve been sitting on top of our 200′ snapper spots when there isn’t much current.  Alot of the vermillions are keepers, but some are throw backs.  With the vermillions are some other bottom critters like trigger fish and grunts and some happy groupers.  We call them happy groupers because most of them aren’t big enough to keep, so they are happy because we let them go.  The angler that catches them isn’t so happy.  I get a lot of, “c’mon cap’, you can’t stretch him to 24 inches?”  I always say, “sorry guys, this one isn’t big enough, you’ll have to come back with us next year to catch him again.”  Fortunately the snappers have been pretty nice size so everyone gets to go home with some delicous snappers for dinner.  Nobody ever invites me for their fish fry though! 

On the days when the current is running, we’ve been fishing in on the reef and getting kings and the occasional dolphins.  Most of the kings are being caught about mid depth in anywhere from 100-200 feet of water.  The reef action has been great and keeping everyone busy winding in fish.  Some of the kings have been 10-20 pounds, with most of them around the 6-8 pound range.  Once in a while a school of dolphins will pop up and we’ll get a few of them really quick and then they bugger off.  But anyway, the fishing has been good and lots of action around.  Besides the drift fishing, the sportfishing boats have been coming in with some bigger game fish, but that will be my fishing report for tommorrow.  Anyway, the weekend weather looks gorgeous and the fish are biting.  Its a great time to go fishing.  Call me at (754)214-7863 to  make a reservation and LET’S GO FISHING!

Well guys, the Fort Lauderdale fishing was actually kind of slow this past week.  We did have some good trips, but there were a few days when we didn’t catch much at all.  Fortunately though, the fishing is improving dramatically.  We’ve been doing pretty good snapper fishing on the drift fishing trips.  Both the day and the night trips have been coming in with good catches of yellowtail, vermillion snappers and a few nice muttons.  Lots of other bottom fish too, most of which we threw back.  The kingfishing was slow last week, but this week the kingfish have been biting pretty good for us.  Larger kings are coming through as well as smaller ones too.  We’ve also hit a few schools of mahi mahi dolphin fish and getting some good numbers of them when we’re lucky enough to find them.  Other than that, the drift fishing boats have been catching a sailfish now and again, but sportfishing has been a lot better for catching the sailfish. 

Sportfishing boats have been slow last week also, but the fishing is picking up.  This week, they’ve released a few nice sailfish. Sportfishing charters have been doing pretty decent on kings and dolphin while trolling.  Bottom fish wise, I’ve been seeing a couple nice groupers caught this week.  Capt. Johan caught a 30 pound black grouper yesterday which was the nicest one of those I’ve seen caught in a while.  Some good sized red groupers have been hitting too.  Fishing has been getting better and will keep getting better as we get deeper into the winter fishing season.  Sea ya all out there….

Mike Kastrintel wanted to have his birthday party this year on a fishing boat, so his mom and dad gave us a call and chartered the Mary B III, our 55′ party fishing boat for a half day of fishing.  Mike brought about 10 of his buddies with him and some of them brought their moms and dads along too.  Well, Mike always had his heart set on catching a sailfish so Capt. Paul went out there and put the fishing kites up with some live baits.  The kids were fishing too with bottom baits for snappers and let me tell you, those kids had a blast.  The fish were biting good and all the kids got to catch snappers.  They were catching them 2 at a time and had pretty decent action the whole trip.  We caught a ton of vermillion snappers along with some other bottom critters like trigger fish and grunts and stuff.  We never got to catch a sailfish that day, but we still came in with a great catch.  The kids had a great time, and suprisingly, only a few of them had ever been fishing before.  All the kids were amazed at the flying fish we saw gliding around and getting chased out of the water.  We saw a couple big sea turtles too that were cool to watch.  The trip was for the kids but the grown ups had fun too, dehooking fish and taking pictures.  I think everybody had a good time and a bunch of the adults They got lots of fish to take home and cook up for dinner.  Some of the dads on the boat said they loved it and would be bringing their kids to have birthdays on the boat.  Thanks to everyone that came and Happy 9th Birthday Mike.  Don’t worry about the sailfish.  I was 11 when I caught my first one.  Sometimes it takes a few trips to get lucky.  You got a lot of years left on ya to catch one of those fish.  Sea yas all tommorrow…

Sailfish is what’s biting right now off Fort Lauderdale.  Today the sportfishing boats all got to catch sailfish, they were biting all over.  Our charter fishing boats went out to the 3rd reef off Fort Lauderdale and put the kites up.  It wasn’t long until old mister sailfish showed up and stuck his big dorsal fin out of the water.  He swallowed the bait whole and took off in a fury.  Capt. Johan put the boat in gear and went ahead to try and get all the slack out of the line.  The angler got to do battle with this one for a really long time.  When the fish came up, it looked strange.  The fish was swimming down deep, where most sailfish tend to stay near the surface.  It was also taking some huge runs and it was twice as heavy as most sailfish are to bring in.  When finally got the fish up to the surface, but by then the fish looked really strange.  We knew it was a sailfish because it jumped as soon as we hooked up on it.  We got the boat a little closer to the fish and realized why it looked so funny out there.  The fish was hooked directly in the tail.  We had to fight him that whole time backwards.  Well, by the time we got the fish up, it was drowned so rather than releasing a dead fish, we brought this one in.  It was a huge sailfish though.

The drift boats have been catching a few too.  Snappers are still biting a bit as are the mahi mahi.  Mahi mahi fish have been between 6-8 pounds on average with the occassional 15 pounder here and there.  Kingfish are biting slow but we’re still catching a few of them too.  Today we caught a blackfin tuna that was a nice surprise.  We’ve been hearing some boats getting some larger wahoo’s down south so we are expecting a good wahoo bite in the next few days.  We’re getting our lures and baits ready for them.  Still good fishing out there, especially sportfishing, and we’re looking forward to a gorgeous weekend.   Sea ya all out there…

An interesting day out there yesterday folks.  We had a private drift boat charter on our drift fishing boat, the Mary B III.  The guys said 2 things:  They wanted to get some good eating fish and they wanted to do some bottom fishing.  Well, lucky for them the conditions were perfect and Capt. Erik knew just where to take them.  He took them to one of his snapper spots that he doesn’t get to fish very often.  The mate rigged everyone up with multiple hook rigs and heavy leads to get them to the bottom.  It wasn’t long after the boat stopped that everyone was puling fish up, 2 at a time.  The guys filled the entire box with vermillion snappers and other bottom fish.  Dropping down and winding up 2 fish at a time from 200-300′ of water can be tiring.  These guys went home with sore muscles from all the work they had to do on their fishing trip, and they thought they were on vacation!  Well, they limited out on snappers on this trip and they decided to call it a day.  Erik and Scott, the crew of the boat were filleting fish for just shy of 3 hours.  There’s going to be an awesome fish fry this weekend.  The fishing is awesome right now and not just snappers are biting.  Kingfish, dolphin, wahoo, sailfish and swordfish are all biting great these days so if you can get out there fishing, get out there now while the fishing is good.

We got a swordfishing charter at the last minute last night.  It wasn’t on the books at all and these guys came up and said take me swordfishing right now!  Capt. Johan grabbed some squids and ran offshore a ways to swordfish territory.  The fish hit at about 11:30PM and took a huge run of line.  He definetly didn’t come in easy, thats for sure.  Fortunately for us, the fish got hooked right in the perfect spot:  the corner of the mouth.  Swordfish are notorious for getting off because the hook pulls through their soft jaws.  Well this one was hooked good and after a grueling 25 minute fight, we got the fish in.  The angler who caught him had never caught a swordfish before, but he took instruction from the crew great and got the fish in within record time.  The fish was about a 150 pounder but he fought like a 200 pound one.  There were so many swordfish steaks, the guys didn’t have room for them in the cooler they brought, hahaha.  The cooler was overflowing, and that was only after half the fish got cut up.  So they left the other half for the crew to stock their freezers with and give to friends, thanks guys.  The Fort Lauderdale swordfishing has been going great.  Our past 2 trips for them we’ve come home with big ones.  No matter what anyone says, the swordfish definetly bite better at night, even though day time swordfishing is the new thing.  A lot of the guys going out in the day are coming home skunked.  Thats not to say you can’t catch a daytime swordfish.  In fact, I really enjoy the new daytime swordfishing.  But its not as red hot as people are claiming.  The simple fact is that swordfish come up to the surface at night to feed.  Daytime they are on the bottom resting and only feeding on the occassional squid that happens to drift directly past them.  At night, swordfish are swimming all over LOOKING for something to eat.  Anyway, the swordfishing is good right now and I highly  reccomend a night time swordfishing trip.  They are the biggest fish out here to catch and what a prize when you come home with one.  Cya out there and schedule a Swordfishing Charter now! 

The great fishing conitinues out of Fort Lauderdale.  Lots and lots of action on both the drift fishing boats and the sportfishing charter boats.  These photos are all from yesterday’s trips.  We went on the drift boat yesterday and caught a ton of vermillion snappers.  There was a nice slow drift so we put the boat directly over one of our good snapper spots and caught them for almost the whole trip.  While we were catching the snappers, we also caught a couple small dolphins and a few kingfish.  The dolphins and the kingfish were small, so we had to release quite a few of them.  The snappers however, were very nice size fish.  Everyone that went on this trip ate for a week off what we caught them. 

In the afternoon, we went back out and the drift had picked up. We couldn’t sit right on top of our snapper spot long enough to get the baits to the bottom so we moved on and tried some fishing just outside the reef.  We hit a nice little school of dolphins and caught a couple of them.  We had to release a few of them for being too small, but we did get to bring a couple in for dinner.  The guys that put bottom rigs on their lines ended up getting a couple nice mutton snappers.  It was a good afternoon, the fish were biting.

The sportfishing boats had a good trip yesterday as well.  Our customer brought his son out on a sportfishing charter for his birthday.  It was a good day for sportfishing too.  We caught a bunch of kingfish and some small dolphins.  Lots of smaller fish around right now.  Right where we were catching the smaller kingfish and dolphins, we go this huge hit that zinged off a ton of drag.  We brought in all our lures and chased the fish down with the boat.  After a long 25 minute fight, we ended up seeing those beautiful irridescent colors of blue, purple and silver down deep.  It was a wahoo and a big one at that.  Mate shouted “wahooooo” which is what you gotta shout when you catch one of these bad boys.  We caught the fish and got him in the boat.  It was the biggest fish the boy had ever caught and its going to be beautiful mounted in his bedroom.  When we got back, we fileted the meat off the fish and everyone, crew and all, got to take some fish for dinner.  There was plenty to go around.  The fishing is red hot in Fort Lauderdale right now, so let’s get out there and go fishing!!!!

We went out on the Friday night swordfishing trip last night and it was fun.  The weather wasn’t bad at all and we had a nice group of 12 fishermen.  Anyway, we went out to the 50 line(lat/long line that we like to fish on) .  It looked sweet.  There was a great little 1/2 a degree temperature change there and the drift couldn’t have been more perfect for us.  Capt. Adam had high hopes of us crushing them.  Well, we did get a couple nice fish on.  The swordfish we caught was a nice 80 pounder and we missed as well.  It wasn’t as red hot as we were expecting but any night you catch a swordfish is a good night so we weren’t complaining.  Dan, one of our regular swordfishermen that fishes with us regularly on the trip brought his daughter with him.  She ended up being the lucky angler who caught the fish and she did a great job of getting him in.  Pretty work to everyone that came last night and we hope to have you back with us again.  Thanks a bunch…

Excellent drift fishing today.  We went out on our normal half day trips today and had a great catch.  Kings were biting pretty good today as they have been for the past couple of weeks.  Some nice kings in the mix also.  Not just kingfish, but the mahi mahi dolphin fish were bititng great as well.  We caught a nice bunch of dolphin fish and they were pretty nice size.  The fish of the day though, was this giant cobia.  Capt. Vic heard one of the fishermen say he saw a shark.  Well, the crew looked out over the water and couldn’t see anything.  So they figured it was just a figment of the guy’s imagination and forgot all about it.  A few minutes later someone else said they thought they saw a shark out there.  So by now, we were looking hard for this elusive shark.  Never saw him.  About 15 minutes go by and someone is winding in a kingfish.  We hear someone yell, “shark is about to eat the kingfish!”  Well, it wasn’t a shark.  It was about a 60 pound cobia and it was following the kingfish right to the boat.  Without a seconds notice, we pitched out a bait and the cobia swallowed it whole.  We didn’t get much of a fight out of him because he was so close to the boat when he ate.  The real fight occured when we stuch the gaff into him.  The fish went ballistic and thrashed every which way.  Vic bruised a couple ribs getting jerked around by that fish.  Kevin, quick on the gaff, got a second hook into him quickly and together they yoked the fish over the side.  It ended a great day of fishing and everyone went home with lots of fish for dinner. 

That was just the morning trip, and the afternoon was just as good.  We caught some more kings and dolphins.  We didn’t get to catch a big cobia in the afternoon, but we still had plenty of action.  The last photo here is a sailfish we caught last week, but I didn’t have my camera that day, so I had to wait for the customers to email me photos of the fish.  Anyway, here is the photo of a huge sailfish we caught on our sportfishing charter.  Fishing is really good out there guys, so lets get out there and catch some big game fish.  Sea ya out there…