The deep sea fishing action has been excellent for the Fort Lauderdale fishing boats. Lots of kingfish are making it easy to catch everyone a fish or 2. The kingfish this time of year average 4-10 pounds, but the occassional Autumn kingfish can sometimes be 20 pounds or bigger. The reef has been holding a lot of kingfish, but these months also offer some other big fish on the reef. Blackfin tuna are a great fighting fish that we catch trolling and drifting the reef this time of year. Wahoo too are around and can be caught fishing the reef. We usually catch a wahoo whenever you least expect it and they are an exhillarating catch. Barracuda, schoolie mahi-mahi and snappers/groupers are also biting good this season and can add great variety to the catch.
Our drift fishing boat has been doing well drifting the reef in 80′-140′ of water. Lots of kingfish along with some bonitos have made up the majority of our catches lately. Those fishermen fishing the bottom are hooking into yellowtail snapper, red grouper and some very nice sized Mutton snapper. The night anchor trips, which target snapper specifically, are coming in with solid numbers on yellowtails, along with nice mangrove snappers and some larger mutton snappers. A few groupers at night, but most of our groupers lately have been caught on the day trips.
Our sportfishing boats have really been shining lately. Sailfish season is upon us and they have already begun to make their presence known. Kite fishing has been very effective for sailfish this week with a couple trips catching multiples. Sailfish are the most sought after gamefish in the ocean and sportfishing Fort Lauderdale from September to January is about as good as it gets for us. Big game sharks are biting fiercly out in the deep, on the 350′ dropoff which is about 2 miles off our coast. Some big hammerhead sharks, bull sharks and spinner sharks have been caught aboard the Big Game and the Out of the Blue these past couple weeks. Offshore fishing for mahi-mahi has been productive too. The summer months were relatively slow for us on mahi-mahi, but just as last year, the mahi-mahi have finally showed up late and are beginning to bite strong. Lastly, the wreck fishing for grouper has been very good for us. Both shallow water and deep water groupers are hitting live baits dropped around shipwrecks. Amberjacks are also biting good around the deeper shipwrecks.
The Autumn fishing season is always good for us in South Florida. There is a good variety of fish around and with some good tactics and a bit of luck, you can have a great fishing day. The weather for us has been beautiful and is starting to cool down. I look forward to our beautiful 75 degree weather coming soon and some awesome fishing stories to share. Sea you on the water.
