Good fishing in Fort Lauderdale this week.  Lots of action on dolphin, tuna and some smaller wahoos.  In fact, our Wednesday All Day Dolphin trip aboard the Mary B III this week did excellent.  They caught all these fish trolling around offshore, in anywhere from 350′-1000′ of water.  The dolphin were eating lures that Josh Jr. rigged up, rigged with bonito strips and whole ballyhoos.  Everyone that came on the trip got a nice catch and went home with some delicious mahi-mahi filets.  But the dolphin haven’t been the only fish biting out there.

Shark fishing is still in full swing on our sportfishing charters.  The Big Game and the Out of the Blue have been coming in with some awesome shark catches.  These are a couple photos of some awesome shark catches.  This photo above shows a truly gigantic hammerhead shark that Capt. Chuck caught on his half day sportfishing charter out of Ft. Lauderdale.   The fish was almost 11 feet long and fought these guys for over hours.  What an amazing catch, congratulations guys.  The photo below was another awesome shark fishing trip out of Fort Lauderdale.  Capt. Josh went out and caught 3 sharks, a sailfish and 3 dolphin fish.  WOw!  Now that’s some great fishing.  2 of the big sharks and the sailfish were released, but they brought this one back to the dock.  This is the time of year that we come in with catches like this.  Great fishing lately and I think the fishing will just keep getting better and better throughout the summer months.  Let’s get out there and do some fishing!   

The Fort Lauderdale drift fishing has been very very good lately.  Lots of action on the 4 hour drift trips, as well as lots and lots of snappers on the night anchor fishing trips.  The mahi mahi have been showing up on the reefs in good numbers abnd have been eating everything we throw out there to them.  Unfortunately they don’t show up for us on every single trip, although when they aren’t biting, the kingfish usually are.

The night anchor fishing has been particularly good lately.  Captain Billy brought in this huge catch of vermillion snappers on one of our night fishing trips off Fort Lauderdale.  They were out in about 120′ of water and the vermillions bit with ferocity.  They must have been starving because we caught so many fish, it took us till daylight to clean them all. 

The vermillion snappers haven’t been the only fish hitting at night.  Big mutton snappers, and I mean big ones, are being caught on the night anchor fishing trips.  In these photos, Mr. Lee and Oliver, 2 of our regualr fishermen, are holding up a couple of their big mutton snappers caught reef anchor fishing off Fort Lauderdale.  There have been some bigger muttons and even a few groupers showing up on the night trips lately. 

The day fishing trips have been exciting lately.  The weather has been beautiful and as usual this time of year, the fish have been biting.  When the kings are biting, we’re on the reefs drifting out dead ballyhoo and sardines.  The action is good.  Sometimes we get jumped by a school of mahi mahi and then we really come in with a good catch.  Lots of action on the morning and the afternoon trips lately. 

Here we are drifting on the reef offshore of Ft Lauderdale and catching kingfish, snappers and this elusive sponge fish.  The sponge I think, put up the best fight of the trip out there.  This lady fought the sponge like a world class angler, and what a fight it was.  If it was a fish, it would have been an awesome catch.  This is her fighting Sponge Bob as we named him.

And lastly, lots of action on the small reef fish like trigger fish and stuff like that.  We released this beautiful queen trigger fish right after catching it.  This was this boy’s first saltwater fish.  A very nice first catch for him, if I do say so myself.  We also caught a big sailfish on the same trip.  This is a photo of the sailfish along side the boat, just prior to release. Nice trip guys. 

Sorry I haven’t written a post in so long.  One of my engines broke down on me, so I’ve been working hard to get it fixed up right.  We got a new engine now, so everything should be great.  Anyway, today’s post is about a fishing trip for a couple young boys who went on one of our night anchor trips.  Captain Billy was at the helm and Josh Jr. and Jaime were in the cockpit with the fishermen.

It was a great night out there with a lot of action.  This trip was one of our 7:30 PM- 11:30 PM trips we run on the Catch My Drift.  It was our anchor fishing trip where we go out to the reef and anchor fish for yellowtail snappers and other reef fish.  It was a pretty nice night, only lightly choppy.  We anchored upcurrent of one of our shallow water spots in about 80′ of water.  The mates started chumming the water to get the fish hungry.  It worked.  Not soon after we stopped to fish did we start getting some good action. 

Lots of grunts, goggle eyes, squirrel fish, trigger fish and other throw back fish were caught.  We got into the blue runners later on in the night.  They were big ones too, 4-5 pounders.  Blue runners are normally not that large and they were biting crazy.  We probably released as many as we brought in.    The snappers were biting really good too.  We got into the vermillion snappers and caught a ton of them.  Vermillion snappers don’t normally bite this close to shore, but they did on this night.  Vermillion snappers are normally deeper water snappers.  We typically catch them in depth’s of 200-300′ of water.  Thats why catching them this night in only 80′ of water was so interesting. 

It was a good night of fishing and lots of action.  Sal Venuto Jr. and his friend Jonathan Cefalo, both boys age 12, were visiting from New York City and went fishing on our night trip aboard the Catch My Drift.  The boys sent me this nice email and all these photos.  Thanks for fishing with us guys and we look forward to having you back soon. 

Great sportfishing on our 6 person charter fishing boats this week out of Fort Lauderdale.  The weather has gotten beautiful, and so has the fishing.  The shipwrecks are beginning to hold some bigger fish on them and it should get better and better throughout the spring fishing season.  This week on the sportfishing boats, there have been a lot of big bottom fish caught.  This photo is a giant warsaw grouper that we caught while fishing around a shipwreck.  This time of year there are a lot of small bait fish that come around the shipwrecks, which attracts a lot of bigger game fish to them.  We position the boat above the shipwreck and drop live baits to the bottom.  If there is a big fish down there and he’s hungry, it doesn’t take but a moment to get hooked into a really big game fish.  Big fish that we’ve been catching around the shipwrecks this week are grouper(black, gag and warsaw), big golden amberjacks, barracuda, cobia, and even certain game sharks. 

This grouper weighed 72 pounds, which as far as warsaw grouper go is a huge one.  Although we don’t catch warsaw groupers every day, whenever we catch one big one, it means there are usually some more big groupers around the wrecks.  The drift boats have been getting some good action too.  The kingfish are starting to bite really good, after a slow month and a half regarding the kingfish bite.  On this trip, we caught 14 kingfish as well as some nice snappers.  The snapper bite has been really good as well.  Our night fishing trip, where we target the yellowtail snappers, has been excellent.  Capt. Dale said that last night, they caught yellowtail after yellowtail, all night long.  We anchor at night and chum for snappers and other bottom fish.  The chum attracts them to the boat where we drop lines to the bottom to catch our fish.  

Last night was great, and everyone that went caught fish.  Although yellowtails bite the best at night, the daytime crews have been coming in with some decent yellowtail snapper catches also.  Basically, daytime fishing has been bringing in some nice kingfish catches with some snappers mixed in.  The night time fishing has been catching snapper almost exclusively, but the action has been awesome.  Tonight is our 6 hour anchor fishing trip, so I think tonight should be an awesome night to go.  We’ll see what they bring in.   

The drift boats have been doing great with some nice catches of bottom fish and mahi mahi and kingfish.  Our 2 daytime drift fishing trips have been coming in with some good catches these past few days.  Suprisingly, there have been some really big groupers caught while fishing off Fort Lauderdale.  On this trip, we caught about a 40 pound warsaw grouper.  Everyone was ecstatic after catching this one.  On that same trip, we also caught a really big sailfish, about a 7 footer, that we released.  The fishing around some of the shipwrecks that we fish everyday has been yeilding red groupers, black groupers and even warsaw groupers. 

The mahi mahi and kingfishing has been getting pretty good lately too.  Still not red hot, but there are a few fish to be caught out there.  The mahi mahi don’t bite every trip.  Usually we’ll be catching some kingfish and some snappers and then suddenly someone sees a yellow or a turquoise fish swimming around the boat.  Everyone yells, “Dolphin!” and throws their lines to it.  Typically, whenever you see a dolphin, there will be 2 or 3 more with him and sometimes a whole school.  Anyway, there have been some small schools of dolphin biting and the kings are biting decent again finally too.  Pretty good fishing out of Ft. Lauderdale these days, so Lets Go Fishing!

It was a great week of night anchor fishing off Fort Lauderdale.  We caught a nice load of yellowtail snappers every night this week.  Our night trip has always been our best open party drift fishing trip for action.  The reason is that on the night trip, we anchor fish for yellowtails and mutton snappers as well as the other multitudes of bottom fish.  The day time trips we drift fish on the reef for kingfish and mahi mahi.  The day trips we tend to catch larger fish but nowhere near as many fish as the night trips.  The night trips we usually catch a lot more fish and we get the most action, but the fish we catch at night are mostly snappers which are small fish(But GOOD eating!). 

I personally love to anchor fish for yellowtails.  As soon as you hit the bottom, you are getting bites.  We always get fish at night, even when the fishing is slow.  At night, we get a lot of fish like grunts and squirrelfish, triggerfish and toros, chubs and porgies, and even on occassion the small white spotted sharks.  Snapper is what we’re after though and we usually come in with a good snapper catch.  Yellowtails are what we catch the most of and they are by far the best tasting snapper that I’ve ever eaten. 

Mutton snapper are a highly sought after snapper at night too.  We catch a few nice muttons here in Fort Lauderdale.  While the yellowtails are usually between 1-3 pounds, the mutton snappers are usually between 6 and 10 pounds.  Muttons are actually considered a game fish, even though they are a great eating fish.  They both hang out in the same areas and they both love to eat the same baits. 

At night we use a lot of squid and sardines for bait.  We also use ballyhoo and silversides as bait for the snappers.  For yellowtails, muttons and mangrove snappers, we like to anchor in spots around 40-80′ of water and chum the water with ground up fish parts for scent.  It works well for us.  We’ve been getting a lot of fish on the day trips too.  Some good catches of mahi mahi and there have been some big groupers around.  but this post of the fishing report/ fishing blog is about night fishing, so if you are looking for a great trip for action, try out a night fishing trip.

We’ve had a very cool week of fishing here in Fort Lauderdale these past few days.  The drift fishing had been very slow during the week after Christmas, but the fishing has gotten much better this past week.  Yesterday and today, we actually had a couple really good trips.  I saw the party boat catch a bunch of yellowtail snappers and some nicer mutton snappers too.  Among the snappers were some very nice kingfish caught as well.  Kingfish have been all but extinct for us these past 3 weeks.  We caught a few here and a few there, but for the most part, not many were caught.  This week though, the kings were biting almost every day. 

On yesterday’s afternoon trip, we had a real good catch.  One of the guys on the boat, Ed McGee from West Islip, NY caught a 20 + pound kingfish.  He was using a rod and reel combo that he brought down to use from his tackle store, Saltwaters Tackle Inc.  He caught the biggest fish of the trip that day and won the pool.  Pretty work on your kingfish Ed, it was a very nice one.  Garcia, one our regulars, got to catch 2 real nice mutton snappers.  He was fishing the bottom obviously.  The other guys on the boat caught stuff too.  I saw a nice pile of yellowtail snappers caught and some bigger bonitos.  Its good to see some nice fish being brought in. 

There were a couple of really nice fish caught this week on the Sportfishing boats as well.  Capt. Adam caught a huge hammerhead shark on one of his Ft. Lauderdale shark fishing charters.  He went out to his favorite shark spot, about 2 miles offshore and chummed the water up with some very bloody baits.  It didn’t take long to get the bite and they ended up catching a huge hammerhead shark out there.  Its good to see hammerheads showing up so early in the season this year.  There are also some other nice gamefish biting off Fort Lauderdale.  Around the shipwrecks especially, there have been big amberjacks, barracuda and even a few big groupers.  On the reef, we’ve been catching some kingfish and mahi mahi.  Yes, the fishing has been productive for us lately. 

The fishing will continue to get better and better for us as we go from winter fishing to the transition of spring.  The mahi mahi will keep biting better as will the big game sharks, wahoo and groupers.  Sailfish will still be biting for the next couple months, but they will eventually start to bite slower as we get out of the prime winter sailfishing season.  I think that the swordfishing will be good the next couple weeks.  We still have a few spots for the Friday night swordfishing trip this Friday night, if anyone wants to come.  Beautiful weather, good fishing and excellent big fish catching…. I love South Florida.

Here’s Dave Mullen and his daughter Bethany with their monster hammerhead shark. 

We had a lot of holiday vacationers here over the Christmas holiday this year.  I have hardly had time to keep up on my posts this week, so this one is a few fish we caught over the Christmas Holiday Season.  For the most part, the saifish were biting really good.  We caught them on more than a few days this holiday season.  The weather was gorgeous and there was just enough wind to get the kites up.  On most days, we went out to the reef or a color change and put the kites up.  The sailfish were biting pretty good.  If you sat there with the kites up for a couple hours, you were gonna get a bite on one.  None of the bait boats that sell bait were going out for live baits, so we went out ourselves in the wee hours of the morning to catch goggle eyes.  Goggle eyes only bite at night and they bite the best right before sunup, so you have to go fishing for them at like 3:30 AM.  Well, it took a lot of coffee, but we caught enough live goggle eyes to catch quite a few sailfish suring these weeks.

Here’s the Shotton Family fighting a big game fish.

Sailfish weren’t the only fish on the menu during those last couple weeks in December.  The bottom fishing around the shipwrecks was going really good too.  We were going from wreck to wreck and dropping live baits to the bottom.  The result:  a couple huge warsaw groupers and some nice snowy groupers and gag groupers too.  We were getting some really nice groupers over the Christmas holidays.  Swimming right there with the big groupers, were some big amberjacks and barracuda.  We caught several very nice golden amberjacks over these couple weeks and big barracudas too.

Here’s Brad, Debbie, Zach, Jared and Nate.

The fishing yesterday and today was also very good.  The drift fishing boat came in with perhaps the best catch.  They caught a bunch of snappers.  Most of the snapper were the 1-2 pound yellowtail but there were 2 nice muttons caught also.  Surpisingly, we actually got a couple kingfish today as well.  The kingfishing has been really slow but today there were a few caught.  We even caught a couple bonitos today.  Looks like the reef fishing is getting better.  I heard quite a few sailfish caught today as well as good action on mahi mahi and a couple wahoos.  I still don’t have a trip for tommorrow yet.  I’ll probably go fun fishing if I don’t get a trip.  It’s no fun sitting at the docks when the fish are biting. 

Here’s the Kimberlins with their big sailfish.

Santa Claus was good to us this year here in Fort Lauderdale.  He not only brought us toys for Christmas, but he left us a whole bunch of fish out there to catch this week.  Really good day of fishing today on all the boats.  First off, the Wednesday All Day Dolphin trip that we run every week had a killer catch.  We started off as we normally do, looking for dolphin fish offshore.  After a couple hours of not catching much, we decided to come in to try some deep water snapper fishing.  The snapper fishing had been good this week and heck, we don’t care what we catch, as long as we catch fish.  So we came in to about 200′ of water and did some deep dropping.  I’m glad we did too, because we loaded up on the snappers today.  We ended up catching over 80 vermillion snappers.  Wowsers!  We were cleaning fish for a long time when we got in from this trip.  Everyone that went got to take home a huge pile of filets for their fish fry’s tonight.  It was a fun trip and I’m glad everyone got to catch a lot of fish.  I’m thinking of renaming the Wednesday All Day Dolphin Trip to the Wednesday All Day Snapper Trip.  Just kiddin, we still always shoot for dolphin.

The sportfishing boats are catching some good ones out there too.  The deep ship wrecks have been productive with some really big golden amberjacks.  We caught this great big ole’ amberjack on a live blue runner on top of a shipwreck we know in about 300′ of water.  We also caught a 25 pound gag grouper on the same spot.  Gag groupers are normally shallow water groupers that bite up to about 250′ of water.  You don’t catch them very often in depths of around 300′ or more, so we were pleasantly suprised to see this one come in.  Along with the amberjack and groupers, there are a few big barracuda around the shipwrecks too like the one in this picture below.  He shoulda’ kept his mouth shut!  Live bait fishing around the Ft. Lauderdale, Pompano and Miami shipwrecks has been really good for us this week.  Capt. Erik caught and released a 7 foot long sailfish today on his afternoon trip, which was by far the biggest fish of the day.  I’ve heard of a few other big sailfish caught today, so they are around.  Reef fishing is rather slow right now, but there is plenty of other fishing styles to do that have been yeilding great catches.  This week we are really busy with all the folks here on vacation.  I still have a few trips open so if your looking to go this week or next, sign up early.  We’re filling up fast.  The fish are biting good, so grab some friends and Let’s Do Some Fishing!

The fishing was pretty decent today.  We went sportfishing on the Big Game, both morning and evening trips.  On the morning trip, we caught a huge sailfish almost 7 feet long.  The fish bit while kite fishing on top of the 3rd reef off Fort Lauderdale.  As soon as we got it on the line, the fish started jumping like mad.  It was a great fight and when we released it, the fish made one last jump kinda like saying goodbye.  What a cool fish.  After that, we decided to go try some wreck fishing.  We started off dropping with the little snapper rigs, but something big kept biting us off.  So we dropped a live bait on the big rod down and wammo!  Instabite giant almaco jack.  Almaco jacks are super strong and use their tall head and dorsal fins to fight you all the way to the top of the water.  Few fish can pull as hard as these can for their size.  On the late evening trip, we got to catch a big amberjack on the same shipwreck we caught the almaco on this morning.  When it got dark out, we put out the shark baits and got a huge lemon shark.  What a beast, this fish actually tried to eat the boat when he got close.  He took a big bite of the splash rail, which is right at out water line.  He let go pretty quick though when all he tasted was a big mouthful of fiberglass.  The shark left a pretty cool battle scar on the boat though(cool teeth marks).  We released the big shark-a-saurus and we watched him swim back down to the bottom.  He better keep his mouth shut next time.

The drift fishing boat did good today as well.  We got into the snappers pretty good.  Quite a few muttons snappers were caught today, along with some decent sized yellowtail snapper.  Most of the mutton snappers were too small to keep, but it was still fun fishing for and catching them.  The yellowtails turned on as soon as we got into less than 120′ of water.  It was like someone turned on a switch that started the yellowtail bite.  These guys got a nice bunch of snappers for their dinner table tonight.  The fishing has been good guys and with everyone visiting from out of town and looking for things to do on their vacation, why not take them fishing on a sportfishing or a drift fishing trip.  Let’s go fishing!