Robert leadering a sailfish next to the boat aboard the Big Game sportfishing boat.

The sailfishing is getting awesome off the coast of Fort Lauderdale.  This week, the Big Game has caught and released over 40 sailfish.  We’re averaging 3-4 sailfish per trip on our sportfishing trips, they are snapping!  January and February are the peak months for sailfish here in Fort Lauderdale.

Bennie billing a sailfish on a sportfishing trip in Fort Lauderdale

This morning’s catch of 3 sailfish and a huge amberjack was a lot of fun.  We started off with a quick stop off at the bait buoy where we caught about 20 tinker mackerals.  Tinker mackerel make great kite baits, but they aren’t always around to be caught.  Well, this month they have been solid all around our bait fishing spots.  With a well-full of tinkers, we ran a mile to the south and launched our kites.

Kevin abount to tag a saifish on a sportfishing trip in Fort Lauderdale

We were just putting out our third bait when we spotted a dorsal fin out of the water, nearby our right short bait.  We started free-spooling the fish right away to let him eat the bait and swallow it down, when we spotted another sailfish trying to eat our long bait.  Free-spooling the fish for a few more seconds, both anglers put their rods in STRIKE together, Capt Rod put the boat in forward and throttled up.  Both fish came jumping out of the water simultaneously and we were hooked up into a double header sailfish.  It took a little over 25 to catch and release the first one, and 10 more minutes to chase down and land the second.  We still had one kite bait out, which was getting dragged across the surface while we were concentrating on fighting the double header sails.  Unbelievably, the tinker mackerel, half dead from being dragged around and looking aweful as a presented bait, got eaten by another sailfish.  We caught the third sailfish and a monster amberjack on a quick drop on wreck on the way in.  The sailfish bite is just astounding right now in Ft Lauderdale.

Capt Rod with a monster amberjack and a nice sailfish!

There are also some wahoo biting out there.  Trolling out in 180-300′ of water with some deep running lures out is a pretty good bet at a nice wahoo.  Last February some of the biggest wahoo of the year hit the dock.  Wreck fishing is pretty good these days too.  Some warsaw groupers are biting, which you can still keep, as well as black and red groupers which are out of season for a couple more months.  Big amberjacks are starting to show up!  This month is the very beginning of one of our most fun seasons of fishing in Fort Lauderdale, Amberjack Season!  Every year, the amberjacks migrate down through Fort Lauderdale and inhabit our many shipwrecks.  They stack up solid around these wrecks in big numbers. When the amberjacks are around, you don’t have to leave your bait on the bottom long for it to get eaten.  Amberjacks are super aggressive, if they come across your bait, they eat it immediately.  Amberjacks are here from February to late May and they make for one of the most exciting, big fish catching times of the year.  Good luck out there fishing everyone.  Sea ya on the water.

Capt Steve with a monster wahoo caught trolling in Fort Lauderdale

Nice catch of dolphin on the All Day Dolphin Trip

Happy New Year!  With a new year brings a new season of fishing. As of January 1st, groupers are now out of season. Fortunately for us the action on the reef is still plentiful. Kingfish are biting good on the morning and afternoon drift trips. The majority of the kingfish we are catching are 4-7 pounds, with the occasional smoker king mixed in. Blackfin tunas are still biting strong and some skipjacks too, atop the reef and certain wrecks. Whip jigs work very well for tunas in the winter time. There’s actually a nice variety out there. A few cobias are around and hungry, bonitos mixed in with kingfish and even a sailfish or two will be caught drift fishing on the reef. The winter winds bring with them a wide variety of fish to our reefs.

Nice wahoo caught on the Mary B 3 All Day Fishing Trip

The winter nights are chilly but it doesn’t keep the snappers at bay. Mangroves are loaded on the shallow wrecks and patch reefs. Among them are all the different types of groupers too, I wish they were in season. The mangroves we catch during this season tend to be bigger than the muttons. Our normal muttons this time of year are small, only 3-5 pounds whereas the ‘grovers are reaching 4-6 pounds. The yellowtail action comes and goes. They’ll be hot for a couple nights and then non-existent for the next few. A lot of the yellowtails go in really shallow for the cold months, into 12-20 ft of water. We can still entice them to bite though, if you chum them, they will come. Pretty decent fishing this month, you just have to get out there and wet a line. Good luck fishing this month everyone, sea ya on the water!

Nice catch of reef fish caught drift fishing in Fort Lauderdale

Big amberjack caught drift fishing over a wreck.

The fishing is good this week in Fort Lauderdale.  Kingfish are biting good on the morning and afternoon drift fishing trips.  They kingfish are staying pretty deep this year, out in 150-160 foot of water.  We are catching most of them on ballyhoo and sardines.  A few blackfin tuna and bonitos are also mixed in with them.  If you’re really lucky, there are even a few wahoos around and biting.  Mangrove snappers are showing up and biting really good in the afternoons.  Other bottom fish like mutton snapper, red grouper and amberjacks are also biting sporadically while bottom fishing.  There’s a good variety of fish biting on the top and the bottom.

Nice wahoo caught by Ira on the drift fishing trip

A lot of mahi-mahi are also biting on the reef. Every trip this week we’ve caught at least a few mahi-mahis.  The big bull in the picture below weighed 37 pounds.  It was caught earlier in the week on our drift trip aboard the Catch My Drift.  While most of the dolphin we’re catching are 3-6 pounds, a few monster dolphin have tipped the scales at 35 lbs. +.  Winter is the season for big fish.  Good luck to everyone fishing over the Christmas holiday.  Sea ya on the water.

Triple wahoos caught sportfishing in Ft Lauderdale on the Keeping It Reel.

The wahoo fishing is getting good in Ft Lauderdale.  The past couple days they’ve just been everywhere, 100, 200, 300 feet of water.  Trolling, live baiting, drift fishing, anything, they are just biting everything.  They haven’t been monster wahoo, but they sure have been plentiful.  Most of the ‘hoos we’re catching are 12-15 pounds, but a couple bigger ones over 20.  The Keeping it Reel caught a triple header wahoo trolling in 200 foot of water today, along with a nice bull dolphin and 2 sailfish!  Winter fishing is always good in Ft Lauderdale.  Sailfish are still biting nicely on the reef.  We still haven’t gotten our SUPER BIG sailfish snap yet, but it’s coming and it’s coming SOON!  Get ready!  Probably the next cold snap and we’ll catch like 10 a day.

Wahoos, Sailfish and Dolphin biting today in Ft Lauderdale

The mahi-mahi are still biting good too.  Not quite as good as last weeks big snap, but we’re catching them in on the reefs, which means we’re catching them drift fishing and sport fishing.  It’s always awesome to catch dolphin on the reef drift fishing trip.  Speaking of drifting, we’re catching a mixed bag on the drift boat.  Some kingfish, some mahi-mahi, some small blackfin and skipjack tunas are biting, a few mutton snappers and yellowtails on the bottom, and even a sailfish on the drift sometimes.  Pretty good catches on the morning and afternoon trips.  The all day trip is getting a good pick on dolphin this week.  With 8 hours, they can really hunt them down.  Wahoo and tuna are also biting good on the all day trip.  Great fishing in Ft Lauderdale this week.  Get out there while the fishing is hot.  Tight lines.

Fishing trip on the Mary B III today

Nice wahoo caught fishing on the Mary B III today

Sailfish on splashdown in Fort Lauderdale

Sailfishing in Fort Lauderdale is heating up this week with the 20+ mph east winds we’re getting this week.  The Out of the Blue is crushing the sailfish on their sportfishing charters, kite fishing in 100-150′ of water.  Yesterday’s morning charter landed 2 sailfish and the afternoon trip caught 4 and missed 2 others!  Afternoons are catching more sailfish on average than the morning trips are.  Rough seas  make it a little tougher to fish, but it is on the roughest days when the fishing is the best.  Dolphin are also scattered all over the reef and are giving us a lot action.  The 15+ days we’ve had of continuous east winds are pushing them in on the reef and we are loving it!  Just about every trip we’ve fished this week has caught dolphin.  The Mary B III all day dolphin trip is catching the most numbers of them.  With 8 hours to fish, they can fish spend a serious amount of time fishing for dolphin.

Capt Rod and Al with a big sailfish caught sportfishing in Fort Lauderdale

Tuna are also scattered on the reefs.  We’re getting into a variety of them.  Bonitos, blackfin tuna, skipjacks and even a couple small yellowfin were caught this week.  They are biting good on the troll.  Natural feathers and swimming ballyhoo baits are working well for catching the tunas.  Most of these tunas are 5-10 pound, but we do catch a 20-30 pounder every now and then.  A few cobia are also hitting out there.  We are catching them around the wrecks and sometimes around a turtle or big ray that swims by.  Always keep a pitch bait ready to throw.  You never know when a cobia may be about.

Big cobia caught drift fishing aboard the Catch My Drift

Night anchor fishing for snappers is also catching a lot of big mangroves and muttons and lot of small yellowtail snappers.  The best bite is going on in shallow water, 20-30 feet deep is best depth for mangroves.  Many of the ‘grovers’ we are getting are 4-5 pounds, nice size snapper!  Muttons are also nice size this time of year and numerous.  You can’t go wrong fishing a ballyhoo plug on the bottom in Fort Lauderdale.  The mates will rig you up!  Good luck to everyone fishing this week, the fishing is GOOD!

Mr Lee and Sami with a big mutton snapper caught on the night anchor fishing trip

30 dolphin caught on the Mary B III's all day fishing trip

The Mary B III had an awesome all day trip yesterday with a catch of 30 dolphin.  Eight anglers went out on our open party all day fishing trip that we go out on every day.  We started off trolling the reef in about 100′ of water.  We spent the first hour catching a few small kingfish and a decent size blackfin tuna.  The Out of the Blue, our sister ship gave us a call that there was a nice color change and weedline out in 450′ of water, so we trolled out there to check it out.  The color change looked awesome, green water on the inside of the current edge and crystal clear,dark blue water on the outside.  The edge was so well defined, it looked like it was drawn with a pencil.  There was scattered weed and miscellaneous pieces of debris strewn along it, and birds were all through the area.  It looked like a Guy Harvey painting out there.  We started getting bites immediately, dolphin were biting every few minutes, we were hooked up constantly.  We threw back as many as we caught because they were too small.  We also had a monster dolphin on for a few minutes but pulled the hooks on him.    The fishing was great throughout the day.  When we got back, we took our pictures and spent over two hours fileting dolphin.  It wa an awesome day of fishing off Fort Lauderdale.

Capt Rod and Scott with a big dolphin just caught

The dolphin fishing isn’t that spectacular every day out here, but almost every trip this week has caught at least a few dolphin.  In fact, the past two weeks of dolphin fishing has been some of the best dolphin fishing I’ve seen in over five years.  The sailfish bite is also going excellent.  November-January is our peak sailfish season here in Fort Lauderdale.  They bite great when the weather gets rough and the temperatures get chilly.  Kite fishing is all but a guaranteed shot on sailfish these days, and many trips we’ll catch multiple sailfish.

Nice catch of dolphin caught sportfishing in Fort Lauderdale

Nice dolphin caught by this young fisherman aboard the Mary B III

Big sailfish caught by angler Alan with Capt Rod

The heavy east winds we’re getting are making the seas rough and the fish snap!  Dolphin are all over the reefs in 80-150 feet of water.  We are catching scattered dolphin on almost every trip this week.  Mostly schoolies, but a few of these dolphin have been big bulls.  The all day fishing trip and the sportfishing trips are getting good action trolling.  It’s a great way to cover a lot of ground and find some schools of fish.  Trolling, we’re catching dolphin, small blackfin tunas, a few wahoo and some sailfish.  Sailfish are all over the place.  Captain Al caught 6 sailfish on yesterday’s all day sportfishing charter.  The strong east winds are making the fish hungry.  Kite fishing is by far the most effective way to catch sailfish, especially multiple sailfish.  The sailfish action should remain really strong through to the end of January.  I love the Fort Lauderdale sailfish season!

Capt Vic, Partick and gals with a couple dolphin caught drift fishing

The Catch My Drift is doing good drift fishing this same area and catching quite a few dolphin of their own.  Drift fishing has been slow for kingfish, just one or two per trip, so we’re concentrating on bottom fishing.  The snappers are biting on the bottom pretty good, along with a few keeper groupers.  Always be ready for anything out there, several trips this week were ambushed by dolphin schools while they were snapper fishing.  The snappers lately have been big, a couple muttons between 15 and 18 pounds were caught this week.  Big mangrove snappers are biting too, mostly on the night trips.  On the night anchor trips, we’re getting some big mangroves, big muttons and a lot small yellowtail snappers.  They are keeper size, but they’re small.

Mr Lee with a monster mutton snapper caught anchor fishing at night

There’s also a lot of small Atlantic sharpnose sharks around on the night fishing trips.  We catch a few here and there and then we get slammed and every rod hooks into one of them.  There are so many of them, we have to move when they start biting.  A couple nights ago we caught over 50 of them they were so thick.  The fishing is good.  There’s a lot of action on all the trips and we’re catching a lot of fish.  Good luck fishing everybody.  Sea ya on the water.

Bull dolphin caught on a sportfishing trip with Capt Al

38 pound Bull dolphin caught on a sportfishing charter in Fort Lauderdale

We are having an awesome couple of days of fishing here in Fort Lauderdale.  The fishing on our reefs has just gotten incredible.  Sailfish are biting all over the place, big bull dolphin are being caught in 150 foot of water, schools of small dolphins everywhere… there is some serious action going on.  This is the best fishing I have seen in a while.  Today, Capt. Rod took out a morning sportfishing charter aboard the Out of the Blue.  They started off the trip flying the kites in 150 foot of water.  20 minutes went by and then they saw the dolphin swimming in hard on the left long.  A bull that size pushes a wake of water as he is charging toward the bait.  The dolphin gagged down the goggle eye and was immediately hooked.  The angler did an awesome job and we caught the fish in under a half hour.  He weighed 38 pounds.

Lots of dolphins caught today aboard the Out of the Blue

There were a lot of big dolphin caught today.  The Catch My Drift caught a couple big dolphin on their morning trip today too.  The dolphin have been biting all week, but today was the best day so far.  Capt Greg and Kevin were fishing on the Keeping It Reel today on an all day charter.  They caught 15 dolphin trolling and live baiting on the reef, and went 1 for 2 on sailfish.  The fishing is just awesome and the cool weather that just hit today might make this awesome fish snap last for a couple more days.  Get out there fishing while you can!  The all day fishing trip is sailing every day this week and we have plenty of room still on our shared sportfishing charters over the next couple days.  Even the drift fishing trips are doing great.  Good luck to everyone on the trips this week.  Catch a bunch!

Awesome sailfish jumping picture taken from a cell phone camera

55 pound wahoo caught drift fishing

30 pound cow dolphin caught drift fishing on the Catch My Drift

With the strong east winds we’re getting lately, mahi-mahi are coming in on the reefs to feed.  Bull dolphins and schoolie sized dolphin are biting in only 130′ of water.  We are catching them on both the drift fishing trips and on the sportfishing boats.  Most of the dolphins average 5-8 pounds and we’ve caught a couple monsters that have weighed 25-35 pounds.  We caught this 30 pound cow the other day drift fishing aboard the Catch My Drift.  Tunas are also around and biting in the same areas.  If you get lucky, you may run into a school of blackfin tunas out there.

The sailfish are snapping this season. November and December are the peak months for sailfish.

Bottom fishing also deserves an honorable mention from this fishing report.  Mutton snappers, yellowtail snapper and grouper are biting good around our local shipwrecks and patch reefs.  Night fishing for snappers has been particularly productive.  On our night anchor trip, we’ve had some outstanding fishing trips the past couple nights on yellowtails and mangrove snappers.  Last night Capt. Dale reported catching over 90 assorted snappers on the trip.  That’s some killer bottom fishing.  It’s been an exciting couple of weeks and we are looking forward to some awesome fishing during November.

Nice bull dolphin caught offshore fishing in Fort Lauderdale

The fishing offshore of Fort Lauderdale is excellent this week.  There are some big dolphin biting about 6-10 miles offshore and lots of schoolie sized dolphins biting too.  We are finding the bigger dolphin near to and underneath the big frigate birds that are also fishing offshore.  Frigate birds tend to follow bigger game fish around.  The reason they do that is because they cannot get their wings wet (if they do, they cannot fly).  So their M.O. is to follow surface swimming big game fish (sailfish, marlin, bull dolphin and sometimes tuna) around and wait for them to scare a school of baitfish out of the water.  While the baitfish are jumping out of the water trying to escape the big predator fish, frigate birds will swoop down and grab the fish with it’s talons.  Frigate birds are big birds and I’ve seen them catch and carry away some pretty big fish.  Spotting a frigate bird offshore is a great find and we usually will get some big bites fishing near to them.

Dolphin caught offshore Fort Lauderdale

Schoolie dolphin are biting out there too.  We usually find the schoolie dolphin swimming along a weedline or schooled up under a floating board or other piece of debris.  When these dolphin are small (3-8 pounds), they school up because there is safety in numbers.  We’ve had a couple offshore swordfishing trips lately and have done well on dolphin fishing on the way out to swordfish grounds, either finding a bunch of schoolie dolphins or a couple big bull dolphins.  Swordfishing offshore has also been exceptional this month.  We’ve had 8 swordfish trips this month, caught swordfish on 6 of the 8 trips (double swordfish on 2 of our swordfishing trips).  One of the swordfish we landed was approximately 400 pounds.  They are biting on both the daytime and night time trips, but lately I think the daytime bite has been somewhat better.

Big swordfish caught offshore swordfishing in Fort Lauderdale

Last week, the Mary B III on the 8 hour all day trip caught 2 white marlin, one each day on 2 consecutive days.  The first day they had a bite on another billfish that also acted like a white marlin, but we missed the fish and never confirmed the identity of it.  White marlin are very rare fish in Fort Lauderdale and to catch 2 white marlin in 2 days shows you that the territory offshore is hot and lively.  The all day trips and our sportfishing charters are the trips going offshore and fishing big.  There are some big fish biting offshore fishing in Fort Lauderdale these days.