Smoker kingfish just caught drift fishing aboard the Catch My Drift in Fort Lauderdale

Fishing is going off in Fort Lauderdale this week.  There are big fish biting all over and on all the trips.  This morning’s drift fishing trip on the Catch My Drift caught a bunch of nice kingfish, one of them a smoker kingfish over 40 pounds.  Captain Stu on the all day trip yesterday had a helluva catch.  He caught 5 nice kingfish, 1 big blackfin tuna almost 30 pounds and 5 little football size ones, a 25 pound cobia and 3 nice mahi-mahis, plus they caught the boat limit of 30 vermillion snappers.  There is a little bit of everything biting out there.

Nice Sportfishing Charter catch in Fort Lauderdale with Capt Paul and Rod

The sportfishing boats are catching everything in the ocean.  Today, Capt Rod caught all kinds of fish on his shared sportfishing charter.  The final count was 1 sailfish, 3 fifteen pound snowy groupers, a box full of vermillion snappers, one 40 pound cobia and one 25 pounder, a 50 pound amberjack and ended the trip with a 6ft hammerhead shark.  It was an awesome fishing trip today in Fort Lauderdale.  May is the peak month of the big game fishing season in Fort Lauderdale and there are some monster gamefish biting right now.

Nice pair of cobia caught fishing in Fort Lauderdale

Nice sportfishing charter catch aboard the Big Game

The mahi-mahi are biting awesome this week in Fort Lauderdale.  This hard east wind we’re having the past couple days has gotten the mahi-mahi active and chewing.  The drift boats are catching them, the all day trip is catch A LOT of them, our sportfishing boat is catching some BIG ones… fishing is good this week.  Some scattered blackfin tunas, kingfish and a couple nice wahoo have also hit the dock this week.  Vermillion snapper season has just opened up, but we’ve been ignoring them in favor of the excellent mahi-mahi bite that is going on.  The great thing is that these dolphin fish are biting in only 100-300ft of water, in close only a mile offshore.

Nice catch on the Catch My Drift, fishing trip in Fort Lauderdale

Today’s drift fishing trip aboard the Catch My Drift was great.  We caught 11 mahi-mahi, a couple kingfish and 2 nice mutton snappers.  The mahi-mahi hit us as a school, and we caught all 11 fish at the same time.  We had 12 people on the boat and everybody that had a line in the water got hooked up.  Almost every trip we’ve had this week, both drift fishing trips and our sportfishing charters, has caught mahi-mahi.  Fishing is excellent in Fort Lauderdale right now.  The next couple weeks should give us a lot of action.  Good luck out there fishing everyone.  Sea ya on the water.

Nice catch of dolphin on a Fort Lauderdale drift fishing trip

Nice sailfish caught today on a sportfishing charter in Fort Lauderdale

The sailfish bite was pretty good today, each of our sportfishing charter boats landed nice sailfish.  I was out on a half day fishing charter aboard the Out of the Blue.  We started off trolling the reef to see what was going on.  Not much action to begin with so I went right over to the shipwreck to get some action.  We dropped a live blue runner to the bottom and got a quick hookup.  It ended up being about a 50 pound amberjack.  Nice fish to start the day with.  We tried a few more drops, but no other bites.  So we went back on the troll.  I spotted some flying fish getting showered on the surface just inside of me, so I did a turn to go over by them.  As soon as we got close, the right planer bait gets hit and starts peeling off drag.  A few seconds later, I see that it’s a sailfish when the fish starts tailwalking on the surface.  We caught the fish, got a quick photo and turned him loose.  We trolled for another hour and caught a few small kingfish, cero mackerel and a little shadow jack.  Capt Paul, my dad, also caught a sailfish today on the afternoon trip, as well as some nice almaco jacks and a couple groupers around the wrecks.  Capt Rod, my brother, caught a sailfish today as well, trolling offshore.  He went on a daytime swordfishing trip today.  No swordfish, but he caught a sailfish and some nice mahi-mahi while he was out there.  Pretty decent catches today on our sportfishing boats.

Nice amberjack caught on my sportfishing charter today in Fort Lauderdale

Nice dolphin caught deep sea fishing in Fort Lauderdale

Excellent fishing this week as the dolphin spawn continues.  Dolphin are biting in as close to shore as 60 ft of water, inside the second reef.  We are catching them best by trolling skirted ballyhoo and also by live baiting with the kites.  The all day trip yesterday aboard the Mary B III caught a nice pile of mahi-mahi, a nice wahoo, a few king mackerels and a bunch of small blackfin tunas.  Fort Lauderdale fishing is heating up with some nice fish action.

Nice cow dolphin caught deep sea fishing in Fort Lauderdale

The sportfishing charter boats are catching the biggest dolphin these days.  Kite fishing with goggle eyes and mullet is the most effective method for hooking into the biggest bull dolphins.  This morning’s charter aboard the Big Game sportfishing boat caught a cow just under 30 pounds, a monster cow dolphin.  I would have liked to see the bull dolphin that was paired with this one, alas we never saw the bull.  The cow we caught on a live mullet, kite fishing on the 350′ dropoff in Fort Lauderdale.

Nice catch on a deep sea fishing charter in Fort Lauderdale

Some nice wahoo and a lot of small-medium sized blackfin tunas are biting out there too.  Trolling 200-300ft of water is working well for wahoo.  Kingfish are biting a bit in on the reef, in 100-150ft of water.  A lot of the kingfish we’re catching are just under size, so I haven’t been spending much time fishing for them lately.  They fatten up quickly and within a month, they’ll be 8-10 pounders, plenty big enough to keep.  The deep sea fishing in Fort Lauderdale is getting better by the day!

The All Day deep sea fishing trip in Fort Lauderdale aboard Mary B III

Couple of nice dolphins caught fishing Fort Lauderdale

Fishing Fort Lauderdale

The dolphin fishing is getting great fishing Fort Lauderdale this week.  Schools of dolphin are coming in to 200ft of water to spawn.  Every March, when the winds come out of the east, the dolphin come in to just inside the Gulfstream current to spawn.  This happens over a 2-3 week period of time, when the dolphin bite phenomenally.  This spawn is starting to happen now.  During the rest of this month and the beginning of next, we’ll see some of the best dolphin fishing of the whole year.  I’m sure you’ll be reading about some monster bull dolphin caught in the next couple weeks.  Dolphin aren’t the only fish at the party.  Wahoo and tunas are also abundant on the reefs this month.  We’ve caught some very nice wahoo the past few days, 20-40 pounders.   Wahoo love fast moving lures and look electric for the first couple minutes after coming out of the water.  Blackfin tunas are all over the place on the reefs too.  They are all mostly little ones, between 3-5 pounds, but we do catch a few 20-30 pounders every now and then.

Dolphins and kingfish caught fishing Fort Lauderdale

Wreck fishing is also getting great.  Big amberjacks are moving in on the wrecks and taking over.  The entire spring, the amberjack bite is on.  These jack fish are really big, 40- 60 pounds.  We drop live baits down to the bottom near the shipwrecks where these fish gather.  With amberjacks, any live bait that they see gets gobbled up immediately.  Wreck fishing this time of year is fast paced action on big game fish.  Groupers, cubera snapper, sharks, barracuda and cobia also bite around the shipwrecks this season and get caught fishing the same techniques we use to catch amberjacks.  I love wreck fishing in Fort Lauderdale in March.  Shark season is beginning out there too, so all you big game shark hunters get your trips booked.  Late March-early June is the peak of shark season where we’ll catch a ton of big hammerheads, duskys, bulls, and black tips, as well as a few exotic sharks like threshers, makos and tiger sharks.  We’re getting into some of the most  awesome fishing Fort Lauderdale has all year.  Good luck out there everyone.  I’ll sea ya on the water!

Giant amberjack caught fishing Ft Lauderdale aboard the Big Game

Eric with a big black grouper caught deep sea fishing in Fort Lauderdale

The wreck fishing in Fort Lauderdale is really getting good.  Groupers are biting like mad around all the wrecks.  Some groupers, such as blacks, reds and gags are out of season, but warsaw grouper, snowy grouper and yellow-edge groupers are all still in-season.  The groupers we can still keep are the deep water groupers, which we catch on the bottom around shipwrecks sunk in 350-400 feet of water.

Andy with a couple big almaco jacks caught sportfishing in Fort Lauderdale

These wrecks are also holding some big game fish.  Amberjacks and almaco jacks are stacking up around these wrecks, as they do every Spring.  They are only just arriving, but are already making their presence known.  These big Jack fish are intensly strong and very aggressive.  As soon as a bait comes within sight or sense of these fish, they gobble it down instantly.  To catch them, we use some of our heaviest tackle and as soon as they bite, we power the boat away from the wreck to try to “pull” them far enough away from the wreck that they can’t get back into their hole and wrap you around a rock.  Pound for pound, these fish are the hardest fighting fish in the ocean and one of the most fun fish to catch deep sea fishing in Fort Lauderdale.

Nice wahoo caught sportfishing in Fort Lauderdale

Wahoo are biting in close, on the inside edge of the reef.  They are biting best on the incoming tide, in as shallow as 80 feet of water.  Fast trolling spoons or weighted lures is working good, and so is slow trolling live baits.  A few sailfish are also still biting, as we reach the tail end of sailfish season.  There will be scattered sailfish caught here and there during spring and summer, but the big numbers of sailfish are gone until next October.  But good news, the best deep sea fishing time of the year is here- March, April and May.  The are the all around best 3 months of the year for Fort Lauderdale deep sea fishing, when you can catch just about anything.  Wrecks are holding monster fish, trolling is action packed for wahoo, tuna and mahi-mahi, there are still some sailfish here and there, and the big game shark migration is going on where we’ll catch sharks up to 10 feet long or bigger.  It’s a great time for fishing in Fort Lauderdale.  Good Luck and Sea you on the water!

Big sailfish caught deep sea fishing in Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale fishing yesterday aboard the Big Game.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing

The Fort Lauderdale fishing was awesome today!  Dolphin are biting all over the reef and inside edge of the Gulfstream.  Today, we went out on the Big Game and caught a pile of dolphins, a few bonito and a big amberjack.  It was a great trip.  We caught all the dolphin on 100-200ft of water, fishing Fort Lauderdale a mile offshore.  They were all gaffer size ones, 7-12 pounders.  This is the dolphin spawning season.  Anytime we get a strong east wind, the dolphin can potentially be in on the reef.  A couple of sailfish were also caught fishing Fort Lauderdale today, 2 were caught on our own boat the Out of the Blue.  Nice catch guys!  The fishing in Fort Lauderdale was slow last week, but is improving every day.  The past 2 days with this cooler weather has made for some great fishing.

Great Fort Lauderdale fishing trip around the wrecks!

Wreck fishing is also working well.  We are catching a lot of big amberjacks and some monster grouper fishing the wrecks with live bait.  Yesterday’s trip, with no dolphin biting, we decided to go fish the deep shipwrecks.  We caught a HUGE warsaw grouper and a nice almaco on the morning trip and then a couple more monster amberjacks on the afternoon trip.  Fort Lauderdale’s best fishing season is upon us and the fish are already showing up strong.  Good luck to everyone fishing this week.  There’s some good action out there! Sea ya on the water.

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