We’ve had some good fishing this September so far out of Fort Lauderdale.  The drift fishing boats have been doing really good on the reefs, fishing for kingfish.  The kingfish have been jumping in the boat and eating everything we’ve been throwing at them.  It’s good to see the fish biting so good.  Despite what the weatherman is reporting, the weather is actually very good in Fort Lauderdale right now.  There are some rain storms around because of Hurricane Hannah and Hurricane Ike being so close to us, but we’re still out there fishing every day.  The waves are only 1-2 foot seas.  I think this morning’s weather report said there were 12 foot seas out there.  Man, the weather channel really tries to scare everyone for some reason. 

This falling barometer is probably why the kingfish are biting so well.  We always do really good on kingfish whenever the day is a little bit overcast.  The blackfin tunas were biting in full force last week.  A few lucky anglers that came fishing with us, went home with some delicious fresh tuna steaks.  Mmmmm, Mmmmm….  There were some big schools of 25-35 lb. blackfin tuna out there all week.  They’ve kind of died down a bit recently, but there are still some around.  Fortunately, the snapper have taken over!

Snapper fishing this week has been phenomenal.  Lots of yellowtails, averaging around 2-3 lbs each.  The mutton snappers are snapping on the reef also.  We had a couple trips this week during the day, where we caught over 25 mutton snappers(and we were kingfishing!).  If you have a good feel for bottom fishing, throw a line down on the bottom and wait for that mutton bite.  Mutton snapper take a little bit of skill to catch, because they are so smart.  For muttons, you gotta use long leaders or you just won’t get the bite.  Fresh bait helps too, as does light leader(40lb. is good), or if you can afford it, fluorocarbon is the best. 

I’ve been really pleased with how good the fishing is this week here in Fort Lauderdale.  The drift boat has been coming in with really good catches all August and so far September has been just as good.  We still go fishing every day, even though there are these tropical storms about.  It’s like my dad always told me, “Fish still bite in the rain… they’re already wet.”  Sea ya all out there on the deep sea, the fish are biting.

Sorry I’ve been so infrequent with these reports.  I’m trying to get back on the bandwagon of writting these and uploading all the cool fishing photos.  It’s just time consuming, so it’s hard to do every day.  Anyway, the drift fishing in Fort Lauderdale has been outstanding this month.  All month we’ve been getting kingfish, bonito, yellowtail snappers, schoolie mahi-mahi, and even blackfin tuna.  The drift fishing has been very productive for us on the reefs lately. 

Ballyhoo, sardines and calamari are what’s on the menu for the fish these days.  I love that our boat uses dead sardines.  Most head boats do not use these wonderful little baits because they do cost a pretty penny.  They are definetly the most oily and smelly bait there is and the fish absolutely love them.  Kingfish WILL NOT turn down a beautiful dead sardine dangled in front of his mouth.  The kingfish action has on the drift fishing trips has been literally awesome.  We’ve been finding the schools of kingfish on all the daytime drift trips lately.

Night fishing has been slow for kingfish, which is why it’s so much better to go anchor fishing at night.  Much more variety is caught anchor fishing at night than drift fishing at night.  Snappers especially have been biting well, yellowtail, mutton and even mangroves.  The mangrove bite has been unbelievable this summer.  We’ve been anchoring out a little bit deeper than we used to on the night anchor fishing trip and I think we may have just stumbled onto something.  It seems the mangrove snapper, although traditionally a very shallow water snapper, actually move out into the deeper waters at night.  This is good news for us, because we’ve got some awesome spots in that depth and our customers have been bringing in some really large mangrove snappers. 

A few groupers have been hitting the docks these past few days.  I’ve seen some red groupers, black groupers and even some scamp groupers being caught lately on both the daytime and the nighttime trips.  The pool winning fish today was a big red grouper that weighed about 12 pounds.  We caught 2 others on the same trip that were so close in weight, we had to weight them down to the ounce.  That is a really good sign to see those bigger grouper showing up around Fort Lauderdale and Miami. 

Lastly, I’ll tell you all about the blackfin tuna bite.  All week, we’ve been hearing blackfin tunas have been biting down south of us in Miami.  The schools of the fish are travelling north and I think they just started showing up today.  We may have a real good blackfin tuna bite this week and next.  Get ready for some good tuna action on our day drift fishing party boat trips out of Fort Lauderdale.  Sea you out there for some good Deep Sea Fishing.

The fishing in Fort Lauderdale this summer has been very impressive.  As usual, we are getting a lot of kingfish and bonitos while trolling on the reefs.  On a 4 hour sportfishing charter, you can usually expect to limit out on kingfish these days.  They have pretty much been jumping in the boat.  On most of our half day trips, after we get everyone some action trolling the reef, we’ve been mixing it up with some bottom fishing, shark fishing and/or light tackle live baiting.  There are a lot of big game fish aroung this time of year if you spend the time fishing for them. 

Big game sharks are regarded mostly as a springtime fish, but we still catch some monsters in the summer months also.  Big dusky sharks, bull sharks, hammerheads, threshers and even the occassional mako bite this time of year.  With all the kingfish and bonitos on the reef, its no wonder why a lot of bigger sharks are swimming through the South Florida waters.  Kingfish and bonitos are their staple diet, so wherever your getting the most action on the reef is probably a good place to soak a shark bait for a half hour.  You might just catch something bigger than you are. 

Offshore trolling has been kinda slow.  We had a few good weeks of dolphin fishing out there in the beggining of the summer, but it sort of fizzled off.  You can still get lucky and find a big school of dolphin out there, but plan on being patient, because it can take a long time to find the fish out there.  Its a big ocean and your looking for a pod of fish in miles and miles of ocean.  Your definetly much better off trolling the reef for constant action and then switching over to snapper fishing or grouper fishing if you’re looking for some good eating fish. 

Blackfin tuna started showing up in Miami last week and we are just starting to hear of  few caught off Fort Lauderdale now.  Trolling is the best method to catching them this time of year, and fortunately they live right where the kingfish and bonitos do as well.  When we’re trolling the reef, the occassional wahoo jumps on the line as well, but not every day.  Wahoo are an elusive fish. 

In the coming months of September and October, we can expect to start seeing some really good sailfish action.  Sailfish season begins in September and peaks in December.  We’ll be getting sailfish all autumn and winter.  Wahoo and cobia action will pick up as well and there will be some good schools of tuna moving through.  Now is a great time to go sportfishing in Ft. Lauderdale.  Sea you out there… 

Its been a helluva week as sea everyone.  Lots of action on our sportfishing trips this week.  First off the big kingfish are starting to show up on the reef in really good numbers.  We’ve caught a lot of kingfish this week and some really nice ones like the big king in the photo below. 

The big bonitos are tearing it up out there as well.  On most of our trips lately, we’ve had lots of action on the troll with bonitos and nice kingfish.  Some small-medium sized mahi mahi have been venturing in on the reefs as well.  On more than one trip this week, we’ve hit a school of dolphins swimming by.  Hungry little suckers, they will eat just about anything you throw at them. 

The wrecks have been holding a few of these really big golden amberjacks.  We usually make a couple drops on some of the shipwrecks off our coast on most of our sport fishing charters.  The wrecks this time of year hold the aggressive feeding golden amberjacks, which put up a hellatious fight on the heaviest of tackle.  Few fish can pull with the strength of these deep water gamefish.  Both of these amberjacks were caught on the same fishing trip.  Nice catch!

 Here is a letter from Gerry Smither, our charter who sent us these photos.  Thanks for the trip Gerry, and thanks for the photos.  I’m glad you had a great trip out there. 

Attached are some of the photos taken on the boat, Big Game, we went out on last Saturday.  Our Captain was fantastic.  Rod was a great first mate, constantly in motion, to make sure we caught fish…and did we ever!  Thanks for a great trip - we’ll be back!  I’ll send some more photos taken back on the dock.

Gerry Smither

The fishing is going off in Fort Lauderdale this month.  There has been non stop action on all the different trips we offer.  Our sportfishing trips have been going awesome, drift fishing trips have been full of action, the Wednesday all day dolphin trip has been red hot and the Friday night swordfishing trip has been getting some good ones.  All in all, the fishing in Fort Lauderdale is just plain spectacular. 

I always tell people, in the summer, the weather is hot… and so is the fishing.  The reefs are holding tons and tons and tons of kingfish, bonitos, tunas and other species.  Most of our 4 hour drift fishing trips have been coming in with a load of king mackerals, a box load of bonitos and a few snappers.  If you’ve been waiting for a good time to go out there when the fish will be biting, then wait no more.  The fish are here. 

The sportfishing trips have been coming in with some big game fish as well.  Some sharks, sailfish and big golden amberjacks are still being caught out there.  The sportfishing boats are also bringing in almost as many kingfish and bonitos as the drift fishing boats have been catching.  On this sportfishing trip, we caught our usual assortment of bonitos and kings, as well as this huge cobia you see hanging on the rack.  Talk about a good eating fish, cobia are one of my favorites. 

The great fishing action has pretty much just arrived, so plan on seeing catches like these over the next 4-6 weeks.  Its going to be a helluva summer fishing Fort Lauderdale. 

So this week, I took some friends of mine to the Bahamas for a few days of fishing in Bimini, Chub Cay and Grand Bahama Islands.  It was a fun trip, we caught a ton of big mahi mahi dolphin, lots of snappers and ton of other fish.  We left on Friday morning and fished across the gulfstream towards Bimini.  There wasn’t alot of action for us on the first day.  We found a big frigate bird flying out in the middle of nowhere and as soon as we got close, insta-bite big dolphin.  We hooked 2 nice dolphin.  The bigger one we lost behind the boat was probably a 20 pounder, and the smaller one was about 12.  We caught a couple little baby tunas on the way across also, but we let those go.  Not much action on the first day, but then again our trip had just begun. 

The next day we made it to Chub Cay, where the fishing was much better.  We fished the pocket hard for marlin, wahoo, tuna, dolphin… anything that would bite.  Dolphin were biting good and we caught a few really nice ones.  We also caught a ton of big barracudas which we released.  Marlin was what we really wanted to catch, but not a bite on them. 

The next day, after sleeping off our hangovers from the previous night’s festivities, we went out for some deep drop bottom fishing.  I have some good GPS numbers for some spots over there, and let me tell you, the snappers were plentiful.  We limited out in about 2 hours of fishing.  Giant button, blackfin, and yelloweye snappers were biting great.  Every drop down on our multi hook rigs, came up with 5-7 snappers.  When we caught about our limit, we headed for home.  The funny thing is that it took me longer to filet all the fish than it did to catch them.  It was a great day of snapper fishing. 

The following day we trolled all the way to Port Lucaya on Grand Bahama Island.  Again, I had my marlin, dolphin tuna spread out there, but never got a marlin bite.  We did manage to catch some big mahi mahi along the way.  When we came upon a couple big flocks of birds busting on the surface of the water, I put out a couple special tuna baits and got 6 or 7 nice blackfin tunas.  It was a good day with some nice fish brought in. 

On the last day, we trolled for home and guess what we caught?!?!?  A whole bunch more dolphin.  We had caught so many dolphin on the trip, we were begging for anything different.  Hey, most of the time of the year out of Fort Lauderdale, we would happy about catching one of 2 of these bigger dolphin, and we caught a ton of them.  Just goes to show you how ya can get a little spoiled with a few days of fishing in the Bahamas.  Great trip and thanks to everyone that came. 

Summer is here!  Kids are out of school, the sun is shining, the fish are biting, now is a great time for fishing in Fort Lauderdale.  First off, this is the all around best time of year for mahi mahi.  I mean, they are all over the place out there.  Most of them are the schoolies, not more than 5 or 6 pounds, but there are a lot of them.  Hit one school offshore, find a weedline to troll along, or spot just one piece of debris floating and you’re in there, Dolphin!  For this time of year, I do reccomend a longer trip, like a 6 hour or all day, because it can take some time to find them out there.  Fortunately for us, birds are much better fishermen than ourselves, and we can spot them a lot easier.  If you’re looking for some decent dolphin action and a possible freezer filling mission, this is about the best time of year for an all day dolphin charter.

Kingfish action has been very decent as well.  Kings, bonitos, mahi mahi, and even some blackfin tunas have been pretty thick along the deeper reefs and wrecks off south Florida.  Best action has been from trolling planers and outrigger baits(rigged strips and ballyhoos).  Troll anywhere from 80′-175′ of water and you’ll get plenty of action.  Try brighter colored lures and skirts on darker overcast days and darker skirts and lures on bright, shiny days.  Seawitches, plain skirts, small mildcraft lures, and drone spoons are the ticket this time of year. 

The four hour drift fishing trips have been pulling in their fair share of bonitos, kings and snappers too.  Some very nice muttons are going to be biting on the next couple of full moons.  This is the mutton spawn off Fort Lauderdale and our night anchor trip usually wails on them for a few nights.  The bigger muttons are already starting to show up on the reef, so its just a matter of time until the spawning begins… and it will be soon. 

Kings and bonitos have started biting on the day drift fishing trips too.  Today we caught a couple of big fat kings and a few bonitos.  The major bonito/kingfish fest doesn’t get in full swing for a couple weeks, but there are plenty of them on the reef now to keep you busy.  By the end of August, we’re going to be so tired of catching kings and bonitos, we’re going to be wishing for some slower fishing.  Just kidding, NEVER!  Well, good luck to all of you that are fishing with us this week, and we have plenty of openings on both the sportfishing boats and drift fishing trips to get you out fishing whenever you want to go.  Call me, Capt. Andy for reservations.  Sea ya’ll on the ocean…

The bite is on off the coast of Fort Lauderdale this month.  May is about over and the June fish are here.  Lots of schools of small dolphin are going to be showing up offshore and the tuna/wahoo bite is going to be on this summer.  Right now though, there is some great action to be had off the reefs and wrecks of Ft. Lauderdale.  Sailfish started snapping this week again, and what a great year on sailfish we’ve had already.  This is perhaps the best sailfishing this late in the season I have ever seen off the South Florida coast.  We aren’t getting the winter numbers of sailfish out there, but we’re still catching plenty.  On 4 charters this week,we’ve caught double header sailfish by either trolling artificial lures or kite fishing.  They are moving through and very aggressive. 

Sailfish aren’t the only fishing biting out there on our deep sea fishing charters.  Golden amberjacks are heavy on all the wrecks and you’ll be lucky if you can even get your bait to the bottom.  These fish are big(40-60 pounds) and they are very, very aggressive.  There are some larger groupers around the wrecks this time of year and also cobia, but its not often a big amberjack does not grab your bait first.  The amberjacks are showing up on just about all the artificial reefs we have off Fort Lauderdale, but there are some really big ones on the wrecks deeper than 250 feet. 

I almost had a really cool fish story to tell you all about on a daytime swordfishing charter we ran the other day.  Rod and Adam went out and did a few daytime drops for swordfish the other dayy.  The bait was down maybe 15 minutes and got slammed by a huge fish.  After a 45 mintute fight, the fish got close enough, they guessed the weight of the fish at about 200 pounds.    As soon as Rod grabbed the leader, the fish took off on a sick run which resulted in him pulling the hook.  It was a heartbreaker for everyone aboard.  They tried some more drops and a little fishing into the night, but no luck.  It was almost an awesome trip. 

There have been some smoker kingfish around on the reefs also.  The drift fishing boats are coming in with king mackerals, blackfin tuna, and a lot of snappers.  The drift fishing has been improving immensly from what it was like a month ago.  Its been great action on all 3 trips, especially the night trip.  Lots of yellowtails and mangrove snappers being caught on the night anchor trips.  Most of them 1-3 pounds, but a few of the mangroves we’ve been catching lately are upwards of 5-6 pounds.  Now thats a big mangrove snapper.  A few 20+ pound kingfish have been brought in on the day fishing trips.  I’m looking forward to a great summer.   

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 Big Game did it again!  This time, they came in with a giant tiger shark, caught just a couple miles offshore of Fort Lauderdale beach.  The fish was about 8 feet in length and man, what a fighter.  This is the biggest tiger shark I have seen brought to the docks in many many years.  Tiger sharks are caught very seldomly in Fort Lauderdale.  More often they are caught in the Carribean waters of the Bahamas than they are caught off South Florida.  On this trip, Capt. Adam and Joey took out the lucky anglers that caught this big fish. 

Normally we release all big game sharks like this.  This one, when it came up to the boat was bleeding profusely out of his gills and didn’t look like he was going to make it.  Being such a rare shark to catch out there, the guys brought him in.  We’ve been catching tons and tons of big game sharks lately this past month or 2.  Hammerhead sharks are biting better than I’ve ever seen and a lot of other species of sharks are biting lately too.  Just a couple days ago, we caught and released a 400 pound bull shark.  Sorry I don’t have any photos of that fish, it was a huge one.  Anyway, enjoy the photos of this huge tiger hark, we don’t get to catch these very often.