Fishing Report

Warsaw grouper caught deep sea fishing in Fort Lauderdale

There are some big fish swimming off Fort Lauderdale right now.  Sailfish are beginning to bite, smoker kingfish are also around, mahi-mahi are biting offshore and some monster bottom fish are biting too.  Captain Rod and John were fishing aboard the Big Game on the Molds, a shipwreck that we like to fish in 200 foot of water, just north of Port Everglades inlet.  We were catching a bunch of snappers on the bottom and then this monster hit.  He almost got us into the wreck, but we pulled him out.  The grouper weighed 46 pounds.  There are a lot of fish to be caught deep sea fishing on the bottom this time of year.  Grouper, cobia, sharks, barracuda, amberjacks, and swordfish to name a few.

Big Cobia caught deep sea fishing on the Catch My Drift

We’re catching some nice cobia this week on our Fort Lauderdale drift fishing trips.  They are biting on the top and the bottom, and even on the night trip.  The Cobia are ranging in size from 20 pounds up to 60 pounds.  Kingfish, bonitos and a lot of small blackfin tunas are being caught on the daily drift fishing trip aboard Catch My Drift.   It’s been an excellent week of fishing.  Good luck fishing everyone, there are some nice ones biting.

Nice cobia caught drift fishing in Fort Lauderdale

Smoker kingfish caught by Johnny while drift fishing in Ft Lauderdale

The smoker kingfish are here and man, are they big.  Late May is when we get the giant kingfish snap, some of the biggest kingfish that we’ll catch all year.  Johnny caught this monster kingfish that weighed 62 pounds.  He caught this fish on a light tackle spinning outfit, whip-jigging with a 3/4 ounce pilchard jig.  Nice catch!!  We’re seeing some really big kingfish hit the dock this week, some smokers between 30 and 60 pounds.  June will give way to a lot more kingfish, but mostly the more regular sized ones in the 6-10 pound range. Bonitos, our summertime fish in the tuna family that migrates through our reefs in massive numbers every June, July and August, are starting to show up.  We’re catching a handful of them on every trip.  We’ll start catching more and more of them until their peak in August.  They are the strongest fish pound for pound you will ever hook into.

Big cobia and nice kingfish caught deep sea drift fishing

Mahi-mahi have been scarce this May.  June is usually the month when they start schooling up offshore.  We are catching the mahi-mahi one here, one there though.  Some big cobias are also still biting.  On yesterday’s all day fishing trip, we caught some really nice kings and about a 50 pound cobia.  The cobia ate a ballyhoo bottom bait.  Bottom fishing is good for mutton snapper and the occassional grouper or cobia.  Our night fishing anchor trips are pure deep sea bottom fishing trips and are bringing in A LOT of yellowtail snappers, along with mangroves, muttons and some red groupers.  Pretty decent fishing on the bottom fish this month.

Nice kingfish and dolphin caught aboard the Mary B III

The sportfishing boats are catching the monster fish.  Big game sharks are biting like mad, hammerheads are abundant in 300-500′ of water.  Set up some big baits in that area and you are gonna get a bite on a 6-10′ shark.  Hammerhads, makos, threshers and bull sharks are biting.  Some big blackfin tuna and wahoo are biting on the troll.  We’re catching them mixed in with the kingfish on the reef, or sometimes out deep on the current edge, wherever it is that day.  The drift boats aren’t the only boats catching monster kingfish.  We are hooking into some mammoth sized kingfish by slow trolling live baits over the reef.  This kingfish caught aboard the Out of the Blue was guessed to be around 75 pounds.  It ate a live blackfin tuna we were trolling in 120′ of water near to the sea buoy just a mile offshore of Ft Lauderdale. 

Smoker kingfish caught sportfishing aboard Out of the Blue

The fishing is great this month and the really big game fish will be here for a little while longer.  June is the transitory month when the big game fish start fading away, and the droves of bonitos, mackerals, barracudas and snappers will invade our local reefs for the summer.  Tight lines everybody and good luck out there.

Capt Ashley with some big kingfish

Captain Vic and Jim with a smoker kingfish

The Mary B III drift fishing boat has caught some monster kingfish this week.  Today, Johnny caught a 54 pound kingfish on the afternoon drift trip.  All week, we have been catching monster kingfish.  Several days this week we have caught kingfish over 30 pounds, and many regular sized kingfish in the 8-10 pound range are being caught.  May is always a hot month for large migratory pelagic fish on the reef.  Blackfin tunas are also being caught here and there.  Last month, there were schools of the small 3-5 pound blackfins.  This month, the big 35 pound solo blackfins are are around.  Also a few nice big wahoos are hitting the docks, being caught drift fishing and trolling. 

Cody Lawson, Michelle and Greg with a couple big cobias caught on Catch My Drift

There are some big bottom fish being caught this month as well.  Mutton snapper, mangrove snappers and yellowtails are biting in good numbers.  Grouper season opened up on May 1.  We never catch a lot of groupers, but finally the groupers that we do catch we can bring in.  We caught a 26 pound black grouper on grouper season opening day.  A few cobias are also being caught on the drift and anchor fishing trips.  Cobias travel solo or in small schools and like to follow slow moving marine mammals.  Whenever you see a big sea turtle or sting ray in the ocean, always look for a following school of cobias and pitch a bait out to them quick.  Cody Lawson caught this monster cobia which is just about as big as he is.  He was drift fishing on the Catch My Drift using a whole sardine as bait.  He had a little bit of help controlling the rod, but he fought it all the way in by himself. Good job and nice fish!

Smoker kingfish caught aboard the Mary B III drift fishing

The shark fishing in Fort Lauderdale is going off!  In just the past few days, our sportfishing charter boats have caught 3 hammerhead sharks over 9 feet, our second big-eye thresher shark of the season and a 6 foot tiger shark.  Sharks are moving through and are chomping at the boat.  Our shared sportfishing charters are catching big sharks, sailfish, bull dolphin and blackfin tuna by kite fishing on the edge of the gulfstream current, just 2 miles offshore of Fort Lauderdale.  May is the month for big game fishing.  Wreck fishing is also very good for quick action on big game fish.  Amberjacks are stacked up on the local shipwrecks, some groupers too and even a cobia now and then.  The bite on the wrecks is very solid this month.  The fishing in Fort Lauderdale is red hot.  Good luck to everyone fishing this week.  Sea ya on the water.

Night Fishing for big barracudas and kingfish