Pretty cool day out there on the Big Game sportfishing boat. The weather was a bit choppy but plenty fishable. We started out the trip catching s9ome blue runners with the chum bag around the bait buoy. They were biting decent, but it was a slow pick on them. So we decide to try trolling for bullets instead. Bullets are these small bonitos that are about 1 pound each. They are actually a type of tuna, but they make great bait. We call them “bullets” because they are small and fast. Big bonitos we call “bombers”.
So anyway, we start trolling the bullet lines and spot a frigate bird diving and some ballyhoo showering right beneath it. We troll over close to it and get a couple of bullets on the line. As we are fighting them they start going ballistic like something is chasing them. Sure enough, a second later, 2 really nice mahi mahi eat both the bullets we have on the line. The leaders we were using were only 15 pound test and unfortunately we bust off the bigger bull solphin almost immediately. The smaller cow dolphin, a 25 pounder stayed on though and we caught him. That’s a really nice dolphin for this time of year and the bull that got off was even bigger.
After we caught the dolphin, we decided to put out the trolling spread for reef fishing. First bait out there was the highline and it got hit instantly. We only had it out about 50 feet behind the boat and a huge sailfish came up and inhaled it. It was about a 6 and a half foot sailfish and it jumped a lot and put on a great show for us. We got the fish up to the boat, got a measurement and released him. I’m happy to say the fish swam away strong and it looks like he’ll make it. It was a beautiful fish. Unfortunately in the excitement, we didn’t get any photos of the fish, but we held the sailfish release flag up for the photo at the dock. After the sailfish release, we put the baits back out and caught another nice dolphin, not as big as the first one though. It was a great day of sportfishing out of Fort Lauderdale. Don’t let the weather scare you, the fishing is great and the ocean is plenty fishable. Sea ya tommorrow.
Facebook