On this Fort Lauderdale Sportfishing Trip, what didn’t we catch?

 Big sailfish just caught by the Lyell Family

A quote from one of my favorite movies, Overboard, “It’s been a helluva day at sea, sirs”.  Krsten Lyell and family went fishing with us over their spring break.  From the photos they sent me, wow, they had an awesome trip.  Looks like they caught just about everything out there.  They did a lot of kite fishing on their sportfishing charter.  They caught this big kingfish on a live goggle eye, dangled off one of our fishing kites.  A very nice start off for their fishing trip. 

Nice kingfish just caught off the kite

A little later they hooked into the big daddy fish, this huge atlantic sailfish.  There are few fish in the ocean that have the beauty in their colours as sailfish do.  This fish put up a great fight and this angler had a great experience catching this fish.  Sailfish are more of a winter fish, but for some reason, we’ve been still seeing them here and there very late in the season.  I am glad this one hung around Fort Lauderdale for this long and I hope his buddies stay for a while too.

Same sailfish, caught sportfishing in Fort Lauderdale

Well, the success of the day was sealed.  We already got the most sought after fish in the ocean, so what to do now?   Put the baits back out.  The only thing better than one sailfish,  is 2 sailfish!  Well, we never got another bite from another sailfish, but we got something none of us expected…  this huge cobia.  This one was about a 20 pounder and the fish definetly did more fighting with us inside the boat, than when he was on the line.  Cobia are not all very common, although we do catch them this time of year.  They like to follow the big sharks, turles, rays and other larger slow moving fish in search of food.  If you ever see a big 300 pound loggerhead turtle on the top of the water, look out behind it.  If you see a couple brown spots swimming next to it, they are probably a couple big cobias. 

Nice cobia caught on a Ft. Lauderdale sportfishing trip

This pretty young gal caught a fish that we call, “the scotch taped cobia”.  This is a remora, more commonly known as a sucker fish or pilot fish.  The top of their head looks like the bottom of your sneaker.  Its a suction pad that they use to suck on the side of a big game fish.  They suck onto the shark or big sailfish and let go to grab a couple little pieces whenever the big fish eats.  They are always a good sign to see out here because they follow big game fish.  Where you see a remora, there is sometimes a big game fish lurking near.  Well, thats my fishing report for today.  Thanks Kristen for sending me all these photos.  Come back and see us again next year and tell any friends you have visiting the area to come fishing with us.  Just remember, we don’t catch this many cool fish every trip.

A remora, also known as a sucker fish

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