September Fishing on the Fort Lauderdale Party Boat, Catch My Drift

 Good action biting on the Fort Lauderdale reefs this September

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. 

Lots of kingfish and snapper biting on the Ft Lauderdale party boats

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!

Tony, with a couple nice fish he just caught fishing in Fort Lauderdale

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. 

Kenny with a nice mutton snapper

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.

Leave a Reply