 Fort Lauderdale has been a hotspot for the sailfish this year. There’s been lots of action on the daily half day sportfishing charters catching sailfish. We’ve had almost a continuous cold front the past 2 weeks which has pushed the sailfish to the surface and Man, they are hungry! For the past 2 weeks, I’ve seen dozens of free jumping sailfish on the edge of the gulfstream. Free jumpers are always a good indicator of how many sailfish are in the area. Our drift fishing boat, the Catch MY Drift, has caught and released quite a few sailfish this week as well. Our sportfishing boats are catching the big numbers on sailfish though.
Mahi-mahi have been biting late into the season this year. We had a good November on Mahi-Mahi, but December has been exceptional. Still some good schools of mahi-mahi coming into the 300’ edge and the bigger dolphin are biting offshore. I’ve thrown some nice box loads of mahi-mahi on the docks this month. Wahoo and tuna have been around here and there as well. Usually mixed in with your catch from sailfishing or offshore trolling, a big wahoo or tuna always makes the day a little sweeter.
Drift boat fishing on the reef has been very productive. Smoker kings are hitting the deck of the Catch My Drift on most of the day trips. Lots of their smaller counterparts, the regular sized king mackerel are also being caught on the day trips. Cobia are beginning to show themselves. On both our day and night fishing trips, some big cobias are biting. The funny thing about cobia is that they fight harder inside the boat, than they do outside the boat. When a cobia hits the deck, I always yell, “Feet UP!” And then the customers get to learn the very special fish dance we do, the cobia shuffle. I don’t care how much of a pain in the butt a cobia can be to throw in the boat, they are delicious.
Night anchor fishing for snappers has been decent the past couple nights. Yellowtails are hitting, but the best bite has been late into the trip, almost when it’s time to come in. Saturday night trip is the ticket because we’re out there for the late night bite. We’ve been starting to catch a lot of small sharks at night too. Recently we’ve caught small tiger sharks, black tips, Cuban night sharks, nurse sharks and even lemon sharks. The reef sharks are out in force, so you better wind that snapper in fast! Sea ya out there on the ocean everybody!
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