It’s not often deep sea fishing can be done within a mile or two of shore but Fort Lauderdale offers that exact thing. Many come for the beaches, the sun and warmth in winter but lying just off shore is an exciting world of sea life and fishing is one of the main attractions.
A regular guest of ours was on board today. Syd is back from Aruba and and wanted a day of fishing. He showed up with a few friends and we were off. The main request? Dolphin! (Mahi-mahi) We grabbed some live baits from Julie on the way out and began our day trolling. The radio was quiet and we caught a few Blackfin Tuna in our search. A Mahi jumped us and we were delighted with such great luck so early in the trip. With the 4 or 5 Tunas and the Mahi we saw a great day coming! As we continued trolling to the north, things slowed down.
We ventured further from shore hoping to find and object floating or maybe a weed line but nothing was coming for us. Time to get back toward shore and see if the live bait will help.
We visited one of my favorite wrecks trying a little bottom fishing but with little current, things weren’t happening that way either. So we wrapped things up, caught a few small Bullet Bonito and began dragging our live baits around away from the shoreline.
It took about an hour for our first bite but what a bite it was. It looked like an explosion out by one of the long surface baits. A nice Wahoo had made a pass and missed the bait. As soon as the water cleared the deep rod went off and ran hard! No idea what we have there but as got Syd in the chair another explosion on top and this time the Wahoo had the bait. Andrew was with us today, he said he didn’t think the fish had it, he couldn’t feel a thing. I watched from the bridge as this Wahoo streaked by us, bait in mouth, at about 40 mph… Oh, I think he got it Kid… 🙂
Chris was working the first fish as it was getting close. Another Wahoo from the deep line was close to the boat. It took Chris a bit to get control of this fish before he was gaffed and boated. The other fish took longer as it was foul hooked in the throat. It too was finally boated and high fives all around.
That alone could have made the day but wait… there’s more…
We ended up with 6 Tuna, a Skipjack Tuna and another nice Mahi for a total of 2 to go with the 2 Wahoo in the box. We also released to Silky sharks, an African Pompano which makes the first I’ve ever caught on a rigger bait on the surface AND went 1 for 2 on Sailfish right at the end of the day. We’d seen 2 others, one free jumping, the other in our spread but neither came by to eat. All these fish and the action for today was in 300′ of water or less which is maybe 1.5 miles from shore.
Deep sea fishing in Fort Lauderdale just isn’t that far from shore.
Now tell me you don’t want to give it a try…
Captain Steve Souther
Fort Lauderdale Fishing Off Shore
www.all-inclusivesportfishing.com
(954) 761-8202
