Ft. Lauderdale Fishing Father and Son

We get a lot of family charters all year round. We had this nice Wahoo on a Ft. Lauderdale Fishing charter with a father ( Jim) and son (Chase) aboard. With all the issues with the mild weather and how it has impacted our catches of many species one fish (Wahoo) has been there for us on our charters pretty much all month. We expect to catch Wahoo in January, especially on the moons, but this January has been exceptionally strong for them. A nice ?Striper? as they are nicknamed here is a welcome addition to the fish box on any day whether fish are biting or not. As many of you know there are never any guarantees when trying for a Hoo, but it has been far better than previous Januaries. When they pile on a bait there is usually little doubt what has visited our bait spread. Raw power and speed. We have done well on them by live baiting small ?Bullett? Bonitos that we catch around structure and anchored ships and keep in our large baitwell. These little guys range up current from whatever is holding them and we pick away at them until we have enough of them in the live well for several bait spreads. Eight to a dozen of the them is enough to load the rods and begin live baiting. We have caught them kite fishing with Goggle Eyes in enough numbers that we presenting more baits fished with a short trace of wire leader than Januaries past to protect from getting bit off. They can cut the naked line or one of us for that matter as bad as any razor. But our most productive method has been by trolling the deeper planer rods at a slightly increased rate of speed just off the edge of the outermost reef. This draws strong bites and is where a polished mate shines above the rest as the final 100 feet of leader (shock cord) is pulled by hand to the transom and the gaff. You get that fish to the planer and the mates slides him the final 100. All our calmer sea conditions that we have seen day after day are actually a plus for trolling the Wahoo as we can present the baits in a steady and smooth manner, which lessens the cut-offs from those teeth.