As we head into the second week of the new year our Fort Lauiderdale fishing trips are offering opportunities at some really large fish with good sized Mahi-Mahi, Sailfish and Wahoo taking baits within two miles of shore. We are thankful that there are some truly nice fish offshore as the numbers of fish we are catching in general remains below normal, with the exception of the Gray Tile fish out in over 400 feet, who continue to fill some gaps in the action. Some really good ones better than 5 pounds and it’s nice to see these bottom huggers hungry. Not too sporty but fun.
As for those larger fish we have seen some Sailfish in in our Fort Lauderdale fishing area within a mile and a half of the beach. They continue to be scattered in many depths but right in close along the reef line remains best. Our last couple were in 120 feet of water just above our inlet in clean green water. The bluer water deeper has held fewer fish and fewer bites in general. A good full grown
Sailfish and fat Mahi-Mahi for Welf and his lady on a half day charter right up on the edge of the reef.
Some good Wahoo inside of 200 feet of water and a live Bonito remains a good choice of bait fish for these speedsters. These Bonito are often running slightly larger than we would prefer and that does drop the hookup ratio, but they really get the bites. When we target the Wahoo and larger Kingfish with the live Bonito we do fish a treble hook or two as they come in very hot most of the time and a single hook or even two singles can result in a free meal and a limp rod. For Sailfish we go with the single circle hook which is wickedly successful, but those Sails do come to Bonitos on the trebles, and when they do and we strike them quickly to get them around the mouth and lessen the potential of damage to the fish that might be allowed to swallow the bait. A circle hook sets into the corner of the mouth on hookup on almost all occasions. A fast strike puts that treble meant for a King or Wahoo right up front as well. A caught Sailfish at boat side will often bend out a treble with the very smallest bit of additional pressure by the mate handling the leader, which is actually a great ending for the fish as we wish to release him anyway. The other very real side of trebles being we never touch the leader ( we use shorter ones when doing this) as that hook comes out equally easy on a boat side Wahoo or big Smoker sized Kingfish.
There are good trolling days producing some good numbers but it can be tough many days. So we load up during the trip and set a ?rack? of live Bonito out behind the boat with bigger aspirations and some big boys have been hitting. This is fun fishing and with rigger live Bonito fishing our anglers are welcome to hold the rod if they wish, just hang on and think big. A 30 to 50 pound Wahoo or Kingfish strikes with speed to burn and treble hooks more often than not get a piece of him right away and off we go. We love this time of year and these fish. Just don’t touch the leader.
Tight lines and as always good fishing to all from the Marlin My Darlin.
