Fishing with and for kids in Fort Lauderdale is always a pleasure. Most children are so easy to please but today we had an exceptional young man aboard with his sister Emily and his dad Lawrence. Eli is not your normal fishing child? Andrew and I learned this early on in the trip. ?
We tried to catch some live bait at the sea buoy outside Port Everglades but with no current, they weren?t to be found. A ship was anchored about 1.5 miles from the port so we began trolling north in hopes of catching Bullett Bonitos there.
Our first hit came quickly, a nice Mahi-mahi jumped on one of the baits and once we settled everyone down, it was Eli who began fighting the fish with his dad?s help. Nothing exceptional about this, right? Well, we landed the fish and with him resting safely in the box, Andrew mentioned there had been some Wahoo around and we were hoping for one of those as we headed north. Hearing this, Eli responded ?The Wahoo, Sailfish and short finned Mako are the 3 fastest fish in the ocean?. Huh? Did this 7 year old just say that???
Fishing wasn?t great today, we trolled quite a time before another few fish were caught. Some Bonitos were around and we caught 2 of 3 that hit. Dad was going back and forth helping Emily and Eli, along with Andrew giving aid to getting these in the box. Very strong fighters and the kids struggled but we were now at that ship and put the bait catching stuff out we needed.
Each small fish boated was fun for the kids, they enjoyed being able to do it themselves. When we?d caught enough, we began live baiting in hopes of something bigger like a Sail or Wahoo, 2 of 3 fish we were supposed to catch. Well, they were wanted anyway. ?
Triggerfish and Ocean Tally have been very predominant lately and while you don?t usually catch them, they have very small mouths; they can chew up a baitfish. One actually got hooked and brought to the boat and Eli exclaimed Triggerfish? Nice.
Now you might expect this from a child that was brought up in the Florida Keys, spending much of his 7 years next to the ocean. But Eli is from Virginia and he KNEW this was a Triggerfish? A small one too.
We missed a couple of fish and caught a nice Blackfin Tuna and soon our time was up and we headed home. Fishing with kids in Fort Lauderdale is always a pleasure and sometimes a bit surprising too.
Merry Christmas to one and all. ?
Capt. Steve Souther
Fort Lauderdale Off Shore Fishing
www.all-inclusivesportfishing.com
(954) 761-8202
