Monday, January 14, 2013
Many of our charter fishing guests return to Ft. Lauderdale in January to fish for Sailfish and that was the case with Andy and his son, Andy. They had fished with us the previous summer and had returned today for a shot at one of these acrobatic fish but there?s been a problem of late. Here in south Florida, our weather has been unseasonably warm, a condition we experienced last year. Without cool and cold weather to move the baitfish, the Sails stay where the bait is, north of us and fishing has been somewhat slow. But as all fishermen know, you can?t catch if you don?t try.
We began our day trying for baitfish even though we had a well full of Goggle Eye live baits. Variety is the spice of life but the small Bonito are becoming hard to find. We did manage a few and in very strong current we began trolling back to the south to get ready to deploy our kites.
A Hammerhead Shark was cruising the surface and we circled and pitched a bait to him. There are times this doesn?t work but today we got lucky and son Andy was first up. It took Andy about 20 minutes to land a 6.5? Hammerhead, I believe the biggest fish he?d ever caught. Back to the troll looking for Mahi-mahi or Wahoo on our way south.
An edge of color had formed in about 400? and we decided to try this edge with the kites. With the baits out we waited for quite some time. And we got lucky?
I say lucky because we were the only boat that did manage to catch a Sail today. Actually, we caught 2. One fish approached the bait but didn?t eat and faded off. Whether it was the same fish or another I can?t say but a fish did eat another bait just a minute later and we hooked him and gave the rod to son Andy. As we started clearing lines, another Sail had eaten the long right kite bait and now we had 2 fish dancing on the surface.
Dad Andy?s fish was caught and released in fair time, with son Andy waiting and hanging on. Both fish went different directions as shown in the picture with this report. Son Andy?s fish took quite some time to land, over an hour. Down and dirty was the fight but he finally prevailed.
We set back up on that edge but never saw another fish and it was time to head home.
So if you folks up north would PLEASE send us some cool weather, we can get back to charter fishing for Sailfish here in Ft. Lauderdale and catch the numbers we expect. I?m sure you can spare it. LOL
Captain Steve Souther
Ft Lauderdale Fishing Off Shore
www.all-inclusivesportfishing.com
(954) 761-8202
