The wind continues to blow here quite regularly and we have had to postpone a trip or two due to heavy seas. But as we have said before wind is a good thing as long as it doesn’t get too strong. When we have gotten offshore our Ft. Lauderdale fishing charters have given us bites from Mahi-Mahi, Kings and again Sailfish.
We continue to see the Mahi-Mahi pushed up right against the 3rd reef line and even onto the second reef line which is only about ? of a mile offshore of the beach. We again feel this is a result of the windy conditions and the abundance of bait and clear water. Live bait has been productive which shows us once more that although trolling will produce (especially Kings) the Winter patterns for these colorful fish has them somewhat picky and often laying off the trolled baits, regardless of how light we drop our leader size. These Mahi -Mahi dearly love Flying Fish and these bait fish are abundant and in large schools of small to mid sized (bite sized) fish along the reefs and very tempting to the Mahi-Mahi. And the Mahi we have landed when filleted are almost all holding some in their stomachs.
The Kings are continuing to bite often well on the troll. Either we do pretty good on them or on occasion we hardly get much more a sniff. Again almost continue to be school sized but legal fish and coming almost exclusively on the deep fished lines. Little action on the surface for them. Nothing fancy here, just the usual Bonito strip and some sort of leading leaded head for weight, color and flash.
And we spoke of the Sailfish. Recent three fish caught and released on a charter with Jessee and his friends on a trip celebrating his 24th birthday. We dropped this trip back a day because of that wind and the resulting seas on his original reserved day as a result of that wind. All fish were caught on kite baits and inside of 150 feet of water. Clean water with a decent current and a little less of that nemesis of what seems the endless wind came together for this one aboard the Marlin My Darlin.