We are happy to bring you an upbeat Fort Lauderdale fishing report. A succession of frontal systems passing through our area have led to better catches on many of our offshore fishing charters. These fronts have been mild with only small changes in temperature with only this last one actually dropping the mercury into to lower to mid 50s the past three mornings. There are some big fish offshore.
This seems to be the year of the Thresher Shark as these sharks have been passing through and taking baits fished in water from 250 to 400 feet of depth. Never caught here in big numbers, but certainly more, many more, than myself and our crew has seen in 40+ years of fishing offshore of Ft. Lauderdale. Big boys from 10 to 14 feet. A lot of that length is tail, and that tail coupled with their overall strength make for very memorable encounters. On occasion they get hooked in the tail as they seem to follow a widely held theory they whack a meal with that tail prior to the actual bite. Over the years, thankfully not this year, we have been down that road three times. The old saying “tiger by the tail”rings very true then. That situation will certainly test your knots, and an angler’s back too.
And the Sailfish are here and biting with this latest front. Strong north current and a north wind has these fish active with some very visible “tailers” making their way south. The deep blue water seems to be where most of them are comfortable so of course we are concentrating our efforts there. There is a swell running in that deep blue water making for a bit more boat rolling, but that is where most of these fish are, so that is where we find ourselves. The majority of our charter anglers have no trouble with the sea conditions but as always a few do so maybe try an over the counter motion sickness offering to cover your bases if you are susceptible from past experiences with planes, trains and automobiles….. boats. Don’t get me wrong, it is not rough, just rolling out there, so cover your bases as we all know fishing charters aren’t cheap.
Some really nice Tunas are hitting the ice. Blackfins in close to shore and we caught several truly pig Skipjacks on an offshore Swordfish charter with perfect conditions but only produced one Swordfish bite that resulted in a pulled hook on that fish.
Sailfish on our last three charters. Come on out and catch them on 20# spinning gear with us aboard the Marlin My Darlin or get out there on your own rig before the conditions change.
Tight lines and good fishing. Rick, Matt, Tommy and JJ
