As Irma has now passed our weather is once again pleasant with calm seas and only scattered and occasional showers. Warm and close, bring lots of water. Fort Lauderdale fishing has been good both near shore and also off the edge in the deeper water. Kingfish have been biting on the reefs and in good numbers, but many are smaller. Mahi-Mahi have been regulars on debris and weed patches on the outside and the majority are easily of keeper size with most being gaffers.
A steady flow of debris from locations below us whacked by Irma has been carried by us on the prevailing north current. Lots of debris including trees, root balls, lumber and all types of weeds. All the debris would be of little value if it weren’t holding bait. It is holding a ton of bait. All the usual weedy food chain little guys such as Filefish and small Triggerfish which Mahi-Mahi love. Lots of little bite sized Jacks in big numbers. Even with the abundance of resident baitfish the Mahi have been fairly aggressive. An abundance of bait near shore as well has kept our bait wells full. The annual mullet run has just begun and finger sized ones are the first to arrive here, easily caught and held in our wells, and the Mahi can’t resist them on most days when cast to them on spin. We have had big plugs in the spread but no sightings nor shots at Marlin despite the good numbers of Mahi-Mahi. We have also tried the debris offshore for Wahoo as it often holds them, but there have only been a few, and they are small.
Loads of small Bullet bonito on the reefs now and we will be doing some live baiting with them very soon now with our sights primarily on big Kings and Wahoo but an occasional Sail will bite as well too. The smaller Mahi that will try the Bonito but often find them a bit too large will usually readily take a smaller bait cast to them. Sharks love the small Bonito too and we try to keep them off of them as we usually present those Bonito on lighter wire that is not a good match with a good sized shark’s strength. We’ll be sliding something of more substance back there to him if our anglers wish. It’s a fun time of year to fish and fishing can be erratic, but there are many options and we always look forward to wetting the lines this time of year
Tight lines and good fishing. Rick, Matt, TKS and JJ 
