We continue to have opportunities at quality fish on our Deep Sea fishing charters here in Fort Lauderdale. As you can see by the photos of recent anglers that have fished here with us aboard the “Marlin My Darlin” there have been Sailfish, Mahi-Mahi and Blackfin Tunas off the edge of the reefs. There are also some Kingfish on the inside and good sized Albies (Bonito) continue to be inside along the reef lines as well.
Our main approach to the fishing continues to be trolling natural and artificial baits both on the reefs and also offshore out in the deeper water. Covering water has been a good choice as opposed to sitting with live baits as the fish do continue to be “well distributed”, a term coined by my good friend Alan S, meaning that they could be anywhere. So if you wish to target a Sailfish live baiting is of course a good choice, just be prepared to sit and wait, as many fish are “well distributed” right now and trolling will draw the most bites and therefor the most action by moving with baits presented in various depths in the water as progressing to and from various spots.
We are now into the time frame where some of the Mahi-Mahi will slow down their movement somewhat and show an inclination to hang out around floating objects such as discarded lumber, parts of trees and other objects floating offshore. This is also the time when those Mahi begin to be seen further offshore, sometimes near those floating objects, and as always a string of weeds or current edge if it is holding bait is a great place to look. Wahoo, while typically on the smaller side of the ones that lurk just off the reefs and around near shore structure will very often be beneath those floaters in the deep water.
Blackfin tunas while fewer in numbers have been in water from 200 to 450 feet in depth. 450 is deeper than usual but they have been in that general area and some are of decent size. The Kingfish have been inside of 100 feet of water for us while is only a mile off the beach. Bonito have been in there too but some have popped up in over 300 feet, deep for them, but that is still within two miles of the beach. A few Wahoo in water from 120 to 350 feet which is fairly typical. Fishing the Golden Tile Fish dead on the bottom on cut baits in over 700 feet has been erratic and they have been of average size, bigger is certainly better, but average does beat small.
Tight lines and good fishing. JJ, Matt, TKS and JJ