It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Sailfish love the winter months when the weather cools down. It gets them hungry and frisky. They also love the strong winds of the winter months, which make it conducive to fish the kite fishing technique. Kite fishing can be the most effective way to target sailfish in south Florida. And fishing the kites, you can also catch a slew of other species such as mahi-mahi, tuna, big game sharks, kingfish and more. Any of the surface feeders love eating the kite baits. With the baits strung up and held on the surface of the water, the baits have to struggle to keep their heads underwater to breath. They make all the robust fish-in-distress signals that draw in all the big game fish. While action can be a little slow when doing the kite fishing techniques, the patient fisherman will get some shots on some of the bigger fish that south Florida has to offer.
Swordfish is the other billfish that we catch on our Fort Lauderdale fishing charters. Swordfish are a deep water fish that we target way offshore of the coast. You have to run out about 15 miles offshore to get out to the territory where you can find them. During the daytime hours, swordfish go deep, so we drop down the bottom to get the baits in front of their noses. It’s deep too, we drop down over 1400ft. That deep is difficult to reach, so we have to use really heavy leads and drop fast into the current. Electric reels is the way to go for daytime swordfishing. We’re catching them steady using this method, usually at least a few bites per day. The difficulty is keeping them on the line. It’s tough to get a good hook set on a swordfish.
Sharks are the other big game fish that we catch on our deep sea fishing charters and they are biting with a vengeance this time of the year. The great thing about shark fishing, is that we don’t have to go super far offshore to find them. They are right there where the food is so they are in the same waters we catch everything else… grouper, snapper, cobia, tuna, kingfish, bonito, wahoo and barracuda. They are migratory so every day there is a new influx of fish… and predator fish. We get a great variety of big game sharks. Anything from bull sharks, nurse, sandbar and dusky to tiger, thresher, mako and hammerheads, we catch them all. These sharks all pretty much feed on the same prey, so when we hook into a big game shark, you don’t what kind of man eater you have on the line. It’s exciting and fun and they are some of the biggest fish in the ocean and we catch them right here on our Fort Lauderdale shark fishing charters. Shark fishing trips are some of my favorite trips to run as a captain in the winter months.
This is the season to go big in south Florida. Lots of big fish are biting and the action is good. It’s not a guaranteed bite to get a big game fish, but the odds are definitely in your favor. Good luck to everyone fishing with us this month. I’ll sea you on the water.
Capt. Rod Roydhouse
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Awesome Wahoo Fishing in Fort Lauderdale
We’ve also done good on the reefs trolling for wahoos. Capt Kevin caught 4 out of 5 wahoos trolling the reef yesterday, along with some sushi-sized blackfin tunas and kingfish. The reef wahoos aren’t as big as the offshore wahoo are this time of year. Some bigger mahi-mahi dolphin are being reported offshore as well. On the reef, sailfish continue to be active. January and February are 2 of the best months for sailfishing in Fort Lauderdale of the whole year. We are finally getting some slightly cooler weather down here which is getting the sailfish active. Shark season is just around the corner with some mako sharks, hammerhead sharks and thresher sharks just starting to show up. Get ready for the best big game shark fishing season of the year to begin next month. Good luck fishing out there this week everyone. Tight lines and good fishing!
A lot of great fish are moving through Ft Lauderdale right now. Sailfish, Sharks, Amberjacks, Mahi-Mahi, Tuna, Wahoo, Grouper and More. As we come into the Spring fishing season, fishing really lights up for us in Ft Lauderdale. The best bite this week has been Sailfish. Sailfishing in Fort Lauderdale this week is phenomenal. Every trip has either caught one or more sailfish, or at least had one or more on the line. Sailfish are never a sure thing, but they sure are biting like it. Mahi-mahi schools are also inhabiting the reefs. We’re trolling out to and in from fishing grounds and hitting schools of mahi-mahi. Some of them are very nice size in the 20 pound plus class. March is a great month for the larger mahi-mahi, as is April.
Decent action on the wrecks this week too. Some big cobia schools are showing up on some of the better wrecks that we fish. Also some of the deep water groupers are biting. Jack fish are moving onto these artificial reefs and wrecks too and they will soon dominate the wrecks with their numbers. We’re getting into Ft Lauderdale’s best fishing season and big game fish are starting to snap. Good Luck fishing this month everyone.
A 300 pound mako shark was caught today on a shark fishing charter. We set up in 350ft of water with a bottom, mid-depth and surface shark bait set. We were fishing for about an hour with no action, when suddenly a giant mako shark jumps 10 feet in the air about 50 feet from the back of the boat. The mako had eaten the middle bait, and the instead of diving deep with the bait, he had attacked it and swam straight up to the surface. The balloon, which acts as a bobber to keep the bait set at the specific depth, never moved.
After an hour long fight we got the fish to within 50 ft of the surface. Makos are one of the only sharks that jump high out of the water, one of their exciting attributes. On the bite, this fish jumped at least 10 feet in the air, but he never jumped again the entire fight. We were excited about catching this mako, so we were ready when the fish came up. Adam came down from the flybridge and grabbed the harpoon. He stood up on the covering board, took aim for brief second and threw. Perfect shot right through upper right shoulder. You can see the cord from the dart still sticking out of the fish.