Are we ever going to see the fall temperatures? Well as I type this, our morning is actually a bit cool and by cool I mean in the upper 70s. It could simply be from all the rain we had overnight, but I’m hoping the temps begin to fall so our season can officially launch. That first cold front is usually the kick off of world class fishing in Fort Lauderdale. Although we are yet to feel the season in our area, the fishing is actually very good. Inshore we are wacking the tarpon and offshore there is no shortage of mahi and king mackerel.
Let’s start with the inshore fishing… The mullet run (huge bait migration) has been a bit weird this year. Hurricane Irma sort of kicked it off early and now the mullet are stuck to our north. It takes a cold front or some North wind to get them moving again and when they do, the inshore fishing is going to get even better. We will keep a close eye on them through November.
We have been finding our tarpon just off the beach and in the inlets. There has been some in the intercoastal, but they are smaller fish and we are looking for giants! We had a corporate event charter the other day that went 2 for 2 on some big fish! Check out this video:
While waiting for tarpon strikes there is no shortage of ladyfish, jacks and some sharks. There has also been some big snook in the inlets, but we haven’t been targeting them too much.
On our offshore big game sportfishing trips, we are doing very well on the troll with planers. I recently did a video on how we rig our baits for the planers which is very effective for all species of fish. Most of the time we out fish live baits using this method as the reaction strike is very dependable. The kingfish have been red hot on the planers as well as drifting sardines or ballyhoo. We have been getting our king mackerel limits (2 per person) with ease and the fish have been that perfect size that taste the best.
As we move a little further offshore, we are finding mahi between 5 and 15 pounds. We haven’t seen anything much bigger in the past week, but these are great size on light tackle and make a great meal. Finding the birds has been key and getting the baits right under them.
The trophy of the week has to go to the 7 foot tiger shark we caught! We were fishing a balloon bait when this beautiful shark circled it a couple times and came in for the meal. We got a good hook in him and the fight was on. The fish came to the boat quicker than expected and we had to wait for the opportunity to tag and release the fish.
On the drift boat, we have been catching a ton of kingfish. Drifting sardines or speed jigging has yielded most of the fish. We had a great group yesterday that caught 8 kingfish on a 4 hour trip for only $45/person. I always tell our anglers, the drift fishing boat is the best deal in town because there are no fences in the ocean and you have the opportunity to catch trophy fish just like our sportfishing charters.
We are about to head back out for our half day afternoon trip. The weather looks great for this weekend I have some openings available. We will be looking for mahi and kingfish on the reef as well as running tarpon fishing trips everyday in the morning and evenings.
Tight Lines
Captain David
