The fishing has been really steady over the past few weeks off Ft Lauderdale. We have been catching kingfish, bonitas, sailfish and dolphin, mostly early in the day. When trolling has slowed we have flipped over to bottom fishing and caught some nice snappers and still a few groupers and cobias around.
The kingfish, bonitas and sailfish have been coming mostly on the slow troll out in the deep. We have been concentrating on the 150-250ft depth as that is where the kingfish set up to spawn this time of year. This means dropping baits on the downriggers and slow trolling large live baits in order to get them to bite. We have had at least one bite while doing this that was most likely a wahoo by how in ran but he got through the wire. There have been a handfull caught already but should be much better by the next full moon. When there has also been an edge in the above depth range we have also caught some dolphin in the area.
On the reef off Fort Lauderdale we have been catching muttons, yellowtails, mangroves, and groupers. We have been anchoring up on the reefs and wrecks and have been having non stop action. Yellowtails have been coming drifting baits back with the chum while the muttons and mangroves have been straight down on the bottom. The only problems with catching them is after catching a few the bullsharks move in and start to steal your catch. The first couple weeks of this was a pain but now there are a few cobias around following the bullsharks. Usually you will hook the bullshark on one rod and the cobias will bite the next rod.
Offshore the swordfishing remain good though we haven't made any trips recently.
On the other side the yellofin tuna bite has been phenominal. Fish from 30-80lbs have been biting and limits have been almost guarenteed. These are great fighting fish that taste even better. We are leaving today (friday) for a two day charter in the bahamas coming home sat night. We can put together a trip from 1 to how every many days you like in the bahamas, with 2-3 day trips offering the best value. Give me a call and I can put a package together for you.