Fort Lauderdale Fishing is Great in June

June 1-16 2010

June’s fishing continues to heat up along with the weather. The dolphin fish or Mahi Mahi continue to show in good if not great numbers making for happy anglers and tummy’s alike. The green and gold demon of the deep has been making its presence known from the reef out to about 20 miles in over 1800 feet of water. Devouring everything in their sight, the mahi mahi make for pretty easy targets once found. Bonitas, while not good on the table are fantastic fighters and with test any anglers light tackle skills. The bohnita is an eager biter as well and multiple hook ups are not uncommom. Mixed in with the bonitas are medium and a few large blackfin tunas along with some skipjack tunas, both of which are good table fare. The kingfish are beginning to show up in great numbers. Many are “snakes” or smaller schooling fish in the 5-12 pound range but there are still plenty of smokers around as well. Bottom fishing is good; we’ve been catching good size and plenty of tilefish in the 400 foot range. Vermillion snappers are also biting good as well and June marks the month that the giant Warsaw groupers show up. There is no mistaking when one of these behemoths bites your bait. Sandbar and bull sharks also make a very strong showing this month so anglers and bathers beware!

Capt. Mike
954.522.4773
www.fishlocalknowledge.com

May brings Mahi Mahi for Happy Anglers in Fort Lauderdale

As promised May’s fishing has been nothing short of spectacular. The fish on everyone’s agenda is the mahi mahi, the dorado, the dolphin fish or whatever you choose to call it, all I know is whatever name you use I think it just means delicious! This green and gold gamester travel in large schools when they are young 3-8 pounds, once they pass that mark and they are about 8-15 pounds they begin to travel in smaller packs and once 15-50 pounds they normally travel in pairs. The pairs normally consists of one big bull (male) fish and a large cow, sometimes another cow may be present. The mahi mahi is a great gamefish for several reasons, besides its table quality the mahi mahi is an eager biter, once you find the fish they are almost always willing to bite, they are beautiful with an array of green and yellows with some blues mixed in, they are great jumpers putting on some great aerial displays for your camera. Techniques for catching mahi mahi are pretty simple. The easiest is just to pull a couple of small top water lures made by soft head or some small feathers and look for birds, floating debris and weed lines. Once hooked keep one in the water to keep the school around while you catch its schoolmates on light spinning tackle with small chunks of ballyhoo or bonita. You can step it up by “Running and Gunning”, instead of fishing a lot of open clean water you can run or chug while looking for something like the before mentioned weed lines, floating debris and birds. Once found then deploy your baits and begin trolling. Yet another method is to find a weed line or rip and cut the engine, put out a chum bag and begin live chumming with small pilchards put a few on hooks and let them come to you. Keep your vhf radio on the local fishing channel and listen for the depth of fish being caught and concentrate your efforts there. Always have a larger live bait like a goggle, mullet or blue runner ready for when that big bull comes in the spread or swims up to the boat to see what’s going on. When fishing floating debris like boards or logs make sure you troll a deep bait on a planer or down rigger for wahoos that are almost always present.

Capt. Mike
www.fishlocalknowledge.com
954.522.4773

Fishing Fort Lauderdale in April is very similar to March, only the fishing gets even better.  We are still shark fishing  and sailfishing out of the kites alot.  Catching blackfin tunas, big kingfish and wahoos along the way.  Some smaller 8-12 kings begin to bite real well on the troll along with the spring run of bonitas, which will have plenty of blackfin tunas mixed in the bunch.  While we are catching plenty of mahi mahi out of the kites we begin to see them farther offshore and we begin to troll more for them as well.  We will find the mahi mahi offshore along ripcurrents, weedlines and any floating debris along the way.  The wahoos will also stack up under the weedlines and floating debris.  The amberjack run is in full swing daring you to drop a bait on their turf, they are normally ready and willing to give you a battle you will not soon forget.  Bottom fishing for snappers and groupers repopened April 1st.  The snappers are quite thick on the “ledge” and we have picked a few nice groupers as well.  Swordfishing offshore requires an all day trip but they are biting well day or night.  Call me Capt. Mike at 954.522.4773 to book your adventure, today!

March kicks off our best three months of fishing here in beautiful Fort Lauderdale.  All the big players are here plus the small ones.  Sailfish continue to hang around until summer and while not in the great numbers that we see them in winter, there are enough to target.  We usually kite fish for them as springtime brings plenty of wind.  While kite fishing for sailfish the incidental catches will include wahoos, the purple demon of the sea and fastest fish that swims it, the mahi mahi, a fish so nice they named it twice, the kingfish, big spawning “smokers” we call em and blackfin tunas.  We are fishing anywhere from 100-350 feet of water which puts us about 1-2 miles offshore in sight of the beach.  The truly big player that haunts Fort Lauderdale fishing Angler is the shark.  The Hammerhead shark is a more frequent player in the lineup than some of the other denziens of the deep.  We fish large baits on heavy wire and heavy tackle as these bruisers will run anywhere from 100-300 pounds with even larger females showing up here and there.  If you have ever had the urge to catch a true sea monster right now is the time to do it on the Local Knowledge 954.522.4773 with me Capt. Mike.  Look for this same line up for the next two months.  We also drop on the artificial reefs for giant amberjacks this time of the year as well.  These gamefish will put you to the test as well.

Feb 2010

Fishing in Fort Lauderdale in Feb can be real good, there are normally some sailfish still hanging around and the springtime fish are starting to make a showing like mahi mahi, amberjacks and kingfish and wahoos. On the 2^nd Brian, Brent and Mark decided to fish Fort Lauderdale with us and we started the day with a bang. After a quick stop at the sea buoy to catch a couple of speedos and blue runners we raced to a deep water wreck I had marked some amberjacks on the other day while trolling. The first bait no sooner touched the bottom when a large jack ate the bait. Brian jumped in the chair and slugged it out for the next 20 minutes before we got the leaders some pictures and a nice release. Brent was next and also had a insta bite. He also slugged it out for about 20 minutes before he subdued it and it was Marks turn. Mark also caught his fish and since everyone was pretty beat up from the jacks we decided to do some trolling and catch a couple of kings before calling it a day. Mark, Kathy and Mary caught a nice kingfish and a huge blacktip spinner shark with us on the 6^th. The 7^th brought us Misty and Rachel from Maine and Dave and Susan from Michigan. Everyone caught some kings and we scored a couple of jacks as well. On the 8^th Ryan and Brad from California had a great day with us as Ryan caught a sailfish and both guys caught a 20# mahi mahi we finished up the day with 3 giant amberjacks. Nice goin guys. Bad weather blew us out for a few days and we resumed on the 15^th with Cory and Rhonda from Canada who each caught amberjacks and a king. The 18^th was tough in the morning with Neno and his five kids we started nat the bouy and caught some blue runners which the kids loved but it slowed from there. We tried the wrecks but the jacks weren’t there we trolled but nothing doing that either we finally caught a barracuda. In the afternoon it picked back up and Mike, Nick and Patrick from Ny caught a jack some kings and a barracuda. The 19^th we had Tom, Sammie from Miami and Richie. We went way offshore to swordfish Fort Lauderdale. The first drop to bottom in 1800 feet we had no bite so we brought the bait back up to reset and when it was thirty feet from the boat a 250# blue marlin swarmed it but didn’t eat. We also pitched a live bait but it swam off but I had a feeling we were in for a great day. On the third drop we hooked a fish but pulled it off a short time later. On the next drop we were connected and in a big way. It took us five hours to catch the sea monster a huge 600# thresher shark, way to go guys. We had the same group the next day and we hammered the kings and some tilefish.

Jan 15-31

Fort Lauderdale fishing was a little off this month we had some real great fishing days and some real poor ones. It just seemed to be real inconsistent. On the 15^th , Mitch, Michelle and Yohan From Quebec joined us for what turned out to be one of those poor days. We just couldn’t buy a bite and we tried everything, we trolled, live baited and wreckfished with no success. We finally caught some small bullet bonita and trolled them by the jetties and managed a couple of real nice barracudas. On the 16^th deep sea fishing Fort Lauderdale with us was Phil, Mark, David, Evan and Jamie and it was another tough one and what stinks the most is what a great group. They didn’t even mind the slow fishing they were just happy to be on the water and out of the cold in Chicago. We did finally catch a couple of kings and a bonita. The 18^th brought Nicole, Travis, John and Betty all the way from Alaska to fish fish Fort Lauderdale. They really wanted some sailfish and the weather was nice and cool with a light north wind and good water color and current but nobody had seen a sailfish for days. We kite fished for a while before making some drops and then catching a couple of barracudas. Finally fishing got a little better on the 19^th with John, John, Kate, Peter and Susan from Chicago and Canada. Kate hooked and caught a giant amberjack with a little help from John and Peter and susan captured a nice bonita. We had several other shots at the big amberjacks but they got us in the wreck a couple of times and we pulled a hook or two. Jay and Bee Ratliff tried for sailfish on their Fort Lauderdale fishing charter and Bee caught a beautiful 78 inch sailfish a couple of bonitas and a barracuda, nice going guys. On the 30^th Ralph and Tony nabbed a nice wahoo, some kingfish and a bonita.

Fishing Fort Lauderdale with us today were friends of my good friend Jackie Reily. Henry, Travis and Rich climbed aboard for a very successful day. We picked up goggle eyes from the bait boat on the way out and punched out the inlet. I ran the boat north to a shallow reef to try and get some live ballyhoos as well. After about 20 minutes with no cooperation from the balyhoos we headed offshore to pop the kites. We got two baits out and already had a fish on. A total insta bite as we call it. While winding in the second bait another fish ate it, but was only on for a second or two. We were still connected to the first one and gave chase and Travis did a great job of getting it to the boat for a release. I made a quick run south to try and get back in front of the fish and as soon as we set back up we had another one on and Rich jumped in the chair. Rich’s fish gave a good show at the boat but finally gave up as we got the leader for another release. We set up again and waited and waited. We were almost out of time when another sailfish jumped on and Henry took to the chair. What a great fight and great way to end the trip. Henry also got his fish in the boat for some pictures and a release. That made three out of four sailfish. Boy it feels good to be back on track.