Fort Lauderdale fishing yields Bronze Whaler Shark
Capt. John Logan
December 25, 2015
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
Our Fort Lauderdale fishing trips continue to pick away at the Sailfish and Mahi-Mahi and that occasional Wahoo we have been mentioning. Still a bit of wind chopping it up and the sails are inside of 200 and the Mahi-Mahi there and shallower, once again IF you can find them.
We had a recent visiting angler who fishes primarily offshore of New York and he has one species in mind wherever he goes, that being Sharks. He takes the charter by himself and is very much with the program, and he'll be back aboard in about a week for another go at them here off South Florida. Mike has caught just about everything it seems and he has settled on Sharks as his favorite. Well we like fishing for them too and the bigger the better just like most everyone else when they are the main focus. If they aren't our focus on a charter then here is to the littler the better, and we'd rather deal with a pesky determined 3 footer over a bruiser any day.
Captain Kopper, 1st mate Brian and Mike began the charter fishing in water ranging from 300 to 350 feet of depth, which is a popular depth here on many days when targeting Sharks. A 5 foot Brown Shark, a decent Hammerhead, and the special one, a Bronze Whaler. The Bronze Whaler took a fresh Bonito about 50 feet off the bottom as it was being free spooled to that bottom in 350 feet. Very strong fish approaching 300 pounds in weight. Short dorsal fin, lots of tail length and giant pectoral fins and that Bronze coloring. Captain Kopper fishing here for over 40 years was stumped. Brian and Mike drew a blank as well. So they sent two pictures of it to me of the fish at boat side. And with my 45 years of deep sea experience (and at least one facial wrinkle for each one)..... my conclusion: no idea what it was. Certainly not a regular species here in South Florida. Sent the pictures around to some other fishheads here and in Miami and we did some internet work and we are going with a Bronze Whaler. Beautiful husky Shark with plenty of horsepower.
Now we are back to chasing the Sails, Mahi, Kings and Tunas and in about 5 days and 48 hours before Mike's next charter we will begin icing and stockpiling our favorite fresh big baits in hope of another big toothy one.
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