Sharks, Sailfish and Swordfishing Biting off Fort Lauderdale
Capt. Paul Roydhouse
March 1, 2008
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
March is finally here and the fishing off the coast of Fort Lauderdale is how it is every March… Awesome! March, April and May are my favorite 3 months of the year to fish here in Ft. Lauderdale. Just like the spring breakers, this is when all the big fish come down to party after their long winter. This month we've already started catching some monster game fish out there. In March, sharks are king. The big hammerheads are swimming through and they are hungry. Head out to the drop-off, about a mile offshore. Throw out a tasty, bloody bonito or an oily king mackerel head. You've got a pretty decent chance at getting hooked up to a giant hammerhead shark, thresher shark, or any of those prehistoric predators at the top of the food chain.
Sharks only swim where there is plenty of food, so there are a lot of other species around this time of year as well. Big mahi mahi are starting to show up. We won't get the big schools of schoolie sized dolphins until summer, but the big ones are here now. We've run into some huge bull dolphin on several of our fishing trips this month and that's just a prelude for what's to come. Every year during March-May, there is a 2-3 week interval when the big mahi mahi come through in crazy numbers. They come right in on the reef in 100-200' of water. Dolphins are traditionally an offshore fish but this is when they come in close. I think it is to mate or to feast on the reefs plethora of baitfish before they mate. Anyway, with these big bull dolphins starting to show up here and there, it can be anytime now when the big dolphin have their spring break feeding frenzy.
Sailfish are here now as well. Kite fishing is one of the best techniques for catching big game fish, and with the plentitude of bigger fish around right now, we've been spending a lot of our charters kite fishing. Sailfish LOVE the baits dangled out of the kites. It gets them really turned on. If you ever see how aggressive a sailfish attacks a bait suspended from a kite, it leaves little doubt about how excited they get seeing a live bait presented in that way. With the kites we catch sailfish, dolphin, sharks, bonito, kingfish, and the occasional tuna and wahoo. I love kite fishing this time of year because you can catch literally anything.
Night fishing has been particularly productive lately as well. The night anchor fishing has been coming in with steadily good catches of yellowtail snapper. At night we anchor and chum for yellowtails and they almost always bite great. Sometimes mutton snapper, vermilions, lanes, and mangrove snappers bite as well. The night anchor fishing trip has been our best trip for action lately, although small fish. Most of the fish we catch are 1-3 pounds.
Our Night-Time big game fish, the Swordfish, has been biting with vigor too. Our past few night Swordfishing trips have been very successful. One of our recent trips landed a 165 pound swordfish that took over 2 hours to get to the boat. Another recent trip caught a double header swordfish, one being around 70 pounds and the other just over 100 pounds. Not every night has been a banner night. A couple trips in the past few months have been slow, but I'm happy to say that almost every trip has come in with some nice fish. The best trips have been on the upside of the full moon and at least a week after the full moon. The full moon fishing itself has been our slowest trip. Good fishing all around, I hope that March will be a great month of fishing.
Fort Lauderdale Fishing Forecast:
The sailfish, sharks and swordfish will continue to bite for the next couple of months. We should be seeing some of the biggest fish that we'll catch all year in the next couple months of fishing. There will be a big dolphin snap towards the end of March and it should last for about 2 weeks.
Target Species:
Swordfish, Sailfish, Sharks, Dolphin
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