Christmas Eve Surprise!
Capt. Vinnie Sacks
December 25, 2016
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
This afternoon we had some great clients from Connecticut. Ben and his dad Mike and their grandpa joined us on the YB Normal. After leaving the dock we had stopped at Fort Lauderdale Marina to get some last-minute refreshments and then we were off. While I was talking to Ben and Mike about the recent fishing experiences turns out they have fished all over the world for many different types of fish, they were very eager to get out there and they had hopes of blackfin tuna for dinner.
Making our way to the whistle bouy which is located 1 mile offshore we started out trolling our basic spread of seven lines total, 5 surface baits and 2 planners down, we were using a variety of artificial Lures and natural baits, we began working the reef with very little action the fishing was very slow and not much going on, working the reef hard trolling from 80 to 150 feet of water. There was good north current but seemed to be not much life in the ocean.
Venturing offshore in search of bird activity or any signs of life we got a couple of bites on the surface baits, which happened to be small bonito fish perfect live bait size we had put these in the live well to possibly use for later in the trip, we caught a total of 5. Continuing offshore we found some floating debris that looked fishy, trolling passed the debris we had gotten a very nice surface bite which resulted in a beautiful sushi grade blackfin tuna, our customers where very excited. We continued working this area that seemed fishy which was a great Idea and resulted in another beautiful tuna, we were trolling very light tackle for these fish because they have great eye site and are excellent fighters, with fast speeds and lots of stamina.
As time was closing in we made the decision to take some of the small bonito and use them live down the dug out channel of the inlet. This is a great place to catch trophy barracuda, grouper, big snapper, sharks, pretty much anything you can think of. The channel has a depth of 45 feet in the middle and comes of to 12 feet in the shallowest of spots. This is a great man made structure that holds lots of fish. We put the live bonito out for bait using treble hooks and wire leaders just in case a toothy fish was hungry, I put one far behind the boat and one close behind the boat, within 10 minutes I could see one of the Baits getting nervous The furthest bait behind the boat begin to freak out, all of the sudden a humongous flash was seen and then what looked like a monster king fish skyrocketed the bait, King fish are not known to be in such shallow water so it was an interesting surprise once the fish hit the bait the reel was screaming, The customers were so excited to see the king fish go airborne on the strike... with a 20 minute battle the fish was landed boat side... A true trophy size fish, everyone was a estatic. This was the fish that everyone was looking for. With great pictures and a heck of a fish story the YB Normal returned to the dock, with a customer for life!
Fort Lauderdale Fishing Forecast:
Winds 10-15 SE
Target Species:
Tuna dolphin king fish wahoo sailfish
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