Fort Lauderdale Charter Fishing Sailfish
Capt. John Logan
March 22, 2012
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
This year so far fishing for Sailfish off Fort Lauderdale has not been normal for the charter boats or any others. Have you noticed the mild winter so far? Even folks from the mid-west to north-east have mentioned that it hasn't been a bad winter and that means little cool air has made it to south Florida and the Fort Lauderdale area. And without that blast of cool air there has been little reason for the Sailfish and others to move south. But we all know Old Man Winter won't let this continue all season and when those cold winds blow the fish that are north of our location will be on their way.
Today we had two young heart surgeons from the Detroit area. Will and Ben down for a continuing education seminar decided to take one day and spend it aboard the Marlin My Darlin. With it being late January, we should be almost done with that Sailfish push but they haven't arrived in numbers yet. And these boys were ready to try for big fish, as most our customers are.
With a high speed lure out we were on our way to try and catch bait when the rod sang out and we had our first fish of the day on. Many fish have the ability to strike a bait being drug at 10 knots (12 mph) but usually it's Wahoo that hit and this was no exception. The fishing took quite a bit of line but Ben managed beautifully and we landed a nice 18 lb. Wahoo. We really hadn't started fishing yet and already had one in the box. Cool…
We finally caught some bullet Bonitos and began live baiting right away. A Kingfish cut one bait in half and was missed. My high line bait was replaced and reset and shortly thereafter, another strike, this time a Sailfish had chosen to eat. Will was up and in the seat as we cleared lines and got to work. 86" once he was landed on light tackle, his picture was taken as seen here and the fish was released back to the sea.
This should be a normal occurrence each day this time of year but it has been the exception lately rather than the rule. We did raise two more Sails this trip, one broke the leader (we do use light stuff to get the bite), the other simply jumped off after being hooked for just a few minutes to Ben's disappointment. They do that sometimes, it keeps things fair.
We're still expecting that big push of fish through our area. And when it comes, it will be like removing a cork and allowing things to flow south. Charter fishing will improve for Sailfish in Fort Lauderdale shortly. February should be great!
Target Species:
Sailfish, Shark, Dolphin, Tuna, Wahoo Kingfish, Bonito, Barracuda, Swordfish Marlin and more...
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