Fort Lauderdale Fishing/ Multi-Boat Charters
Capt. John Logan
June 1, 2011
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
For the last 5 years or so Fort Lauderdale and it's fishing has been the area used for Southwest Airlines Fishing Bash, a corporate multi-boat charter. The group's size changes from year to year but somewhere between 16 and 20 boats is the norm. And the Marlin My Darlin has always had the same people aboard for this event. I've written blogs about them before.
These folks do truly have some good luck each year with us. The event is mainly for Dolphin to eat at their fish fry Sunday afternoon, but they offer rewards for largest Dolphin, biggest fish and so on. While our groups luck has been excellent, until this year we were never able to win them one of these awards, until this year.
We got away from the dock a tad later than most and with no live bait biting, we began to troll. Our first hit came from a nice Dolphin, 21 lbs., that turned out to be the winning fish in that category. Good going Rob!!!
Things were slow as we moved south along the coast. A hit here and there but the fish had been south and we were hoping for some action soon. Celeste kept asking when… she does that. The hits started coming a bit better and a Bonito was caught, then a Kingfish. My son Mike was working the pit today and suddenly the wire bent over and began losing line quickly. He just kept yelling "Nice fish Dad, nice Fish"!
The Sailfish never jumped or came to the surface to show us what he was. This is a little unusual for Sailfish but does happen from time to time. I honestly don't remember who was on the rod but I think it was Rob. We got the leader and began pulling the fish to the boat, still not knowing what it was. As it came to view, it was very obscure with the water and its depth and I thought we had a huge Kingfish. Then the colors came out and we knew the Sail was ours. With the fish just inches from Mike's hand, a shake of the head and he was gone. No pictures for this released fish.
Back on the troll and a few more beers later I heard the call from the pit. Sailfish! He was up chasing the short rigger bait, then he was on the long right bait. Then on my high line which he bit and came off. We didn't see him anymore for a minute or so but he returned as I was letting my line back out and we came tight with him jumping into the air.
Now we had Ken in the chair and the fish was hot and running. Trying to clear other lines so we could back down and get some line back, Ken lost over half the spool to this fish. A few of his friends mentioned that ALL that line had to be retrieved…
Finally with all lines cleared, we began backing up. Celeste was yelling "You're backing up for him? You never backed up for me…" remembering her fish a few years earlier. It was quite a battle but finally the fish was at the side of the boat, Mike grabbed him by the bill for a few pictures and he was revived and released.
By now it was getting late and trolling north with the current only provided a few more bites. Our day was done and again these folks had shown their lucky streak continued to this year.
Thank you to B. F. Goodrich and Tom, Ken, J. R., Rob, Celeste and Charlotte. It has been our pleasure to have you aboard each year. We look forward to your return and congratulations on finally winning an award. Kind of nice to win once in a while when fishing in Fort Lauderdale in a multi-boat charter affair.
Target Species:
Sailfish, Shark, Dolphin, Wahoo, Marlin, Swordfish, Bonito, Tuna, Kingfish, Snapper, Grouper and more...
More Fishing Reports: