Fort Lauderdale Fishing/ Marlin
Capt. John Logan
January 31, 2011
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
Living and fishing in Fort Lauderdale is a great way to see guests and what become friends year after year. With our coolest weather a drop in the hat compared to what can be up north, what better reason or excuse to come and visit? Dan and his son David have been coming down to fish with us for the last few years and seem to bring some very good luck with them. Today was no exception.
Rather than opt for an all day charter, they decided to take two halves. If one day wasn't so great, it gave them another shot at different conditions and a chance to do a few different things. Today was shark day but first, a little trolling was in order. There have been some nice Dolphin (Mahi-mahi) in our area and our venture just slightly off shore (about 3 miles) netted us instant success!
We found a rip current in about 600' with some weed and plenty of current. As soon as we broke through this edge and Andrew cleared the baits of weed, we were immediately wolf packed by Dolphin. With 5 on at once and only two anglers on board, our usual Chinese fire drill was in order. With only the highline left in the water, we boated all 5 fish and as Andrew began setting out new baits we had a strike.
Now let me explain something here. When a fish strikes and runs off with the line, the clicker on the reel makes this noise. It's sort of an alarm to alert us. By the speed of the strike when the fish hits it, this clicking noise is quite common. Some fish are more powerful than others and swim with greater speed but none strike and run like a Blue Marlin! The sound alone told us what we had long before he jumped and showed himself. Andrew was savvy and pushed the drag up way past the strike mark for more drag instantly. It took mere seconds for the fish to jump and then begin to strip us of all our line.
Working as quickly as we could to clear lines, we were losing precious time as the full reel was now past only 1/3 full and still going. Finally able to back down and regain some line, we began gaining on this fish. But the catch was not to be today. Marlin are notorious for changing direction quickly and any slack in the line usually means a lost fish as was the case with us today. But our day had just begun…
After catching an Amberjack last year with us, David was all set for something bigger and today with almost zero wind a shark would fit that bill. So in comes the trolling stuff and out goes the shark baits. And we wait… and wait… and… what was that? One of the rods moved just a bit. And then… it did it again. And then… it bent down toward the water and there was no doubt we had another nice fish on. Actually, there was some doubt as we thought we had lost this fish after the bite. The line went slack and it took us what seemed like forever to get a head of him and get tight again. This fish had swum right at us at full speed.
With things settled down and David in the chair, we began our 30 minute battle with… ? That's the thing about a bottom bait, you just never know. All I could get was this shot from the bridge of David in the bucket fighting this fish. Hopefully they will send us pictures of the Hammerhead shark next to the boat, I sure never had time to take one.
With David now tired our time was up and our happy campers headed home to fish again tomorrow with us.
Fishing in Fort Lauderdale. Hook a Marlin… catch a Shark. It's worth making the trip for…
Target Species:
Sailfish, Shark, Swordfish, Marlin, Dolphin, Wahoo, Kingfish, Bonito, Barracuda, Cobia, Snapper, Grouper, and more
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