Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Fishing Report
Capt. Steve Souther
July 23, 2015
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
It has been a few weeks since I've written a fishing report for the area off of Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, Florida. And in this time, we've seen some great fishing and some not so great fishing. But that's fishing! LOL
With generally calm seas and light winds this area has been saturated with seaweed. Sargassum is a branchy type seaweed and is home to all kinds of small creatures like brine shrimp and other small species that provide food to bait fish which… attracts larger fish like Dolphin. While the weed has been so thick it is almost impossible to fish through, it has offered us some of the best Dolphin fishing we've had all year.
Many of the fish have been small and were thrown back but small legal sized schoolies as well as some larger fish in the 20-30 pound range have been taken. It sure is nice to come in with some of these to clean for the table, both our guests and our own tables.
While the reef area in close to shore has been slow a few Kingfish and Bonitos are being caught. But the Bonitos should be here in force and they are not. A valuable bait source for the charter boats, we need these fish to make our strip baits. We look forward to their return soon and you'll enjoy the fight they give, at least for a while.
Our bigger game fish have been hit or miss. We've had some success with Sharks and a few Sailfish have been being caught late in the day, not unusual for this time of year. And while our most recent Swordfish trip did not net us a Swordfish, the boys had a blast filling the box with the Dolphin we found on our way to the grounds. Can't wait to try again!
Bottom fishing has been very good. Large Yellowtail and Mutton Snapper have been in the reef area close to shore while the deeper wrecks are producing some good fishing with Amberjack, Grouper and even a Cobia or two. But a recent group of guys were so worn out from catching the Dolphin the day before they requested some bottom fishing. Deep drops for Blackbellied Rosefish were our target in very deep water that require use of the electric rod and reel. Bringing fish up 900' by hand is excruciating and once we got on them? You can see in the picture they were biting as we were bringing them up 4 and 5 at a time. While the Dolphin will provide many meals from the day before, these Rosies will be a special treat!
We've been busy getting our NEW Buddy Cannady 47' Sport Fish boat ready for service. Just another week or two and we'll be in service. And then maybe I can be more prompt on my fishing reports for the Fort Lauderdale/ Hollywood area.
Captain Steve
Target Species:
Sailfish, Shark, Swordfish, Tuna, Dolphin, Wahoo, Marlin and more...
More Fishing Reports:
