Ft Lauderdale Charter Fishing Sharks
Capt. John Logan
April 10, 2012
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
Today when Mike and his family joined us for charter fishing in Ft. Lauderdale today, Shark was what was heard, especially from Lucas, their middle son. It kind of went with the theme of his shark shorts and apparently a shark shirt he wore beneath his jacket. But it's not always what is caught that is the surprise attraction as this trip showed this family a bit into the trip.
Shark fishing hasn't been great lately so we opted to try for just catching a few fish first. Some trolling gave us a nice Tuna, a smaller Tuna and some Kingfish to round things out. Dom was the biggest of the 3 sons; Lucas claimed one fish his mom caught as his and little Mike Jr. sat on dad's lap as he went through the motions. But enough is enough… "Where's my shark captain Steve"?
So we deployed the shark baits and as we were explaining things on how it works, Mary Beth asked "Is that a shark fin"?
Off to the side of the boat, sure enough, there was a tail slowly going through the water. Whatever was in front of that tail was big, really big. It's shape could be made out but with the overcast day and no sun, it was hard to tell what it was. We began moving toward it but it changed direction and crossed our path.
Another attempt to intersect with it and we got our first glimpse of a Whale Shark. Not exactly the shark Lucas had in mind but none the less, at 13 to 15', this was quite the sight.
Mostly brown in color with white dots on his back, Chris immediately pitched a bait to see if any followers were with this plankton eating creature. Cobia and Mahi-mahi are known to travel with these animals. But he was alone as we snapped pictures from the fly bridge. After 5 minutes or so, the Whale Shark left us and continued on his path.
Pretty exciting stuff, we only see a few of those each year at best.
You just never know what will occur when charter fishing for shark off Ft. Lauderdale.
Did I mention we also caught and released an 8'+ Hammerhead?
My bad…
Target Species:
Sailfish, Shark, Tune, Dolphin, Wahoo, Marlin, Swordfish and more
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