Great Wahoo and Dolphin Fishing in Fort Lauderdale
Capt. Paul Roydhouse
June 21, 2018
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
The dolphin and wahoo bite is hot in Fort Lauderdale this week. On the reef, we're catching plenty of tunas, bonitos, kingfish and barracuda. Every now and then, always when you least expect it, the rod triples over and starts smoking off drag because a wahoo just hit the bait. It's an exhilarating experience and it gets you to leap out of the chair to jump on the rod to hook into the giant wahoo that just took the bait. Wahoo are the fastest fish in the ocean and when they hit, they hit the bait like a freight train. When that rod bends over and starts smoking drag off the reel, there's is usually very little uncertainty that you have a wahoo on the line. And when the leader comes up finally after a long fight, if the fish stays straight up and down in the prop-wash, it confirms that you have a wahoo on the line. Wahoo have very specific character traits that help identify that you've hooked into one of them. In the summer months, wahoos are scattered all over the reef. They are a little bit picky of an eater, so you must have very well presented baits to entice one to eat.
Mahi-mahi are the other fish that are biting really good. We catch mahi when we troll as well. With mahi-mahi fishing, it's all about territory coverage. The more territory you cover with your baits out, the better your chances become of finding a school of mahi-mahi or a big loner bull dolphin. Mahi mahi are not picky eaters. They will eat just about anything you put out there. It doesn't have to look good or smell good. You just have to get the bait in front of their nose. With dolphin fishing in Fort Lauderdale, it's almost always hero or zero. You're either going to find a school of dolphin and load the box (or find a single monster bull dolphin). Or the zero happens often too, where you catch nothing at all and don't even get a bite all day long. If you want to go after dolphin, you have to be willing to come up empty for the chance to load the box with a lot of fish. We call it 'feast or famine' or 'hero or zero'. Both expressions describe Fort Lauderdale dolphin fishing perfectly. Fortune favors the bold.
There is a ton of action on the reef this month, so there is no real need to go really far offshore unless you want to fish for dolphin on a hero or zero run. Action on the reef is red hot for blackfin tunas, bonitos, kingfish and barracudas. An oddball fish such as a sailfish, big grouper or even an amberjacks. You caatch just about anything when trolling the reef in Fort Lauderdale this month. Good luck to everyone out there fishing this week. I'll sea ya on the water.
Capt. Paul Roydhouse
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754-214-7863
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