Fishing Report for Ft. Lauderdale & Port Everglades
Capt. Cary Hanna
September 14, 2003
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
The weather has been great this month in the early mornings to get out to sea and find some fish. The winds have been consistently 5 knots or less with seas 1-2 feet. As we approach 10 am the shirts come off and the sun starts to heat things up a bit. On the inside of 200 feet the Barracudas have been nailing alot of the baits. In hopes of finding a Blue Marlin on Saturday we put out a 3 pound Blue runner and came up with a Barracuda the size of a house with a set of teeth to match. These guys can fight and will test your skills as they run under the boat and try to cut your line off in the props. When I have a fish on thats running in some crazy pattern I will go to the front of the boat to fight him so as not to get the line chaffed from either the bottom of the boat or the props. Then as he tires I will get closer to the back of the boat where we can decide what to do with the fish and handle him from there.
There were 2 reports of Blue Marlin caught on Saturday. Each of the fish were on for at least 4 hours. I didn't stick around long enough to find out what happened. Sailfishing is picking up on the reef and will only get better as we merge into the winter season. We had an aggressive Sailfish come into our spread yeserday and antagonize one of the Goggle eye baits. The Sail went left to right slashing away and finaly stole our bait. We threw out a live Pilchard hoping he was still around and he was. He took the bait and ran hard. If you haven't experienced a fighting Sailfish you got to try it at least once in your life. It is a major accomplishment and a good sport as we always release these guys back to the waters.
Dolphin have been just about everywhere from on the reef occasionally all the way to the Bahamas side. Early mornings and late afternoons are producing the fish. Find a good weedline or some floating debri and you might find them. We fished a marked spot 6 miles out that produced some Dolphin in the 6-8 pound range and was also loaded with big baits, Blue runners and Skipjack Tunas. Kingfish have been on the reef one day and gone the next. The bite also will improve as we change into the winter season. Swordfishing is lit up. If you like serious fishing now is the best time to make it out. The nights, for the most part, have been calm. This time of year the Swords run much bigger due to the females, the larger fish, coming into the waters to migrate. Be ready at anytime to do battle with an awsome world class fighting fish. That is it for now, till next tide, Captain Cary Hanna
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