Fishing Report for Ft. Lauderdale & Port Everglades
Capt. Cary Hanna
May 31, 2004
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
No Better Time
The past week or so has been the best it has ever been in 6 months or more regarding the conditions. Every day now we are greeted with glass calm seas and a beautiful ocean. If you can do the early start, sunup at 6 am, you will find the best action before 9:00. After that it slows down quite a bit as the sun starts staring down on you. On previous trips this week we caught Blackfin Tuna up to 30 pounds, Kingfish up to 25 pounds, lots of heavy hitter Bonito and even some nice Cobia. One boat close to us landed a 60 pound Cobia, nice catch! The catch of the week was the Blackfin. He ate a pilchard bait, paused momentarily, then came close to dumping the line off the reel. We had to get the other lines in quickly so we could give to chase. He finally slowed down after taking a couple 100 yards off the reel and it was a 1 on 1 slow battle. Our angler Lorenzo didn't have an easy job as he could only get one crank at a time and sometimes the fish would take that back. 30 minutes later we saw the fish circling under the boat and finally got him to come up. As we brought him on board we saw some definate teeth marks on his tail. This fish on his initial run was being chased down from a shark and escaped from the jaws of his predator. Truly an amazing feat. Thats why I love the Tuna.
After missing some great fishing opportunities earlier in the week, I knew the weekend Sword fishing trip was inevitable. Seas have been 2 foot or less for the past week or so. On the last couple of Sword trips my boat and I have been spanked in the rough seas and I had enough for awhile.
We headed out the inlet about 7 pm with some leftover squids from the last couple of trips and fished for some live bait to take with us. The currrent on the reef was about 3+ knots north making it hard to find bait. We ended up with 1 runner and 6 Bonito that were perfect bait size. Those Bonito love the strong current. To bad they don't make it in my 50 gallon livewell.
Full throtttles ahead we make it to the grounds in about 30 minutes. After figuring out our course of drift we reset our spot on the shallow side as the current was about 4 knots north sucking us out. Within 15 minutes of setting up the rods, line starts rolling off the deep rod. I got the hook set and had this rod bent over real nice. The fish felt the hook sting and even with all that line out I felt this fish shaking his head. He took off and stripped us a couple 100 yards. When he settled we stuck it to him and it was one crank at a time. He did a few more runs but not much as the heat was on him. 30 minutes later the fish is visible under the hydraglow and it was a beautiful sight not to see the normal 80 pound fish. The stick on this guy was about 4 feet in length. I got a good gaff shot on him and waited a bit before bringing him in as he was taking swings with his bill against my hull side. After figuring out the length and girth formula ( 68X 41X 41 / 800 the fish was estimated at = 142 pounds. We had the early bite just after sunset. For those that stuck it out for the late bite I heard some impressive catches with 1 fish that was caught weighing over 200 pounds.
Till next tide,
Captain Cary Hanna
www.newlattitude.com
954-907-0967
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