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Fort Lauderdale, FL - Offshore
Capt. David Ide
February 8, 2002
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
The Sailfish are still here!
The Weather has been calm, but the sails still came.
We have been out most every day for the past 10 days. The winds have been calm and the current has been decent on most days. We prefer a North current, bringing the Gulfstream close to shore. This usually will get the Sailfish, Dolphin and Wahoos within a mile of the beach.
On our AM trip on January 31st the wind was SE at 15 knots and a South Current. We caught a few Kingfish and cudas trolling planers with strips on the reef. We took a troll offshore and found some Dolphin in 550 feet of water, under some birds. Most of the Dolphin were 8 to 10 lbs. We fished near the wrecks most of the afternoon. We caught a real nice 25 lb. African Pompano on the downrigger with a live pilchard, and missed a sail out of the kite in 140 feet of water.
We moved offshore to a wreck in 240' and caught a 60 lb Amberjack and quite a few vermillion snappers.
On Feb 1, the Sails were biting pretty good off the Park. We ran up there and put the kite up in 120' of water. The winds were light and we had the North current, even though the water was not that clean.
Within 10 minutes we were hooked up to a nice Sail. John Meads released the sail after a 10 minute battle. We then moved offshore to the wrecks. We released 2 Amberjacks over 60 lbs each and released one Almaco Jack of 15 lbs.
Some other boats that fished just for Sailfish has 4 to 8 per boat this day.
On February 2nd, the current was slack and the winds were calm. We started trolling offshore when I saw a Sailfish freejump. We got to the area where we saw the fish jump and tossed out a live tinker mackeral. Within 30 seconds the Sail ate the bait and the battle was on. Chuck Anderson caught his first Sail after a great fight. We keep on trolling offshore and found two small schools of Dolphin. The fish were moving fast and would only eat live baits. We managed to catch 6 Dolphin, but they were all nice size fish. The fish were under birds and a little scattered grass. You really need to keep your eyes open to find them.
We went Swordfishing tonight (2/2/02). The weather was perfect. Light winds and the seas were flat calm! We started out fishing in 1400' of water and one hour later, the rod with the 100' bait was screaming off line! The angler picked up the rod and pushed the drag up. The line was still screaming off. We fought the fish for about 15 minutes before we saw it. An 80 lb. Swordfish! The anglers first ever. We put the baits back out and within 10 minutes another rod was screaming! We managed to pull the hook after about 2 minutes. We didn't get another bite and at midnight we decided to call it quits. 1 for 2 and a great night Swordfishing.
Sunday morning was real tough. We caught an 60 lb. Amberjack and a couple of cudas for my Dermatologist. I really owed the guy and tried real hard to catch him anything!
On Feb 5th we had an afternoon trip. The weater was right for Sails. North wind, with a North current. We set up in 120' of water just offshore of the Sea Bouy. Within 15 minutes we saw our first Sail. Most of the fish were samll and our live baits were too big for them. We ended up catching 1 out of 4 bites. We had large silver mullett and a few small pilchards. The fish kept trying to eat the mullet and the Sails couldn't have been more tha 15 lbs at the biggest.
The last couple of days we have been catching plenty of Kingfish on live bait and a few more Sails and an occasional Dolphin.
Today we caught 5 kings on live bait and a 20 lb Gag Grouper. All the fish were in 110' of water off Dania Pier. We then went to a wreck and released 2 Amberjacks, one was 55 lbs and the other was 40 lbs. Then the sharks moved in and ate every fish we hooked. We finally had to move away.
The weather should be really good this weekend for Sails!
Lets go catch-em-up!
Capt. Kunta
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 Ft Lauderdale's closest Drift Fishing & Sport Fishing Fleet to the ocean in South Florida. 5 minutes to fishing grounds. 2 custom built 41' Hatteras Sportfish boats. Shared & Private Charters starting at $125. Sportfishing trips for 6 or more. Articulating fighting chair suspended over the water. Drift Fishing = 22 people max. SPACIOUS cockpit, MORE room for you, MORE fish for you. 3 trips daily ONLY $45 per person.
Marlin, Sailfish, Swordfish, Wahoo, Mahi - Mahi, Cobia, Grouper, Snapper, Tun
Contact Info:
Lady Pamela II
5400 N Ocean Drive
Hollywood, FL 33019
Phone: 954-761-8045
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