Fort Lauderdale, FL - Offshore

Capt. David Ide
November 25, 2002
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report

Sailfish!

The past two cold fronts have brought a good run of Sailfish.

The Fort Lauderdale Billfish Tournament had 70 boats catch 250 Sailfish. The winning boat had 13 Sailfish in 2 ½ days of fishing.

We went out on Friday 11/15/02 during the tournament and ran out front. Not a boat around. We ran South in 60’ of water. We saw a big bunch of Ballyhoo (hoos) getting chased. We ran in front of the bait and threw out a couple of live “hoos” we had in the well. Not 20 seconds later, we hooked up to a Sailfish! After a 10-minute battle we released the fish. I looked forward and more bait was getting chased. We ran in front of the bait and threw out more live hoos. Another Sailfish ate and we were hooked up again! 20 jumps later on the 20 lb spin, and the fish was released. Where were all the tournament boats catching the Sails? We fished 30 minutes out front and caught 2 Sailfish and not a boat around. We heard reports of boats catching 10 to 20 sail in one day off Miami this past week. I ran to there to check it out this weekend and caught one Sailfish and lots of Kingfish and Groupers. Not quite what we expected, but it was nice to be out fishing.

The wrecks have had some real “BAD” Bull Sharks on them. Every time we hook an Amberjack, they eat it before we can catch it!

A few Mahi-mahis, Kingfish an occasional Black fin Tuna and Wahoo have been around. The Swordfish are still biting on the nights we can get out there.

Catch-em-up,

Captain Kunta

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