Winter Fishing
Capt. Ryan McBride
December 4, 2008
Fort Lauderdale - Saltwater Fishing Report
Good swordfishing, sailfishing, kingfishing, and the start and end of grouper fishing. Over the past couple weeks the fishing has been driven by the weather and current conditions. When the wind is blowing N and the current is heading north the sailfishing has been great. Most trip have been having at least 3 shots at sails and up to 10 shots. We have been targeting them with goggle eyes, tinker mackeral, and pilchards on the kite, but when the wind dies best bet seems to be fishing them either on deep drifted lines or downriggers.
Mixed in have been a good amount of decent sized kingfish. Most fish have been in the 10-30lb. range. We are still fishing some wire on a few of our sailfish outfits some days as the kingfish have been slamming the goggle eyes off the kites pretty regularly. Also some dolphin are still available but seem to be slowing down as it gets colder. Offshore the dolphin can still be found but it has been hit or miss finding debris offshore. We have had some great swordfishing offshore when the conditions allow us to fish.
Both daytime and nighttime fishing have been good with multiple hookups possible on any trip. Most of the nighttime fish are from just keepers to the 150lb. range but we have been averagering over 2 fish per trip on the last few outings. In the daytime the bite is not as hot but a good amount of giant fish are still out there which keeps us going.
To the noth the cobias have shown up though conditions really need to be good in order to sight fish them without a tower. On the wrecks a lot of small gag grouper have moved in, meaning the bigger fish can't be far behind. Best bet has been jigs and live baits on the wrecks in 100-200 ft.
In the bahamas the wahoos went off the day after thanksgiving with most boat scoring over 10 fish per day. The next day the weather whipped up and it shut off but the fish are still around if you can make it over there.
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