There’s been a lot of recent activity on the offshore trips we’ve been running in Ft Lauderdale. Mahi-mahi, which had all but dissapeared completely last month are starting to show up in good numbers while on the troll offshore. Along with the mahi-mahi have been some rather nice sized wahoo that take the bait whenever you least expect one to eat. From now, until about the end of October, we should have good offshore fishing in South Florida and hopefully some really good catches of mahi-mahi and wahoo.
The wahoo in this photo was a very cool fish. We actually caught this one while kite fishing on the blue water edge of the Gulf Stream. Capt. Rod was at the helm with this fish, and John was the mate that day. We put out a nice spread of goggle eyes and mullet out of the kite and waited for the bite. It was kind of slow fishing that day, so while we were kite fishing, we did some deep water drops for red snapper. The conditions were perfect for kite fishing and the baits looked perfect out there. When kite fishing, the bait is suspended right on the surface of the water, so you can tell when the baitfish is about to get eaten. Before a big game fish eats, the baitfish usually gets extremely frisky and nervous.
John yelled up to Rod, “Left long looks like its about to get eaten.” Sure enough, a few seconds later there was a huge boil next to the bait. Before anyone could even throw the reel into free spool, the fish had popped the line out of the pressure release clip and was taking drag. The fish sounded straight towards the bottom and screamed off a good portion of line off the reel. The angler got set up in the fighting chair and began the fight. He fought the fish well and had him close to the boat in about 40 minutes. They ha their guesses as to what it might be, but neither of the crew knew at this point that the fish was a wahoo. When the fish came up, John shouted, “WAHOOO!” He stuck the gaff down deep in the water to reach him and heaved the fish over into the boat. This wahoo was over 50 pounds, a very nice size for wahoo in Ft Lauderdale.
We have been catching quite a few wahoos in the last week or 2 of fishing. Most of them have been caught while offshore fishing for mahi-mahi, but a few on the reef too. The fishing on the reef has been pretty good too. Sailfish are still biting with all the cold weather this week, and there are some really nice fish around the shipwrecks right now. If you’re scheduling a trip to Ft Lauderdale, this is a great season to get out there and do some fishing. Sea ya on the water…
Facebook