March Fishing Report for Fort Lauderdale Florida

Nice sailfish caught aboard the Big Game sportfishing boat

 

Drift Fishing Report

The Catch My Drift is coming in with some great catches this March.  With all the netting being shut down to the north of us, the kingfish have started biting like mad.  The kingfish are averaging 6-10 pounds, with an occassional smoker over 25 pounds mixed in.  The hot news is the March mahi-mahi are making their way into our waters.  Every March, we have a 2 week period when the mahi-mahi come right in on the reef.  They are big ones too, some up to 20+ pounds.  For 2 weeks, they come through in big numbers and just feed non-stop, it the best dolphin bite of the whole year.  Our reef drift fishing trips are catching mahi-mahi, fishing in only 100′ of water.  They come through in schools of 3-8 fish, and are hitting randomly throughout the day.  I expect the mahi-mahi to bite exceptionally well over the next couple weeks. 

Blackfin tuna are still scattered throughout our reefs.  Blackfin tunas are schooling up and balling up schools of minnows on the top of the water.  We spot them when they are busting the surface, feeding on the balled up baits.  It’s fun to spot a school of tuna busting, set up on a drift just upcurrent of them, and drift over them and catch them one right after the other.  We had a trip where we landed 27 tunas a few days ago.  A few guys have been bringing out these deepwater butterfly jigs, which have been very effective.  With the mahi-mahi action going on and some blackfin tunas biting, some wahoo are being caught too.  Wahoo typically travel just below a school of mahi-mahi or blackfin tunas.  Whenever a school of mahi-mahi or blackfins are being caught, drop down an extra 30-40′ deeper for a shot at a wahoo bite.  The Catch My Drift has caught several big wahoos this week. 

Night fishing on the Catch My Drift is excellent this season too.  Mangrove snappers are biting particularly well, with some large yellowtails mixed in too.  On the Saturday Night Anchor trip this week we caught over 80 mangrove snappers alone, plus a nice mess of yellowtails and a few mutton snappers too.  We caught a few big cobia this week as well.  The drift fishing is getting really good for us.

Sport Fishing Report

The sportfishing is getting really exciting.  March is the beginning of the best sportfishing season for Ft Lauderdale.  The mahi-mahi, usually found offshore, are biting right on the reefs.  Capt. Paul caught 23 mahi-mahi yesterday on his 6 hour charter, nice job.  Trolling is working very well on the sportfishing trips because we can cover a lot of ground out there.  On the troll, we’re finding mahi-mahi, king mackerel, an occasional wahoo and we’re finding some schools of blackfin tunas also.  We’ve had some nice catches of blacfin tuna this week.  Trolling a little farther offshore has been good too for the mahi-mahi, in fact I should say some BIG mahi-mahi.  March, April and May is the time of year that we catch the big bull dolphins.  We usually catch a few over the next few months over 40 pounds.  This is the season for giants.

Wreck fishing is also starting to light up.  The big amberjacks are moving in and getting really aggressive.  Amberjacks can get up to 60 pounds and they are one of the strongest fish in the ocean.  Its a lot of fun to pull up to a shipwreck, hook on a live bait, quickly drop him to the bottom and be hooked up to a 30-50 pound fish instantly.  Its fun fishing this time of year.  An occasional grouper may bite too, but unfortunately groupers are out of season until May 1.  We caught a couple big cobias lately deep dropping around the shipwrecks too.  This is our best fishing season of the year here in Ft Lauderdale.  Good luck to everyone fishing out there, sea ya on the water.