Robert leadering a sailfish next to the boat aboard the Big Game sportfishing boat.
The sailfishing is getting awesome off the coast of Fort Lauderdale. This week, the Big Game has caught and released over 40 sailfish. We’re averaging 3-4 sailfish per trip on our sportfishing trips, they are snapping! January and February are the peak months for sailfish here in Fort Lauderdale.
Bennie billing a sailfish on a sportfishing trip in Fort Lauderdale
This morning’s catch of 3 sailfish and a huge amberjack was a lot of fun. We started off with a quick stop off at the bait buoy where we caught about 20 tinker mackerals. Tinker mackerel make great kite baits, but they aren’t always around to be caught. Well, this month they have been solid all around our bait fishing spots. With a well-full of tinkers, we ran a mile to the south and launched our kites.
Kevin abount to tag a saifish on a sportfishing trip in Fort Lauderdale
We were just putting out our third bait when we spotted a dorsal fin out of the water, nearby our right short bait. We started free-spooling the fish right away to let him eat the bait and swallow it down, when we spotted another sailfish trying to eat our long bait. Free-spooling the fish for a few more seconds, both anglers put their rods in STRIKE together, Capt Rod put the boat in forward and throttled up. Both fish came jumping out of the water simultaneously and we were hooked up into a double header sailfish. It took a little over 25 to catch and release the first one, and 10 more minutes to chase down and land the second. We still had one kite bait out, which was getting dragged across the surface while we were concentrating on fighting the double header sails. Unbelievably, the tinker mackerel, half dead from being dragged around and looking aweful as a presented bait, got eaten by another sailfish. We caught the third sailfish and a monster amberjack on a quick drop on wreck on the way in. The sailfish bite is just astounding right now in Ft Lauderdale.
Capt Rod with a monster amberjack and a nice sailfish!
There are also some wahoo biting out there. Trolling out in 180-300′ of water with some deep running lures out is a pretty good bet at a nice wahoo. Last February some of the biggest wahoo of the year hit the dock. Wreck fishing is pretty good these days too. Some warsaw groupers are biting, which you can still keep, as well as black and red groupers which are out of season for a couple more months. Big amberjacks are starting to show up! This month is the very beginning of one of our most fun seasons of fishing in Fort Lauderdale, Amberjack Season! Every year, the amberjacks migrate down through Fort Lauderdale and inhabit our many shipwrecks. They stack up solid around these wrecks in big numbers. When the amberjacks are around, you don’t have to leave your bait on the bottom long for it to get eaten. Amberjacks are super aggressive, if they come across your bait, they eat it immediately. Amberjacks are here from February to late May and they make for one of the most exciting, big fish catching times of the year. Good luck out there fishing everyone. Sea ya on the water.
Capt Steve with a monster wahoo caught trolling in Fort Lauderdale
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