Fort Lauderdale fishing report for November and the fish are biting.
We are starting to see more Mahi Mahi moving through Fort Lauderdale from as close as one mile off the beach.
The Easterly winds will move these fish and they will get pushed in closer to shore. The size of Mahi is increasing and hooking and catching a “gaffer” has been more common this fall. Trolling works well for targeting Mahi Mahi. A full spread of surface swimming baits with bridge teasers, deep lines and pitch baits will turn any Bull Mahi on your spread. King Mackerel have also been biting good this fall. The Kings have been traveling the reef in 100 to 150 feet of water. Fishing deep planner lines with a baited sea witch for the best success. Live bait fishing is also an exciting way to target Kings. A King Mackerel at full speed hitting a surface live bait can end up with the fish hooked 5 feet up in the air, a large explosion of water and a hooked fish diving deep or a missed opportunity with the fish getting away. The Wahoo bite has been good and we are catching more this November and heading into December and the size of these fish can range from 20 to 50 pounds!! Black Fin Tunas are also starting to show up and we are starting to see more Tunas fishing offshore Fort Lauderdale, catching them in 100 feet of water out to 700 feet of water. The Sailfish bite is also ramping up and we are catching more Sails as the cold fronts move down the coast. Cooler air temperatures and North Easterly winds the driving force behind the migration. We are using three different methods to target Sailfish. First as the wind blows kite fishing is an excellent way to present live baits. Sending out two kites with live baits will definitely increase the chances of catching a Sailfish. As the bait is at the surface makes for easy prey for a hungry Sailfish. Second method is slow trolling live baits along the reef bumping them from shallow to deeper water. This allows us to “narrow down the best depth” of where the fish are traveling. Third is trolling spread of dead baits. This works well when covering ground and searching for a Sail. All three methods are productive and there is nothing like seeing a Sail jumping out of the water!!
Below is a quick recap of the last trips we fished.
Steve booked a morning fishing charter in Fort Lauderdale with his wife. We started the morning trolling the reef and caught three King Mackerel. The Kings migrating around a sunken ship wreck. Next headed offshore with a trolling spread of baits in hopes to find Mahi Mahi however we ended up catching a Wahoo in 700 feet of water. I found an edge and worked this area. Whenever two bodies of water meet this creates an edge or rip which is a great are to fish which is where we caught a Sailfish. The Sail came up first on the deep planner line, then faded back to the rigger bait, the Sail fed on the bait, stripped off a lot of drag with lots of acrobatic jumps. It was a great fight!!
Anthony and his family booked a 3/4 day charter. First we trolled the reef and caught King Mackerel. The Kings were in 150 feet of water. Then trolled down to a couple of sunken wreck structures. These sunken ship wrecks holds a lot of baitfish and in turn a variety of different species. Using a live bait we sent a treble hook rig down to the wreck. It didn’t take long before we hooked a Barracuda. We headed out to a deeper part of the wreck and using a heavier mono rig hooked an Amberjack. Repeated the process and hooked another 2 AJs. These Amberjacks can weigh 30 to 60 pounds and make for a very fun fight. Trolling a spread of dead baits back up the reef we caught a Sailfish in 150 feet of water. After we removed the hook and a quick picture back in the water for a healthy release.
Brian and his group from Boston booked a 6 hour fishing charter in Fort Lauderdale. The wind had been blowing over the last few days and the conditions looked right to target Mahi Mahi. Pretty blue water, scattered weeds with lots of flying fish is always a good sign when targeting Mahi Mahi. We ran out until the clean green water met up with a deep blue water color. The first mate fished a spread of surface baits with a couple of deep planner lines. The first two fish we caught were King Mackerel. Then as we were trolling along this line we came across a floating object and caught 4 Mahi Mahi. We continued to fish live baits around the floating debris and hooked another 2 smaller Mahi Mahi. The fish just under the legal size and we released them.
Curtis booked us for a half day morning Fort Lauderdale fishing charter. Just as the day before the wind was blowing and the guys wanted to target a Sailfish. We picked up some live baits and decided to kite fish. We sent out two kites with 4 live baits and a dead bottom bait. It didn’t take long until a Sailfish showed up on the right short kite bait. Gave the fish some line then came tight hooking the Sailfish. Great fighting fish with multiple jumps out of the water and once we got the fish up to the boat we removed the hook and released the Sail.
Rich and his group from Tampa chartered us for a 3/4 day trip. The Easterly winds were blowing so we decided to kite fish and with two kites and 4 live baits and a dead bottom bait. The conditions were right and we were feeling very confident a Sailfish would find our live baits. It didn’t take long before two Sailfish popped up. They both fed on the live baits and started swimming off. Our two anglers fed the Sails some line then came tight hooking the fish. Was a pretty epic battle both fish screaming off line in different directions jumping all over the ocean. One by one we got the fish along side the boat, removed the hooks and released the Sailfish.
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