Fishing Fort Lauderdale Florida Fishing Report, Saltwater Fishing Report

One cold front after another has really turned on the Sailfish and Shark action for the past week here in sunny South Florida. Pods of Sailfish have been migrating south in 100-180 ft. of water off of Ft. Lauderdale. The Sharks have been migrating south in deeper waters from 300 to 550 ft. off of Ft. Lauderdale.

Matt Eliscu from Boca Raton in South Florida and his buddy, being locals, know the advantages of the cold fronts and chartered the Happy Day Today to do some Sailfishing. We started off trolling with Ballyhoos and two dredges. I heard on the radio that the Sailfish were in deeper waters, around 180 ft, so I moved to that depth of water. We put out two kites with live Goggle Eyes for bait. Fishing with light tackle, 30 lb. test, makes it more sporting for the angler.

Before long, one Sailfish popped up on the left short, swam around the bait and left. We brought the bait in to check it out, and the bait was in perfect shape so that Sailfish must not have been too hungry. We put three baits back out, waiting for the next Sailfish to appear. There he was again, on the left short. This one did not swim around the bait, he just ate it and away he went, coming out of the water, showing his neon body as the light reflected off of his skin, jumping numerous times, away from the boat. “Well this one has taken ¾ of the line off the reel,” cried Mitch. Once we brought in the rest of our fishing gear, we started to work the fish - by that time he was almost down to the knot. Matt did an excellent job working the fish and retrieving the line. After a ½ hour battle, he finally brought the fish to the side of the boat. Pictures were taken quickly, so that we could go catch another one - the Sailfish were still coming thru.

We moved back into the same depth of water where we hooked up the last Sailfish, getting set back up again. In a few minutes we hooked up a double header - one on the right long and one on the left long. After the initial hook up, one of the Sailfish threw the hook, but we were still hooked up with the other Sailfish. It looked like another good battle, as I backed down on the fish. Matt’s friend brought the other fish to the side of the boat and more pictures were taken. After releasing the fish, the Sailfish swam away with all of his beauty.

We ran out of time – it is time to get back to the dock so we headed back from our 4 hour deep sea fishing charter trip to the dock at Bahia Mar, in South Florida, Fort Lauderdale. This ends another successful and adventurous fishing excursion on the Happy Day Today with Captain Zsak.

About the Author:

Captain's Bio: Welcome to Fort Lauderdale, Florida's longest running fishing charter boat the "Happy Day Today" fishing since 1978. The charter boat "Happy Day Today" is a 46' Hatteras with twin Detroit's fully equipped with all Shimmano and Penn tackle. The fish we target are Sailfish, Swordfish, Mahi, Wahoo, Tuna, Mackerel, Grouper and Snapper. We fish hard and want you to have a great time fishing out of Ft. Lauderdale. Capt. Tom will discuss with you what has been biting and what our best chances are to target a specific species that day. We encourage our customers to contact us to go over any detailed information about the fishing charter (954) 439-8106 or visit the website at www.topshotfishing.com