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Today was one of those days in Ft. Lauderdale fishing, the days we love to see. We had 5 guys on board with all their provisions (mostly beer) and were on our way out fishing off Fort Lauderdale just after 7. The seas were calm and a few early morning thunderstorms dotted the mostly cloudy skies which would keep the temperature down in the 80’s.
After picking up some Pilchards from the bait boat, we tried to catch a few more baits at the sea buoy. It never feels good when your first stop yields zero.
Not wanting to waste time, we set upon some trolling to the south. Seaweed was everywhere and made it hard to keep the lines clear. As we fought the north current heading south, a few Kingfish and Bonito were caught and things seemed to be going well except for Frank. Each time Frank got the rod, what ever was there, got off. He was beginning to develop a trend. LOL
Less than an hour of trolling yielded one of the big surprises to both the customers and crew. With the weed so thick and the mate constantly trying keeping them clean, a brief window of no weed and a clean bait attracted a Sailfish that chose simply to “eat” and he was on and jumping in an instants notice.
We cleared all lines as the Sail ran out over half the spool and everyone but Rocko, the angler, got to watch the show. It took over 20 minutes to land the fish at which time he was boated, measured, photographed and released back to the sea. Measuring at 80”, he was truly the prize of the day.
Continuing south, we caught some more Kings and Bombers (Bonito) till we arrived at our first shallow wreck. The bite was slow but the Pilchards paid off and rewarded us with a couple of Mutton Snapper for dinner and an African Pompano which we released.
Further to the south we fished a deep wreck and the Amberjack were biting! Three drops, three fish, all fierce fighters and the last was a true stud compared to the first two. We were pretty proud of ourselves.
There had been Tuna and Wahoo in the area so we tried some off shore, deep water fishing and struck out, never had a bite. Back to the reef for the last hour also was extremely slow as the fish had pretty much shut down. Not the way we like to end the trip but it happens. Our day was coming to an end and just in time as the skies again threatened us with more rain. With most of the beer gone, it was time to go home and spend some time cleaning fish for dinner.
All in all, a pretty good day for us all fishing off the coast of Fort Lauderdale.
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