Sport Fishing Charters in Fort Lauderdale South Florida

This Week's Catch:

SAILFISH

SWORDFISH

SHARKS

BARRACUDA

AMBERJACK

DOLPHIN

MACKEREL

Month-to-Date Catches:

SAILFISH

SWORDFISH

SHARKS

BARRACUDA

AMBERJACK

DOLPHIN

MACKEREL

Captain Wally's Fishing Report

JUNE 2009

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 07/05/09

We had two charters today. The morning trip started off pretty slow. We were fishing north of the inlet for a while before I heard some of the boats to the south say they were getting some kingfish. We started heading that way when we got slightly side tracked by an unusual sight. I have seen a lot of thing in the years that I have been fishing here but this is one of the strangest. As we were trolling south I saw something that looked like a fish floating, but I have seen that plenty of times before. What I didn't expect, when we circled back around to take a closer look, was to find an 8# mutton snapper inside of a chum bag. We gaffed the bag to see if the fish was still fresh and, when it hit the deck, the fish started flipping around. There were no holes in the fish, like it was speared or something, and the bag didn't look like it had ever been used for chum. We threw the fish in the box and continued to troll south until we got into the kingfish. We caught a few of them and a couple of bonito before heading back to get our afternoon trip. The afternoon trip showed up a little late, after running out of gas up the street. They finally got here and we headed out. We started off trying for some snapper, but they weren't biting so we ran back to the south and started catching kingfish again. We ended up with six kingfish, four bonito, and a barracuda before heading in. The snapper in a bag was still the highlight of the day.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 07/04/09

We didn't get out this morning but we had an afternoon trip. We started the trip trolling but only caught one tiny barracuda. With nothing going on trolling we decided to catch some live baits. After doing that we went wreck fishing, there wasn't much going on there either. On the way in there was a school of small bonito busting on the surface so we trolled through them and caught one before heading in.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 07/03/09

We had two trips today. The morning trip was a repeat from Wednesday with five people. We went right to trolling. There were schools of bonito blasting all over the place. The first two bites we had around the bonito were barracuda. After releasing them we moved on to another school and started getting kingfish and bonito. We did that the rest of the trip and ended up with seven kingfish and fifteen bonito. The afternoon trip was a father and son. We trolled and caught a couple of bonito and one kingfish before switching up to try some wreck fishing. The hardest part about the wreck fishing was getting bait. The schools of bonito were there but they were bigger than we normally use and didn't want to live in the livewell very long. We ended up just catching one and rigging it right away so it wouldn't have a chance to die. As soon as we got the bonito close to the wreck it got bit in half. Uh well, off to catch another bait. We did this a few times and had some big bites but nothing would stay on the hook. We finally got a big barracuda to stay on the hook for the catch. We caught another bait and tried a deeper wreck but no luck there so we headed home.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 07/02/09

Today we had three people on a shared charter this morning. With the trolling being so good the past few days we went straight to that. As soon as we got baits in the water we got bites. The kingfish and bonito were everywhere and they were snapping. We were having fun with this when we got an unexpected surprise. The long planer got bit and the fish was pulling off some line, but we thought it was another big bonito. When the planer got to the rod tip we started bringing in the leader. When the fish got close to the boat we were surprised to see it was a wahoo. We gaffed the fish and got it in the boat to see it was a big wahoo. We kept trolling and caught some more kingfish and bonito and a barracuda before heading back to the dock. When we got in, after taking pictures, we hung the wahoo on the scale. It weighed 40 pounds. Need less to say, We had three very happy customers that want to go again soon.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 07/01/09

We had three guys fishing with us this morning. There has been a submarine doing drills south of the inlet for the last three days and they have had the area blocked to all traffic so we have all had to fish north of the port. None the less, the fishing has still been good. We started the trip trolling around the reef and caught four bonito and five kingfish. The guys were having fun with that but wanted to try for something bigger. We brought in the trolling gear and set up for shark fishing. We got to the area we wanted to fish and set the baits. We put out a block of chum and pulled the drain on the fish box to let the blood drain. Everything looked right but no sharks found our baits today. Maybe they will have better luck on their trip with us on Friday.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/30/09

We had two guys charter us this morning. We already had shark baits and they wanted to fight one so we went right to shark fishing. We did that for almost two hours without a bite then went trolling so that we could put something in the box. The first bait out got bit as soon as it was set and the bites just kept on from there. We ended up with one kingfish and eight bonito in the cooler before heading in.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/29/09

We had two trips again today. In the morning we had a family that won the trip at a breast cancer charity event that we donated to. The fish started biting as soon as the baits hit the water and really didn't stop until we got them all out of the water, despite the rain. We caught four kingfish and ten bonito before they decided, a little early, that they were worn out and wanted to go in. The afternoon charter was two couples. We started out trolling again and picked up where we left off in the morning. We caught one blackfin tuna, two bonito and six kingfish trolling. They were happy doing that but wanted to go for something bigger. We brought in the trolling gear and rigged up for shark. We set the baits out and waited. We were almost out of time, and patience, when the bottom rod bounced. We sat there for a second to make sure it was a bite before the rod started bending towards the water. All of a sudden we are attached to something BIG. We cleared the other baits and started the battle. The first person in the fighting chair was one of the girls. She had told the mate that she wanted to fight a "big pissed off shark" and she certainly got her wish. She did a great job fighting it to the leader the first time so that we could it was a big hammerhead shark. Then it took off again and the anglers switched. We fought it for another 45 minutes before getting the leaded again and releasing it after taking pictures. We were way into over time and headed back with some memories that they will not soon forget.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/28/09

We had four people on a morning trip today. There were a lot of fish around and they were biting good, so we trolled and caught a bunch of bonito and four kingfish. Most of the bites came on the planer rods which we fish with 60'-80' leaders. The customers had a great time learning how to leader the fish to the boat without getting burned.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/27/09

We had two trips today. On the morning trip we had six people with us. We started out trolling and caught one kingfish and a bonito and missed a few other bites. The customers wanted to try for a shark so we rigged the kingfish and bonito on some shark rigs and tried our luck with that. There were a few sharks caught but, unfortunately, none of them were on our baits. We went back out in the afternoon with six more people for a six hour trip. We trolled for a while and missed a couple of bites. Then we caught a couple of live baits and fished some of the wrecks. We missed one fish doing that. One of the guys brought his own jigging rod so we let him try that in a couple of spots for a few minutes. Then we went back to trolling and finally caught a couple of kingfish and a bonito.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/26/09

We had two people with us for a morning trip today. We tried to catch bait but could only get one blue runner. We started trolling and got a couple of kingfish pretty quickly. We trolled a little more and got two more kingfish. We trolled out a little deeper trying for some thing different and missed a couple of bites. Then we tried to catch a couple more bait fish, but no luck. We went to a wreck with the only bait we had in the livewell hoping that if we got a bite the fish would stay on. Our hopes were realized. Shortly after dropping the runner to the bottom, and a little battle, we got a nice amberjack to the boat. There was some rain heading our way, we were out of live bait, and time was running out so we headed back to the dock.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/25/09

We had six people on an all day charter today. Five out of the six just wanted to catch fish, but the other one wanted to catch some mahi. We caught some bait then headed offshore. We came across a couple of small debris lines and fished them for a little bit. We missed one bite but didn't see any other fish so we picked up and ran further out. We came across some more debris and some scattered grass line and started fishing again. We missed another bite right off the bat, but didn't see any more fish, so we continued to troll offshore. We finally got the first fish on when we got about 17 miles out. It took a while to get the bite, but it was a nice mahi in the 20# class. We circled the area to see if there were any more fish around. We got a couple more bites and caught one more fish. We trolled around some more and jumped off another mahi. We were running low on time so we headed back toward the inlet. We got back to the reef and started trolling again. We caught a couple of kingfish before going home.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/24/09

Today we had a family of four charter the boat. We caught some live bait then went trolling. It took a little while before we got the first bite but eventually the kingfish and bonito got hungry and started biting. After catching those we tried wreck fishing. First we got a couple of small bonito then went to the deeper wreck. We dropped the first bait and got cut off by some sort of toothy critter. We sent the second bait down and got a bite and a solid hook-up. We caught a nice amberjack then headed back to the dock.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/22/09

We picked a late afternoon trip today with two local couples. We headed out later than normal and on the way out didn't hear much going on with the other boats that were already fishing. We started out trolling and were in the fish from there. We caught our limit of kingfish by the time the trip was at the half way point. We then moved out deeper to get away from the kingfish and try to find something different. We missed a couple of bites doing that then tried some snapper fishing with no luck. Oh well, you really can't complain with a cooler full of kingfish so we headed back with another group of satisfied customers.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/21/09

Finally, the fish are biting again. After a really slow week it's nice to see some fish. We had four people on a shared trip this morning. We started out trolling and got bites as soon as the baits were set. We trolled most of the trip and ended up with six kingfish, three bonito, two blackfin tuna, and one remora. One of the customers wanted to catch a barracuda so on the way in we stopped to try that with live bait. We got a bite and had the first barracuda close to the boat but it made a run and got hung up in something and broke off. We got the bait back out and had another one eat and come up jumping and throw the hook. We had one other bite that didn't get hooked before heading in to pick up our afternoon intracoastal cruise. No fishing in the afternoon so no report for that.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/20/09

We had the same guys as yesterday on the boat with us this morning. They wanted to catch something big , so we decided on a different tactic. We borrowed a set up from a friend and went out to try some daytime swordfish drops. We ran out 18 miles to the grounds and made our first drop. We drifted that for about 45 minutes without a bite so we brought it up and reset. The second drop was a little better. About five minutes after hitting bottom in 1700 feet of water we got a bite. At first we weren't sure if it was a fish or if the weight was rusting on the bottom. We started bringing it up and stopping it to see and we kept getting slack in the line. Well, a ten pound weight doesn't float on it's own so we kept bringing it up. I guess somewhere along the way the fish fell off so by the time we got the line in it was time to head back to pick up our afternoon trip. I guess that's what happens when you go big.

The afternoon trip was a local family of six. We started the trip trolling and caught a kingfish and a remora and missed a couple of other bites. Then we fished a few of the wrecks but no bites. We ended the trip trying to catch snapper but only ended up with one vermillion.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/19/09

We had four guys on a six hour trip today. We caught a few live baits then trolled the reef and caught a few kingfish. The customers really wanted to fish for mahi-mahi so we headed offshore in search of them. There wasn't much to fish to so we started trolling around some scattered weeds. There were some other boats around but it looked like they were doing the same thing we were. I saw one boat stopped and trolled over to see what they were fishing to. As we got closer I saw a pallet in the water next to them. We trolled by it and saw a couple of fish around it. They didn't eat the trolling baits so we wound them in and switched to live bait. We pulled a ballyhoo around and picked up a mahi then another one a little later. There were some nice size triple tail around the pallet as well so we put out a different rig and caught a couple of them before realizing that we were well into over time and heading in.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/17/09

We had a family of three on a six hour morning trip today. The weather was perfect but the fishing wasn't so much. We tried just about everything there was to do but not much was there to be gotten. The only thing we didn't try was shark fishing but I don't think that was happening either. It's frustrating when the fish don't cooperate.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/16/09

We had five people on a shared charter today. Fishing was a little slow to say the least. We started out catching bait then went to one of the wrecks. We had one bite on that wreck then moved on to another wreck. This wreck was one of the deeper wrecks so we dropped one of the live baits with a heavy weight. It took a while but we finally got a bite. We wound the fish up to see a 15# snowy grouper. We hit a couple of other spots and caught a couple of smaller fish. We ended the trip catching about a dozen vermillion snapper.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/14/09

We had three people with us for a morning trip today. We started out catching speedos then went trolling. We caught two kingfish trolling then stopped and caught some ballyhoo. We live baited with the ballyhoo and speedos and caught one more kingfish. Not quite as good as the last couple of days but still not a bad day.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/13/09

A couple of my friends and some of the people they work with chartered us this morning. We caught some live ballyhoo and headed offshore again. The water had changed from yesterday and a lot of weed had moved in. Where we caught the fish the last two days was not sounding productive but I heard a few boats catching a few fish in closer. We found some weeds and saw a few fish so we started there. The first fish we caught was a barracuda. Then we caught a few mahis before moving to another weed patch. There were a lot of boats around and the fish were not cooperating. We put out the live ballyhoo and caught a few more fish on them. We ended up getting ten mahi, but only one big one.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/12/09

We had another six hour morning and four hour afternoon trip today. We started the morning trip catching live ballyhoo before running offshore to catch mahi. On the way to where we caught the fish yesterday we found a log floating so we stopped and threw out some baits. As soon as the bait passed the log we hooked a mahi. We threw out some chunk baits on spinners and hooked three more. We stayed on the log for half an hour and caught ten fish there. We were hearing boats further off catching fish so we ran to where they were. We came up on some other boats that were sitting on some scattered weeds and saw some fish swimming around so we put out some more chunk baits and started catching again. The bite slowed down a little so we put out the live ballyhoo. As soon as the bait hit the water a big mahi ate it. As we were fighting that one we kept throwing chunks and catching some schoolies. The big fish pulled us away from the school before we caught it so we went back to where they were. We got back on them again with a live ballyhoo we were able to hook up again. We hooked a few schoolies then another big fish came in and ate one of the chunks. That fish fought us away from the school before we got it too. We caught a few more then headed in with 30 fish in the cooler. After cleaning most of the fish from the morning trip our afternoon group showed up and we headed out again. We started out trolling the reef. We saw some mahis right away, but they didn't eat. We continued to troll and caught three bonito and one kingfish. We stopped at the spot where we got the ballyhoo in the morning and caught some more of them, then put them out. It didn't take long before seeing a sailfish come up on one of them. We hooked the fish and fought it to the boat. We got the leader and released the fish. The baits went out again and we missed a mahi before heading in.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/11/09

We had a six hour morning and a four hour afternoon trip today. We had a couple from Arizona with us on the morning trip that wanted to catch some mahi. We started out catching bait then went trolling offshore. The fishing was slow but we heard some boats further off catching fish. We wound all of the baits in and ran out to where we heard the fish being caught. We didn't have a lot of time left but, luckily, we didn't need much. Shortly after slowing down and trolling again we hooked a couple of fish. As we got the fish close to the boat we saw more fish following them. We had the spinners ready and threw some chunk baits at them. We ended up catching 17 mahis before it was time to go in. On the afternoon trip we had a family of four. We trolled around the reef and caught one kingfish before switching to live baiting around a shallow wreck. Shortly after getting the baits out I saw a sailfish come up on the high line. The hooked the sailfish and cleared the other baits to fight it. Half an hour later we got the fish to the boat. We pulled it up took some photos, got a measurement, tagged and released a big sailfish. We live baited a little bit more but, with no more bites, we went trolling again. Not much luck trolling and running out of time we brought everything in and started heading back. On the way in I saw something jump just off to the side of the boat. I slowed down and saw a small fin sticking out of the water. We quickly got a kingfish head out to see if the shark would eat. The shark swam towards the bait so I took the boat out of gear to let it eat. It didn't bite and we thought it was gone so I started to bump the boat in and out of gear. All of a sudden something started taking line off the reel, and it wasn't the bait. We let it eat for a second before setting the hook. We hooked the fish and it came to the surface and jumped. It fought for about 20 minutes before we got it to the boat. It ended up being a Mako shark around 100-150 pounds. We secured it with a flying gaff for a minute before clearing the cockpit and boating it. I don't normally kill sharks but a Mako is different. We boated the fish and went back to the dock. We hung the fish and took some photos before cutting the fish up and sending home another group of happy customers..

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/10/09

Today we had a mother and her daughter on the boat with us for a morning trip. We started the trip catching bait then went trolling. We caught three kingfish and missed a lot of other bites. We trolled offshore looking for mahis, but there weren't any around for us to catch. We tried one of the wrecks but didn't get any bites there either.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/08/09

We had two trips today. On the morning trip we took three of my neighbors out fishing. We started the trip trying to catch bait. We caught some blue runners then went to one of the wrecks. We dropped a runner on the wreck a couple of times, but no bites. We then went trolling offshore looking for some mahis. We caught a smaller sized blackfin tuna as soon as we put the baits out. An hour later, and no more bites, we wound all of the baits in and went in shallower to try and catch some kingfish. We got back in shallower, and as soon as we got the first bait out we had a nice kingfish on its way in. We caught that one and one other and missed a few more. We had to get back in for our afternoon trip so we left the kingfish biting and headed back. The afternoon trip we had a young couple and one of our regular customers that had just flew and had some time to kill. We headed out and caught some bait. We ran to where we wanted to fish and put out the livies. We caught one kingfish and missed a couple other bites doing that. Live baiting was slow so we switched up to trolling. We caught a couple of kingfish and missed a couple more before heading back to the dock.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/07/09

We had six guys out for a morning trip today. We had some baits from our last trip, so we took them with us instead of catching new ones. We started the trip trolling. As soon as we got the baits out we were into the kingfish. We caught ten and missed at least ten more before switching to something else. We tried wreck fishing, but the current was a little too strong. We dropped a couple of times on the first wreck without any bites then headed in.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/06/09

We had another 6:00 start today with the same group as yesterday. Again we had three people, one of the guys from yesterday and two others. They didn't want to troll like yesterday so we caught bait and headed to the wrecks. The three deeper wrecks that we fished didn't produce any fish just some nervous baits. We went into one of the shallower wrecks and switched tactics. We put out one bait on the surface and one on the downrigger. We bumped the baits over the wreck and, on the first pass, got a bite on the deep bait. As we were fighting that fish the top bait had a chance to swim down deep and it got eaten as well. The first fish was a nice amberjack and as we got it to the boat and released it the other line started angling up to the surface. We backed the boat closer to the fish and it ended up being a big gag grouper. We put the baits out again and made a couple more passes over the wreck and caught a kingfish before we had to head in.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/05/09

We had an early morning start today. We headed out around 6:00 on a short 3 hour trip with three people. We didn't have much time to fish so we trolled and caught five kingfish, three bonito, and a barracuda.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Report 06/04/09

We had two guys charter the boat this morning for a half day. We started the trip catching bait then went to one of our favorite spots and started fishing. We got a couple of kingfish bites pretty quickly. We stayed in the area and ended up catching four kingfish before going to try our luck with shark fishing. We shark fished for about an hour before getting the bite. We fought the fish for about half an hour before getting it to the boat. We took some pictures, measured the fish, removed the hooks, tagged it ,and released it. We still had a little time left so we fished the closest deep wreck. No bites there so we headed in.