Our Daily Fishing Reports

Mike joined us with his family and friends from Texas. They chose a beautiful day to go out. It was a nice chamber of commerce day and the weather was cool on a sunny Ft. Lauderdale day. We spent a little time with the kids catching bait at one of the big anchored ships. The speedos were chewing right off the back of the boat. The current was hard to the south, so Brett laid out a trolling spread and we headed north. We hooked one really nice fish a high line with a rigged ballyhoo and it was dumping line like crazy! We fought the fish for about 5 minutes, but unfortunately we pulled the hooks on an unknown large sea-monster. Man, I would have liked to see what that was!

We continued north to a couple of our favorite deep spots. We set up on the wreck, in about 260 feet, and dropped it to the bottom. It was instant gratification! The rod doubled over and I went forward aggressively with the boat. Mike jumped in the chair and wrestled this beautiful amberjack up to the boat. I was down in the cockpit doing all the fishing, so I had the honors of wiring the fish up and putting him in the boat. We took some great pictures of the fish as well as me and Mike. We tried a few more spots, but unfortunately it just wasn’t happening.

We decided to do something else. The wind started picking up, so we popped the kites. Brett set out the left side with 2 live goggle eyes and he rigged a surface shark bait for the right kite. He deployed the shark bait and up in the kite it went. No sooner did he turn around, a nice little black tip shark was all over it. The bait and the hooks were a little too big for this particular fish. We had another rod ready and fired out another chunk of bait on it. As Brett re-rigged the other shark bait, the TLD doubled over. We caught a nice little black tip shark.

It was getting late in the day and it was time to go. A little slow for us on the Miss Bonita 2, but we did enjoy the chamber of commerce weather.

Thanks for the bologna sandwiches… and the trip!

Hope to see you next year.

WOW! Finally the mahi have returned to our area. February and March are usually the best months to catch some really nice mahi mahi. We were on a 7 boat convention trip today out of Lauderdale Marina. It was great! Every boat was already provisioned with a fresh dozen of live goggle eyes.

It was a beautiful brisk afternoon, a trickle of current to the north, and a beautiful slow rolling swell coming from the northeast. I have to tell you that it was a blast running the boat to the north, straight into the swell. We made our way up off The Park, in 350 feet. The area was alive with bait and small black fin tunas were popping around us. Brett launched the kites and put a set of goggle eyes out. I was set up just south of one of our deeper ship wrecks. We drifted over the wreck and here comes a beautiful black tip shark trying to eat the left short. Brett fed him, but somehow, the shark grabbed part of the mono, above the wire, and got away. We reset the bait and here comes another one! This time he chopped the bait in half and missed the hook. We free-spooled the rest of the bait and dumped it back. Right then, both baits on the right kite started walking off. Both fish were out of the water! 2 beautiful sized gaffer dolphins. We fought the fish up to the boat, and Brett professionally made them hit the ice.

After landing both of the fish, the rod with the half of goggle eye on it doubled over. We got the shark on now! This was the same one or another really cool black tip shark. Brett got it boat-side and popped him into the boat for a picture and some quick measurements. He was safely released back to his home. The wind was dying and we were running out of baits. We left one kite out and fished 3 baits off of it. I kept bumping the boat ahead to keep the kite in the air. The middle bait went down quickly, and once again, we were on! It was another beautiful bull dolphin. We tried a little trolling on the way home, but to no avail.

It was a gorgeous afternoon, and the gang stopped by the dock to pick up their sack full of fresh mahi fillets. They took them to the Bahia Cabana, next to the dock, for a late lunch.

Enjoy! Thanks for the trip

Chris was down for the Super Bowl in Miami, so he decided to start the day out on the water aboard the Miss Bonita 2. He had shark fishing on the brain and we tried to accommodate with a full spread of fresh king mackerel.

Of course we had live baits going on the well from the day before. We ran right out front of Port Everglades to 350 feet. Jeff popped up the kite and deployed a slab of king mackerel up top and a live goggle eye on the short. As we were setting out the mid-bait and the bottom-bait, the goggle got nervous… WHAM! An Atlantic Sailfish piled all over him! It was a very visual bite. The fish took off running a few hundred yards of line out. We cleared all the shark baits and chased this fish. Chris expertly fought the fish up to the boat. Jeff grabbed the leader and wired him up to his hands, grabbing the bill and pulled him into the boat. What a way to start the day! We took measurements and released the fish. After the sailfish, we reset the shark baits, waiting for the big bite. It never came.

Hope you had a good time on the water and enjoyed the game!

Afternoon Trip

Evan, his Dad, and their friends joined the crew for the afternoon trip. They started out trolling managing to catch a couple king mackerel. We continued trolling but with no success. The boys decided to switch over and use the fresh king mackerel to target something a little bigger.

Jeff rigged the king fish and set out 3 baits in 350 feet. Unfortunately, after a few hours, they were unsuccessful. They cleared the baits and ran over to a local deep ship wreck, before concluding the day. The boys had one more fresh speedo in the well. Brett set up on top of the wreck while Jeff sent the fresh bait to the bottom. BOOM! The rod doubled over and the fight was on. The fish quickly came to the surface and the boys knew they were dealing with something really nice. Jeff wired the fish up to the gaff and hauled this beautiful 60+ pound Cobia into the boat. Everyone was ecstatic!

That fish made the day! It is definitely not everyday that we catch a cobia out of Ft. Lauderdale.

It's great to see that these fish are migrating and holding on some of our deep ship wrecks. Thank you guys for the trip and we look forward to seeing you next year. Enjoy the cobia!

Morning Trip

Bill, Lindsay, Savy and Jessica, from Tampa, joined my crew for a half day of Miss Bonita 2 sport fishing. Being that it is Superbowl weekend, and Miami is hosting, the Ft. Lauderdale Beach is jam packed all the way down to South Beach! It was a popular day for charter fishing and the weather was "chamber of commerce" perfect!

The winds came out of the west overnight, that flattened the seas right out. It seemed to push the fish with it. It was not the most eventful day on the Miss Bonita 2, but at the last 90 minutes of the trip, we decided to bait fish off the bow of an anchored ship.

The boys shook the chum bag, bring the blue runners and speedos to the back of the boat. After a few minutes, Brett saw a beautiful silky shark swimming in the chum slick. Jeff got a bait ready and pitched it out. The sharked made a beeline for it and ate the bait. Jessica fought the fish up to the boat. The fish was brought into the boat for pictures and measurements. Off to the Superbowl!!

Thanks for the trip... see you next year!

Peter, Borne and their friend, from Norway, chartered the boat for an 8 hour trip. Unfortunately, the wind was out of the southeast at 23-30 knots, producing 10 foot seas. These guys were tough! We started the trip out trolling with 2 baits down and 2 baits up top.

The seas were ROUGH! Most of the charter fleet that went out ended their trips early. One boat actually fished for 1 hour on an all day trip before coming back to port. We hung in there for about 4 and a half hours.

The daily talley was two sailfish, 2 wahoo, a hammerhead, a skipjack tuna, a mahi and a king mackerel. It was absolutely brutal hanging on for as long as we did. We managed to make it a great day! Have a safe trip back

We finally got a much needed break from the rainy days and the overcast skies. John and Bob, from Jersey, hopped on the boat this morning with hot coffee in hand ready for another South Florida fishing adventure. We bought half a dozen baits from the local bait guy and set out to fish. We made our way out of the cut and I headed up to the north. Right away, I noticed all of the anchored ships were on the wind. There didn’t seem to be much current. Or at least the wind was stronger than the current. We made our way out to about 290 feet near one of the anchored ships. Jeff had the kites all rigged and ready to go. We popped up the kites and put a full fresh spread of large live goggle eyes out. We waited about 15-20 minutes and a pretty good size Silky Shark swam right up to the left short. He chased the goggle eye around for a while. Jeff slowed him down and the shark finally ate. Bob jumped in the chair and battled the shark up to the boat. Since we use circle hooks, it was very easy to release the fish. We reset and waited a little more.

My mate, Jeff, yelled up “I have to use the bathroom” and wouldn’t you know it, Murphy’s Law! The mate is busy and the right long started walking off underneath the left kite. I was trying to be quiet, giving a few pounds on the deck, but Jeff didn’t hear me. Finally Jeff came out and knew something was going on! He locked up the spool and right at that moment, a great Atlantic Sailfish started dancing all over the place! It was John’s turn. We cleared the kites. There were no boats around, so we let John fight this fish all the way to the boat on his own, without chasing him down. The fish came boat side and Jeff grabbed him and popped him into the cockpit for a few quick pictures and then a safe release. This was John’s first billfish ever, and we met our goal! Since we had a little more time left, we tried our luck at trolling. We put the standard trolling spread out and headed back south down the reef. It didn’t take long to find the king mackerel and before we knew it, we had our limit of fish in the boat. It was definitely an enjoyable morning, and it was even nicer to get back out on the water! The guys are ready to enjoy “Super Bowl Weekend!”

Thanks for coming out, hope to see you next year.

The crowd scheduled for this morning rescheduled their trip. The skies were grey and did not look too friendly. The weather report named overcast skies for the entire day. The fish are already wet, so the crew doesn’t mind. We just don’t want anyone to feel obligated to fish in non-South Florida-like conditions.

See you guys soon!

Our 2nd trip of the day started off with a pick up at the infamous Pier 66 in Ft. Lauderdale. We were on a multiple boat convention trip. Lance, Carl, Mike and Doug jumped on the boat and we headed out for a 4 hour afternoon adventure. We started the trip by circling the number 1 can, catching a fully baby bullet bonitos, a couple king mackerel and one nice big bonito. After trolling for about 45 minutes, we steamed up north a little ways and popped the kites. On one kite we deployed 2 live goggle eyes and on the other were one of the fresh butterflied bonitos, long on the 80# rod, and another goggle eye, short on the Shimano TLD. Jeff also dropped one bait down near the bottom on a treble hook stinger rig. Now the trap was set! Suddenly the bottom rod doubled over. Lance jumped in the chair and fought a nice sized barracuda up to the boat. He was sent back quickly.

The kite fishing bite this afternoon was still a little slow, so we waited and waited. After about an hour and a half of waiting, we couldn’t make a decision whether to switch over to do something else or not. Out of no where, a giant black shadow swam up to the long butterflied bonito. Now I could see him! It was a beautiful scalloped hammerhead shark. Jeff put the reel in free spool and the fish grabbed the bait and started swimming off. We let the shark eat for a minute. Jeff locked up and started winding fast.

The big rod quickly doubled over and we were on! The whole gang took turns in the chair bringing this monster in. We got the shark up to the back of the boat for some pictures and sent him back to the depths. Hope you all had a good time! See you again soon!