Our Daily Fishing Reports

Tim and Teresa, from Nebraska, were just recently engaged. They were staying at Tim’s time share at the beautiful Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort. They joined us for a beautiful 4 hour fishing trip. Tim has been fishing off of Fort Lauderdale several times in the past and Teresa fished several times in Cabo San Lucas. We started the day catching a few baits at the can. We ran right up north to try a deep ship wreck right off the bat. Brett dropped the bait to the bottom. Within minutes we were on with a real nice bite. We landed another beautiful Greater Amberjack. Tim has caught one of these before, but this was Teresa’s first and she fought it expertly up to the boat. From here we decided to go on the troll and continued our way up north.

When we finally made it between Oakland Park and Commercial Blvd, we started getting some excellent bites. The long planar rod doubled over and Teresa started winding up a beautiful king mackerel. While she was battling her fish, the short planar rod got hit hard. Tim jumped behind the rod and began bringing the fish in. While Tim was reeling his fish in, Brett wired Teresa fish in and put it in the box. Now Brett’s attention went back to Tim’s fish… which, by the way, was still taking a considerable amount of line. Time wound the planar to the tip of the Rod and Brett wired this strong fish up to the back of the boat. Ever so carefully, Brett continued to pull the fish closer.

The fish gave a surge and Brett dumped the leader back into the water. I sped the boat up to keep the fish behind us. Again, Brett began to wire the 70+ feet of line back to the boat. Finally, the fish got to the back of the boat and up popped a 30 pound black fin tuna. These fish show up always around this time of year in good numbers. We continued to troll, catching a few more king mackerel and pulled off another nice black fin tuna. We were way up north by now, and we decided to make another drop on another deep ship wreck, hoping for a grouper or cobia. We made a drop but the wreck seem to be abundant with large amberjacks. Another fish for Teresa!

She brought him up to the boat and we released him as well. We trolled home out in the deeper water but we never got the bite. We were hoping for a mahi or another black fin. It was a gorgeous and the couple enjoyed the boat and their day. We look forward to seeing them again on their next visit!

Wong and his friends joined us all the way from China. They are developers visiting The States to meet the architect that they use to design their buildings and homes in their homeland. They jumped on the boat for a quick 2 hour tour of Port Everglades, Fort Lauderdale and the Atlantic Ocean here in South Florida. We put a few lines out to troll and hooked into a nice barracuda and a gorgeous black grouper. They had a great time and were definitely impressed with the beauty of our oceans. Have a safe trip back!

This afternoon we headed back out to see if we could find a sailfish. We headed to the #1 can to catch some bait. We put about 6 speedos in the boat. Off to the wrecks! We fished about 3 passes over our favorite shallow wreck. Nobody was home. The wrecks were quiet. Before time ticked away we headed out for sure bet action.

On the 2nd half of the trip, we popped the kite up, with 3 baits on one kite, and a speedo down deep on the drop rod. The conditions were great… the current was smoking and the wind was cranking. We headed out for the deep blue and sent the kites flying. In a matter of minutes we were on! It was a beautiful Atlantic Sail. The gang had a great time and got to enjoy a beautiful South Florida day! See you next time!

Harry and his extended family joined us from Michigan… right around Lake Sinclair. They are used to just fishing off a dock and catching catfish and brim. Today their story changed! We started the morning on the troll trying to catch a couple of nice fresh king mackerel. It was tough going for us for the first 45 minutes of the trip. Finally, we managed to get one really nice bite and we put a nice sized king mackerel in the boat. He was about 10 pounds.

As Brett was rigging up the fresh king, we caught one more king as we were clearing the lines to head out deep. We had our hearts set on connecting with a big fish! We headed out off Dania Beach, only about 2-3 miles out. It was a beautiful day the conditions were flat calm with very little current. Brett quickly rigged another 2 baits and deployed them to the bottom and one on top. Each bait had a balloon on it used as a bobber (or float).

There was no wind this morning, so unfortunately we could not pop the kites. We waited about 35 minutes and the bottom rod closest to the boat started getting really heavy and doubled over to the water. I went ahead with the boat and we were on! While we were clearing the other baits, all of a sudden the line came slack. What a bummer! We broke our main line and lost the fish. It was getting near the end of our trip but we decided to re-rig and reset all of our baits. By now, the current picked up a little bit to the north and the wind also started coming out of the southeast. It was beautiful. We reset the baits, but this time we were able to pop a kite up, with one dead bait on top and one live bait short. Again, I held the depth and we waited… bumping softly in and out of gear holding the boat in position. About another hour went by with nothing. Brett and myself were upstairs on the bridge discussing a quick game plan to try another technique so we could catch something else before we left.

As we were chatting, the bottom rod doubled over. It was a weird bite because it came slack quickly. I gunned the boat to come tight. We had no idea what we had. Harry jumped in the chair. We cleared ALL the baits so that everything was put up and out of the way. By now we knew we were dealing with a large creature. We fought the fish for about an hour and a half. It looked like a nice hammerhead shark… maybe about 6-7 feet. When we got it up to the boat, it was HUGE!! It was a GIANT hammerhead, measuring about 10-12 feet. Brett and I, with the help of the whole crew, pulled the shark into the boat. It took up the entire cockpit. What a catch… a fish of a lifetime!!!

We were glad to have you guys out and look forward to seeing you next year!

Today we had a brother and sister from Argentina. Boy did they get a treat today! It was another one of those picture-perfect mornings out on the rip right out in front of Fort Lauderdale. The north current had slowed down a little from the day before. It was beautiful! We ran right out to the can… put the chum bag in the water and the speedos and runners showed up in fine style. The brother and sister had a great time putting the bait into the boat. We put a few dozen baits in the well and headed south towards the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood.

We put the down rigger down with a live speedo and a couple on top. It didn’t take long before the down rigger snapped… the 20# spinning rod bowed over to the water. We put a real nice 15-20 pound king into the boat. We repeated this process until we had a limit of kings. We had a ball fighting multiple double header king fish on the light tackle. I moved out deeper and put the down rigger down to about 110 feet. We got one real nice bite and the fish ran back into the wreck cutting us off. I retied and sent another bait back down.

I made another pass a little further away from the wreck… insta-bite! This time it was about a 25 pound amberjack. As we were fighting the jack, a sailfish came up and ate the right rigger bait. The fish immediately came up jumping and somehow shook the hooks. It was a pretty exciting bite! Throughout the rest of the trip, we burned through all the live baits by catching a couple of barracudas, another amberjack and several king mackerel. It was an action packed trip from start to finish. I heard of a little bit of a dolphin bite way offshore about 20 miles or so. A little too far for a half day trip. The fishing is still hot… before the BP oil spill reaches us!

Come on down and bring your families to enjoy sunny Fort Lauderdale!

Gabrielle, from Connecticut, brought his son fishing for the first time in Sunny South Florida. I want to start by saying that Monica, Gabrielle’s wife, initially found us on the internet and gave us a call. She was very excited to book a trip for her husband and son. Monica’s mission was for us to catch her son a shark. The pressure was on from the start. Now you know that sometimes that’s the kiss of death! On this trip it almost ended up that way. They started the morning off by doing a little trolling and catching a few king mackerel to get everyone warmed up and put a couple fresh baits in the box. Joey rigged up some of the fresh king mackerel while we headed out to the deep blue… about 350 feet. We popped both kites up with a big slab on the left long, a live bait on the left short, and 2 live baits on the right kite. Joey deployed his big mid-bait on a balloon (used as a bobber), and another big bait straight up and down off the transom on the bottom. Now I told you that Monica’s initial request puts a lot of pressure on us to catch little Kevin a big fish! So wouldn’t you know it… we waited and waited and waited! This was truly like watching the grass grow. It was almost heartbreaking. The end of the trip was nearing, and we needed to get back for our afternoon trip. We cleared every bait except the bottom bait… the left kite slowly, the right kite slowly, the mid-bait slowly, and as Brett was winding the last kite in, the bottom rod doubled over to the water! Brett yelled “the bottom rod… there he is!” WHEW!! We were on and elated to see that bite! We left the rod in the holder so that Kevin and his dad, together, could fight the fish up to the boat. Gabrielle and Kevin were really excited to see this beautiful hammerhead pop up behind the boat. They wired the fish up and brought him in the boat for some great pictures. Now Kevin has proof of his first shark for his friends at school. We look forward to seeing you again next year!

A crew from Texas were in town working with their brother. They jumped on the boat for a late afternoon trip. We got out to the can and the current was smoking.

We managed to put a few speedos and blue runners in the well. We ran up north a little ways and put the down rigger down to about 80 feet with a few other baits on top. I made one turn next to a Tropicana ship that was anchored up off of Beach Place. The down rigger went off! Throughout the trip, we couldn’t get any bites on top but we managed to catch 6 king fish… all on the down rigger and the 20 pound spinning rod.

All of the fish were up to 20 pounds. The gang got together for a picture with one of the nicer fish. They have never been out on the ocean and it was a great afternoon…. Minus the small rain squall that blew through. See you guys next year!!.

All of the ground crew and airplane mechanics from Southwest Airlines came down for the Ronald McDonald House Charity. They chartered every boat in town! We had a fantastic time spending a full 8 hour trip with them! The following day, we were not booked. Six of the guys, Glenn, Ron, Randy, Tom Mike and Pat (all from Texas), that fished on a couple of other boats the day before, came down to the dock looking for us.

They explained that they were not impressed with the boat and crews that they fished with the day prior. I think it must have been slow for them. Well, the guys decided to join us for a 4 hour afternoon adventure. It started out a little slow. We kite fished for quite a while, hoping for a big sailfish or mahi.

The gang had their heart set on catching a big trophy fish. The kites were up, the live baits were out, the big dead baits were deployed, but unfortunately we didn’t get the bite. Capt. Brett continued way down south, where no one else goes, to a nice deep ship wreck. It didn’t take long… the bait hit the bottom and the gang was on! After a 10 minute battle, the guys brought up a beautiful amberjack. They were amazed how strong this fish was! They reset and did it again! They guys had a blast and were thankful for their redemption of their all day trip the day before. See you all next year!

Hi Captain Stu,

Here are pictures from our trip on 4/27 with Matt and Joe.  Sorry to say I didn't get a chance to catch one, except for a Bonita for bait, but it was a blast watching my wife catch a 46" Barracuda.

We lost a nice sailfish and landed a 8 1/2 foot Hammerhead, a 46" Barracuda and a 43" Barracuda.  Thank Matt and Joe again for us, we had a great time.

Rob Larson

From Beautiful Minnesota