by Capt. Paul Roydhouse
December is a great month for drift fishing in Ft. Lauderdale. Kingfish are abundant on the reefs and are biting well. We’re catching some 10-20 pound kings mixed in with the usual batch of 6-8 pounders. The best bite on the kingfish has been inside the reef, in only 60-80 feet deep using whole sardines or ballyhoo. We can always tell when a kingfish hits because they take such a powerful initial run on the hookup. The dolphin are coming right in on the reef this month and are swimming right up to the boat. We’ve had some good catches recently where we were drifting along and a school of dolphin come by and hit every line we’re fishing. Most of the dolphin are schoolies, but a few 15-20 pounders are biting also. Leave one dolphin in the water at all times and the whole school will stay right with the boat. Those fishermen fishing bottom rigs are catching some big muttons on ballyhoo plugs although the best bite for muttons and the other snappers has been at night.
The night trips have been outstanding lately. Yellowtails are biting very aggressively. On our night anchor trips, we’re catching over 50 yellowtails per trip, not to mention the mangroves and mutton snappers. We started chumming a lot with glass minnows, which has really helped the bite. Yellowtails are averaging 1-2 pounds, mangroves 2-3 pounds and muttons 4-10 pounds on the anchor trips. Some groupers are being caught on these trips too, but the snappers have outnumbered the groupers by a lot. Red groupers, rock hinds and strawberry groupers are the most common groupers, along with the occasional black or gag grouper. Besides all that, the night trips are also catching a lot of cero and Spanish mackerel. The night trips have been non-stop action. We’re having some excellent fishing this month. Sea you on the water!
Capt. Paul Roydhouse
Fishing Headquarters
754) 214-7863
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