April is a great month for kingfish on the reefs of Fort Lauderdale. The kings have been almost nonexistent the past few months, as they have been hard to come by. However, April is when the kingfish return to the reefs and start biting in good numbers again. Kingfish make up a lot of our catch this time of year and they are our main target. When they are biting and you can find a school of kingfish, you can load the boat in a hurry. Swimming right along with the kingfish are blackfin tuna and bonitos. They all hunt the same prey. April is also a good month for wandering cobia on the reefs. Cobia are a good sized game fish that inhabit the reefs and wrecks. They are curious fish, so don’t be surprised if you see a cobia swim right up to the boat to see what’s going on. Fastest angler with a pitch bait ready gets the bite! Always be ready as cobia, dolphin and sailfish will swim up on you when you least expect it, especially this month.
Night fishing is my favorite trip of the day because there is so much action. At night we anchor and chum the water to fish for snapper on the reef. Yellowtail snapper bite very good in April and they are starting to average much larger in size than the winter yellowtails. We’re back out to fishing a little deeper water as the spring fish move out a little farther offshore. Mangrove and mutton snapper are biting somewhat, with at least a few being caught every night. Ballyhoo plugs on the bottom work good for these larger snapper. Grouper are out there and biting good too, but the closed season is still in effect until May 1st. Sometimes in April, schools of jacks, blue runners and bluefish come through the chum line. There’s always good action on the night trip.
Good luck to everyone fishing this month. I’ll sea ya on the water.
Capt. Paul Roydhouse
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