December is a great month for drift fishing in Fort Lauderdale. The kingfish bite is solid, especially in the mornings. There is definitely a better morning bite on kingfish than in the afternoons, so get out there early. Kingfish average 5-10 pounds this time of year, with an occasional smoker kingfish that can be as large as 30 pounds. These smoker kingfish are few and far between, but some of the biggest kingfish of the year are always caught in December. Blackfin tuna come in on the reef pretty good this season too. Large schools of football size blackfin tunas come through our reefs and are there to be caught. Larger blackfin tunas up to the 30 pound range are also around, usually swimming solo or in a small pod as opposed to in a big school. December is also a good month for cobia. Cobia migrate through our waters this time of year, in all different depths and water columns. We catch them on the top and the bottom. Often when one cobia hits, there will be several others swimming with him and we get multiple hookups on them. Cobia are one of the largest fish we catch on the drift boat, with the biggest cobias reaching 40-50 pounds. They are great eating and a prized fish to catch on the drift boats in December.
Night fishing is also great this month. On our night trips, we anchor and chum for the good snapper bite. This is a great time of year for all the different snappers we catch out here: yellowtails, mangroves and muttons. Muttons are the biggest snappers, up to 15 pounds. A ballyhoo plug (a long skinny baitfish with it’s head and tail cut off) set on the bottom is a deadly bait for a large mutton snapper. Mangrove snappers, 2-4 pounds on average, are also caught mostly on the bottom. Using squid/ballyhoo chunks or even live/dead shrimp for bait works great for mangroves. Yellowtails tend to come up behind the boat in the chum slick, up from the bottom almost on the surface. For yellowtail, drift a light jig with a small strip of bait (kingfish belly, squid, silverside minnow) back in the chum line. The yellowtails start off hanging way back behind the boat, but progressively come closer to the boat the longer you chum. Snappers are the main target, but we catch oodles of other reef fish on the bottom at night…sharks, triggers, groupers, grunts, and more. There is a lot of action at night.
Good luck to everyone fishing this month. I’ll sea ya on the water.
Capt. Paul Roydhouse
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