November is a pretty good month for drift fishing in Fort Lauderdale. The kingfish have finally shown up for us and are biting good on the reefs. The kingfish we catch this time of year are 3 to 6 pounders, about half of them keepers and half of them throw back. The great thing about these kingfish are that they show up in big numbers. On a good day, we can catch 40 kingfish on a trip, 20 of them keepers. The best bite is generally in the morning for these autumn kingfish. During the summer months with little to no wind and a slow drift, I prefer an oily sardine as bait. But in November, with the stiff winds making the boat drift faster and the waves giving the bait even more motion, ballyhoo are more streamlined and pull nicer making a better presentation. This is also the season that cobia start biting good on the reef. Here’s a tip, when a sea turtle surfaces near the boat, cast a pitch bait just behind the turtle. Often a cobia or even a school of cobias will be following the turtle.
The night anchor fishing picks up this month for yellowtail and mangrove snappers. During the next few months, these snappers move from the 3rd reef in 100ft of water to the 2nd reef, which is only 40ft deep. Cooler waters make the snapper move in shallower. Red groupers also deserve an honorable mention. A lot of 19 to 19.9 inch red groupers are biting. We call these happy groupers, but we will land a keeper every now and then too. If yellowtailing is slow one night, go out to 200′ of water and do some vermillion snapper fishing with a chicken rig (a bottom dropping rig with 2 or more hooks baited with chunks of squid). There are some big vermillion snappers biting from now until late December, so get out there and catch them while you can.
This is a great month for action on the reefs of Fort Lauderdale. Good luck fishing everyone. Sea ya on the water.
Capt. Paul Roydhouse
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