Capt. Paul Roydhouse
February fishing is finally here. We’re deep into the winter bite and the kingfish are starting to bite good. These days, the morning bite is usually better drift ing for kingfish. The kings are running from 6-12 pounds on average with a rare 25+ pounder caught here and there. Drift ing a 3 hook sardine is working well, but you may do better whip jigging with a 1-2 ounce bucktail jig. Jigging usually gets a more aggressive bite. The bigger kingfish tend to prefer jigs over dead baits and jigging may also land you a blackfin tuna or a wahoo if you’re lucky. Some blackfin tuna and wahoo are swimming within the schools of bonito that will occasionally tear through our spread. When a few people hook into bonitos at once, be ready for a big wahoo or tuna to strike, there are some around. More than a few sailfish are being caught drift fishing this season. Live baiting isn’t the only way to catch sailfish, they’re just as likely to eat a drift ballyhoo.
The night snapper fishing this season is excellent also. Yellowtail action is really starting to pick up. On the night snapper trips, its best to anchor up-current of your spot and start chumming the water. The chum will fl ow and draw in fish from all around and from way down-current. Even if the bite starts off slow, give it some time to turn on and for the chum to do its job. When the yellowtails start chewing, you will know it. Everyone on the boat should be getting bites and/or hooking up. For only being a 2-3 pound fish, yellowtails take the bait with the same veracity as a kingfish and on a light tackle rod, they put up a great fight. And best of all, yellowtails are one of the tastiest fish in the sea. We’re catching a handful of larger mangrove snapper and mutton snappers on these trips too, but yellowtails outnumber them ten to one. Night fishing, as always, is the best drift boat trip for action. We’re having good fishing these days off the coast of Ft Lauderdale. Good luck out there and hope to sea ya on the water.
Capt. Paul Roydhouse
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