It’s sailfish season here in Fort Lauderdale. With the first couple of days of cooler weather starting to move through, the sailfishing this year is nothing short of spectacular. Every year, from October through January, the sailfish make a massive migration down our coastline. In Fort Lauderdale, we call the strip of water between 100-150ft of water, ‘Sailfish Alley’, where the sailfish are most concentrated. The best technique to target sailfish with a high success ratio is kite fishing. Using this technique, we fly kites and use the kites to suspend live baits on the surface of the water. The struggling baitfish make vibrations that attract gamefish in from a large radius. Sailfish, tuna, mahi-mahi, wahoo, sharks, kingfish and cobia all go nuts over a kite bait. It’s the best way to go after big fish this time of year. Of course this requires a good amount of wind, so windy days are the best. If there isn’t enough wind to fly the kites, slow trolling live baits from the outriggers is a great alternative and gives you the added benefit of covering a lot more ground that you would by kite fishing. Any technique of live baiting you choose should be rewarding, as big fish are really biting good this month.
The mullet run is happening now along the beaches of Fort Lauderdale. Huge schools of mullet are making their way south along our shoreline. You can see them right off the beach. These schools of mullet look like a big dark shadow in the water, some the size of a bus, moving slowly parallel to the shore. All kinds of gamefish follow behind these schools, picking off the slower swimming and injured mullet. I like to come in to the shallows this time of year and fish near these schools. You can catch huge tarpon, snook, permit, grouper, snapper, cobia, barracuda and every kind of shark you can think of. Best bait to fish in these mullet schools? You guessed it… a mullet, dead or alive. For a live mullet, clip a piece of the tail off so it is bleeding and swimming in an injured manner. Make sure to use appropriate gear, and lean on the heavier side with 25-50# tackle. You would be surprised at the monster fish you can catch just a few hundred yards off the beach.
Good luck fishing everyone and Tight Lines!
Capt. Brett Magers
New Lattitude Sportfishing
(954) 707-2147
www.newlattitude.com