Sailfish Conditions Poor, Bottom Fishing and Mahi Provide Action
Report Date: February 17, 2015
In our last report we mentioned good conditions produced fish. Well it's been about 2 weeks since our last report here in Fort Lauderdale and we have not had the perfect conditions. We've either had no current or dirty water but we've been lucky and caught some pretty good fish on almost every trip during the past 2 weeks. Overall it's been slow fishing.
One day we did a full-day trip - which we don't do too often - and did not have everything on our side condition wise, but we had a chance to try different types of fishing. We started on the reef with the kite and top bait and only caught a few small fish. Then we anchored next to a wreck and with no current. I wasn't sure but our first bait down produced a mutton snapper. On our second bait, we boated a nice black grouper took a quick picture and released the fish. The bite was slow but our third bait we pulled up a big nurse shark. Later we moved forward in search of mahi, but with no luck, we finished the trip and caught about 2 dozens blackbelly rose fish.
Some of our trips we fished the reef hoping for a sailfish, but with either no current, or south current, the sailfish have been scare. Instead, there's been few kingfish and bonito hitting our baits.
With reef fishing being slow, all our morning or afternoon trips last week we fished deeper water between 400' to 800' and it paid off. We caught numerous silky shark and a good amount of mahi-mahi. Our last trip here in Fort Lauderdale we fished the reef and again with no current but with our non-stop working and searching for fish paid-off. We decided to fish shallow between, 60' and 100', and went 1 for 2 on sailfish. Then we moved deeper and caught a few mahi.
We're about to get some very cold weather, and if we can get that north current to go with it, we should have some very good fishing!
Good Luck & Tight Lines,
Capt. Mario Cote
No Vacansea Sportfishing
954-632-9340
