forecastS
SPORT
fISHING
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ecember is one of my favorite months to fish in Fort Lauderdale. There are 2 main attractions this month: sailfish and dolphin. Every year, from November through January, sailfish make a massive push through our waters. Sailfish can be caught here in Fort Lauderdale any time of the year, but only during these 3 months do we have such a high concentration of them. The best sailfishing days are during a cold front. I really don't know why sailfish bite so well during a cold spell, but the fact remains, a cold snap means the sailfish snap. It never gets really cold in Ft Lauderdale. When I say a cold front, we're still talking 50-65 degrees, but it gets the sailfish turned on. On average days this season, catching 1-3 sailfish is a good trip, but on these chilly days, we can put awesome numbers of sailfish on the board, sometimes 10-12 sailfish on a trip. The best technique for sailfishing is
DRIFT
fISHING
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ecember 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
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Capt. Billy with a big bull dolphin caught with New Lattitude Sportfishing.
kite fishing, where we use high flying kites to present the baits, keeping the baits suspended and splashing on the top of the water. We love kite fishing because when the sailfish comes up, you get to see the whole bite sequence on the top of the water as the sailfish chases the baitfish. It's awesome to watch. Sailfish are all catch and
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 cobia 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 DECEMBER 2016
release, but at 7 feet in length and being such a gorgeous gamefish, they make for great photos and awesome replica trophies for your home or office wall. Dolphin are the other main attraction in December for the sportfishing boats in Fort Lauderdale. This is a great month to go offshore and hunt for
dolphin. The Gulfstream waters, 2-20 miles offshore are laden with dolphin. I love to go offshore on an all day trip, put out the lures and go trolling for dolphin. You might have to spend a good deal of time trolling offshore to actually find some fish. Dolphin like to hang near to seaweed or weed lines, floating debris. Birds are also great help to us for finding dolphin. When you find a school of dolphin though, the action is on! A school of dolphin will stay right with the boat and you can sometimes load your box off one school of fish. They are great eating and freeze well! If you find your dolphin near to a floating board or other debris, always fish a deeper bait with wire leader for a big wahoo. There are some big wahoo out there this time of year as well. Whatever you fish for, you can't go wrong fishing this month. It's fishy here in December. Tight lines everyone.
Capt. Adam Reckert New Lattitude Sportfishing (954) 707-2147 www.newlattitude.com
Pat with a nice kingfish caught drift fishing with Fishing Headquarters.
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 Fishing Headquarters www.FishHeadquarters.com (954) 525-4665
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11/17/16 5:44 PM