Scott and Derrick from the New England area chartered the Top Shot Sportfishing charter boat team for a private deep sea charter boat sport fishing trip in Fort Lauderdale, FL aboard the Happy Day Today. As they boarded the boat, they were greeted by Captain Zsak and mate, Dave, from the Top Shot Sportfishing Charter Boat Team.
We started the trip trolling up the reef in 100 to 200 ft. of water out of Ft. Lauderdale using two deep planners with a pink and green seawitch along with 4 surface lines with Ballyhoos that we fished out of three outriggers. The first fish we hooked was a Black Fin Tuna and found him in 150 ft. of water - he was a football size one, but still good eating. We went back to trolling up to the north of Fort Lauderdale along the drop off. This time of the year fish migrate along the reef line and drop off, and the cold fronts help push these fish to the south. We made our way up to a sunken ship wreck that is in 145 ft. of water. First, we fished our spread around the wreck; next, we decided to catch the bait popping all around the wreck called Bullets or small Bonitas. We switched out our trolling spread and sent out the Bullet gear. As soon as we got the Bullet gear out, we started catching bait. These Bullets make excellent bait, and we caught a live well full.
Using a treble rig with wire, we next sent out 3 surface lines and one deep planner line. I started to fish these baits from shallower water up on the reef in 75 ft. of water and in front of the sunken ship wrecks, out to deeper waters in 300 ft. As soon as we got to 200 feet of water just outside the sunken ship wreck, the down rigger line popped up and the line started screaming off of the reel - we had a nice one on!! The guys fought this fish, and after a long and fun battle, a real nice Wahoo came up. The first mate reached for the gaff, buried it into the Wahoo and put him on ice in the fish box. As we were fighting this Wahoo, we had to clear a few of the livies. My center shotgun was still swimming good. The mate reloaded the deep down rigger, got the other outrigger lines out and we went back to fishing.
Shortly after catching our Wahoo, I saw a frigate bird flying in circles, so I slow trolled our baits over to it. We were now in 350 feet of water off of Fort Lauderdale Beach, and just like that, we got a double header Mahi Mahi. Both guys were fighting these fish - we gaffed the larger one and brought him in the boat while leaving the smaller one in the water since this will help the school of fish hang by the boat. The mate hooked some livies, tossed them into the water, and we hooked another two Mahi Mahi’s. We now gaffed the second Mahi and got him in the boat, as we worked on catching the last two out there. As the last two Mahi’s were brought into the boat, I didn’t see any more out in this area. Still, we continued to work the area, and tossed even more livies to ensure we weren’t missing any, but no more bites were had. We burned through some of the live Bullets, so I decided to go back to the wreck and catch more of them. We hit the wreck for more bait, caught them fairly quick, and went back to fishing. We put out the same spread and technique, slow trolling these baits. The current and wind started to pick up a little more, so we decided to pick up and try kite fishing. I ran the boat about 4 miles, found a nice reef structure and sent out the two kites with 4 goggle eyes. We worked the kites until the end of the fishing trip, with no Sailfish bites.
It was now time to head back to the dock. We had a great charter fishing trip out of Fort Lauderdale FL, and hope the guys will be back to fish with us in the near future. The happy anglers retired into the a/c salon watching the plasma TV and enjoying the relaxing trip back to the dock at Bahia Bar Yachting Center, 801 Seabreeze Blvd. Fort Lauderdale 33316.
For a successful and adventurous deep-sea fishing charter in Fort Lauderdale FL for Sailfish, Shark, Bonito, Mackerel, Swordfish, Snapper, Wahoo, Tuna, Mahi Mahi and Grouper, contact Captain Zsak. - 954-439-8106 or email us at captdz@gmail.com Website: www.topshotfishing.com.