Anthony and Kenny from the Cincinnati area chartered the Top Shot Sportfishing charter boat team for a private deep-sea charter boat sport fishing trip in Fort Lauderdale, FL based out of Bahia Mar. As they boarded the boat, they were greeted by Captain Zsak from the Top Shot Sportfishing Charter Boat Team.
Fifteen to twenty minutes after leaving the dock, lines were in 110 ft. of water at the sea buoy in Fort Lauderdale, 2 miles from shore. If you venture off another mile, you would find yourself in 500 ft. of water, which we exclusively have here in Fort Lauderdale, due to Fort Lauderdale’s extreme drop off. The further north you go, the further the drop off swings offshore.
I headed offshore south of Fort Lauderdale where there had been some decent fishing action the previous day. We got about 4 miles to the southeast of Fort Lauderdale and started the day fishing with 4 surface lines, which included three Ballyhoos and one surface chugger bait, along with two deep lines (#8 & #6 planners) with a 3 inch blue spoon on one rod and the other with a double hooked Bonita strip with a sea witch in front. We started catching Kingfish while trolling south of Fort Lauderdale. Once I found a school of fish, we worked the area heading offshore and back inshore, hitting the marks and making swings over the wrecks. We also caught Bonitas on the rigger high lines, which were all good fights on lighter tackle - they were eating the blue and silver squid baits. The anglers caught 5 Kingfish and 3 Bonitas.
Next, I decided to head offshore. There were a ton of weeds which was making it hard to fish the area. We had to look for clear spots of weed to fish. Suddenly, the rigger came down, and we had a nice Mahi Mahi on. The Mahi gave a good fight, and the angler fought him well – Russ, our mate, gaffed him and put the Mahi in the fish box. We continued trolling and hooked up with another two Mahi’s. They both jumped out of the water and gave the anglers a good fight. The mate gaffed the first one and put him in the box, but the second one was undersized (20") so we released him.
The last stop of the trip was wreck fishing. We came into 200 feet of water, put a live Pilchard on the hook with a 2-pound lead, and sent the bait down to the up current side of the wreck. As soon as we hit bottom, we hooked up with a nice fish. Tony fought this fish, and when the fish came up, we saw it was an Almaco Jack, another good eating fish. Russ gaffed the fish and put him in the fish box.
It was now time to head back to the dock. 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. - 954-309-7457 or email us at captdz@gmail.com Website: www.topshotfishing.com.