Upon my return to Fort Lauderdale from the Bahamas, my first fishing trip back got even me excited! Our trip today was a mixed group of people and of course, they ALL wanted to catch fish. Trolling had been producing some small sized Bonitos on the reef and with little wind, we decided to keep the boat moving in our high 80's temps and begin out day with some easy fish to catch.
The Bonitos were biting pretty good as were the King Mackerel. It took a little over an hour to catch everyone aboard a couple of fish. Bending the rod is always our goal and the reef was providing this with no problem.
But as usual, things tend to slow a bit as the sun gets high and the waters warm. We're not really in a season where sharks are plentiful but you never know what will happen when you deploy large baits. Grouper, Amberjack, even Sailfish and Swordfish can find these baits. And of course, any kind of shark.
We set a top bait and then began dropping a bottom bait. It didn't get far before Justin let me know we had a bite on the drop. With young Robert in the chair, we hooked and caught a large Barracuda. At just under 4', I'm afraid he was no match for the heavy gear we use when we fish for "the BIG stuff" and was easily caught and released.
Another bottom bait was rigged and sent down to the bottom with no interruption this time. The thing about this kind of fishing is waiting for the bite. The scent travels with the current, which there was plenty of today, and anything swimming through that water column will track the scent back to the bait. Our enemy in this kind of fishing is time, the longer we do it, the better our chances but time was running out.
As I called for lines up and Justin began cranking the bottom rod about half way up he yelled he'd had another bite. This time it was no Barracuda that bit, if it was, it was a huge one. The rod bent, some drag took off and Anthony was in the chair for the fight. It took about 10 minutes to land his Mako Shark, very aggressive and somewhat angry at the boat. I can only guess he was somewhere around 70 to 80 pounds and maybe 6' long. While I kept the fish tight as Justin hung on, the group was taking pictures before we released him back to the sea to get bigger. While not a huge fish, very exciting as we don't catch many of these sharks here in the warm waters off Fort Lauderdale.
I'm afraid I never got a picture of this fish and my requests to be sent the ones the guests had fell on deaf ears. So Robert's Barracuda will have to do. But the thrill is still with me upon my return to fishing at Fanntastic Fishing here in Fort Lauderdale where you just never know what will bite.
Keep em tight… Keep em on.
Captain Steve
