Andrea and Tyler House from New York and Brandon Rufer and Kristin Schuth from South Dakota chartered the Top Shot Sportfishing charter boat team for a private deep sea charter boat sport fishing trip in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The two couples met on a shared party charter and became friends.
Fifteen to twenty minutes after leaving the dock, lines were in 120 ft. of water at the sea buoy in Fort Lauderdale, 1.8 miles from shore. If you go out another ¼ of a mile, you would find yourself in 500 feet of water, which we, exclusively, have here in Fort Lauderdale due to Fort Lauderdale’s extreme drop off. We started the fishing charter trolling the drop off south of Fort Lauderdale with two planner rods and four Ballyhoo surface baits. One of the planner lines had a diamond spoon and the other was a blue and pink sea witch in front of a double hooked Bonita strip.
We crissed-crossed the drop off and our first bite was on the diamond spoon. Kristin was the angler and she reeled in a Kingfish. We proceeded down the drop off with a couple of misses. Our next catch was on the planner rod with the double hooked Bonita strip – Andrea was the angler and she reeled in another Kingfish.
I could see a slick forming to the east of Fort Lauderdale, and I headed towards it. A slick is caused either from a fish that was attacked from a predator and the oil secreted from the prey or from the sargassum weed’s oil. As I approached the slick, I could see that it was from sargassum weed. I followed the line, but with no success.
I headed back to the drop off, where one wreck is located in 145 ft. of water. There we put out two Shark baits, one on the surface and one on the bottom. My plan was to put a third bottom bait to catch a Snapper or Grouper, but we never got that far because the bottom rod bent over and the line started running off of the 80 International reel. The tug of war began as both couples alternated in fighting their catch. Forty-five minutes later, I saw color, and informed our mate, Joe, that the catch was close – it’s a Bull Shark. Joe wired the Shark to the side of the boat where all four anglers took pictures. The Shark was released to fight again.
It was now time to head back to the dock. The anglers retired into the a/c salon and enjoyed 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 tzsak@bellsouth.net Website: www.topshotfishing.com.
