The old saying that March comes in like a lion is definitely true this year. While we have had a deep cold front affect our area here in Fort Lauderdale, it's nothing compared to what the Northeast experienced. We can only hope that the end of that saying is true as well. March is our favorite month for our Fort Lauderdale fishing area.
Our fishing here has been all over the scale for the month of February. During the full moon our offshore catches were very erratic, now that we have passed this lunar phase and are into March we are doing much better. Today we had a great catch of two Wahoo over 20#,three dorado and ten tuna and Kingfish. Sailfish that were the norm have begun to diminish for a bit as they travel south to warmer waters as we have had a cold Winter here We still catch a few, but not as regularly as we were in the past few months. Still, there's always a chance of catching one as they do frequent our coastal waters, and there will be some good days for them this month. The Sails we do catch will be on the average the largest ones of the year. March and April offer shots at fully grown and mature Sails. Some will be downright plump as they fatten up on the abundance of available baitfish.
Shark fishing has been a little off as well. With this last cold front, we are expecting them to make their yearly appearance in the numbers that they usually show at this time of year. From here on, we expect these large predators to become more abundant as time goes on all the way into June.
Kingfish fishing has been irregular with them biting some days and not the next. The nice thing has been the size of the fish being caught, mid teens to over 30lbs have been taken with some bigger fish being missed. I hate when that happens…
We also have had improvement with the Dolphin (Mahi mahi) and Wahoo. Whether trolling or fishing live bait, these fun and delicious fish have kept our anglers happy with more frequent bites, with good sized fish being caught on light tackle.
What IS on the upswing is the bottom fishing. Large Amberjacks are being caught on the deep wrecks and reefs. Snapper and Grouper fishing is getting better when conditions allow and the shallow wrecks and reefs will begin to become home to Cobia (Ling). Great fighters, the Cobia this time of year school in fairly large numbers with good sized fish well over the legal limit. Just have to keep an eye on the bag limit.
All in all, the fishing has been fishing, and with what is the norm for late February and early March is due to improve into some great fishing off Fort Lauderdale. With such a short ride to the fishing grounds, even a ˝ day charter can yield all kinds of treasures.