It's been a mixed bag of fish biting over the past few days. Most notably, wahoo are biting excellent. We've caught several really big wahoos over the past couple days of fishing. Wahoo are a big game pelagic fish, one of the fastest fish in the ocean. In Fort Lauderdale they average 15-20 pound but sometimes they get way bigger. One of the wahoo we caught this week was a 60 pounder. We don't get them that big very often but the winter this year has produced some way bigger than average wahoo....very curious. We catch wahoos by trolling the reef and edge of the Gulfstream, anywhere from 90-200ft of water. They almost always hit the deep lines, our planer baits. These are the baits brought deep by the use of planers, which is a metal plate that holds and angled position when 'set' to bring a trolling bait deep. The planer gets pulled deep by the drag of the water it's pulled through. When the planer bait gets hit, it 'trips' the planer and resets the planer angle to 0 degrees, releasing the pressure put on the rod. So when we get a bite, the rod actually springs up instead of down. Wahoo bites are extreme because wahoos hit the bait so fast, they 'hit like a freight train', especially the big ones.
Alongside the wahoo have been lots of bonitos, kingfish (king mackerels), small blackfin tunas and sometime barracuda. Trolling the reef is the best way to get general action with the chance at a big game fish. Oh, and sailfish sometimes bite on the troll as well. Sailfish usually hit the surface lines. A sailfish is rarely hooked on it's first strike. They usually have to come up and hit the bait repeatedly with their bill, that they use to guide the bait into their mouth. If you don't see the sailfish and are just feeling the bite with the line, it feels like a small fish coming up and repeatedly grabbing the bait and letting go. I always treat every bite like it's a sailfish, just in case. If you don't see the fish, it could be anything.
While trolling has been the best action, there are also a lot of fish to be caught bottom fishing this month. Deepwater snappers and tilefish are biting well and if you get on them good, they can be caught in good numbers. These are the best eating fish out there so if you're looking for some good table fare, you may want to use the chicken rigs on a deep, bottom spot to go after snappers and tiles. Using a chicken rig, you can actually catch multiple fish on the same rig at the same time. I like to load the box as fast as possible. The action is good out there, you just have to go soak a line to get them. In February, coming up fast, will be some epic shark fishing as well as more tunas and wahoos. Good luck to everyone fishing the next few weeks. I'll sea ya on the water.
Capt. Paul Roydhouse
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754-214-7863
