Fishing Techniques & Options:

.Florida Sportfishing Charters & Trip Information

Kite fishing minutes from Pompano Beach for sailfish, king mackerel, mahi mahi, cobia, wahoo. Using a kite to keep a live bait on the surface has been a popular tradition in South Florida.

Trolling: for any of these pelagics along the Atlantic drop off and reefs is also is one of the most popular and effective options. Pull baits and lures at speeds best fit for each species and watch the reel scream as line peels off. Trolling works well for almost all pelagics in the area but quite well for sailfish, mahi-mahi, king mackerel and wahoo.

Jigging & Bottom Fishing: Feeling the bite is becoming more and more popular as you drop a bait or a jig down the water column to entice a fierce reaction from grouper, amberjack and many other reef fish. Captain will target reefs and wrecks which are abundant in South Florida.

Daytime Deep Dropping For Swordfish: Run out to the deep canyons in the Gulfstream for the prized Atlantic broadbill swordfish. Electric reels or hand cranked swordfish in 1500 feet of water are a fun challenge! Daytime swordfish charters are only available on full day trips and when the weather permits.

Sailfish Charters: Most popular fish, this billfish is available year round, peak times are fall and spring.

Mahi Mahi Charters: Great eating, fun to catch, available year round, best time: Spring and Summer. Troll, live bait look for the weedlines.

Shark Fishing Charters: on heavy tackle for different species including the Great hammerhead and tiger Shark are available year round. These brutes of the deep with give you an incredible fight with sharks over 300 pounds possible. Florida’s East Coast is famous for the vast number of sharks around.

Trolling

This is dragging different baits behind the boat from 4 to 8 knots. The baits will most likely be strips of dead bait like Bonita or whole fish like Ballyhoo on colored skirts on the surface, subsurface and mid water Column.

Trolling these baits on planers which are a winged shaped plane with a lead head will get baits several feet under the surface. We use large deep diving lures that will go to depths of around 30 feet to target faster and deeper eating fish like Wahoo and King Mackerel.

All of these bait are fished at different depths to catch different species or fish that want to eat a certain depths that day.

The wash of the boat will resemble commotion in which baits are fleeing, that’s where our baits come into play. Game fish are always looking for the weaker fish in a school of baitfish. So our baits will resemble weaker baitfish of the school.

Kite fishing live baits, Sailfish charters Fort Lauderdale

Kite fishing which is literally using a kite (not a toy from Toys r Us) to suspend LIVE baits just under the surface while drifting, this keeps the bait to within a foot or two of the surface and makes the bait appear to be struggling. The kites have special clips that release the fishing line from the kite once a fish has taken the bait.

Normally two kites are used and there will be up to three fishing lines on each kite. While kite fishing, normally two or more other lines will be used to target different species at different depths including on the bottom. Species typically caught kite fishing are Sailfish, Mahi-Mahi, Kingfish, Tuna, Cobia and sometimes Wahoo.

Deep drop fishing charters Fort Lauderdale and bottom fishing.

Bottom fishing in South Florida, we fish bottom from 15 feet down to 1300 feet and here are some of the ways we do it. From West Palm Beach down past Key West there are a ton of artificial wrecks and coral reefs along the South Florida coastline. Bottom fishing is a very popular way to fish here and target species are Grouper Snapper, Amber Jack, Sharks, Barracuda and more.

Live bait makes their homes on live coral reefs and artificial structures therefore that’s where you will find the predators of the deep. There are many different species of Grouper and Snapper and all of them live at different depths different times of the year. Live baits are the best choice; most of the predators all love live bait like pilchard’s sardines and pinfish.

Dropping down Live baits to 180 feet or more and hooking a 20 pound Grouper requires heavy Rod, reels, and tackle. Heavy 50 pound braided line is commonly used because it does not stretch and will less likely break when rubbed against rock or the steel of a wreck.

Weights up to 22 ounces are used to get down to the fish and stay down due to heavy currents, and that’s fishing with spinning gear or conventional and hand cranking. Heavy Fluorocarbon leader in 50lb test is common, and the leaders can be up to 30 feet long with Circle hooks from 4/0 to 7/0.

Deerfield Beach fishing charter for Blackbelly Rosefish and Tilefish

One very good thing about the fishing Boca Raton/Fort Lauderdale area is the deeper rocky areas are not so far from shore and it’s only a quick run to fishing areas. When we are deep dropping a Chicken Rig is normally used, a chicken rig is 3 or more hooks in line above your weight and that’s what we use when deep dropping for all species down to 2000 feet of water.

Golden and Blueline Tilefish are best fished at depth from 300 to 600 fee but go much deeper. Conventional reel setups or Electric reels are used at these depths. Also the Blackbelly Rosefish is caught from 600 feet down to 1200 feet on chucks of Bonita or squid. Warsaw and Snowy Grouper can make their homes as deep as 1800 feet, so electric reels with chicken rigs and up to 12 pounds of weight are needed to catch these fish.