Fort Lauderdale Beach 12th March 2019

John McKroid

Fort Lauderdale Bch  - 12 March 2019 - I launched off the beach around 5 am in flat calm pristine conditions of darkness to attempt to catch bait.  Unfortunately, Ladyfish were aggressively attacking my sabiki rig instead of the targeted bait -- live Goggle-eyes.

After 5 Ladyfish, and 2 badly tangled/ruined Sabiki rigs, I decided to reel in my gear and peddle South to Dania, where I had heard good reports for bait catching.   It took an hour to get to Dania, and fortunately, I made it there just before sunrise to load up on 4 goggle eyes and 3 threadfin Herring.

This was my first time taking Threadfin Herring on a Sabiki, and I found them to be an excellent bait on the line, but do not live long in a bait tank.  On the way out, I ran over a school of Blue Runners to round out the live well full of bait. Conditions were nice, but fishing was slow all the way up until 10 am when I hooked and landed 2 nice King Mackerel back to back.

After that, I tied into a nice sailfish that I brought all the way in for a leader touch before unhooking.

Conditions turned bad around noon.  I was still off Dania Beach and needed to work my way back towards Ft. Lauderdale beach.  Typically I could head out deeper and ride the drift North, but the wind turned to the North and was stronger than the weak Northern current.  The wind against the current made for a steep choppy sea which was a brutal peddle back North to Ft Lauderdale beach. On the way Nth, I crossed the shipping channel precautionary area and did a couple of quick drops for bait.  The Port Everglades sea buoy is notorious for holding bait but is not a safe place for a kayak to hang out because of the potential of impeding the safe passage of a vessel constrained to the channel.

The fish finder lite up with bait marks, I made 2 quick drops, with no luck.  Since I did not want to loiter in this area, I bee-lined it out of the precautionary area.  With a limit of Kings in my bag, I was hoping to pick up a couple of Blackfin Tunas before calling it a day.  The first drop on a wreck in 200ft of water, I was pleasantly surprised with a good work-out.

The Amberjack had a tag on it.  This was the second tagged AJ that I have released for someone else to catch.  Amberjack is one of the hardest fighting fish around. I love the challenge, as unlike a big tuna, they will head for a structure to cut the line, which makes them more challenging to land.

 Next drop I ramped up to heavier gear and ripped the noggin off a nice sized Little Tunny.

After that, I went through a dozen more drops for zilch.  As I worked my way to deeper water in search of Blackfins, the wind became stronger causing the seas to become steeper.  When one begins to spend more time watching the waves than fishing, it’s time to head in. That occurred around 2 pm.

ljk

Wow, congratulations, man, what a day!

John McKroid

ljk said:

Wow, congratulations, man, what a day!

Thanks, It had been a while since I had a solid day, and it was awesome.

conchydong

You often out fish folks with 250K center consoles. Nice work. 

JW_YakAngler

Nice catches! I have fished that area from a boat several times, and I always end up daydreaming wishing I was in my kayak.

John McKroid

conchydong said:

You often out fish folks with 250K center consoles. Nice work. 

Thanks, once in a while it is nice to do good.  It is a bargain hunter's way to cheap fishing.  I usually find free parking, making my biggest expense the gas to drive my truck to the beach.

John McKroid

JW_YakAngler said:

Nice catches! I have fished that area from a boat several times, and I always end up daydreaming wishing I was in my kayak.

LOL, Thanks.

inshore dave

That was an epic day John. Thanks for sharing. Question. Your pedal to Dania, did you stay closer to shore heading South? 

jcanracer

I want to have great stories and catches like you man, I always find your reports inspirational.

John McKroid

inshore dave said:

That was an epic day John. Thanks for sharing. Question. Your pedal to Dania, did you stay closer to shore heading South? 

Thanks, Dave.  It was a 3 mile peddle Sth to Dania Pier.  Normally when I am fishing for bait in the morning, I am close to shore.  Even if I was not fishing for bait, it's best to stay close to keep out of the current that is normally running Nth. The farther offshore, the stronger the current is on most days.  On this day, it was a very mild Nth current, almost no current in the early morning.  On less frequent days, an eddy current running Sth will dominate the drift.  Had the anchor ships been pointing Sth, I might have considered peddling out deeper to help in the transit Sth.    

John McKroid

jcanracer said:

I want to have great stories and catches like you man, I always find your reports inspirational.

Thanks Chris, it's time on the water.  I did not post the trip before with 2 small Blackfin, or the last trip with a Cuda and Almaco.  Not every trip is good, but if one makes it a habit to enjoy kayak fishing on a regular basis, they are bound to have some good trips.

andrewthe1

great report and pics!

John McKroid

andrewthe1 said:

great report and pics!

Thanks Andrew.