300 pound mako shark caught on shark fishing charter today

300 pound mako shark caught on shark fishing charter with New Lattitude Sportfishing

Capt Adam was on the wheel and he immediately threw the boat in full forward and yelled at the angler to reel on it hard and fast, trying to get the slack out of the line as quickly as possible. As soon as we came back tight on the fish, he dove deep. We knew it was a mako we were hooked up to and we were excited. This was the first mako we’ve caught in over a year at least, and we’ve only seen 1 or 2 caught among the entire fleet this shark fishing season. Mako’s are a cold water shark, mainly inhabiting the Northeast Atlantic. They are actually quite common to catch in New England, but for us in South Florida they are rare.

Nice mako shark caught today

2We were on a shark fishing charter, so we kept fish. Another half hour of fishing and we had on our second big shark of the day, this time a hammerhead. The hammerhead was also a big shark, an 8 and a half footer. We caught him in just 45 mins and estimated him at 200 pounds. In addition to the 2 sharks, we also caught a half dozen tile fish and a few bonitos that we traded up for much bigger game. A great Fort Lauderdale shark fishing charter! It’s a great time of year for fishing, so if you want to catch some big game fish, now is the time to go fishing. Tight Lines,

Capt. Rod Roydhouse

New Lattitude Sportfishing

954-707-2147

Nice sailfish caught on a Fishing Charter with the New Lattitude Fishing Team

A lot of great fish are moving through Ft Lauderdale right now.  Sailfish, Sharks, Amberjacks, Mahi-Mahi, Tuna, Wahoo, Grouper and More.  As we come into the Spring fishing season, fishing really lights up for us in Ft Lauderdale.  The best bite this week has been Sailfish.  Sailfishing in Fort Lauderdale this week is phenomenal.  Every trip has either caught one or more sailfish, or at least had one or more on the line.  Sailfish are never a sure thing, but they sure are biting like it.  Mahi-mahi schools are also inhabiting the reefs.  We’re trolling out to and in from fishing grounds and hitting schools of mahi-mahi.  Some of them are very nice size in the 20 pound plus class.  March is a great month for the larger mahi-mahi, as is April. 

Sailfish biting in Ft Lauderdale on Sportfishing Charters

Sharks are here and they are biting with a vengence.  Hammerheads are leading the shark train, big female hammerheads in the 6-10 ft range.  We’ve caught a couple hammerheads this week over 300 pounds.  Shark fishing season is just beginning and it’s starting off splendidly.  Some dusky sharks, black tips and sand bar sharks are also coming through our waters… we’re catching a few of them too.  There have already been a few exotic sharks such as mako and thresh sharks seen this week, which is a good sign that the shark concentration in Ft Lauderdale is increasing.  For the next few months, big game shark fishing will be a daily thing in Ft Lauderdale.

Decent action on the wrecks this week too.  Some big cobia schools are showing up on some of the better wrecks that we fish.  Also some of the deep water groupers are biting.  Jack fish are moving onto these artificial reefs and wrecks too and they will soon dominate the wrecks with their numbers.  We’re getting into Ft Lauderdale’s best fishing season and big game fish are starting to snap.  Good Luck fishing this month everyone.

Fort Lauderdale fishing charter with kids caught this nice cobia

Tight Lines,

Capt. Rod Roydhouse

New Lattitude Sportfishing

www.newlattitude.com

(954)707-2147

Big wahoo just caught in Fort Lauderdale with New Lattitude Sportfishing

Awesome Wahoo Fishing in Fort Lauderdale
What a great week on big wahoo we are having fishing in Fort Lauderale this week.  Big wahoos, 30-40 pounders are biting really good anywhere from 100-600ft of water.  Today, Capt Adam went trolling out in 400 ft of water looking for wahoo.  They hooked into a double header wahoo, both of which took a crazy run right off the bat and almost stripped the reel.  We had to back the boat down to make sure we didn’t run out of line.  The wahoo took such a fast run of line off the reel right off the bat that both reels actually smoked.  When both fish stopped their initial run, it wasn’t too hard to fight them in.  We gaffed the first wahoo, which was a 40 pounder easy.  The second wahoo pulled the hooks right behind the boat.  It was equally as large as the first one. 

4 wahoos caught on a Fort Lauderdale fishing charter

We’ve also done good on the reefs trolling for wahoos.  Capt Kevin caught 4 out of 5 wahoos trolling the reef yesterday, along with some sushi-sized blackfin tunas and kingfish.  The reef wahoos aren’t as big as the offshore wahoo are this time of year.  Some bigger mahi-mahi dolphin are being reported offshore as well.  On the reef, sailfish continue to be active.  January and February are 2 of the best months for sailfishing in Fort Lauderdale of the whole year.  We are finally getting some slightly cooler weather down here which is getting the sailfish active.  Shark season is just around the corner with some mako sharks, hammerhead sharks and thresher sharks just starting to show up.  Get ready for the best big game shark fishing season of the year to begin next month.  Good luck fishing out there this week everyone.  Tight lines and good fishing!

Capt. Rod Roydhouse

Fort Lauderdale fishing charters

954-707-2147

Nice sailfish just caught sportfishing on a New Lattitude Fishing charter

Monster cobia caught sportfishing with New Lattitude

Had a great trip today with a repeat customer who fished with us last year. He and his wife took a private charter for a full day of fishing. We had an unbelievable catch. The target was sailfish and that was what we started out fishing for. We went directly 1 mile straight out of the inlet and launched the kites in 130ft of water. It wasn’t long before the captain spotted a shark eating the left long bait. It was some kind of brown shark by the look of him, we couldn’t really tell what kind. We fought the fish for 20 minutes and it was fighting very strangely for a shark. When the fish finally came into range of the boat, the mate yelled “Cobia” and scrambled for the gaff. It was about a 45 pound cobia, awesome start to our fishing trip. Coulda sworn it was a shark in the distance. We set the baits again and waited about fifteen minutes until we had our next bite. Again, it was a shark of some kind, at least we thought. We fought this fish for 15 minutes or so before getting him to the boat. Turned out to be a shark alright, but not one we ever catch here in Fort Lauderdale. It was about a 48 inch tiger shark, beauty of a fish. Not a full grown one, but they are such a cool shark and we never get to catch them. We took a quick photo and turned him loose.

Sailfish caught in Fort Lauderdale with New Lattitude Sportfishing

We set the baits again, but after 25 minutes of no action, we switched to some wreck fishing. We went to a deep spot in 400ft of water. First drop, we catch about a 10 pound snowy grouper. Next drop we get a giant snapper. We must of caught the scout, because after those fish got caught, we didn’t get any more bites. We moved to a shallow wreck I like to fish and did a few more drops. We caught a really big black grouper, a good 20-25 pounder. Time was running down and we still hadn’t caught a sailfish. We decided to give kite fishing another shot.

Tiger shark, rare in Fort Lauderdale caught shark fishing

We heard of a few sailfish seen in 250ft of water that day, listening to the radio and talking to the other fishermen. We set up in 250 and waited. No action for almost an hour and we were ready to about call it a day when we finally see the dorsal fish pop up right next to our left short bait. The bite was textbook, fish circled twice and got the bait in his mouth, we freespooled and let him eat it for 20-30 seconds. We put the rod into strike and I put the boat ahead full throttle. The angler reeled like mad as we took up the big belly in the line and came tight on the fish. The line popped crisply from the kite clip, making even more slack to take up. The fish had felt us by now and surged away. Just as we came tight to the fish and the rod finally bent over, the sailfish leaped from the water shaking his head side to side in a violent attempt to throw the bait. We were HOOKED UP!!! Sailfish fight with more veracity than any other fish I know. I think they spend more time fighting in the air than in the water. After a 30 minute fight, both the angler and the fish were tired. We snapped a quick photo and released him. It was a great day of fishing and we ended it right by catching the coolest gamefish in the ocean.

Black grouper caught bottom fishing in Fort Lauderdale

Nice sportfishing catch with New Lattitude Sport Fishing

Sailfishing is awesome in November in Fort Lauderdale

It’s sailfish season here in Fort Lauderdale. With the first couple of cold fronts starting to move through, the sailfishing this year is nothing short of spectacular. Every year, from October through January, the sailfish make a massive migration down our coastline. In Fort Lauderdale, we call the strip of water between 100-150ft of water, ‘Sailfish Alley’. For catching sailfish, the best technique is kite fishing. We fly kites and use the kites to suspend live baits on the surface of the water. The struggling bait makes vibrations that attract fish in from a large radius. Sailfish, tuna, mahi-mahi, wahoo, sharks, kingfish and cobia all go nuts over a kite bait. It’s the best way to catch big fish this time of year. If there isn’t enough wind to fly the kites, slow trolling live baits from the outriggers is a great alternative and gives you the added benefit of covering a lot more ground that you would by kite fishing. Any technique of live baiting you choose should be rewarding, the big fish are really biting good this month.

Nice Dolphin Catch fishing in Fort Lauderdale with New Lattitude Sportfishing

The mullet run is happening now along the beaches of Fort Lauderdale. Huge schools of mullet are making their way northward along our beaches. You can see them right off the beach. These schools of mullet look like big dark shadows in the water, the size of a bus, moving slowly along the shoreline. All kinds of gamefish follow behind these schools, picking off the slower swimming and injured mullet. I like to come in to the shallows this time of year and fish near these schools. You can catch huge tarpon, snook, permit, grouper, snapper, cobia, barracuda and every kind of shark you can think of. Best bait to fish in these mullet schools? You guessed it… Mullet, dead or alive. For a live mullet, clip a piece of the tail off so it is bleeding and swimming injured. Make sure to use appropriate gear, and lean on the heavy side 25-50# tackle. You would be surprised at the monster fish you can catch just a few hundred yards off the beach. Good luck fishing everyone and
Tight Lines!

Capt. Rod Roydhouse

Fort Lauderdale Sportfishing

Nice Dolphin catch fishing in Fort Lauderdale

Big dusky shark caught shark fishing in Fort Lauderdale

June is the month for dolphin fishing offshore.  The big dolphin of the spring are starting to fade away, but the new schools of mahi-mahi are forming up offshore and making their way up our coast.  The June dolphin are the smaller sized dolphin, 3-5 pound fish or “schoolies” as we call them.  They don’t last too long out there swimming around by themselves, so they school up into big congregations of fish, sometimes as many as hundreds of fish in a single school.  They can be tough to find out there, as they are always moving around and it is a very big ocean.  The majority of the fish this time of year are 10-14 miles offshore.  I like to run out there about 10 miles offshore and start trolling.  For dolphin, you just have to put in your miles ’till you find something.  Keep a constant eye out for weedlines, current edges, slicks (which could indicate blood and fish oils rising to the top from fish feeding), flying fish getting chased up by something other than the boat, any kind of birds especially frigate birds, and any kind of debris you find floating.  Finding something to fish to, and covering a lot of ground is the key to finding dolphin schools. Find one school, and you can load the box with fish!  When you find your school of fish, pull out the 20 pound spinning tackle and bail them.  Keep one dolphin fish hooked up and in the water out there, and the whole school of fish will stay nearby so that you can bail them on the light gear. 

Clay and his family with a big almaco jack just caught off a shipwreck

Dolphin fishing is fun in the summer months, especially June, but you do need a full day 8 hour charter to give it a real shot at dolphin fishing.  If you’ve only got a half day to go fishing, stay in on the reef and go trolling for bonitos and kingfish.  They action is great trolling the reef, you’ll hardly ever not be hooked up.  To catch the bigger kingfish, blackfin tuna and wahoo on the reef, slow trolling live baits is very effective, especially from the downrigger.  The biggest fish seem to stay deeper in the summertime, perhaps to stay in the cooler water column.  The downrigger can put a live bait right in front of their face, an offer they can’t refuse.  Wreck fishing can also be fun this month.  Black groupers are biting good on the 80-260ft deep shipwrecks.  Also barracuda, jacks, mutton snappers and sometimes cobia bite good this month live baiting around the wrecks.  Good luck out there fishing everyone.  Tight Lines and Good Fishing!

Capt Rod Roydhouse
Fort Lauderdale Fishing
(954)707-2147

Best shot I have of an estimated 900 lb tiger shark caught this week in Ft Lauderdale with Capt Adam

Big barracuda caught sport fishing Fort Lauderdale

Monster hammerhead sharks caught by these 2 anglers on a Ft Lauderdale sportfishing charter

Big hammerhead shark caught shark fishing in Fort Lauderdale

The sharks are just plain snappin’ this week in Fort Lauderdale.  Every trip we’ve put out the shark baits, a big hammerhead or giant dusky shark jumped on the bait.  This week, we’re at 6 hammerhead sharks and 3 dusky sharks in the past 7 days, and they are still biting!   The excellent shark fishing is definitely related to the big bonito run that is happening off the Fort Lauderdale coast right now.  Bonitos are a gamefish in the tuna family.  They average 10-20 pounds and they make a major run down the Ft Lauderdale coastline every year for the 3 months of summer. 

A huge hammerhead caught shark fishing in Fort Lauderdale!

The bonitos are here!  They showed up about 2 weeks ago, when the shark fishing really turned on.  They will be here for another 3 months, as will the big game sharks that like to eat them.  Bonitos  themselves are fun to catch.  They are very bloody fish, just like tuna.  Composed of almost pure muscle, these bonitos are one of the strongest fighting fish, pound-for-pound, more so than almost any other fish.  In the summer months, now through the beginning of September, the bonitos are covering the reefs almost everywhere.  They light up the action trolling the reef, and bring with them some of the biggest gamefish in the Carribean.  Marlin, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, and all the big game sharks… hammerhead, mako, thresher, bull, dusky, sand bar and spinner sharks all follow the bonito schools.

Hammerhead sharks are snapping in Ft Lauderdale this week

Offshore action is spotty, but there are some dolphin offshore with the patience to go out there and put in the miles of trolling.  The schools of the schoolie dolphin are beginning to form up offshore, usually with a big bull dolphin leading the pack.  A few weehoo and wahoos are offshore too.  A double hook ballyhoo trolled on a deep bait is hard for a wahoo to resist.  Always be ready for and have a bait out for a blue marlin to eat.  They are uncommon but you never know when one may hit.  Cool stuff happens in June!  Good luck out there fishing everyone and TIGHT LINES!

Capt. Rod Roydhouse
(954)707-2147
Shark fishing charters in Fort Lauderdale

Nice 20 pound dolphin caught sportfishing in Ft Lauderdale

Hammerhead shark caught shark fishing in Ft Lauderdale

The fishing is great in Fort Lauderdale this month.  March through June is BIG GAME fishing season here in South Florida and big fish are snappin’.  This is the peak of our famous shark fishing season in Fort Lauderdale.  Hammerhead sharks are making traveling down our coastline in incredible numbers.  Literally thousands, perhaps ten’s of thousands of hammerheads make their way northward during these months, right through the middle of our fishing grounds.  We’ve done a couple shark fishing trips this week and we’re batting a thousand.  Hammerheads on every trip we’ve soaked the baits for them.  One of the biggest hammerheads, T-Heads as we call them, was 10 ft long, over 300 pounds.  Hammerheads are also cool because they have that nice hammer on their head, which makes them easy to grab and control their head, so we can pull them into the boat for a quick pic.    

Hammerheads aren’t the only sharks in Fort Lauderdale.  Plenty of other shark species are also biting.  This month we’ve caught 2 big makos, a 400 pound thresher shark, a bunch of dusky/sandbar sharks and some black tip sharks.  Shark season in Fort Lauderdale is in full swing.  The good shark fishing is really the result of all the other activity we have going on in Fort Lauderdale right now.  With so much available food on the reef and wrecks, it makes sense that so many big game sharks are feeding in our fishing zone.  Usually the great shark fishing lasts until August and then slows down, so plan your shark fishing trips now!   Good luck fishing out there everyone and Tight Lines!

Capt. Rod Roydhouse

Ft Lauderdale Shark Fishing

(954)707-2147

Nice catch aboard the Big Game on a sportfishing charter

Great fishing today on our sportfishing charter. We set out this morning on a 4 hour private sportfishing charter. Denny, our customer, told us that he wanted to catch dinner and then go after something big. Well, grouper season just opened up on May 1, so we knew we could easily catch some nice groupers around the wrecks. The groupers have been completely unharrassed by us fishermen for over 5 months. They are stacked up around all the wrecks. On our first grouper spot, we caught 3 snowy groupers in just as many drops. We also caught a 50 pound amberjack fishing the same wreck. So, with dinner in the box, we went out to the edge of the gulfstream, into 350ft of water and set our kites for something big. We kite fished for about a half hour with no bites, so we decided to make some drops for vermillion snappers while we were kite fishing. 3-5 vermillion snappers were coming up on every drop, 3-4 pounders all of them. It was fun for about 20 minutes until Capt Paul yelled down, “Sailfish, LEFT SHORT”. We free spooled to the sail for a minute and then gunned the boat ahead and started winding until we came tight. Fish on! We caught the sailfish in about 20 minutes. The sailfish was gagged, so we brought him in. It was a fun day. Not bad for a half day fishing charter in Fort Lauderdale.

Sailfish caught charter fishing in Fort Lauderdale by Denny, Capt Rod and Capt Paul

The fishing in Fort Lauderdale is getting awesome. Some monster fish have hit the docks this week. Big Hammerhead sharks are everywhere and can almost be caught on demand. They are in the middle of their major migration down our coastline. They are moving fast and they are hungry. If you want to catch a 6-10 ft hammerhead shark, this is the month to go fishing. Other big sharks are biting out there too. Mako sharks are being caught out there, as well as deep water thresher sharks. Fishing is hot this time of year for the Fort Lauderdale charter fishing boats. Good luck fishing everyone.

Capt. Rod Roydhouse

Fort Lauderdale Charter Fishing Trip

(954)707-2147

Nice sportfishing catch on a charter fishing trip

Nice swordfish caught on our Fort Lauderdale Swordfish Charter last night

Double header swordfish caught on last night's swordfishing charter in Fort Lauderdale

We listened to the radio on the way out to fishing grounds, to hear how the action was for the commercial fishing boats fishing for swordfish. One boat had a single bite, but nothing else good to report from any of the other boats. We were just setting our third bait, when we got the bite. The long bait’s marker balloon plunged down and line started screaming off the reel. We were hooked up. The angler grabbed the rod and got set up in the fighting chair when the other rod starts jerking and pouring out drag. At first we thought it was a the same fish, either tangled or that he ate both baits. But the angle of the lines proved it was 2 different fish. We fought the fish to the boat in 20 minutes. They weren’t the biggest swordfish we’ve ever caught, but they were nice ones. The bigger fish was 80 pounds and the smaller fish 60.

After catching those swordfish, we kept fishing for a couple more hours. We had one mystery bite that came back with a mangled bait, probably a shark of some specie. Also, we had a tiny swordfish, a 15 pounder or so, come swim up in our light off the back of the boat. He swam there for a good 5 minutes, zooming in and out of the light. We pitched a couple baits to him, but he never ate and eventually swam off. It was cool to see though, and I’ve never seen one so small. Any trip you land a swordfish on is a great trip! We’re having some good fishing action on our Fort Lauderdale swordfish charters. Tight Lines and good fishing,

Capt Rod Roydhouse
(954)707-2147
Fort Lauderdale Swordfish Charters