Category Archives: Capt. Mike Blog

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Charters in April are great! Just about every fish that we catch of our Fort Lauderdale coast are present and biting in April. Everything from bonitos to kingfish, black fin tunas, mahi mahi, Sword fish, sailfish, wahoo, amberjacks and more. The weather is still mild and the wind and seas are too. Fishing takes place within 2 miles of the beach so a 1/2 day charter is all you need to experience all the fish listed above. We catch them kite fishing, trolling, deep dropping on wrecks or whatever else it takes to make them bite. Kite fishing remains extremely productive now through May and helps target the bigger fish regardless of species, meaning we will catch plenty of mahi mahi and tuna trolling but we catch the bigger ones live baiting from the kites. For a full detail on how kite fishing works check out kite fishing article page on our website fishlocalknowledge.com. We will aslso be catching plenty of big sharks this month and next as many of you know there was a great white caught here just about a week ago!! While not very common several Great White sharks in Fort Lauderdale have been spotted and hooked in the last 5 years or so. We hoked one last year and fought it for 5 hours before losing it when the handle tore off the reel! More commom in our waters are hammerhead sharks, mako sharks, thresher and bull sharks. So if youre looking to catch just about anything and everything, from food for the table to trophy fish April and May cant be beat!!

Capt Mike
954.522.4773
www.fishlocalknowledge.com

Being a Florida Native I am very familar with the devastation of hurricanes. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone and their families affected by this disaster. If anyone who has been affected by this storm is looking to come to Florida and escape reality for a little bit, give us a call let us know and we will extend very special pricing. Maybe catching a nice sailfish or two will help serve as a nice distraction.

Thanks and God Bless,
Capt. Mike
954.522.4773

September has proved to be a great month for sword fishing so far. Great friends James “Mango” and his wife Whitney chartered the Local Knowledge for a Daytime swordfish trip on the 4th. There were quite a few mahi mahi around the previous two days so we were looking to fill up on those on the way out. The mahi proved to be elusive and we prepared to conquer our intended quarry. Upon arriving at the sword grounds my deckhand Brendan coached Whitney on the dynamics of swordfishing. On the first drop we had a bite but pulled the fish shortly after hook up. The next drop Whitney dropped back perfectly on the bite and hooked another sword and after a little while she put her first Sword in the boat a nice 60 pound fish. Good ice breaker, steaks for the grill and the trip was already a success. Next drop nothing! One drop after that and Whitney pulled through again on a monster bite and we were TIGHT!!!!. The fish stayed down and nasty for the first 20 minutes or so then it shot for the surface and aired it out 400 feet behind the boat. The fish was big and beautiful. We got the fish close to the boat and missed a harpoon shot, (not easy stuff) the fish went down and we had to battle it out for another 45 minutes before we got to the boat for a great harpoon and gaff shot. WHitney just caught her second sword of the day!! We pulled the 300# plus fish in the boat took lots of pictures and ran home. Oh yeah we also caught a Blackfin tuna outside the reef when we saw some baits getting crashed on the way in.

Swords are Snappin!! Lets Go!!!
Capt. Mike
954.522.4773

Fort Lauderdale fishing trips were extremely productive this August. The fishing was much the same as july with lots of bonitas and kings, mixed in with plenty of blackfin tunas, the occassional wahoo and some sailfish. Most fish fell victem to strip baits fished behind small skirts and seawitches on planers and fished up top out of the outriggers. Daytime swordfishing proved to be productive for us as well with fish in the 100-200 pound range. September will be very similar as well and if we have as much action as August we will be very happy. Some trips to mention are Cody and Dianne who captured a beautiful 40″ mahi mahi on the 7th.Sean, Henry, Mark and Nick from Quebec banged up the bonitas and kings on the 8th. John, Jean and Jenna from North Carolina caught two exceptional kings, some bonitas and a big barracuda on the 9th. On the 10th Gary, Greg, Andy and Chris from Clearwater and Ft Lauderdale caught a nice mahi, a blackfin tuna, 5 bonitas, 6 kings and two sharks! great trip guys. The 11th Bernie, Hunter, Hoyt Nicki and Kelly all caught their share of bonitas and some kings, lots of happy faces. On the 15th Chuck, his Daughter Adriana, Stephen, Maria and Jacquleun all caught kings and bonitas for a great time. However Adriana caught a huge sailfish all by her self, incredible! Fishing coninued to be great the rest of the month as it was for Gary and Rick from Jersey who both caught their limit of kings on the 17th and for Patrick, Gary, Bill and Rachel from Pittsburgh on the 18th who caught a load of bonitas, some kings and a blackfin tuna. Charlie, Nick and Wayne did great on the 23rd with their box of kings and bonitas. On the 24th Mike, Rachel and Mike from NY caught a huge Hammerhead shark along with 7 bonitas. Awesome job guys! Rounding out the end of the month with a productive day was Ernest and Ernest Jr from Maryland with some nice tilefish, a couple of kings, 1 blackfin tuna and 5 bonitas.

Capt Mike
954.522.4773

Fort Lauderdale Sword Fishing July 25th
What a great day with new friends and I’m sure repeat customers Kurt, Connie, Mitch and Friends from Wisconnsin. We pushed the inlet this morning about 7:30 to hunt the Mighty Sword Fish about 17 miles offshore. We pulled baits on the way out in hopes of some mahi mahi, tuna or wahoo, but they gave us the slip. Once at the sword grounds we deployed the weapon (bait) 1600 ft down it was only moments on our first drom when we got the bite and Mitch captured his first sword fish ever !! A beautiful fish between 80 and 100#. Great Job!! We made it look easy. The next teo drops we had bites as well but both fish shook the hook about half way up. We made another drop with no bite and then on our last drop the bait got hammered the rod came tight and line was really cracking off the reel when that one got away too! Damn!! You have to give the fish some credit they are fighting for their lives! We trolled our way in and found a nice piece of bamboo floating with a handful of mahi mahi on it and we were able to get one nice to the boat as the others just weren’t interested. I have a feeling that school had just been picked over because of several boats in the area. What a great end to a great day. Thanks again Guys you were great to fish with and hope to see you soon.

Fort Lauderdale Fishing Charters in July were absolutely slammed packed with action. The first two weeks of July brought a giant wave of king fish and bonitas. In fact the bonitas were so thick that at times we literally could not get a full spread of baits out. Mixed in with the bonitas were some big kingfish. Most trips we had a boxfull in the first hour so we would move on to bigger things. Its nice to get some great action, bend the rods and put some nice kings on the table. As Dave, Mona, Roger and Alise from Lafayette, La found out on the 6th, on the 7th Brett, Tim, Jay, Bill and John from Texas and Maryland also filled the box. On the 13th we left for Bimini, Bahamas for 10 days of fishing with East Penn Manufacturing and their biggest sales reps and customers from O’Reillys Auto and Napa Auto. Fishing over all was a little slow compared to years past but we did good on the billfish. We caught 2 out of 4 Blue Marlin. One of the Marlin pushing 200#’s we caught on 30# test.
We caught lots of mackeral, monster barracudas, big sharks and some giant amberjacks!! Overall it was a great trip with plenty of action just not the Mahi Mahi and wahoos we were hoping for.
Back in the states it was back to the bonitas and kings along with some mahi mahi and the occassional wahoo. We did nab some big sharks both hammerheads and bull sharks!