Mark Perez along with close friends, Tom, Pat and John Migs, chartered the Happy Day Today to do some deep sea fishing off of Fort Lauderdale FL.

From dock to fishing grounds, 15 minutes later the lines were in the water, with two planers down, one with a 3 ½ drone spoon and the other with a pink sea witch in front of a double hook Bonito strip.  For surface baits, we had a blue and white jap feather, two Bonito strips and two Ballyhoos.  Winds were out of the east, southeast, 10-15 mph, and very little north current.  I trolled towards one of our artificial wrecks that sits in 180 ft. of water but had no bites, so we headed off to another wreck that sits in 260 ft. of water – that result was the same.  From there I decided to set the kite up in 165 ft. of water off of the sea buoy that sits off of Fort Lauderdale FL.  With two medium kites out, two live Goggle Eyes from each kite, one Shark bait sitting on the bottom and one live Goggle Eye from the outrigger, I felt would cover all bases.

Our first strike, a Reef Shark, was from the left, long kite; pictures were taken and the Shark was released. After we reset the kites, our next bite was a Bull Mahi Mahi, which pulled the hook, followed by another Shark bite. A Sailfish lethargically swam around the bait and I could see it was not interested in feeding.  As the Sailfish circled the bait for the second time, I yelled down to our mate, Jackson, to splash the bait up and down.  Once this happened, the Sailfish got interested in the splashing bait, and attacked.   Twenty minutes later with both the Sailfish and angler tired, the fish was brought to the boat and pictures were taken.