Great drift fishing trip aboard the Mary B III in Fort Lauderdale

Summer is here! The weather is heating up and so is the action on the reef. June is the beginning of the bonito run down our coastline. As we know from the movie “Stepbrothers”, bonito are a gamefish and are very big, averaging 10-20 pounds and sometimes larger. Bonitos take over the reef during the summer months from June to September, moving through in huge schools the size of football fields and eating everything they come across. On the drift boat, it livens the action up to incredible proportions. 20 anglers on the boat, fighting 20 bonitos simultaneously. It would make a good movie! It’s fast paced and fun action and everyone catches a lot of nice fish. Bonitos are definitely the dominant force, but kingfish, blackfin tuna, wahoo, barracuda and sailfish all travel amongst the schools of bonitos and bite just as aggressively as the bonitos do. Kingfish are much larger this time of the year, some up to 40 pounds but average size fish are the solid 10 pounders.

Snapper fishing is good in Fort Lauderdale this month

Snapper fishing gets good this month too. The full moon in June is the mutton spawn where the muttons congregate in specific spots off our coast and do their annual spawning. About 2 days before the full moon and 4-5 days after the full moon is the best mutton snapper fishing of the whole year. For the best bite on muttons, pick up some fluorocarbon leader material at the tackle store. It’s expensive, but totally invisible and it can get the bite on the shy fish. Yellowtailing in June is also good. Crusher jigs, yellow or white ones work great for yellowtails, baited with a silverside or small piece of kingfish belly. Some nice mangroves bite good on the bottom this month, usually a strong late night bite on them starting after 11pm. Night snapper fishing is exciting this month, there’s a lot going on out there. Great month for fishing, so get out there and tire your arms out on some bonitos, kingfish and mutton snappers! Sea ya on the water.

Come out fishing with us!

Fishing Headquarters

Capt. Andy Roydhouse