Nice catch of yellowtail snapper ready to be cleaned.

Great snapper fishing this week on our Drift Fishing charters.  The yellowtail snapper are biting really good in 40-80ft of water.  Over the past several days we’re coming in with really good numbers of yellowtail snapper.  Yesterday’s trip caught 69 yellowtails, 49 keepers and 20 throw-backs.  The snappers are definitely the best action to be had fishing Fort Lauderdale right now.  The best rig is the chicken rig, which is a rig with 2-3 hooks tied in tandem and a sinker on the bottom.  You bait it up with chunks of squid or ballyhoo and drop down to the bottom.  When the bite is on, as soon as you hit bottom you’ll start getting nibbles.  You can catch yellowtail, mangroves, mutton snappers as well as the entire array of porgies, grunts and groupers.

36 pound blackfin tuna caught drift fishing in Fort Lauderdale

Lots of yellowtail snappers biting in Fort Lauderdale

Kingfish are kind of slow for the drift boats in Fort Lauderdale.  We’re catching 1 or 2 per trip, and they are nice size ones, but low numbers overall.  A few bonitos are beginning to show up as well.  In another month, they will be everywhere.  Blackfin tunas are biting surprisingly good in the past few days.  This morning’s trip caught a 36 pounder and several small ones.  A few other big tunas have been caught this week and a lot of small-medium sized ones.  Our Fort Lauderdale deep sea fishing charters on the drift boat are catching a lot of action so get out there if you can.  Sea ya on the water.

Tight Lines,

Capt. Andy Roydhouse