Fort Lauderdale Fishing with Top Shot Sportfishing Charter Boat and Capt. Zsak
The Henry’s family, Scott, Lauren, Leslie, and Ryan, from Texas were here on vacation and decided to charter the Top Shot Sportfishing charter boat team to do some deep sea charter boat sport fishing in Fort Lauderdale, FL. As the family boarded the boat, I asked them what type of fishing they wanted to do – their reply was that they wanted to catch fish and a Shark, if possible.
Fifteen to twenty minutes after leaving the dock, lines were in 120 ft. of water at the sea buoy in Fort Lauderdale, 1.8 miles from shore. We started trolling using a spoon on one of the deep plainer lines and a sea witch on the 2nd deep plainer line. For surface baits we went with three Bonito strips and a Ballyhoo. My objective was to target some of our 34 artificial wrecks off of Fort Lauderdale. Any type of structure, natural or artificial, will attract the bait fish and in return the predators are not too far behind. Our first fish was an 8 lb. Bonito – all the anglers took turns as they kept bringing in more fish.
It was getting close to do some Shark fishing, so we headed out to 350 ft. of water, very close to one of our wrecks. We put out three Shark baits - one on the surface, one midrange and one on the bottom. Forty-five minutes went by and no luck. Well, do I move to go over another wreck, or do I put my time in here, was the question I asked myself. I stuck to my gut feeling, and stayed in the same area close to the wreck, which was productive this week.
Well, the fat lady started to sing, and we had no bites – it was time to bring in our baits. We started bringing in the bottom bait first – half way up, a dorsal fin popped up and ate the surface bait. Now the Chinese fire drill started. Dave, our mate, passed off the rod to Leslie to start fighting the Shark, while he went back to the bottom rod to bring it in to avoid a tangle. “Dave, the midrange bait”, I yelled, “he is on”. Now we have double trouble. Dave passed the 2nd rod over to Ryan. Both daughter and son had their hands full each fighting a fish. Ryan’s fish came up first. As Dave grabbed the leader, he put a 5 ft. Saber Tooth Barracuda with jaws snapping into the boat. Pictures were taken quickly, and the Barracuda was released. Not too far behind, Leslie brought a 5 ft. Black Tip Shark to the side of the boat. Dave removed the hooks, and released the Shark to fight again. A good lesson to remember - fishing is not over with until all the baits are out of the water even if the fat lady sings.
With a total of 1 Shark, 8 Bonitos, 1 Kingfish and 1 Barracuda, it was now time to head back to the dock. The anglers retired into the a/c salon and enjoyed the relaxing trip back to the dock at Bahia Bar Yachting Center, 801 Seabreeze Blvd. Fort Lauderdale 33316.
For a successful and adventurous deep sea fishing charter in Fort Lauderdale FL for Sailfish, Shark, Bonito, Mackerel, Swordfish, Snapper, Wahoo, Tuna, Mahi Mahi and Grouper, contact Captain Zsak. - 954-309-7457 or email us at tzsak@bellsouth.net
