Fishing Fort Lauderdale with Topshotfishing and Capt. Zsak
Mike and Cindy Drain from Oklahoma chartered the Topshotfishing team to do some deep sea big game sport fishing in Fort Lauderdale. Winds were out of the east at 12 mph with temperatures in the mid 80’s. Cindy got in touch with me and told me that this was going to be his 60th birthday gift and advised me that he would love to catch a Shark. Mike, owner of a machine shop in Oklahoma, Applied Industrial Machining, is an avid fresh water fisherman.
Fifteen minutes after leaving the dock, lines were in 120 ft. of water at the sea buoy in Fort Lauderdale, 1.8 miles from shore. If you venture out another ¼ of a mile, you will find yourself in 500 ft. of water due to our extreme drop off. We started out trolling the reefs with two #8 plainers down and four surface baits. Mike and Cindy took turns reeling in seven Kingfish and one Mahi Mahi.
It was now time to see if we could fulfill Mike’s request. I headed towards one of our artificial wrecks located in 360 ft. of water north of Fort Lauderdale. We put out three Sharks bait – one on the surface, mid-range and bottom – and one kite with two live baits. As we were waiting for the bite, Mike and I shared machine shop talk since back in the days I worked in a machine shop. There was a slight bent in the bottom Shark rod. Dave, our mate, looked up at me with a puzzled look on his face. Then the rod just bent over slightly more – Dave asked, “Did we get shallower and hooked up on the bottom.” I replied, “I moved out 10 feet deeper so it’s not the bottom”. Mike hopped into the fighting chair and started to reel in the fish. For the first 100 ft., it was easy to retrieve the line. But this did not last long – finally the fish woke up and realized that he was hooked. The Shark screamed line off of the reel and the tug of war began lasting an hour and forty-five minutes. Finally the Shark broke the surface – Thresher Shark and a large one. Dave grabbed a hold of the leader and it was now his turn to have a tug of war with the Thresher Shark. It measured out to be 131 inches long and estimated weight was 400 lbs. Pictures were taken and the Shark was released to fight again.
With Michael’s birthday wish fulfilled, it was time to head back to the dock. The anglers retired into the a/c salon for the trip back to the Bahia Mar Dock, 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@bellshouth.net Website:
www.topshotfishing.com.
