Special Catch in Fort Lauderdale
December 20, 2020 Dania Beach 4 photos

Trip Summary

Capt. Vinnie here, and we do have a great report for you guys of some great fishing this week in the Fort Lauderdale area. We had a great trip with our friends from Texas where we started out trolling the shallow reef for a great kingfish bite on our deep lines using planers. The kingfish have been biting in depths of 80-110 feet of water using seawithes and bonito strips, the kingfish also have been nice sized as well averaging around 10lbs or so. Offshore lets talk about tuna tuna tuna. There has been lots of blackfin and skipjack tuna offshore in depths of **hidden content** feet of water just off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, the tuna have been feeding on small live baits like sardines and anchovy. The have been easy to locate but hard to get to bite due to all the bait in the water we have been doing best with small feathers fished on very light leaders like 30lb test fished very far behind the boat, when locating feeding tuna you want to try and troll around the fish and not directly through the mayhem, if you decide to go right through the school of feeding fish the noise of the engines will drive them down deep and they will not bite something to keep in mind... There has been a few mahi mahi around as well this is not prime season for them but we do catch them this time of year when trolling offshore for tuna and they are usually a little bit larger them are normal summer time fish. The story behind this report being called "Special Catch in Fort Lauderdale" is due to a fish that we caught with our friends from Texas called an African pompano now this fish is somewhat rare and is not easy to target we usually only catch 3 per year its more of an incidental catch then something we actually target, but in the winter time months there are a few areas in the Fort Lauderdale area that hold them and we decided to make a bottom fishing drop on a shipwreck that we know in the winter time has them, using small live bait called a pilchard we would drop to the bottom and wait patiently, the best part about fishing shipwrecks is you never know what you are going to catch could be a grouper, amberjack, or a snapper, but in this case it was an awesome African pompano, these fish are hard fighters due to there wide bodies and did I mention they are one of the best fish to eat on the table! All in all I was amazed and very happy to go out and actually target a fish that is so rare and catch it is enough for me. Anyways night fishing this week has been good with a great catch of yellowtail snapper as well as some mangrove snapper also, night fishing is great this time of year but remember to dress warm because some of the nights it can be pretty cold. The snappers have been biting best on the reef in depths of 40-70 feet using lots of chum as well as fish silversides and shrimp, and if your looking to catch a shark there has been plenty at night trying to eat our snappers as we are reeling them in. Day or night we got you covered for any type of fishing your looking to do. This week there is availability so if your looking to give someone a holiday gift of fishing we would love to have you, remember to follow us on instagram @Ybnormalsportfishing and like us on facebook for daily fishing reports..... happy holidays Capt. Vinnie
Vinnie Sacks
Dania-beach, Florida, United States
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Sailing out of Port Everglades In Fort Lauderdale for over a decade YB Normal is ready to take clients out for a great day of fishing. Captain Vinnie offers a range of trips, with four to 8-hour packages and the choice of coming as a group or jumping aboa...

Other reports from this charter

Holiday Fishing In Fort Lauderdale
Holiday Fishing In Fort Lauderdale
December 1, 2025
Hello everyone, Capt. Vinnie here. What a great week we had over the thanksgiving holiday lots of great people and some pretty great fishing as well. For the report this week we will start off inshore where most of the action has been taking place. Since we are moving more towards are winter time fishing conditions that means its about time to put the trolling stuff away and break out the live baiting gear. Kite fishing for sailfish is just starting to heat up and we have been catching a few big ones. Whenever we have the right conditions here in Fort Lauderdale kite fishing with live bait can be one of the coolest things you might ever see. Live baits of choice have been live mullet but goggle eyes are also a great choice. Other then sailfish we have been getting shots at nice kingfish, wahoo and some mahi mahi. All this action has been taking place less then 1 mile of the coast in about 120-200 feet of water. Like i said earlier trolling is getting ready to come to the end for now, but if your looking for species like tuna, the bite on them has been excellent lately but in the afternoon time. Now this time of year the blackfin tuna are not going to be the biggest in size but thats ok, because even if they are smaller they still taste great. Trolling depths from 200-400 feet of water with smaller baits like spoons or just plain squid skirts are going to be the best way to get the bites. The most important key i think is trolling faster and when you get a bite do not slow the speed down, slowing down will not allow you to hook multiple fish at once, so its important to keep your speed and adjust your reels drag pressure in order for multiple hook ups. Offshore this week has been somewhat slow but thats to be expected due to the fact that the mahi fishery is coming to and end, but that being said this week i was able to catch a few nice ones on a current edge. Like i said this time of year we tend to not catch many but the ones we do catch are bigger in size around 15lb average. This week please be sure to take a look at some of the great photos of some recent catches that were caught while out on our deep sea fishing charters in Fort Lauderdale and remember to give us a like and follow on social media platforms like facebook and instagram @Ybnormalsportfishing for daily fishing content. Coming up for this week and part of next is a little break from the fishing scene, as the boat is coming out of the water for some maintenance, nothing major but a few things that need to get done. We will be back sooner then later. Now is a great time to book for the month of December for deep sea fishing specially around Christmas time, don't wait till the last second to book when we have the availability as of right now, so if your coming down to south Florida and looking to do some deep sea fishing look us up we would love to show you a great time on the water. more later... Capt. Vinnie
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Great Fishing Days In Fort Lauderdale
Great Fishing Days In Fort Lauderdale
November 21, 2025
Hello everyone, Capt. Vinnie here, this week we continue with what seems to be the norm right now and that is great fishing! The fall in my opinion is some of the best fishing we have here in Fort Lauderdale and the photos of our recent catches prove that to be true. For the report this week on the reef is where majority of the action has been, trolling has been slowing down from what it was but there is still some good action to have, trolling on the edge of the reef the king mackeral bite has been far and few between but that being said if you work at it you can squeeze a few out. Mullet strips have been the bait of choice, they have a better scent to them then are typical bonito strips so i personally think certain times of the year they can be the difference maker. Just off the reef is where the best bite has been and there as been a few different species. Blackfin tuna have been starting to make a showing this week and thats good news for the upcoming winter season, with blackfin tuna low light conditions are going to be the best, what i mean by that is sunrise and sunset. Tuna have larger eyes and can be sensitive to light so they tend to feed best when the sun is at the lowest points during the day. We have been catching the tuna on our normal surface and below surface baits but one key thing to note is trolling at faster speeds specially for tuna is going to get you more bites. Mixed in with the tuna on occasion is the wahoo, majority of the wahoo caught while tuna fishing are feeding on the tuna. We tend to fish one bigger bait in our spread while fishing for tuna just for that wahoo. Wahoo is one of the best tasting fish we catch here and can be cooked or not cooked "raw" and make for a great dinner. There has still been a handful of mahi mahi around even though we are getting towards the end of the season for them, they have been scattered from the reef on out to a few miles offshore and have been good size too, anywhere from 10lbs to 15lbs. Trying to find something to fish to like birds or even something floating is always going to give you a better chance to catch. Last but not least is sailfish. We have been starting to see a few sailfish on the reef while trolling and live bait fishing. We are on the tail end of the trolling season and slowly changing over to stricly live baiting. Kite fishing is soon to become the norm in the next few months coming up. This week please be sure to take a look at some of the great photos of some recent catches that were caught while out on our deep sea fishing charters in Fort Lauderdale and remember to give us a like and follow on social media platforms like facebook and instagram @Ybnormalsportfishing for daily fishing content. For the rest of the month we have some availability and i would hate for you to miss out while the fishing is great, so if your coming down to Fort Lauderdale and looking to do some deep sea fishing please look us up we would love to show you a great time on the water... More later... Capt. Vinnie
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Great Fall Fishing In Fort Lauderdale
Great Fall Fishing In Fort Lauderdale
November 14, 2025
Hello everyone Capt Vinnie here, the first cold front is officially in the books here in Fort Lauderdale. What is cold for us may not be cold for you but its a brisk 60 degrees here. Anyways cold fronts tend to bring fish with them and the first one being in the books this week has brought some nice fish with it. For the report this week we will start way offshore with a fish that we typically don't talk much about and that's the swordfish. As of late there has been a great swordfish bite going on, we recently went out to the shelf and caught 3 out of 4 swordfish in only a few hours. This doesn't happen all the time but when the conditions line up it can be an epic day out there. One key thing to note is that the swordfish we caught were full of squid and that means there is plenty of bait and as long as the bait stays the fish will be close by. Moving inshore a little bit there has been some really nice mahi mahi still around, finding weed lines and birds are going to be the best places to look. Trolling down the weed lines with surface baits has been the best way to get some action, average size on the mahis has been around 10lbs with some bigger fish around. The mahi fishery is on the ending side meaning soon they will be gone but we still have till the end of November to catch them. Heading on the reef there has been a good bite of sailfish going on right now which is to be expected given we just had a cold front. Live baiting has been a good choice if you are just looking to target a sailfish but if your looking for other species as well trolling is going to be the next best option. There has been a few wahoo as well in the mix, we just recently had a bunch of small bonito arrive in our area and that is a snack for a wahoo. Finding the bait is always key when looking for predatory fish. Last but not least the afternoons have been producing some blackfin tuna, although they haven't been the biggest in size the bite has been consistent, i believe we will start to see a better bite of tuna as we get closer to winter time. This week please be sure to check out some of the great photos of some recent catches that were caught while out on our deep sea fishing charters in Fort Lauderdale and remember to give us a like on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram @Ybnormalsportfishing for daily fishing content. Coming up for the rest of November we do have a good amount of availability for deep sea fishing, so if your coming down for vacation or even for the holiday i recommend you look us up because even though its chilly outside fishing is starting to heat up...more later Capt. Vinnie
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