Bottom Fishing Fort Lauderdale For Snapper, Grouper, And More...

Trolling for big game species is not the only type of Ft Lauderdale Fishing that provides great action. Some of the tastiest and hardest fighting fish take up residence on the bottom of the ocean. While you can catch an occasional snapper or grouper while drifting for mid water or surface feeding pelagic fish off Fort Lauderdale, you can really rack up the numbers when you specifically set up to target them. Other than the taste of the fish bottom fishing is fun because it also allows you to truly catch the fish yourself, drop the bait, feel the bite, set the hook, and fight the fish. Snapper fishing success comes from your hard work.

Our primary way of targeting snapper is by anchoring over or near structure that they are holding on. Fishing off Ft. Lauderdale means anywhere from 30-150ft. of water. When targeting yellowtail snappers we anchor up current of the particular structure and chum the fish into the water column.

As they feed in the chum we flat line bait back in the current so that the bait mimic’s the chum as it flows back. They key is to resemble a piece of the chum so that the yellowtails eat without thinking that your hook is hidden in the bait. As line flows off your spool you wait for it to pick up speed lock the drag and fight the fish before it any other fish takes your fish from you.

While drifting baits back on the anchor we will also fish baits directly below boat on heavier tackle to target other snapper species and groupers. Fort Lauderdale Muttons typically hang on the sand around the structure we are fishing and are really wary fish. We fish a long leader and allow the fish to take line with no resistance or in free spool. Usually the muttons will take the bait and spit it our 2-3 times before they eat for good and you want to set the hook. For grouper on the anchor I like to fish a shorter leader with either a live bait or dead bait with a shorter leader then for muttons.

Top bait would be a small but legal yellowtail or some other sort of small fish caught in the same area that you are fishing. No need to feed the grouper if they eat they have it down the hatch about the time you feel the bite. They key to catching both grouper and mutton snapper while anchored is getting them off the bottom as quickly as you can, when you feel the right bite you need to reel and gain line as quickly as possible before the fish takes you back into the nearby structure.

Another snapper to target on the anchor is mangrove snapper. Typically I like to target mangroves right on top of the actual structure. Mangroves like to hide in the little cracks and crevices, so it can be a little bit trickier to coax them up. Similar to yellowtails I like to try to chum them a little bit off the bottom for the best success in getting them to the boat. For mangroves I like to use pinfish and pilchards with as light a weight as possible to get the biggest fish to bite out of the school. Mangroves also spawn in the summer and form big schools of fish and can be easily chummed up behind the boat at night for a relaxing summer night trip.

When the mutton snapper are spread out over the sand off Fort Lauderdale we also target them while drifting. This way allows us to locate pockets of fish and then once one is found we can narrow our drifts and even anchor if we find a small area of fish. Drifting is one of my favorite ways to locate fish in new areas also. On our Bahamas trips leaving out of Ft. Lauderdale we will a lot of time drift over long stretches of hard bottom catching muttons and groupers the whole way and trying to anchor will result in not a single bite. The key to this kind of fishing is keeping the weight from bouncing off the bottom at a minimal while you drift.

There are lots of types of Ft. Lauderdale bottom fishing but all usually lead to the same result, tough fighting fish that really taste great.