Offshore Kayak Fishing Dania Beach, Florida - Last Week of June 2025

[JohnMckroidJr]

Launching out of Fort Lauderdale boat ramp, it took about 45 minutes to get to the bait grounds off Dania pier. At 0530am,There were plenty of meter marks, but the goggle eyes did not start to bite until 6am. I got a 3, 4, and 5 banger in succession, and then headed out with a dozen gogs in my Hobie XL livewell.



Live baits were deployed in 70ft of water ten minutes prior to sunrise. I ran one line on a surface rod, and a second down deep on the downrigger. I was hoping to find a jumbo Blackfin trolling over the third reef at dawn.



The magic hour did not produce a strike and I proceeded to slow troll outwards to a submerged wreck out in 270ft of water. I soaked baits while jigging on meter marks. There were sufficient fish on the meter, but most had locked jaws. Eventually I jigged up a Little Tunny which has a strong fishy flavor when cooked, but is indistinguishably delicious when prepared raw in poke or sushi.



The wreck had a quarter mile area of good fish marks around it. I kept making drifts over it in a mild 1kt Nth current hoping for a strike. Finally around 8am my flat line live bait rod went off. The fish was taking a lot of line off the reel. After I cleared the other lines, I chased the fish down to regain my line. It was a long fight, and for entertainment purposes I pulled out my dome camera to get some under and above water photos. A turtle with remoras paid me a visit before my fish reached color.



Unfortunately it was not a nice blackfin but instead a larger model Little Tunny. At color I got to have fun taking some cool shots of above and below water.



Not what I had hoped for but glad to catch a hard fighting fish on live bait.



About a dozen drifts later over the same area, I eventually landed 2 small to medium sized blackfins while speed jigging. I was stoked as I love eating Blackfin.



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After a dozen more drifts without a jig strike, I resumed slow trolling live baits perpendicular to the shore for a couple hours. With no luck trolling live bait, I did manage to jig up an Almaco Jack and another Little Tunny. I released both.



At 1300 I called it a day and headed for the barn.

[MITCHELL]

That bad boy 😎