You won't find jawfish at this time of year in shallow water off of Ft Lauderdale, maybe in the keyes, but they move to much deeper water at this time of year. As far as places to go, go to Dania Beach, there is a sign south of the pier that says SCUBA DIVERS, go in there and swim straight out to the first reef, it is shallow, under 15 ft and usually has lots of queens and blues as well as most other common tropicals. The first reef isn't very pretty, it is hard rock with very few live corals, but lots of sponge and algae which is what the queens eat so the habitat is there for them. If you go further out, about 100 ft past the pier the second reef line has a really nice wall that has lots more animals on it, including all of the common angels (pygmy angels don't come shallow here like in the Bahamas so they aren't there, but all the others are there). It is a long but easy swim, and the reef is deeper, in the 30 ft to the sand range, but the reef top comes to within 15 ft of the surface, there are lots more live corals to see so it is prettyier, and there are many more coral living fish there. In between the reef lines (there are 3 at that spot) you have to cross areas of sand and rubble and you sometimes see jawfish there, but usually in the winter, in the summer when the water temps rise they move to much deeper water, 80 to 100 ft is where I find them during the summer months.
As far as collecting them, I use scuba, but I have collected just about every fish on the reef snorkeling, you just have to be smarter and quicker, watch the fish and set your nets up to chase the fish in, rather then chase the fish around, you wont catch much if you try like they are in an aquarium. Jawfish have to be dug out and are very quick so they are much harder to collect then an angelfish, but it can be done.
