November 2 and 3, 2011

 

The last few days we had a nice cold front move through, and when that happens, you can expect first rate fishing in Ft. Lauderdale. We have been live bait kite fishing pretty much every trip for the past several weeks. On November 2^nd we had a morning trip with Reggie and his friends from Washington, D.C. They caught a few 20 lb. mahi-mahi, and then missed a sailfish first thing in the morning. Later, Reggie hooked up a sailfish that we almost lost. The fish jumped straight at the boat, landed on the covering board, then fell back into the water. My mate Pauli said the fish was teetering like a seesaw! I got a good laugh when I heard that Reggie jumped out of the fighting chair because he thought that the fish was going to hit him!

 

On November 3rd we had two half-day fishing charters; one from 8 a.m.-12 noon, with the other running from 1p.m.-5p.m. On the morning trip we caught some nice mahi-mahi and 10 Spanish mackerel. The mahi-mahi we've been catching the last few days have all been over 12 lbs, with a few fish of 20-25 lbs thrown in. We also missed a sailfish in the morning.

 

Anglers Bob, and wife Terry caught a nice sailfish in the afternoon and missed a few other knockdowns off the kites. They also caught three 20 lb mahi-mahi and six Spanish mackerel. They sure boated a nice group of fish in four hours. You've gotta love the fishing this time of year!

 

If you ever wanted to catch a sailfish or a swordfish, this is the time of year, and those are not the only abundant species. We also see plenty of kingfish, snappers, mahi-mahi, wahoo, tunas, and sharks this time of year. Come on down to Ft. Lauderdale and let the Lady Pamela crew show you the fishing trip of a lifetime.

 

October 21, 2011

 

Today was a lot of fun. This morning\'s trip I had a great group of guys, the Lambert brothers from New Jersey. Fishing was a little slow in the morning. We kite fished for sailfish for three hours with live goggleye\'s and never saw a fish in the kite. So, the last hour we went trolling for kingfish and they were biting pretty good off the planers, rigged with fresh bonito strips and sea witch feathers.

 

On the afternoon charter Thad, Woolley, Cody, and Bret joined us. They were all from Texas and you could tell they were going to be a lot of fun. We purchased live bait on the way out to try some more kite fishing, even though the morning bite was slow. We had a cold front that had pushed through today, and it was 64 degrees with the wind blowing out of the north around 15- 20 knots. A cold front like this gets the sailfish up and moving from the north to the south, and I was sure we were going to see some fish. We spent the first ten minutes kite fishing, in 110 feet of water, and Woolley instantly caught a 15 lb kingfish. We put the kite back out for another 25 min with no action. I saw a current edge offshore of us in 650 feet of water so I ran out there with the kites up. There were 6-8 foot seas outside and two out of the six customers were getting sick. So, after 25 minutes I decided to reel them up. As we were reeling the baits up a nice little school of 10 lb mahi-mahi swam up and we caught two of them, then we ran back to calm water.

 

A good friend of mind Ray Ray called me on the phone and said when he was running back from Palm Beach he had seen a few schools of mullet swimming south, one in 110 feet of water and one in 250 feet. He said he might have seen some sailfish on them. I immediately reeled in the kites and ran north. We got 4 miles up the line and from the tuna tower I saw the huge school of mullet in 100 feet water. I yelled to my mate Paul to get some spinners ready to cast as soon as I pulled up to the bait ball. There were at least six sails there, maybe 8, and a nice sailfish grabbed the first bait Paul pitched. We caught the fish in five minutes, ran back to the school, and one of our guests pitched another bait. He hooked a sailfish on his own, but broke it off. We saw one more fish that we pitched several times to, but it just would not eat. Overall, it was a great trip, and to see all those sailfish on top was a sight.

October 2, 2011

 

Last Saturday, April asked me to take her fishing. The weather was going to be nice on Sunday, so I broke out an electric fishing reel to try some daytime swordfishing. Saturday night I invited my buddy Andrew to go along so we could have an extra hand on board. He said sure, and he'd bring his girlfriend Sam, so everything was good. We woke up at 5:30 am on Sundaywith a little more wind than expected, but we decided to go anyway. We launched the boat and were about 10 miles offshore when the girls said it was too rough to continue, so we turned around. On the way back to the dock the girls decided they wanted to try some sailfishing. With a dozen frisky pilchards in the live well, the decision to fish was made.

 

The wind was blowing about 20-30 knots out of the north so it was a little bumpy offshore, but the seas were smoother nearshore. Four live baits were put out and we made our first drift near the whistle buoy in 150 feet of water (about 1 mile offshore). It wasn't long before the kingfish started chopping us off. We saw a few man-o-war birds working in shallow so we picked up and ran in to see what was happening. The birds were tracking a huge school of ballyhoo with at least a dozen nice mahi mahi crashing the school. A quick cast out with live baits and all four of us were tight on nice fish.

 

In less than 15 minutes we had all landed fish over 12 lbs. All this action was in 35 feet of water right in front of Port Everglades inlet. We eventually lost the ballyhoo school so we ran back to 100 feet of water, put the baits back out, and in 25 minutes Andrew hooked a sailfish and passed the rod to Sam. It was her first sailfish ever! After she got it behind the boat, we popped the hooks, released the fish, then ran back in to the shallows and anchored to chum up some more bait. In one throw of the cast net I was able to load the baitwell with ballyhoo. We spotted the birds just outside, in forty feet of water, baited up and caught a couple more nice mahi mahi. We also jumped off another nice sail. All in all, our daytime "swordfishing" trip sure was productive.

 

Tight Lines,

Captain David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2.com

Email us ladypamela2@bellsouth.net