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November 2008
Fort Lauderdale Fishing - The Start of Sailfish Season!
Mid October was when we started seeing the occasional sailfish run through Fort Lauderdale, but within the past week, the sailfish bite has been consistent. These billfish are migrating from the North, heading South (our way, Ft Lauderdale), eating their way down. Generally, the bite is red hot from October - November. A few cold fronts have moved through the Ft Lauderdale area, triggering the bite.
The most common way to fish for sailfish is with live goggleeyes dangling from kites (No, not the kites you fly at the beach). The Lady Pamela II started off November right, catching 3 sailfish in one day this past weekend and it’s only looking to get better here in Fort Lauderdale.
Not only has the sailfish bite been going off, trolling for kingfish and slamming the mahi - mahi has been consistent, too. Wahoo, amberjacks and cobia are around offshore Ft Lauderdale as well. For the start of November, the mahi - mahi are still showing up in good numbers and the catches have been great. The dolphin are ranging anywhere from 6-9 lbs and we’re still averaging 5-10 fish per trip which is amazing.
The kings have been hit or miss (when it rains it pours?). One day the LP II will slam ‘em reaching their limit in no time, other days their isn’t a single kingfish in Ft Lauderdale. Live blue runners or planners with fresh strips in 90-140 ft of water is the trick.
The Wahoo have been biting around full moons with north current ripping in 150-450 ft of water, averaging anywhere from 10-15 lbs.
Ft Lauderdale houses several artificial reefs and ship wrecks. When dropping a fresh, bloody bonito, blue runner or speedo, it tends to works the best for the rod to bend over. It’s hard to say what your going to hook down there, maybe an amberjack, big grouper or the occasional bull shark?
Daytime Sword fishing is taking off here in Fort Lauderdale. Fishing in 1500-1800 ft of water with a variety of dead and live bait (Squid, Mackerel, Mullett and Tunas) on an electric reel, your likely to hook up with the Gladiator of the Sea. The swordfish is the toughest fighting fish in the ocean and with it’s cruel runs and deep dives, you won’t be disappointed. The Lady Pamela II set sail last week during the day and hooked up with a 200 lb’er. Wit h nighttime sword fishing picking up, you will find us out there frequently.
Tight Lines!
Captain David Ide
Lady Pamela II
October has been good to us so far. Loads of mahi-mahi are being caught along with the occasional daytime Swordfish. King Mackerel, Wahoo and Black fin Tuna are showing up in good numbers here in Fort Lauderdale, too. A few Sailfish have been spotted. Our sailfish season this year was a little off, they didn’t leave until way late and are starting to show up again. Hey, we’re not complaining. September and October marks the start of Sailfish season because the baitfish pods are heading down from the North, and they tend to follow.
Tyler Stock and his gang from Indiana joined the Lady Pamela II crew for some South Florida Deep Sea fun. We headed out Port Everglades with rods in the water. Kings were hooked left and right. The Spanish Mackerels and Bonitos were around, too. After we reached out limit on those guys, we headed to a wreck and made a drop. We were successful; a small Amberjack ate the bait.
Kingfish are everywhere lately and we sure do catch our limit almost every trip. 8 - 10 lb’ers are common along with the occasional 15 - 20 lb’er. There are some nice ones being caught. Black fin Tuna’s have been small, little footballs, but every once and a while we catch some anywhere from 6 - 9 lb.
The Mahi - Mahi bite has been red hot offshore. Board’s and different types of debris drifting is a good sign. Baitfish hang around debris. Baitfish = Bigger fish. Anywhere from 500 - 800 ft of water is where we’ve been catching a majority of our dolphin. Fresh strips along with a milar skirt is the trick. Mahi - Mahi aren’t the only fish that hang around debris. Last week a buddy of mine, just fun fishing offshore, found a school of Wahoo underneath a board. He caught 10 nice ones all weighing in around 12 lbs.
Last week the Lady Pamela II went Daytime Sword fishing two days in a row. We fished 6-7 hours each time and not one bite. I got a few reports from friends of mine that went and it was fairly slow for them as well. There was one Sword caught during the day last week weighing in around 200 lbs.
Tight Lines!
Captain David Ide
September 27th, 2008
The Frequent Flyer II crew headed out Port Everglades bright and early this morning with a full day of deep sea fishing ahead of them. There was a local tournament going on and most Lauderdale charter boats were involved in it. We ran 3 miles offshore to fertile grounds with trolling gear set and ready to go. We came across a nice edge in about 700 feet of water and immediately got a quadruple header of some real nice size mahi - mahi ranging anywhere from 18 - 25 lbs. With trolling gear back in the water the deep line went off. A small Wahoo really started pulling some line. The “wee-hoo” weighed in at 6 lbs.
Daytime sword fishing was next on the list. On the first drop the rod bent over. Captain Paul yelled down to Darin, the mate, “hit the button!” Electric reels are a beautiful thing when the bait is down 1800 feet. No swordfish for the FF II, it was a 14 foot Thresher shark. We still wanted to catch a sword so we made our second drop, waited about 20 minutes and the rod bent over. We couldn’t believe our eyes, it was an 11 foot Thresher shark. Thresher sharks are a very rare catch and two back to back is even more unbelievable. That’s the beauty of deep sea sport fishing, you never know what your going to land offshore fishing in Fort Lauderdale.
Tight Lines!
Captain David Ide
LP II
Fishing offshore Fort Lauderdale!
September has been good to us here in
After storms, fishing is unbelievable. The North current and the Gulf Stream brings all the debris right to
Trolling offshore has been productive lately, too. King Mackerel’s, Spanish Mackerel’s, Wahoo’s, Black fin Tuna’s and Sailfish are showing up in good numbers.
September and November is the start of Sailfish season. Sailfish migrate moving down from the north right to our doorstep =
Just a few miles offshore Ft Lauderdale, there are several ship wrecks and artificial reefs. These wrecks are home to thousands of fish, large bottom fish, game fish and sharks. Large tackle and a large weight is the only way to go when fishing these wrecks. When live bait hits the bottom, it’s usually an instant bite if some bodies home. Your catch may include Amberjack’s,
Several long hours of daytime sword fishing have been spent aboard the Lady Pamela II lately. Daytime sword fishing is a recent trend off the
Sailfish season here we come.
Tight Lines!
Captain David Ide
Lady Pamela II
August 24th, 2008
First thing on the list this morning = cut fresh strips! Keith, the mate, cut tons of strips for the day ahead of us. Repeat anglers, George, his wife Deborah and their two kids, boarded the LP II to fish with Captain David Ide. We headed out Crazy Greggs Marina making our way towards Lauderdale Marina to pick up live pilchards for dolphin fishing. Live bait was in the well, we were ready to go. We ran 5 miles offshore looking for debris and there was none to be found. As we continued to scope out the area, trolling gear was in the water. Finally after two hours of trolling we ran across a nice current edge with a weed line in 750 feet of water. Weed patches are usually a good sign! We spotted 3 real nice size mahi - mahi swimming right on top. I turned the boat around, pitched live pilchards out and before we knew it, we were catching dolphin left and right. George and his family reeled in at least 30 mahi, about 10 were too small, and we walked away with 20 good ones….not too shabby. Time fly’s when your having fun! Heading back towards the dock for our afternoon trip, George and his family caught a barracuda. This morning was one of the most exciting days of dolphin fishing we’ve seen and had in a long time!
This afternoon we had six people on a split charter. First three baits in the water we got the bite; 2 bonitos and a black fin tuna. To spice it up for our anglers, we ran north, dropped our two big bonitos down hoping for a BIGGER bite of some sort. We soaked them for close to an hour and didn’t get a bite. Plan B - Wreck fishing. We hit 6 wrecks with live blue runners, but it didn’t appeal to anybody down there. One more wreck was in route, we dropped a dead bait down this time and it did the trick. We weren’t sure what we got ourselves into; 15-20 minutes had gone by and I thought we were hooked on the wreck. The bite was that big. It took a good 45 minutes to fight this fish. Our angler reeled in a 95 lb Amberjack. It was HUGE!
Fishing off
Tight Lines!
Captain David Ide
LP II
Lady Pamela II Sport fishing Charters
Today we had 5 different people from all over the country looking to do some deep sea sport fishing off Fort Lauderdale. We headed out Shallow Harbor in search for bait. We tried the local buoy and a few anchored ships but the bait fish were scarce today. We set the trolling gear out and it was one hit after another.
The kingfish and Spanish Mackerels were hitting the deck in good numbers.
However, our charter was more interested in catching big game fish so we ran 5 miles to a spot north of Port Everglades (I can’t tell you guys my spot!). I dropped a bloody kingfish head down on the bottom and a fresh king tail to go with it and waited patiently. 55 long minutes passed and we got the bite and missed it.
I put a fresh slab on there and dropped in down again, the balloon went under, we were hooked…..and he got away again. (It was pretty intense)
Three’s a charm though. I rigged another bait dropped er’ down and he came back for more! He was hooked good this time and he was not a happy camper, he pulled 500 yards off the reel. Our 12 year old angler, Brandon, did a great job through out his fighting chair experience.
He didn’t stop reeling once and landed his first trophy, a 10′ 8″ Great Gray Hammerhead shark!
Tight Lines!
Captain David Ide
This afternoon we headed straight to Lauderdale Marina to buy live goggs. Conditions were perfect to fly the kites. Bryan Boyd and his boys from Virginia had been deep sea fishing off Fort Lauderdale before, but not like they did today on the Lady Pamela II. The kites were popped and we had a bottom rod set, too. We got a shark bite and he fell off. An hour had passed and we see this giant bull dolphin hanging out around the boat.
“That’s a monster!” Captain David of the Lady Pamela II yelled to Captain Paul. The dolphin got hooked on the left long and ate that gogg quicker than Captain Paul could come tight. The dolphin was jumping all over the place, definitely putting on a good show. He was pulling hard too, the Boyd kids kept switching off. After an hour and 30 minutes of fighting the fish on 30 lb tackle with an 60 lb leader, Capt Paul gaffed it and threw it in the boat.
On the troll we got two wahoo bites, but no luck - they threw the leader. We caught a 2 lb dolphin and released a barracuda weighing in at about 10 lbs.
We headed back to Shallow Harbor and Captain Paul called the dolphin at 40 - 50 lbs. We took some pictures with the Boyd’s and there catch and weighed it with a I.G.F.A. certified scale. The Mahi-Mahi weighed in at 65 lbs! Awesome trip.
Tight Lines!
Captain David Ide
Memorial Day weekend was a blast. Whether was decent, seas were a little choppy, but the fish were biting.
We knew of a great yellow eye snapper spot, so we decided to go deep dropping in 830 ft of water. We fished with two electric 130 LP reels, 15 hooks per reel. It took approximately three minutes to hit bottom, and it was a instant bite. We averaged 8 fish per drop.
We reached our limit in no time at all.
Tight Lines!
Captain David Ide
This story took place almost a week ago and I am still wearing the same stupid grin I had on when I stepped off the boat at 2am.
My brother Mike, my fishing buddy DJ and myself chartered the Lady Pamela 2 out of Fort Lauderdale on Saturday April 26th for a combo day / night charter. We arrived at the boat at about 12:30pm. I noticed right away that the captain and mate were excited about the trip. As they loaded the boat I saw the load carefully cut strip baits and the freshly tied rigs. It didn’t seem like another day at the office which is the norm with charters in my experience. Like us, these guys loved to fish and it showed. The weather was cooperating and we were on our way.
We left the slip at 12 noon and started trolling a few miles out of the inlet. As experienced northeast offshore fishermen the 3 of us settled into the waiting game. After about an hour of trolling Paul the captain noticed a large black shadow in the trolling spread. With a little convincing from Chuck the mate and the captain the big blue marlin hit and headed off to the horizon. As luck would have it the fish hit the 30lb outfit in lieu of the heavy stuff. My brother Mike jumped in the chair and the fight was on. Even on 30lb tackle Mike was starting to tire a bit until the captain called from above with the most motivating one liner I ever heard on a boat, “Mike, if you land this fish you have the rest of your life to rest”. Well after all that we lost the fish a good distance from the boat. The captain said we were hunting elephants with a BB gun. We’re not sure how big the fish was but according to my brother its gets 100lbs bigger everyday he tells the story.
Next we tried our luck with wreck fishing. Paul backed the boat over a wreck and Chuck dropped down a fresh live bait. Nobody was home and we moved on to the next wreck. These guys were persistent. The next wreck we hooked into something heavy and it was DJ’s tern in the chair. We were using heavy tackle to make sure we could get the fish away from the wreck. After a few minutes we landed and released a 53″ amberjack. A great fish Paul estimated at about 60lbs.
Back to trolling….
Things were quiet and by about 5pm I headed inside for a nap. I was shortly awakened by 4 guys yelling for me to get in the chair and a screaming reel. The first thing I saw was a huge splash about 100yds behind the boat. I looked like someone dropped a depth charge in the water. The next hour seemed like forever. We had hooked a huge mahi (again on the 30lb long rod). The fish jumped out of the water at least 20 times as we prayed for the hook to stay put. Paul maneuvered the boat perfectly and Chuck calmly coached me every step of the way. We had the fish within 20 feet of the boat for 20 minutes but he wouldn’t budge. Chuck had an idea to change course down sea to give us a slight edge. This was the advantage we needed, the big bull presented a shot, and Chuck took it home with the gaff. The fish hit the deck and the celebration was on. Paul the captain ran down from the bridge and we all jumped around for a good 5 minutes. Again, these guys loved to fish. We (definitely a team effort) landed a 61″ roughly 60lb mahi on 30 test. Not bad.
At this point we were behind schedule on getting to sword fish land about 15 miles off
Unbelievable.
In the organized chaos that ensued no one noticed that we had another heavy line. We boated another smaller broadbill while the first one was still flopping around on the deck! Not as impressive as the first but still a great fish. Had enough yet? DJ landed and released an 8 foot long hammer head on the last line out.
We finally arrived at the slip at 2am. The mahi was off to the taxidermist and we all hung out at the slip for about an hour gloating over our success. For 3 lifelong fishermen who have had their share of both personal and private trips either blown out or struck out this was one great day. Thanks to Paul (the captain), Chuck (the mate), and Dave (the owner) from the Lady Pamela 2 for a very memorable trip. Sorry for the long winded story and don’t forget to tip the crew.
Tight lines, Lou
At the beginning of April a local sports celebrity decided to go deep sea sport fishing aboard the Lady Pamela II. It was a beautiful day and conditions were looking good in Fort Lauderdale. We ran just a few miles north of Port Everglades to the freight ships anchored offshore. We popped the kites with a lively set of goggs and it sure caught omebody’s attention. Within 45 minutes, a 7 foot sailfish gave the angler and his wife a little show. We landed the billfish in the boat and reset quickly. Before we could even blink, the angler was hooked up again with a 35 lb cobia. Two bites within an hour, that’s just pure luck. At this point in our trip conditions were getting nasty. Sea sickness was kicking in so we made it a day. However, it turned out to be an awesome day for the Lady Pamela.
We have spotted some gaffer size blackfin tuna from the 5 lb range to the 38 lb range offshore. The Mahi-Mahi bite is starting to pick up as well. They are running anywhere from the 5 lb - 15 lb range within 500 ft - 800 ft of water. The wahoos are really getting turned on by those fresh bonito strips dangling from flashy sea witches we troll 30 ft - 50 ft deep.
This week’s weather has really been playing some tricks on us Fort Lauderdale locals. A cold snap came through on Monday and the sailfish absolutely love it! With the wind coming from the NW blowing at 15 knots it makes for perfect sailfish conditions here in South Florida. The kings and bonitos moved through along with the 50 degree weather. Yesterday we averaged about 4 bonitos per trip - that’s pretty good.
When the kings come through, the sharks do too! Hammerheads, makos and spinners are showing up on the wrecks just a few miles offshore. Fort Lauderdale houses several large wrecks and is known to have some of the best shark fishing in the world and the Lady Pamela II can assist you on your dream catch. Now is the time to land the trophy hammerhead or thresher shark you’ve always longed for.
Tight Lines!
Captain David Ide
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