i Guide Club Blog Central

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 Fort Lauderdale, besides all the hurricanes. TS Fay and Hurricane Ike just missed Fort Lauderdale, but we still felt winds up to 45 mph and rough seas. We’re in the clear now, seas are calm and the fish are around.

After storms, fishing is unbelievable. The North current and the Gulf Stream brings all the debris right to Fort Lauderdale and debris usually means FISH! When trolling around debris, it’s a win win situation; dolphin, tuna and Wahoo are present.

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 = South Florida! Live bait dangling from the kites really catches their eye. Sailfish season is one of my favorites, watching them jump behind the boat and reeling them in is a blast.

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, Warsaw’s, Mutton Snapper’s, Cobias and Bull sharks. These are large fish we’re dealing with and man do they put up a good fight.

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 Fort Lauderdale coast and we have been innovative in tweaking our own strategies and it’s working out well for us. Swordfish are primarily night feeders, but apparently they eat during the day as well. A long leader, a 10lb lead and a 400lb test with a dead squid sitting on the bottom in 1800 feet of water is the trick. Manual or electric reel depending on your preference, but that bait is a long way down and you will most likely be handing it off to your buddy!

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 Fort Lauderdale this month has been great. Bring it on September!

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

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 Miami. Chuck quickly cleared the lines and we steamed out away from the setting sun. We all helped set the gear at dusk and began waiting. We worked the baits for the rest of the night and continued to wait. At this point Mike, DJ, and I were laying in the cabin killing time by breaking each other’s chops (DJ you still can’t come to the picnic). By 11pm we were shot and I gave Paul the go ahead to head for the barn. It was a good day and we were satisfied. By the time I changed out of my bib pants and boots Paul and Chuck noticed one of the lines was heavy. The fight was on. My brother Mike went toe to toe with one of the toughest pelagics BY HAND. He was hand lining a broadbill sword fish over eight feet long. This time around Paul was in the cockpit and Chuck was at the helm. After a relatively short battle the fish was at the boat and Paul sunk the gaff home. The fish hit the deck and this time Chuck got to run from the bridge to celebrate with the team. For Mike, DJ, and me this was the first broadbill we landed.

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