Fort Lauderdale Offshore Fishing

July 25, 2013

Sportfishing on the Lady Pamela II was a mixed bag today with fish caught both on the troll and on the bottom. The kingfish and a few small blackfin tunas found our seawitch feathers irresistible as we trolled along the reef edge in 100 feet of water. We then re-rigged for bottomfishing and caught a few vermillion snappers and a yelloweye snapper. Our surprise catches of the day were a nice hog snapper and a huge lionfish. Good-eating hog snappers, which are really in the wrasse family, usually don’t take cut baits, and the lionfish are an invasive exotic species from the Pacific that we have never caught on rod and reel. Though their fins are venomous, lionfish meat is very tasty so we filleted it up for dinner. Our anglers sure got to bring home some exotic fare today!

July 26, 2013

Today mate Jake and I had a great trip on the Lady Pamela II with Paul and his family from Dallas, Texas. We caught some kingfish up to 20 lbs and some bonitos, but Pauls’ goal was to catch a really big fish. I moved the boat out to about 400 feet of water and Jake put out a few big baits hoping to catch a sea monster. After about 45 minutes we got the bite and Paul did battle with one of the biggest nurse sharks I have ever seen. This fish was 8.5 feet long, and had to go over 200 lbs. Great catch!