August 30- 31, 2011
Chief, Bobby, Bob, and Diego joined Darin and I on the Lady Pamela I for a night of swordfishing. We left at 6:00 p.m. with a dozen live blue runners in the live well, and Darin rigging seven nice squids on the way to the fishing grounds. The wind was blowing 5- 10 knots out of the southeast, and we were on the dark side of the moon, so I was expecting the fish to snap. At 7:45 pm we set two live baits and two squids from 400 to 1000feet for our first two hour drift. With no action, I had decided to make a move back 5 miles to the south when our long bait, the 1000 foot one, got a bite. Diego was first up so he got to fight the fish. It was a short battle as the swordfish was a youngster, only about 35 lbs. We got a quick picture and released it fast. We put the baits back out, after making our 5 mile run back to the south, and it wasn’t 10 minutes before we had another bite. This was a nice sword bite on a live blue runner under the light, about 150 feet below the boat. This was one angry swordfish that jumped straight off the bow and fell off. Not much we could do with that one! Darin grabbed a new leader and re-rigged with a live blue runner as fast as he could; dropping the rig back down, hoping for another quick swordfish bite. It wasn’t long after that we had a huge bite. We thought we had a several hundred pound fish on, and we did. The crew battled what turned out to be a 200 lb. hammerhead shark! The crew was tired after the long shark battle, so shortly thereafter we threw in the towel and headed back to the dock. I have to say my theory on fishing tonight was right on, the fish were biting and at least we caught one!
September 1, 2011
This morning, we went fishing here in Ft. Lauderdale with regular customer Kent and some of his college roommates from Nashville Tennessee. We ran out in the Lady Pamela IV and put the bait out as fast as we could, trolling from 120 feet out to 600 feet using fresh mullet strips. We were using two baits on planer boards that dive deep up to 60 feet, and four surface baits skipping across the top of the water. The first fish landed in the boat was a nice 25 lbs. bull kingfish, and then the Atlantic bonitos and barracuda started snapping. We caught eight of them before a 25 lb. wahoo ate the bait on left long planer and Kent reeled him in. Captain Pauli decided to mix it up and swing out deep for mahi mahi. It was a little while before we had another bite but when we did it was worth it. A 15 lb blackfin tuna hit the right short planer on a pink and white sea witch skirt.
I want to let you another thing that’s happening with Ft. Lauderdale fishing right now. As we speak, the mullet run on our coast has started and it is crazy! The mullet run is the annual migration of these baitfish as they swim south along the coast down our way as the water cools in the northeast. There are clouds of these baitfish swimming around Ft. Lauderdale and the snook, tarpon, barracuda, and jack crevalles are gorging themselves. The inshore fishing for these species is some of the best anywhere when the mullet are running. Just today, as the Lady Pamela III was returning from a charter, the whole of Port Everglades was teeming with mullet. Mate Adam quickly netted several dozen, rigged up and trolled a few, and within ten minutes had a customer hooked up on a jumpy 70 lb tarpon. What a way to finish a charter! Come join us!
Tight Lines,
Capt David Ide
954 761 8045
