SwordFishing Fort Lauderdale

August 30, 2012
The great south Florida weather has returned and the boats in the Lady Pamela fleet were busy today. The Lady Pamela II sportfishing boat fished close to shore and caught some skipjack tunas and kingfish trolling the reef. The Lady Pamela IV fished further offshore and caught a nice hammerhead shark and a silky shark. Not bad fishing for a couple of four hour trips.
The Lady Pamela V had a daytime swordfish trip with Graham Johnston (Johnno), his son Alex, Captain Rob and me. Johnno, is president of the Cairns (Australia) Game Fishing Club ( HYPERLINK “http://www.cairnsgfc.com/” http://www.cairnsgfc.com/ ), and also owns and operates the Cock & Bull Hotel and Tavern ( HYPERLINK “http://www.cocknbull.net.au/” http://www.cocknbull.net.au/) dubbed the “best watering hole in the south Pacific”. Johnno also a member of the Cairns Professional Game Fishing Association and he runs exclusive 4-8 day charters to the Great Barrier Reef aboard his sportfishermen “Broadbill” ( HYPERLINK “mailto:johnno@iig.com.au” johnno@iig.com.au ). If you are interested in landing a grander Black Marlin he is your go to guy in Cairns.
While Johnno is a well-known and accomplished sportsman, having hunted and fished throughout the world, 20-year old son Alex is no stranger to accomplishment himself. He holds over 15 fishing world junior records, including junior world records for tiger shark (1068 lb) and Black Marlin (1091 lb). These guys are perhaps the most accomplished anglers we’ve ever had on the Lady Pamela and we were determined to get them hooked up to a swordfish during their trip to Ft. Lauderdale. We had them out on three prior trips without a bite, and today the pressure was on to put a fish in the boat.

We left the dock around 8:00 am and 30 minutes later we were well offshore making our first drop. We soaked the first baits for nearly two hours without a bite, so we picked up and ran further south to make another drop. Still no bites, so we again ran south and made a third drop in 1850 feet of water. This was the sweet spot and we hooked a monster that we hoped would stay on. Thirty minutes later the fish was in the boat; a beautiful 300 lb broadbill swordfish! Look for upcoming video of the action to be posted on our Youtube channel, Lady Pamela II charter fishing.
The best of luck to Johnno and Alex, as they are heading to Canada’s Prince Edward Island to fish for giant Bluefin tuna. Alex is hoping to add another “grander” fish to his already impressive résumé.