May 5, 2012

Today we had Jack, Travis, and Ed, from right here in Fort Lauderdale that wanted to catch some yellowfin tuna. We decided to make the run first thing in the morning so we caught 700 pilchards and loaded up our live wells the night before. We left the dock at 6:00 am and headed 79 miles northeast of Fort Lauderdale. It makes for a long trip, and fuel prices are high, but if you get lucky and find the fish, it is well worth the trip.

Once we got to the tuna grounds we were finding birds crashing bait but we were not catching the tunas. Ed was discouraged, and ready to go home after the first few flocks of birds didn’t produce fish, but I wouldn’t let him. We finally found the fish, and Jack caught a nice mahi-mahi. We started live chumming with the pilchards and all of a sudden there were mahi–mahi everywhere. We caught 7 mahi-mahi right away, and as we were live chumming and chunking, the yellowfins showed up. They too were everywhere around the boat, and JJ and I began casting baits. We hooked four huge yellowfin tunas right away and the battle began. It was all we could do to fight these fish on 50 lb smoke-colored Sufix® fishing line, with InvisiLine 60lb fluorocarbon leaders. The smallest fish was 65 lbs and we boated six nice yellowfins in all. This trip was a lot of work, but it was so much fun! Hurry up and give me a call, we have two more months of tuna fishing.

 Tight Lines,

Capt David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2.com

April 29, 2012

Today, Al and I had a few guests on the morning trip. We trolled for a few hours with fresh bonito strips behind planer boards. The first two hours were slow, but the last few hours made up for the whole trip. We caught a nice size sailfish and one kingfish after the other. It was nonstop action! I haven’t seen the king mackerel bite like this in a long time.

It is trip days like this make me happy.

This afternoon a friend of mine Plaxico went fishing with Al and I just to relax; but also hoping to catch a sailfish. We had caught that nice one in the morning so I told Plax there would be a good chance that we could catch a nice sailfish in the afternoon. We tried for a few hours but could not get a bite, so we went sharkfishing in 350 feet of water. We had nice fresh kingfish and some fresh bonito, and I thought with a 1.5 knot north current we would get some action. After three hours though, there was no action at all.

Towards the end of trip I decided we should try a shipwreck on the way home. It was getting dark but I wanted to catch some fish. On our first few drops we missed a few bites and I wasn’t very happy, but on the last drop we hooked up and Plax got in the fighting chair. A monster amberjack gave him the workout he wasn’t quite expecting! Some people think reeling in fish is easy, but when it all comes down to it; there is no machine in the gym that can prepare you for fishing! Nice job Plax!

Tight Lines,
Capt David Ide
954 761 8045
www.ladypamela2.com

April 23, 2012

This year has been a weird weather year but the fishing has continued to be red hot. We just had a rare late-April cold front move through Fort Lauderdale and the sailfish started to bite again. We caught four nice fish the day before and three more today. I heard of some boats landing six or more fish, depending on how long they stayed out. That’s spectacular sailfishing for the end of April! We are using live goggleyes and kite’s for the sailfish, and the bite has been in 100 – 140 feet of water with a very strong north current.

We have also been trolling for, and catching bonitos and kingfish, along with mahi-mahi. They have been hitting sea witch feathers tipped with bonito strips, pulled behind planer boards. We are using planers that dive 50-75 feet under the surface. We are also hooking up a few wahoo and blackfin tuna on these planers.

Drift-Fishing

Daytime

The past few days we have been catching plenty of v-liner (snappers), grunts, and kingfish. We have also had a few blackfin tunas, and bonitos. These fish are being raised on ballyhoo chunks and sardines.

Nighttime

The nighttime snapper trips continue to be very productive. The past few weeks we have been catching lots of gray snappers, yellowtails, muttons, and vermillion snappers. We are landing some nice groupers with the snappers, but unfortunately they are strictly catch and release until May 1. On our nighttime snapper trips we anchor up in depths ranging from 45 to 90 feet of water on our reef system. We run out a nice meaty chum slick with the current and the action heats up in no time! Come on out and have some fun!