December 27 and 28, 2011

Pamela Berreth, her husband, and son Hunter spent the last few days with us on the Lady Pamela II fishing boats. The first trip, on December 27th, was a 6 hour charter from 7am1pm. Pamela and her family are farmers from North Dakota and have marlin fished around the world, including places like Hawaii and Cabo San Lucas. Today’s particular trip in Fort Lauderdale was for theirson Hunter. It was a pretty productive day as we caught some kingfish, a few blackfin tuna, lost a huge wahoo and caught a nice size barracuda. We did not run across any billfish though, and that was Hunter’s goal.

Today, the 28th, we again had the pleasure of fishing with the Berreth family. We headed out around 11 am and went right to kite fishing. The past few days of kite fishing had produced a few sailfish and some hammerhead sharks, which is exactly what Hunter wanted to catch. Wetried our hardest to catch one of these gamefish and it was two hours into the trip before wefinally got a sailfish bite. Unfortunately, it was a quick fight as he jumped right off. Not to be deterred, we put out a fresh rack of baits and in no time got another bite. This time Hunterprevailed and he got his first sailfish! Way to go Hunter!

Tight Lines,

Captain David Ide

www.ladypamela2.com

954 761 8045

December 20, 2011

Today we had an all day eight hour swordfishing trip. The seas were running 4-6 feet so we had to troll on the way to the swordfishing grounds. For the first two plus hours we never got a bite, and Eric and his father were looking disappointed, but we were sure we were going to catch them some fish. At about 5 hours into the trip, and about 11 miles offshore, we found a piece of bamboo floating in the water, and it was alive. Every few years you find a tree or other floating debris, and it has fish all over it. Today was that day and it was on fire! As we made pout first pass, the wahoo were jumping all over the surface, and bit off all of our rigs. Darin quickly re-rigged with wire leaders and we made another pass. We were catching wahoo and mahi-mahi left and right. It was amazing! We caught a 35lb mahi-mahi and a few 25lb wahoo. We ended up catching 8 wahoo and 8 mahi-mahi in 20 minutes beneath that one piece of bamboo. We eventually made it to the swordfish grounds and made our first drop in 1700 feet of water, with no bites. By this time our charter had enough of the rough seas and we called it a day. Why not, we had already landed an incredible sixteen big fish! Way to go Eric!

December 23, 2011

Our client Arthur had booked a fishing trip with us last June, but with a death in his family, he had to cancel. He paid for the trip and said he would come back. Well, Arthur called the other day and was ready to go fishing in the afternoon. We started the trip out by catching some bullet bonitos, as Arthur wanted to catch his own live baits. Amazingly, as we were catching the bonitos, a sailfish swam up and tried to eat one of the baits! Mate Pauli, the fastest guy you have ever seen, hooked a live bonito on a spinning rod and quickly cast it out. We hooked up the sailfish and it was off to the races. The fish dumped a lot of line, so I started backing down fast. Unfortunately, there was another boat trolling nearby and snagged our line, cutting the sailfish off. Pauli was fit to be tied, but there was nothing we could do. We went back to catching the rest of our baits and set up our spread. Around 2 hours into the trip we caught a 40lb kingfish, one of the biggest ones I have ever caught. It was a monster, and if we had been tournament fishing, it could have been a winner! We rounded out the trip by hooking up a monster sailfish that we got all the way to the boat. I sure was glad to see that our earlier sailfishing misfortune hadn’t jinxed us for the whole trip!

Tight Lines,

Capt David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2.com

December 15, 2011

Today was our all day dolphin fishing trip on the Lady Pamela III. The dolphin fishing trip goes out every Thursday with a limit of 15 anglers at $90.00 per angler. That is not a bad deal for eight hours of deepsea fishing. Anyway, we had seven people on the boat today and a lot of fish to catch. The wind was out of the northeast around 15-20 knots so the seas were a little choppy, but it was prime fishing weather. On this particular trip, we caught over 40 fish, with the fish being caught in 90 to 300 feet of water within 2 miles of Fort Lauderdale beach. We landed 10 mahi-mahi, 15 kingfish, and a slew of bonitos and blackfin tunas.

December 19, 2011

Today we had Bob and his two sons, Matt and Kyle, join us. Bob is from Indiana and comes fishing with us at least three times a year. You may have read some of my previous fishing reports about Bob and his family. They are very lucky and when they show up, they generally catch something cool. Today’s plan was to run north 10 miles after picking up some live bait on the way out the inlet. When we got to the spot Darin and I put up the kites and in 30 minutes we had our first bite, about a 15 lb king mackerel. We put him in the box, got the kite spread back out, and 20 minutes later we hooked up Matt’s first sailfish. It was 20-minute fight before the hook pulled right at the boat. Matt was mad, but that’s how fishing goes! We did give him credit for a “Palm Beach” release though. A “Palm Beach” release is awarded if you get the fish to the boat, but not quite to the leader, before he breaks off. After the “PB release” we set the kites back up, but then switched to trolling as Bob wanted to bring home some dinner. The kingfish and mahi-mahi were biting on the troll so Bob got the dinner he wanted, and darned if we didn’t hook a sailfish on the left rigger bait! Matt grabbed the rod again and the fight was on. This time he landed an almost six foot long sail. Way to go Matt! See you all again!

Tight Lines,

Captain David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2.com

 December 9 and 10, 2011

The wreck fishing has started to pick up over  the last few days as the water temperature has cooled to below 78 F. We have been using live bonitos, otherwise known as “bullets”, as our primary baits for deep-dropping on the wrecks. It is no doubt one of the best types of live bait for wreck fishing. We have been seeing cobia, wahoo, amberjacks, black grouper, gag grouper, and a few big Warsaw grouper. We have even seen a few goliath groupers as well. The wrecks that we are fishing are found anywhere from 110 feet to 360 feet of water. There are over 300 shipwrecks offshore from Miami to Palm Beach, and as the Lady Pamela II fleet is centrally situated in Ft. Lauderdale, all of these wrecks are within fishing range for us.

Traditional trolling using fresh strip of squid, bonito, and or mullet, fished behind a combination of planer boards and surface baits continues to be productive. We are landing plenty of mahi-mahi, wahoo, sailfish, and kingfish. We are also seeing a few blackfin tuna in the mix, particularly as we troll offshore of the deeper reefs.

Kite fishing

The past few days were a little slow for kite fishing because of the full moon. Even so, we still caught two sailfish out of three of our boats. A dry cold front is expected the next day or two, and that, coupled with the back side of the moon phase, should really kick off the sailfish bite. Live goggleyes suspended on 30 lb Sufix™ fluorocarbon leader is our go to bait for the sailfish action. It is always exciting to see these billfish crashing the surface after these baits! Come see for yourself!

Tight Lines,

Captain David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2.com

December 8, 2011

Today was a fun day for me as I ran the cockpit while my mate Drew ran the boat during a full day charter. We ran north 20 miles and got to our fishing spot right at about 8:15 a.m. We had just gotten our first two baits on the kites when our client Mark hooked a sailfish! I quickly grabbed a spinning rod and bait from the well and pitched it towards a second fish for another quick hookup. It seemed like we released both fish within two minutes! I reeled in the second kite bait and we ran a mile south to get ahead of the moving fish. We set six kite baits back out and Mark hooked another saifish, releasing it in 5 minutes. A few mahi-mahi were boated during the next hour, then we got another sailfish bite. All of the fish we were catching were moving between 130 – 150 feet of water, and there was about a ½ knot of north current. We ended up catching 6 out of 8 sailfish, 5 mahi-mahi and a silky shark. Not a bad day of fishing, and we were back at the dock by 2:00 pm!

Tight Lines.

Capt David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2.com

December 1, 2, 3, 4, 2011

During the first four days of December, the northeast to east winds were just relentless. They were blowing about 10‑20 knots the first two days and 20‑35 knots the second two days. The good news though is that the mahi-mahi fishing has been the best I have ever seen. We have been averaging 5 fish every trip up to 30 lbs., with most of them gaffers. All of these fish have been on the reef, in 200 feet or less, and kitefishing with live baits has been the most productive. Also, the trolling for kingfish on the reef has been great, with some smoker kings up to 35 lbs.

On December the 3^rd trip, I was running the boat both in the morning and the afternoon. On the morning trip, Dr. Sun and his family from California came out deep sea fishing. We loaded up on the mahi-mahi and even had shots at a couple of sailfish. At 3-4 ft though, the seas were a little bumpy for the anglers, so we called it quits early. On the afternoon trip, a local angler Earl, and friends came out with me. They were comfortable in the 6-8 ft seas, and the fish were tearing up live goggleyes on the kite. We were catching mahi-mahi one after the other in 140 feet of water. While watching the action from the tower, I spotted a sailfish on the right long line, and after a quick yell down to mate Joe, he had the fish hooked up for Earl. This was a tough fish that Earl fought for 40 minutes in the 8 foot seas. It was a battle, and everyone in the cockpit was soaking wet before he finally landed the monster sailfish. It was great! Earl has been fishing and hunting everywhere in the world and he said he will never forget that fight!

On the December 4^th trips the hot fishing continued as we caught more mahi-mahi and two wahoo while trolling. We also landed a black grouper and a few amberjacks on the shipwrecks in 180 -240 feet of water.

Driftfishing

The great fishing continues as evidenced by the catches brought in on the drift boat. Every day we have been catching a few mahi-mahi, lots of yellowtail snappers, and a few mutton snappers. We are even landing a few king mackerel on deep jigs rigged with ballyhoo.

Tight Lines,

Capt David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2.com