Feburary 23, 2012

Today was a great day as I got to fish with my best friend Matt, who also worked as my mate for the day. We were booked for an all day swordfishing trip with Wayne and Richard, and we were looking forward to a cool day out on the water. In prepping for the trip, I discussed the Lady Pamela II boat options with the guys, recommending our 37 foot center console open fishermen. This is a great daytime swordfishing boat because we can get out to the fishing grounds quickly, giving us more fishing time one of the keys to successful swordfishing.

It wasn’t long after we left the dock that we were making our first drop. As soon as the baits hit the bottom we had a swordfish, and Richard caught the first fish of the day. Throughout the rest of the day we had a few other swordfish bites but no solid hookups. It was with the last hit of the day though, that we had the big hookup! This fish fought tooth and nail until about 500 feet from the boat when it pulled the hook. That’s the ways it goes with fishing, you win some and lose some! We wrapped up the trip with a nice ride home in calm seas, coming across a huge weedline about 5 miles offshore. There were mahi-mahi everywhere and we quickly caught the guys some dinner to round out another great trip! Is wrong to say that I love my job?

Tight lines.

February 19, 2012

Today was a bit of a smorgasbord of both fish and fishing styles. We started the morning out by trolling for both kingfish and mahi-mahi, catching a few kingfish, but no mahi. In the afternoon we decided to take advantage of 76 degree water and fish for sharks. This kind of warm water in February makes it primetime for big sharks. We moved out to 350 feet of water and put the big fresh kingfish baits out on three 130 Penn International rod/reel combos. We were geared up for the big one and within an hour we had a large game shark on the other end of our line. The battle was on for over an hour before catching site of, landing, and releasing, a monster 14 foot Thresher shark. Threshers put up great fights because they have huge strong tail fins that can be up to half the size of their whole body. What a great way to start shark season! 

  February 20, 2012

This morning, Tom, his wife, and their three little kids fished with the Lady Pamela II crew. We started out catching a few little bonitos for the kids, mainly to get them involved in the fishing, and to have a little fun. We then began trolling for bigger game, catching a few king mackerel to use for shark bait. The mackerel baits were set up in deep water and it didn’t take very long for a huge hit. The funny thing is that it was a huge sailfish, not a shark. What a surprise! I had never seen a sail eat a kingfish! Anyway, we got him to the boat and Tom was simply elated. We reset the shark baits, hoping to catch a huge game shark, but no such luck. Even so, it was beautiful day offshore, with clear skies and 80 degree temperatures. You just can’t beat Fort Lauderdale at this time of year.

Tight Lines,

Capt David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2.com

February 10 , 2012

Today, one of our
repeat clients and good friend David, brought a group of friends fishing on the
Lady Pamela IV. Captain Darin and mate Rusty started the day trolling the reef
trying to get some action for everybody on the boat. In no time they reeled in a
nice wahoo. David was pretty happy as it is always nice when the first fish is
dinner. They kept trolling and caught a few kingfish and one mahi-mahi before
moving on to kite fishing with live goggleyes. David loves catching sailfish and
I think there has only been one time where he didn’t catch a sailfish with us.
He is one of the luckiest people I have ever taken fishing. The last time David
joined us was in August when there are no sailfish around at all and we got a
bite from one. David’s luck held, as a few hours into the kite fishing Rusty
hooked a nice sail and got is set up with one of Davids clients in the fighting
chair. This leaping sailfish put on a great on a great show for everybody
around! Way to go guys!

February 13, 2012

The last few days
fishing has been red hot,with a wide variety of fish being caught in around from
300 –600 feet of water . We’ve had plenty of gaffer mahi around 10-12 lbs and
have caught a few up into the 30 lb range. As for the bottom fishing, today we
caught a boatload of grey tilefish. These fish live in self-made burrows, and I
have a few hotspots for them along the steep edges of the continental slope.
These are one of the best eating fish you could ever land. Along with the tiles,
we landed a few wahoo, caught in 200–300 feet of water using swimming
ballyhoo.

The kite fishing was slow this day we did some dredge fishing
instead. This is a trolling style of fishing in which a teaser made of anywhere
from 30 to 150 artificial baits or strips attached to an umbrella-style frame
are pulled behind the boat. The dredge mimics a large school of baitfish that
can attract sails when the bite is otherwise slow. It is pretty exciting to see
fired up sailfish come crashing into these teaser spreads. This is just another
good way to catch sailfish out here in Fort Lauderdale. Beat the summertime rush
and join us today. The fishing doesn’t always stay good for long!

TIGHT LINES,

CAPTAIN DAVID IDE

954 761 8045

WWW.LADYPAMELA2.COM

February 6, 2012

Today was my
first day back from the Safari Club International’s hunting and fishing
convention in Las Vegas. Lady Pamela II Sportfishing had a booth at the
convention, so it was a busy week promoting the outstanding angling we have
right here in Ft. Lauderdale.

I was excited get back out on the water
with Jeremy and his friends from Arizona, as they joined us for an all day
fishing trip. We picked up a few dozen live goggleyes and headed out to do some
trolling. Right off the bat we caught a few short kingfish and some small
blackfin tunas. We then decided to move on to some kite fishing. Around 12:00
noon we caught a nice sailfish. It was an awesome bite and Jeremy was tickled
pink about catching his first billfish! That was the only sail of the day, but
we did land some mahi-mahi in the ten pound range off the kites. It’s pretty
spectacular to see mahi crashing across the sea surface chasing the baits. What
can I say, just another great Ft. Lauderdale fishing trip!

Tight Lines,

Capt David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2.com

On January 25th, we had a full day 10 hour charter with Sean and a group of visitors from Kentucky. Fishing was a little

slow, and all Sean’s group wanted to catch was a sailfish, so we trolled for 5 hours in the morning hoping to get a bite. We picked up a few kingfish and a blackfin tuna, but no sails. After 5 hours of trolling we ended up way down south towards north Miami. I knew of a wreck in the area so we dropped a live bonito on the wreck, with no success,and then made a few more drops with different baits before getting a bite. Once we got that bite, it was a huge greater amberjack that put up an awesome fight. We finally got him to the boat, got some great pictures, and let him go. There was still time to get the sailfish that the group wanted,so we ran a little north and put the kites up. We set up right in the Port Everglades tidal out flow off Dania Beach, in 110 feet of water, using live goggleyes for bait. Sure enough, before the end of the trip we went one for two on sailfish!

January 26, 27

On January 26th and 27th the wind was out of the southwest which generally makes fishing slow, but we still managed to catch fish for everyone that came fishing. We caught some bonitoson every trip, along with some king mackerel, and few 5 lb blackfin tunas. On the 26th we also landed a mah-mahi and an amberjack. A nice barracuda was caught on the 27th.

January 28

The wind finally switched around to the north, and that has kicked up the bite. Today we caught a lot of bonitos, a nice barracuda and some king mackerel. We didn’t sailfish today, but the word is that a few boats fishing morning charters had a few bites. That is a very good sign after having that southwest wind the past few days. As always, we’ll keep you posted on the Fort Lauderdale fishing action!

January 28

The wind finally switched around to the north, and that has kicked up the bite. Today we caught a lot of bonitos, a nice barracuda and some king mackerel. We didn’t sailfish today, but the word is that a few boats fishing morning charters had a few bites. That is a very good sign after having that southwest wind the past few days. As always, we’ll keep you posted on the Fort Lauderdale fishing action!

January 21, 2012

Today, Pauli and I took Phil, from Birmingham Alabama, his daughter, and two coworkers for an afternoon charter. We headed out Port Everglades hoping to catch anything that would bite.Phil, with three girls on board, just wanted to get some fish. Fishing on the troll was slow so wedropped a few bottom rigs to get some action while waiting for the big ones to bite. We pulled in a few vermillion snappers, a rabbit fish, some gray trigger fish and a small African pompano.Just enough to keep everyone busy. While we were messing around with the bottom fish, Pauli noticed that our bottom bait for sharks was up on top. He said David, that is not right! Then all of a sudden the rod bent over and the battle was on! All three girls took a turn fighting a huge hammerhead shark. Even Phil had to take a turn at the rod. We finally got the shark to the boatand tagged it for scientific research purposes. Hammerhead sharks are now protected in statewaters so we then let him free. Way to go team Alabama!

Tight Lines

Capt David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2@bellsouth.net

January 18, 2012

Newly wed’s Tony and his wife came all the way from Texas to come fishing on the 7am-1 pm charter. We started the morning out catching lots of live tinker mackerels around a freighteranchored off shore of Ft. Lauderdale. By the way, catching tinkers like we have been doing the last few days is unusual. There was no wind to fly the kites so after catching all the bait we needed we decided to slow troll the live baits. Within 15 minutes of having all six baits in the water we got a bite on the right long rigger. It was a nice sailfish and Tony’s wife jumped into the fighting chair to catch this beast. After a good 10 minutes of reeling she was getting too tired, so we swapped the rod to Tony, but that’s when the sailfish got away. We kept trolling the live baits and hour later we caught a nice 15lb kingfish. Fishing on the troll slowed down so we decided to try our luck wreck fishing. The first few shipwreck’s we went to did not produce abite, but we kept on trying. At the last wreck we finally got a few bites, landing a big amberjack.Overall, the fishing was slow, but we didn’t get skunked! Way to go Tony!

Brad and some business clients came fishing yesterday afternoon on a two boat charter here in Ft. Lauderdale. We went right out in front of Ft. Lauderdale to 140 feet of water where there was just enough wind to get the extra light kites up in the air. The wind was blowing south with a 1.5 knot north current. Good sailfishing conditions if we could keep the kites up. Pauly was running the boat and I was in the salon when I heard a lot of commotion in the cockpit. I ran out just in time to see a sailfish jumping into the horizon and we lost it before we could set the hook. I was a little mad, but no big deal, as it was early in the trip. We put a fresh rack of baits back out,waited right there, and another sailfish took the bait. This time the fish was well-hooked so Brad got into the fighting chair. This fish really put on an exciting show, jumping all over the ocean. Once it was landed we tagged the sailfish and let him free to catch another day. Pauly then ranthe boat back to the south hoping for another bite, but that was it for the day. Brad and his friendsstill had a trip that they will never forget. Brad said that growing up as a kid his dad had a big sailfish mount on the wall and that had he always dreamed about catching one himself. Now, after 55 years of coming to Ft. Lauderdale beach, he got to catch a sailfish, just like his dad.

Tight Lines,

Capt David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2.com

January 14,2012

Today, the Hyatt family from Pennsylvania joined us for an afternoon of fishing. They had just flown in this morning and said it was 20 degrees where they just came from and were loving the 65 degrees here in Ft. Lauderdale. The Hyatts had never been deep sea fishing before so they decided they would try their luck deep sea fishing on the Lady Pamela II.

 We left the dock around 2:00 pm and went right to an anchored freighter where we had previously caught tinker mackerels. After filling our live baitwell full of these prime but rarely seen baits, we went straight to kite fishing in about 200 feet of water as I had heard that a few sailfish were seen at this depth. Within an hour of getting all six lines set out we hooked a sailfish. This was one of the toughest sailfish I have ever caught. Andrew fought this fish for  an hour and half, as it took us out to 700 feet water where the seas were huge. We finally tagged and released this bad boy sailfish though!

After the big battle we ran back inshore to a few shipwrecks trying to get a bite with our remaining live baits. We got a few bites from amberjacks, but none stayed on the hook. That’s the way it goes sometimes. Wreckfishing with live baits is generally very productive though, with amberjacks, groupers, cobias, and big snappers always a possible catch.

Tight Lines,

Captain David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2.com

Email Us At ladypamela2@bellsouth.net

January 7, 2012

The Lady Pamela II Sportfishing Team has kicked off the 2012 South Florida billfish tournament season with a first place in the inaugural Coconut Grove “No Rule’s Sailfish Tournament”. My crew and I had made a last minute decision to fish this tournament on Thursday, so we spent all day Friday, the day before the tournament, fishing for bait. We loaded the bait wells with 20 dozen threadfin herring and 10 dozen goggleyes then ran from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami BeachMarina, where we spent the night. I was manning the helm, with my dad Peter, Bill, Kevin C, Kevin S, Adam, and John as my crew members. Professional photographer Russell Satterthwaite (http://russellsatterthwaitephotography.com) was also onboard as our cameraman.

At 6:30 am on Saturday morning we loaded the bait from temporary holding pens back into in the boat and made our way to the 7:30 am “Bimini Start” point off the south end of Key Biscayne. The “Bimini” start got its’ name from tournaments held in the early days of tournament fishing in Bimini, in the Bahamas. Nearly a hundred big sportfishing boats would line up, right off the beach in North Bimini, and when the gun was fired it was a mad dash to the fishing grounds! I remember seeing some of these starts as a young kid and they were impressive!

The “No Rules” Bimini start was not as impressive, as our 36’ Invincible, with triple 300hp Mercury Verado engines, left everyone else behind. We ran straight southeast to offshore ofFowey Light and put up the kites. There was practically no wind so used helium balloons on the kites to keep them aloft. Within ten minutes we saw a flopper sailfish. I floored the boat in reverse and we started to pitch baited spinning rods everywhere. Before long we had hooked upsix sailfish, eventually catching three out of the six. Not a bad way to start the tournament! Everymove we made on this day we got bites, and we ended up catching 10 sailfish and having over 20 bites. All this on a flat calm day, with the winds 5 mph or less!

Special thanks go out to our sponsors Mercury Marine, Sufix fishing line, VMC hooks, Preferred Marine Group, and Carl’s Bait and Tackle. You guys definitely helped us fish and win this tournament on our new boat. As I said before, what a great way to start the tournament season!

Tight Lines,

Captain David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2.com

Email Us At 954 761 8045

January 5, 2011

I usually run the Lady Pamela IV, operating the boat from the flybridge, but today, I was aboard the Lady Pamela I and worked the cockpit, while Keith ran the boat. We fished with Glenda and her husband on a six-hour, 10am4pm charter, and we needed to catch Glenda a fish. We picked a few live baits up at the local Lauderdale Marina on the way out, and went trolling for the first two hours. I was confident that we would catch something cool today because the last 4 days of fishing had been slow, and I knew that a recent cold front that had moved through was going to bring the fish bite with it. We landed a couple of nice kingfish on the troll then decided to switch things up a little and go kite fishng. I cannot say enough about witnertime kite fishing as we can catch wahoo, mahi-mahi, sailfish, marlin, kingfish, and tuna. Our first set of the kites today was just specatcular. We were still setting out our first four baits when we hooked a monster sailfish. It was a 30 minute battle before finally bringing it to the boat. What a great catch! We put the baits right back out and hooked another one, but it wasn’t long before it pulled the hooks. We freshend up the baits again and sat right in the same spot until close to the end of the trip. I was right in the middle of telling Glenda about times when you might never get a bite until you are reeling in the last baits, which we happened to be doing, when darned if we didn’t hook up! We tied into another sailfish that we ended up catching and releasing just before heading home. Glenda said they have fished all over the world and this was their best trip ever. For me, it was just a great day to be in the cockpit with some fine anglers.

Tight Lines,

Capt David Ide

954 761 8045

www.ladypamela2@bellsouth.net

 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