Fresh Hollywood Fishing Reports

It has already been one year since I kicked off the Lady Pamela II sportfishing’s, fish of the week series, and my kickoff species was the venerable Atlantic sailfish (Istiophorus albicans), the most popular of the billfishes found in our waters. Coincidentally, one year later, here we are, and Lady Pamela II sportfishing participated in the Dust’em Off Sailfish Warmup Tournament this past weekend! The Warmup is a fun low-cost practice tournament for the many anglers that compete in the wintertime South Florida sailfishing tournaments. Anglers can fish anywhere from Miami to Palm Beach but we stayed out front of the Fort Lauderdale/ Hollywood area, just a couple of miles south of the Port Everglades outflow. There were numerous ballyhoo and other bait schools, with birds crashing the baits everywhere, and a nice south current running. Ideal fishing conditions. We caught a number of mahi-mahi around the bait schools in the morning, and caught our first sailfish around 9:50 a.m. He was a little guy, but he still counted in our fish total. We hooked up our second sail around 10:50 a.m. but he fought us for over an hour before we got an official catch and release. That was tough because we lost about an hour of additional fishing time. We kept baits in the water the whole day and the Lady Pamela crew fished really hard. It was a fun tournament, and we ended up with two sails, 10 mahi-mahi, and some other bites, including kingfish and blackfin tuna. Congratulations to the Double Diamond on winning first place with seven sailfish, fishing out in front of Pompano Beach! This rest of the Lady Pamela sportfishing fleet saw the same kind of action we experienced this weekend, and I expect the sailfish action in particular to be pretty consistent over the next few weeks. Give us a call and let’s go fishing! Tight Lines, Capt. David Ide Lady Pamela 2 Sport Fishing

The end of this week has produced some impressive wreck fishing for Lady Pamela II sportfishing, as we have been landing a bunch of grouper, including blacks, reds, and gags on the shallower shipwrecks. We have been targeting these groupers using live mullet, live pinfish, and goggleyes dropped over the wrecks and debris fields in the 200-foot range. Almaco jacks in the 20-30 lb. range showed up on one particular wreck, with our anglers boating a half dozen nice-sized fish. Contrary to most jack species, the Almaco is an excellent eating fish. The Lady Pamela fishing highlight this week though, was an afternoon trip that started offshore then moved inshore for some tarpon fishing. In a couple of hours offshore our anglers caught two nice gaffer mahi-mahis, one small mahi, three barracudas, and four kingfish. Not too bad! Next, we headed inshore to try to get our anglers a hook up with a tarpon. This group of anglers, from Orlando, Dallas, and Atlanta, have been out with us a few times trying to catch tarpon. Using live bait, we waited for the tide to change from outgoing to incoming. Once the incoming water started moving, we got our first bite, and it was a giant fish, estimated at between 120 and 135 pounds. This monster took several impressive jumps that we filmed on video, and within 20 minutes we had the leader and got a clean release. The mate set out the live baits again, and within 30 minutes we were fighting another tarpon in the 85-95 lb. range. This fish was smaller, but was much tougher, as it took our guys nearly an hour to get the fish to the boat for another clean release. Believe me, our out-of-town visitors were tired when we got back to the dock Tight Lines Capt. David Ide Lady Pamela 2 Sport Fishing

Lady Pamela II sportfishing had a busy September, unfortunately most of the time was spent preparing for, and recovering from Hurricane Irma, not fishing! The fishing in October though, has been very good, as we have been catching dolphin very close offshore the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood area, in anywhere from 100 to 150 feet of water depth. We are catching these fish just about right on the reef edge, with many being caught around remnants of floating debris from Hurricane Irma. Because we have been fishing so close to the reef we have also been limiting on Kingfish almost every trip, and a few blackfin tuna have been finding their way into the fish box as well. Look for the wahoo to start biting as the water is beginning to get a little colder. Tight Lines Capt. David Ide

The Lady Pamela II sporfishing’s driftboat, Lois Ann, is a great bargain for families and others that just want to get out and fish in the waters offshore the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood Area. The opportunities to catch snappers, groupers, triggerfish, kingfish, you name it, are right there at the end of a fishing rod. One bottomfish we catch that you never really hear about is the porgy. There are five species of porgy off south Florida, including the sheepshead which are caught in inland waters around oyster reefs and pilings, and the pinfish which are often used for bait. After the sheepshead, the jolthead porgy (Calamus bajonado) is the largest of the porgies caught on south Florida reefs, and is the Lady Pamela II’s fish-of-the-week. Joltheads are so-named because of the unique appearance of their somewhat blunt head, where the eye sits up high on the forehead. These fish are excellent eating, and can grow to over 14 lbs. Porgies are often confused with grunts and snappers, and while they are all members of the perches, they are in different taxonomic families. Regardless, they are just as tasty as a snapper in my book, and I gladly toss porgies into my fish box! Porgies are aggressive biters when we get into them, taking just about anything we can throw on a hook. We put baits like squid, cut mullet, or ballyhoo chunks on double-hook rigs and drop down for instant action. I have found that when the porgies are biting, so are the snappers, and grunts, so you never know what you are going to bring up on the line. Offshore, we are catching a few mahi-mahi and wahoo if there is some chop on the water. Trolling on the reef has been a mixed bag with some bonitos and barracudas. There are some big amberjacks, in the 50-60 lb. range, hanging around the offshore wrecks, though they have been tricky to catch with strong north-flowing currents. Tight Lines Capt. David Ide Lady Pamela 2 Sport Fishing

There are many deep-sea fishing options here in the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood area of south Florida because our series of three coral reefs are close to shore, with plenty of bottomfish, and many species of pelagic fish, like tunas, sailfish, king mackerel and wahoo, patrol just off the reef edges and out to the Gulf Stream. The deeper waters also hold a variety of sharks. One of the unique fish habitats we have here are the number of wrecks we have in this area. These wrecks attract yelloweye and vermilion snapper, groupers, and most of all big fat greater amberjacks. It is the amberjack that is this weeks’ Lady Pamela II sportfish of the week. Greater amberjack (Seriola dumerili) are year-round residents of our local deep wrecks, but are also found along deeper areas of the reefs. These are the largest of the jacks, with the Florida record topping out at over 140 lbs. The fish we see on the local wrecks will run anywhere from 20 lbs. up to 80 lbs. Pound for pound, these brutes will put a serious ache in your arms. We like to deep jig over the wrecks with spoons or feathers tipped with bonito strips, in areas ranging from **hidden content** feet of water. When one these monsters hits, it is like latching onto a freight train. We have not had any anglers get jerked overboard, but we have had to put multiple hands on a rod to keep from losing a rig! When the boats come back to the dock you can tell which angler has caught an amberjack because they are invariably rubbing their shoulders! While others may disagree, I find the amberjack to be excellent table fare, though larger fish are prone to have white amberjack worms embedded in the flesh of the tail. I prefer the shoulder meat from fish under 30 lbs which are generally worm-free. These worms are not a threat to humans, but cooking your fish thoroughly, or freezing it, will kill any other possibly infectious organisms, and render your fish safe to eat. My mother always regarded the amberjack as a trash fish, but in a somewhat underhanded fashion, I changed her mind. I presented her with a beautifully grilled amberjack steak that had been marinated in teriyaki. Of course, I told her it was mahi-mahi, and she said it was the best fish she had ever eaten (thinking mahi-mahi of course!) Even when I told her the truth, she was sold on amberjack, and ever since has gladly accepted amberjack fillets from me. I guess sometimes a white lie is a good thing! Give us a call at Lady Pamela sportfishing, and let’s see if we can hook you up to an amberjack! Tight Lines Capt. David Ide Lady Pamela 2 Sport Fishing

The past few weeks Lady Pamela sportfishing had some exceptional fishing, both offshore and over the reefs. Offshore some big dolphin, up to 30lbs. have been landed. Closer to the reefs we have had king mackerel, blackfin tunas, and wahoo. One day last week we had a full day charter and the angler paid the extra fuel cost to run to Miami where the sailfish were biting. It was worth the extra cost, as we caught 13 sails and a fought a blue marlin for over an hour! A couple of our charters have targeted sharks off Ft. Lauderdale and the have not been disappointed. We got a big mako, and a hammerhead. We have also seen a few sandbar sharks and some big bull sharks. One big bull shark, that looked to be close to 9 feet, threw the hook right at the back of the boat. Driftfishing at night has been pretty consistent, with some big trigger fish, vermilion snappers, and mangroves the main catch. Yellowtail snapper and vermilions have been around in the daytime. Tight Lines Capt. David Ide Lady Pamela 2 Sport Fishing