Sunday morning Rusty and I went fishing with a couple of repeat clients out of New England. Mike and Katie go out with us a few times each year for the past 7 years and have great success on every trip. On the way out we picked up a dozen goggleyes and began trolling in front of Ft. Lauderdale in seas of 2-4 feet and winds out of the SE at 15-20 knots. We hooked up some bonito and decided to kite fish; every year Mike and Katie catch a sailfish with us and we didn't want to break tradition. Mike did mention that he'd like to hook into a hammerhead shark and we also put out some big baits over the side to oblige. Ask and ye shall receive! It didn't take long before he was sitting in the fighting chair cranking on a Penn 130 reel with a strong, 8-foot hammerhead on the line pulling in the opposite direction. A Boston native, Mike is a very loyal client and they are lucky to always catch some cool fish while they are out with us. While this is happening below us, Katie and I hook into a mahi-mahi from up in the flying bridge. After letting the shark go free and retrieving our hooks we finish the fight from up top and put a 10-lb. dolphin into the fish box. The conditions were still good to keep the kites up and our good fortune continued as another hammerhead took the bait. The 6-foot fish gave us a battle on the 30-lb. test line before breaking off and sending us back to port with more memories of Ft. Lauderdale sportfishing.
May 2, 2011
This afternoon we had Lady Pamela 1 with Capt. Keith and Randy and Lady Pamela 4 manned by Capt. Leo and Dave trying to out-do each other for company bragging rights. Both boats were out around 1PM, with LP1 starting out with trolling, and Leo on the LP4 sending up the kites. The surface baits did their job and it didn't take long before we had a nice sailfish hooked up. Like a ballerina with a pointy bill, the sailfish leapt and danced over the waves trying to throw the hook and get free. A half-hour later the crew had the fish next to the boat, attached a tracking tag and released it back to the depths. Leo and Dave also caught a few kings and a fat, 30-lb. blackfin tuna for later consumption. The Lady Pamela 1 trolled around and filled the box with bonito, king mackerel, and mahi-mahi before calling it a day.
