Sailfish Action Continues

Report Date: February 18, 2004

The Sailfish action continues at an unbelievable pace. I can never recall a year where the Sailfish action has been as good as we have experienced this year. A few days ago we fished two half day trips. During the morning trip we fished just northeast of the inlet buoy where we found large pods of greenies. It is really nice when you can catch bait, put it out behind the boat and catch Sailfish. We caught a couple of dozen greenies, moved just north of the fleet of boats that were catching bait and set out our baits. Within a couple of minutes we had two Sailfish trying to capture our baits and within seconds of seeing the fish we had a double Sailfish hook up we managed to catch and release. A great start to our morning. The morning continued with nearly constant action. While we didn?t catch all of the fish we saw we certainly caught our share and my anglers had a great time seeing and catching Sailfish that morning.

Robert's First Sailfish

The afternoon trip was a little different. We started by catching a few fresh greenies but by the time we returned to the area where the bite had been that morning it had slowed considerably. We did mange to catch and release one Sailfish but it was obvious that if we continued fishing in that area it was going to be a slow pick. I decided to move offshore to an area where lots of bait had been holding for several days. We got our lines out and as we were getting everything ready a large pod of fish appeared and was chasing all of our baits. At one point we had three fish hooked up only to pull the hook on one and have the other two cross lines and break one of them off. We did mange to catch and release one out of that pack of fish. The balance of the afternoon provided decent action that enabled us to catch and release a good number of fish.

Another First Sailfish Catch

I have no idea how long the winter Sailfish season is going to last. Normally by this time it is starting to get very sketchy and we are working very hard to catch a fish or two. Yesterday finding live bait was as challenging as it has been all winter. I believe that was caused by the low pressure system that was developing just north of us and I hope that is not an indication that the Sailfish season is coming to an end. Today we are watching the wind blow (about 30 knots) and are hoping it will settle down enough we can get out and catch a few more in the morning.

Good luck and remember you can?t catch?em at the dock.

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