Three Days Of Kite Fishing Fun!

Cliff Fox and Freddy DuPreez spent  the last 3 days of their Islamorada vacation fishing for Sailfish.
The wind was up for sure and on the first day it was tough and rough. We had 4 shots but all but one that Freddy caught managed to jump off. We took a day off to let the sea calm down a bit.

Day 2 was great. We hoopnetted Ballyhoo for bait pretty easily instead of using the castnet. This way the bait are not scraped up and last all day staying very frisky in the livewell.

By 9 am Cliff released the first Sail of the day. About 20 minutes later the left and right outrigger went off and we thought we were into a double header. It turned out to be one Sailfish. Now the funny part. Neither angler had a hook in the Sailfish. It had been caught before and the old trace was tangled around its bill and Cliff's hook had caught the loop and that was all the held it on.We cleaned the old trace away and released the Sail. He was very hungry trying to eat both baits and hopefully now will be able to feed.

We ended up anchoring later in the day and Freddy scored a Sailfish on the Kite rod. We use Tarpon Spincast Trek rods and EOS 30 reels loaded with 30lb Horizon braid for kite rods. They hold a tremendous amount of line and give us plenty of time to release the anchor ball, reel in the other lines before giving chase.

Cliff Fox watches his line disappear.
The Sailfish Trek Diablo 750 is the perfect gear
 for big Atlantic Sailfish

center stage

a 60lb Sailfish for Cliff

Freddy DuPreez with the Sailfish Trek Diablo 750 combo on a Sailfish

boatside for release

4 Sailfish releases for Cliff and Freddy

Day 3 was another day of big seas. Up to 10 feet by the end of the day. We anchored up for the day. We had a lot of action. Barracudas were constantly biting off our kitebaits but working hard we kept putting out more baits and managed 3 Sail releases on this day. The boys held up very well and did a great job of helping me retrieving the anchor buoy after releasing Sails.

It was not calm to say the least

another beauty hooked in the corner of the mouth

Diablo 750 spinning reels do the job.
Cliff Fox released 3 Sailfish this day

Cliff with another big Sail

3 Releases for Cliff and Freddy using the
Diablo 750 Sailfish Trek combos

We had sails knock the bait off the hooks. We had sails come up and eat freebies right behind the boat. We had sails on that  jumped off and sails lost because barracudas ate the swivels and kite leader indicator. But we still managed to let 3 go. At the very last we released all of our ballyhoo and 3 or 4 sailfish put on a show chasing the freebies around the boat. Cliff cast a Sailfish Trek Diablo 750 combo out and the jumping bait was nabbed immediately by a Sailfish. An exciting way to end the fishing trip.

Freddy DuPreez really had a great time this past week

Cliff caught the last Sailfish.
We released our bait and  a pod of Sailfish rose up
and we casted to them. This was a tough  one!

last fish of the trip

Nice job Cliff and Freddy!

Captain Skip Nielsen