Two Days of Gulfstream Magic

Wednesday November 23 was perfect, The persistent winds had died down during the night and were light from the South.

Cliff, Cathy Fox and I headed out to the reef's edge  with a couple dozen live Ballyhoo for bait. It had been tough going on the bait. They never came close enough to toss the castnet so we had to catch each one with a hairhook. And then it was an hour and a half before we had enough. But withing minutes of deploying our baits in 130 feet of water we were into a school of Dolphin fish. The water color was a brilliant blue as the Gulfstream was pushed right up on the edge of the reef. We kept a couple Mahi for dinner and released a dozen more during the day.

Cathy Fox with one of a dozen Dolphin fish caught

Cliff used a Sailfish Trek rod and Diablo 750
to muscle this Red Grouper out of a bomb crater

Mahi Mahi

About noon Cliff came tight on the only Sailfish of the day, It was the first for Cliff on his boat Foxy Lady. It was a perfect fish of 15lbs. This time of year we have a run of juvenile Sails migrating through our area. Back in the old days these smaller sails were sought for a mount, these days of course all Sailfish are released.

Cliff catches a Sailfish aboard
Foxy Lady on a calm Atlantic day

15lb Sailfish just released

On the next day the wind had come around to the North with a passing cool front during the night. We decided to use First Growth, She is a 28 foot cabin cruiser with twin outboards and a huge cockpit for fishing and very seaworthy.

We caught our ballyhoo much easier this morning and put the baits out by 8:30. Not much going on. No Dolphin around with the wind change. Around 10:30 I spotted a few Man O War birds a mile away and we cranked in the baits and sped over.

Just as we got there I saw a Sailfish had singled out a ballyhoo and was chasing it down. Then a bird swooped down and stole the baitfish from the Sail. We only had to reel in a flatline and cast it over towards the hungry fish and Cathy hooked up a 40lb Sail. This fish jumped about twenty times. Lots of fun before the release.

Sailfish about to be released

Back to trolling live ballyhoo. After half an hour I was still in the same area when we spotted a school of ballyhoo getting showered. We idled into 35ft of water and cast a bait towards the action and Cliff hooked up a Sail. Another Sail ate the other line we had left out and Cathy hooked up and now we had a double header on.

Sailing

We were using light tackle. Permit Trek rod paired with Diablo 550 spinning reels. Fun stuff. Cliff had to actually move to the other side of the cockpit as his Sailfish literally jumped over the corner of the boat. What a show! The Diablo 550 holds a heap of mono or braid. As much a 350 meters of diameter 0.35 which is more than enough line.. With the double header it took about 30 minutes to release both fish.  Congrads Cliff and Cathy on a double!

Cliff Fox had to sidestep on the next jump
as the Sailfish passed close to the transom

With it being Thanksgiving Day we had decided to quit fishing at 1pm and head home.  It was now 12:30 and we put the baits back out and within 10 minutes a big Sailfish raised up and ate the flatline bait very close to the boat. How exciting to see the fish chase the bait and catch it. Cathy hooked this Sail and it tailwalked non-stop for 200 meters. What a show. But then the work began for Cathy as the sail had gotten wrapped up around the tail during the show. After an hour and 15 minutes of up and downs and steady pressure Cathy had her release and we were headed home.

Cathy Fox used the Permit Trek rod paired with a
Diablo 550 spinning reel to release 3 Sailfish

Skip carefully unhooks a Sail

A great morning with 4 Sailfish releases all on the Permit Trek, Diablo 550 combos. And we were not late for dinner! To me Thanksgiving day could not have been any better.

2 day tally

I was out again Saturday on another boat with a 14 year old angler. He and his father and I are fishing the Islamorada Sailfish Tournament next weekend with me running their boat as Captain.. His father has won the tournament 4 times in the past fishing with me aboard my charterboat How 'Bout It. Those were some fun times. I sold the boat back in 2000 for a change of pace.

Anyway this past Saturday was really rough. 20 to 25 mph out of the east and the young boy never got seasick. We hung tough and at 3pm hooked a triple header of Sails. Two got away but young Casey released his. Good to see patience like that and a good sailer to boot.

Taking a few days to get the boats in order and get ready for the tournament. Wish young Casey luck.

Captain Skip Nielsen