By Steve Waters
Whether you’re looking to catch multiple sailfish in a tournament or want to catch only one of South Florida’s iconic sport fish, there are many little things you can do to put the odds in your favor.
Sailfish typically migrate to the region in late fall and early winter, with January through April a prime time to catch them.
Although the fish will bite trolled lures and chunks of dead bait, no serious sailfish angler would leave the dock without live bait.
Many of the 50 boats competing in the West Palm Beach Fishing Club’s Silver Sailfish Derby, which is Jan. 9-10, will go out on Lake Worth Inlet each day with several dozen live baits.
And they might need them all.
Over the years, the tournament has had some incredible catches, with a one-day record of 36 sailfish releases and a one-day average of 14 fish per boat.
Capt. Skip Dana of Deerfield Beach, who has numerous tournament victories to his credit, likes to use a variety of live baits such as goggle-eyes, threadfin herring and sardines.
If there’s enough wind, he’ll fly a fishing kite, which has fishing lines attached to get them far away from the boat. Dana likes to put out two kites with three lines on each.
The goggle-eyes, which are bigger, will go on the far kite lines because they stay in the water better. The herring might be on the middle kite lines or short lines, and the smaller sardines will be on the short lines.
Most anglers want their kite baits splashing on the surface because that attracts sailfish, but some say they get more bites with their baits several feet under the surface.
Capt. John Louie Dudas of Miami, who has won countless sailfish tournaments, has a sensible reason why he fishes his kite baits on top or just below the surface.
“If a bait is 6 feet down,” Dudas said, “a fish can get tangled in the leader.”
Standard sailfish tackle is a conventional outfit with 20-pound monofilament line and a 30-pound fluorocarbon leader.
Most anglers put a foam float or tie a ribbon on the main line above the swivel that is connected to the leader so they can keep track of the kite baits, but Capt. David Doll of Lighthouse Point does not.
That’s because he once hooked a big kingfish on a kite line marked with a chartreuse ribbon. As the fish swam away, taking the ribbon under the water, a second kingfish came along and bit the ribbon, cutting the line.
Hooking sailfish is fairly easy with circle hooks. Instead of yanking back on the fishing rod when a sailfish grabs a bait, you only need to reel to set a circle hook. Just don’t start reeling too soon, because that can take the bait out of the fish’s mouth.
Dudas said to make sure the fish is swimming away from you before you reel. “You want some type of angle,” Dudas said, “so if the fish is coming to you, don’t reel.”
All sailfish anglers agree that you want your live baits to be lively. If you’re kite fishing, you can reel the baits into the air to make sure they’re wiggling.
If they look tired, replace them, because fresh baits react naturally to sailfish. If a sailfish approaches a lethargic bait that doesn’t try to get away, the sail instinctively knows that something isn’t right and won’t bite.
To make his baits act as natural as possible, Doll uses small 3/0 and 4/0 circle hooks instead of the more typical 5/0 to 7/0 sizes.
“The idea is to have baits as lively and unencumbered as can be, so when a sailfish comes up, the bait reacts and triggers a strike,” he said. “When they’re biting like crazy, it doesn’t matter, but when fishing is tough, it does.”
Outdoors writer Steve Waters can be reached at steve33324@aol.com.
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