Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Expert tips for catching sailfish
Using a variety of lively baits is essential technique
Whether you’re looking to catch multiple sailfish in a tournament or just want to catch one of South Florida’s iconic sportfish, there are many little things you can do to put the odds in your favor.
Sailfish migrated to the region earlier than usual this year, so it should be a good winter for catching and releasing them. Although the fish will bite trolled lures and chunks of dead bait, no serious sailfish angler would leave home without at least several dozen live baits.
Capt. Skip Dana of Deerfield Beach, who recently led Crescendo to victory in the Operation Sailfish tournament out of Lake Worth Inlet, likes to use a variety of live baits such as goggleeyes, threadfin herring and sardines.
If there’s enough wind to fly a fishing kite, he’ll put out two kites with three lines on each. The goggleeyes, 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 4-6 feet under the surface. 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 six 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, although when Capt. Bouncer Smith of Miami Beach is fun fishing, he’ll use wire leaders to prevent cut-offs from barracudas and kingfish and still catch plenty of sailfish.
Most anglers put a foam float or tie a ribbon on the main line above the swivel 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 thanks to circle hooks. Instead of yanking back on the fishing rod to set the hook when a sailfish grabs a bait, all you have to do is reel. Just don’t start reeling too soon, because that can take the bait out of the fish’s mouth. Instead, 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.”
When you get a sailfish bite, don’t immediately reel up or reel in all the other lines. Sailfish often travel in packs, so when one angler is hooked up, Dudas has his other anglers keep their baits in the water.
“After you hook that first fish, more fish come up,” Dudas said. “They’re like dolphin.”