On Thursday, a fishing buddy of mine, his wife and two other friends of mine set sail on his 54’ Sportfish and headed offshore in search of the Atlantic Sailfish. At 7AM on the dot, we left his dock lookin’ for a fight. It just so happened that the Silver Sailfish Derby was taking place but we weren’t involved, we were just looking to have a good time fishing offshore on our days off. We loaded up on live goggle eyes to suspend from the kites and the weather couldn’t have been better. We reached our destination and within 10 minutes our spread was ready to attract the fish. It wasn’t long before our first bite of the day and it wasn’t a Sailfish. Our first fish never offered a fight as it freed itself immediately, but Ed saw the beefy 30 lb King Mackerel eat. We hung in there for a little bit longer and good thing, we hooked our first Sailfish of the day. She jumped, pulled some line then pulled the hook, it was a complete tease. After two nice bites, we weren’t moving. We went for round two on the Sailfish, but this time, our fish got cut off. We didn’t get discouraged; we ran a bit and relocated. “This is the spot Dave, I can feel it” said Ed. Fish after fish, it was comparable to Costa Rica Sailfishing.
We hooked a double header, Diane was 5 minutes into her fight, Brian got hooked up and brought the fight to the bow, and it was great. All the tournament guys were circling our area, starring at us, thinking, “Who are these guys?” If only we were competing in the Derby! Our last bite of the day was the best. We were packing up, getting ready to hit the road but one line was still in the water. Out of no where, another Sail ate and put up one hell of a fight. We went 7 for 9 on Sailfish and had a great time.
