Today, Ann and her son, visiting from North Carolina, decided to spend Thanksgiving morning fishing aboard the Lady Pamela. I recommended to Ann that we pick up some live goggleyes, telling her that they would greatly increase our chances of landing a sailfish. Despite the added cost, Ann said to do whatever is necessary to make her son happy. So, we picked up the live baits, and then ran about 5 miles north of Port Everglades inlet to set up. The weather was great. Seas were flat calm, but there was enough wind to keep the kites up, and there was a hard south current and plenty of blue water. I couldn’t wait to get the baits in the water. Surprisingly, it took 1 hour 45 minutes before we had the first bite, but it was a sailfish and we fought it for a good 35 minutes into 30 feet of water. We got the leader a few times before fraying the sailfish off.
I ran the boat back into deeper water, as this time the edge had moved out a little deeper, into 140 feet. My mate Darin and I got baits back out as soon as we could, and started the waiting game, again. After a while, Ann came on the bridge and said we could go in any time, as we had caught one sailfish, and that was good enough. We still had 1 ½ hours left and I wanted her son to catch some more fish, so I asked her to give it a little while longer. It sure paid off, as 50 minutes before the end of the charter I yelled right long, there he is! Darin ran down from the bridge, grabbed the rod and fed the sailfish, he hooked it up and it jumped all over the ocean! A more acrobatic fish I’ve never seen! I needed a Go Pro Camera! We were the only charter boat to not only catch one sailfish but two sailfish today. We just started using a lighter weight Sufix™ fluorocarbon leader than anybody else is using, and I do believe it makes a difference.
