Broke little river inlet around 6:30, pretty good swell left over from the blow we’ve been having, but we had a comfortable ride out @ 20 kts. Put lines in about 5 miles short of 100/400, it turned into false albacore mayhem… all rods got knocked down. Anglers did a great job fighting fish and keeping lines from tangling. We do this dance a couple times then we finally are out of the FA mecca. 30 minutes of nothing and I start thinkg to myself "great these guys want good eating fish and all we’ve managed so far is junk and wasted ballyhoo…this was the longest lull in the action we had all day… 10:35 -ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ… tell tale wahoo bite, our first angler up fought the fish for ~15-20 minutes it came to the gaff and then the 40 lber was escorted to the box, after this we had some blackfin bites and put a couple of those yummy critters on ice. After this I start thinking “alright, not a banner day but we’ve got some meat in the box, monkey is off our back and its fun now that the stress level is down”.
POW, long rigger explodes and makes a 30W squeal… dumps two-thirds of the spool, we cleared the lines and start making our way towards the fish. I had made it up in my mind this was another nice wahoo… A sailfish!!! Only gripe is it didn’t put on a show til it got close to the boat. Our first sailfish of the year, and our anglers first sailfish of his life, we brought it aboard for 2 quick pictures and it was released unharmed with the hook out.
After this we suffer some extremely unfortunate bite offs that prove to be very costly with flouro, hooks, and skirts. and a mystery bite I’m willing to bet was another sail based on a scuffed up leader. Then the same 30 we had caught our first sail on pops the rigger clip, not a solid hook up, drop it back and jig it twice and about had the rod ripped from me. I have done this with wahoo and dolphin plenty, so again i thought another wahoo for the box and some great dinner. We get close to the fish and i see a black back with electric blues d
How much do I owe you for reading that? Surely it’s not free.
An awesome day, and glad to see someone with some narrative skills giving jon boat trolls like myself something to daydream about.
“Sire, it belongs in truth to the Church of God, in whose name I speak, to endure blows and not to inflict them. But it will also please your Majesty to remember that she is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.”…Theodore Beza
Glad you all have enjoyed it, we were very blessed to have a day like that. Mr. Redfish my only comment is that you owe me nothing, and to live vicariously through the written words.
Looking at the color on that Sailfish I highly doubt it made it…I hope you kept it for the smoker. I’m suprised nobody pointed out that it’s illegal to remove them from the water. Just post up your address for DNR next time.
Yeah, you’re right that is a pretty dinky Sailfish…I doubt it “dumped 2/3’s of a 30W”. I’ve caught bigger Sailfish live baiting for Kings on a Speedmaster and they never came close to dumping the spool.
The sail was revived boatside, thankfully the blackfin combi has low gunwales that help my short arms keep a fish in the water, and its swam off beautifully.
Don’t you dare call me out on a situation that you were not present for, if you have caught billfish and never taken them out of the water for a picture then I applaud you, but on charters it can be different the client wanted a picture and i could do nothing but oblige. If you haven’t caught billfish and are just jealous then get a life, I tried my best to keep everyone happy and if it doesn’t suit you, then I apologize, both fish were reported within the 24 hour time limit.
I tried to provide everyone with a play by play of the day. To start throwing mud like that is classless and absurd. The fish was removed from the water to ensure that a 10.0 stainless steel hook was retrieved from its jaw that I wasn’t willing to leave in connected to 5 foot of wire with a lure hanging out, I figured the fish would have had a better shot living having that removed.
This being said our second sailfish of the day I was able to pull the hook after getting my hand on the leader and the fish wasn’t taken from the water
quote:on charters it can be different the client wanted a picture and i could do nothing but oblige
So, let me see if I understand your thought process…
Since you offer a charter service it makes you above the law, so you can do anything you wish? Did you box any Red Snapper on the way in too because “the charter” wanted that for dinner?
Take pictures by all means, but don’t be ignorant enough to post pictures of yourself breaking the law.
