Free Article HomeSubmit Article l Contact Us


School for Sails, by Capt. Cary Hanna By Cary Hanna 


Gorgeous, acrobatic, and lit-up, Sailfish rank as the # 1 sporty catch of south Florida. But there is a lot involved in the catch and release of these sought after game fish, after all their not the best table fare. How much vacuum packed smoked Sailfish can you eat? So what’s involved in catching the Sailfish? What kind of bait? What is the best rod and reel set-up? What are some of the techniques to use on the water? Let’s start out and learn from the end result and work our way to the beginning.

The fact is Sailfish fight their heart out, displaying themselves in full view acrobatics over and over again. Did you ever run the 100 yard dash in high school? What happened when you finished? If you were like me, you stood there with your head between your knees and tried to catch your breath. A Sailfish doesn’t have the luxury of sitting there and catching his breath, they will sink. So what do you do when you get a Sailfish that looks half dead at your boat side? You need to resuscitate him! Put on your gloves, grab his sandpaper like spindle beak, remove your hook and hold him boat side, preferably with the boat in gear. You need to revive him for 5-10 minutes before you let him go. This might take some patience, but the reward is great when your prize catch swims away in good health ready to fight another day.

The above scenario is a bit traumatizing for the Sailfish, don’t you think? Not to mention a little novice. Most cases when a Sailfish has to be resuscitated it is because the fight was prolonged. Fighting your Sailfish on anything less than 20 lb. test will prolong the battle unless you chase down your fish. Personally I prefer to fight my Sailfish with no help from the boat, but I also have that luxury since I fish from a center console. My clients have on numerous occasions commended me for not chasing down their fish, they appreciated catching their fish all on their own. As an example, if your using a 12 lb. set-up, you will need to hold at least 400 yards on your reel, and you might still get spooled from your average Sailfish if you don’t chase him down. Even if you don’t get spooled what fun is it seeing your fish jumping 300 yards away from the boat not to mention all that line dragging in the water increasing the risk for it to break. And finally you might have your fish boat side an hour or so later.

Fast reels, Hot baits

One of my favorite set-ups for Sail fishing is a Shimano TLD 20, spooled with over 400 yards of Berkley Big Game 30 pound test, accompanied with a seven foot, medium action Oceanmaster rod. This rod and reel set-up has caught tons of Sailfish over the years and remains unbeatable offshore. Keeping 4-5 pounds of drag set in the strike position, most Sailfish stay inside of 150 yards from the boat and are brought to the stern within 20 minutes. I use Berkley Big game fishing line on most reels, it doesn’t have a lot of stretch or memory and is easy to tie with, it also is abrasive resistant. With experienced fishermen on board I’ll tie a 5/0 Lazer sharp Eagle Claw Salmon hook directly to the main line. You can bring in the fish within 20 minutes and the line holds up very well, and you get a lot more hits that way. You will need to retie your hook after each fish caught to be safe from any nicks or chaff on your line.

Putting the right bait on your hook is critical to your success. I have caught Sailfish on Ballyhoo, Pilchards, and Threadfin Herring, but my best success is the valuable goggle eye. ( Literally at $50. to $100. a dozen) They are a soft bait with big eyes and strong swimmers making them great baits for all techniques. You can catch this bait on size 12 sabiki rigs but only at night, that’s when the Goggle-eye becomes active. You can find them around structure up to about 80 feet of water and around anchored ships. As soon as the sun comes up the bite is off unless there is a full moon setting as the morning light breaks, then the bite will last just a bit longer. So prepare to fish for these Goggle-eyes 2-4 hours before sunrise giving yourself time to find them first.

The Technique

Setting up on the drift.

As mentioned earlier, on my flat lines I like to tie the hooks directly to the main line, otherwise I’ll tie a short bimini to the tag end and attach my leader, 10 feet of 40 pound test Seaguar Fluorocarbon with an Albright knot. This knot takes practice, but once you get the feel of how this knot works you will never change. 2 to 3 flat lines are usually deployed at 50, 80, and past 100 feet away from the boat. 2 down lines are deployed at 40 and 80 feet down. The down lines are rigged different since weights are attached and the baits make more line twist, therefore I attach a stainless steel ball-bearing swivel to my Bimini and then 8 feet of 40-50 pound mono attached to 1 foot of # 4 wire Kingfish rig. You might not want Kings, but sooner or later your drift is going to take you over their zone, so be prepared for cut-offs. Most of the time I tie wire to all the rigs because the Kings bite on all lines. I use 4-6 oz weights on the down lines. The weight can be attached a few different ways. I like to insert the Bimini twist into the weight then tie on my snap swivel. You can also take a piece of dental floss, attach it to the weight and leave a long enough tag end to tie to the swivel. You can also use the breakaway technique where you will lose the weight. You take your line above the swivel and insert it through the weight so a loop appears on the other end, then take a rubber band, put it through the loop a few times and pull the mono slowly so the rubber band gets stuck inside the weight. When a fish strikes, the pressure on the line will release the weight. Setting your lines for the kite is the same as the down line without the weights. Tie your bimini, attach your ball-bearing swivel rated for 75-100 pounds, tie 8-10 feet of 50 leader material to the swivel and attach your tag end if you prefer, to 1 foot of # 4 wire leader attached to your hook via a haywire twist. Then I will take a 2 foot strip of red or orange ribbon and attach it to my swivel on the Bimini end, that way I can monitor my baits much easier.

Slow trolling

This technique is more advanced than drifting. It requires dropping your baits back on the strike. Sailfish are very sensitive as they pick up your bait, if your bumping in and out of gear a Sailfish can come up on your bait, mouth it, and if your drag is tight the boat will pull it from his mouth and he might not come back. I prefer to keep my drags in free spool with the clickers on, or on a spinning outfit I will leave the bail open, attach a piece of copper wire to the arm that is attached to the rod and make a small hook to hang the line on, with a gentle tug, the sailfish will pull the line from the tiny hook in the copper wire and put this reel into free spool as it runs with the bait. Let the fish eat for at least 5-10 seconds, or until he takes off speedily, then put your drag lever in the strike position and reel down until line starts peeling off the reel. When the kite bait gets hit, the Sailfish needs time to eat just like above, as you reel down on the fish the line will pop off the clip, so reel fast to get tight before he jumps. If he jumps before you get tight, chances are you missed him.

Prime time for south Florida Sailfish starts from November through April when these fish are concentrated in 100 to 200 feet of water. On winter days as the wind comes out of the east it is not unusual to get 4-5 releases in a days fishing out of Ft. Lauderdale, 3 or more releases constitutes a good day. During the winter season be sure to present plenty of baits down deep, at least 50 feet or more down. We catch a lot of sails this way, it seems the top part of the water column is a bit too cold for them especially on those days when the winds are blowing from the north.

When targeting Sailfish, look for the edge where the cobalt blue waters meets the green water. This is where the bait usually winds up as these two currents move against each other. This edge always changes, sometimes you will not find blue water past 700 feet or so. Don’t neglect this area, many times I have put lines down from 75-100 feet and came up with a beautiful tail walker. Pay attention to the current as well, a good 2 knot north current produces some of the best bites.



Author Info:

Captain Cary Hanna fishes the offshore waters off Ft. Lauderdale beach from the Hillsborough inlet south to Haulover. He pursues Sailfish, Kingfish, Dolphin, Tuna, Sharks, and Swordfish aboard his 2004 Donzi 32 ZF center console, powered with twin 225hp. Mercury Opti’s. He can be contacted at 954-907-0967 or visit his website for the latest fishing report at www.newlattitude.com

 
30 Most Recent Articles :
A Disputed New Business:Virtual Property Exchange

In many ways, the in-game economy is similar to a real world economy - goods and services are traded to mutual advantage and are mediated in currencies(gold,platinum,credit,etc.). An online broker, who goes by the screen name Rolala, was not a fan of online games until his 15-year-old son be[ Read Article]

THE UNITED STATES, A Terrorist Nation

I love the United States of America, but I cannot tolerate the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. No I am not shouting at you, I am simply making a distinction, a difference that thirty-seven states of the union have noticed and moved to rectify. You see, AMERICA isn’t America anymore, nor does it in anyw[ Read Article]

Dollars and Sense

When I speak of the Federal Reserve and the fiat monetary system that controls our lives I feel as though my words are falling on deaf ears. I have the sense that the simplest conversations suggesting that change must be made invoke fear and condemnation from my fellow citizens. When will we tak[ Read Article]

Constitutionality

Is the 16th Amendment constitutional? Of course it is, the Supreme Court has made that as clear as it did the issue of slavery. But let us remember that it took the lives of more than 365,000 brave American men and the destruction of the Republic to wrest the matter from the courts and resolve the[ Read Article]

Five Secrets to Effective Pay-Per-Click Advertising

With so many companies swarming the World Wide Web with their products, how can you and your products and services stand out? Your ready answer would most likely be effective marketing. But how? How can you catch the eye of a surfer skimming carelessly through web pages? How can you keep the at[ Read Article]

How to Sell Bonds

If you want to make good money with banks, or any institution, Government and agency bonds are where it is at. Simply because all Government bonds and agencies are AAA rated, and banks can buy millions of dollars of any bond without incurring any credit risk. All banks own bonds of some sort, a[ Read Article]

Closing in the Car Business

The “P” Word. Closing is all about helping car customers make positive decisions. It is not about pressure or manipulation. Your customers need help overcoming the “P” word. Procrastination! Procrastination is natural when it comes to making a buying decision. Your customer is trying to avoid [ Read Article]

If You Build It They Will Come, or Will They?

All right, so you invested your time and energy to build your organization a great new web site, but you are not getting quite the results you were hoping for. Few customers are visiting or interacting with you and rarely do you get prospects to contact you through the site. So what can you do to [ Read Article]

Confessions of a Yoga Teacher

The following are questions that Yoga teachers still need to answer, despite overwhelming evidence that Yoga is ?the mother of all health maintenance systems.? Mainstream thought is finally catching up, with the progress Yoga is making, but it has taken 5,000 years for us to get this far. Serio[ Read Article]

Vertical Creep in Search Results :: Should Organic Optimizers be Concerned?

I thought for this week I’d give a summary of some of the more interesting Search Engine Strategies sessions which are currently going on in New York City. I was at SES as a speaker last year in New York and I have to say, there is a wealth of information there even if some of it is contradict[ Read Article]

How to build link popularity fast and free

We all knew that back link or link popularity is a big factor to get good position in any search engines. But building link popularity some times really hard if you don't know how to do it. One of the hardest problem for new webmasters is to get back link to their newly stablis[ Read Article]

Does Chiropractic Care Really Make Sense?

The Role of Chiropractic in Treatment Beyond the Resolution of Symptoms Do you have the same nagging injury that never seems to go away? Are you suffering needlessly with pain? Are you fed up with taking painkillers? Do you want to find out what is causing your pain? If your answer is ‘ye[ Read Article]

The Economic Implications of Buying Drugs Online

Although the Internet is fairly new (at least to the mainstream) online shopping has grown by leaps and bounds. Now you can buy almost anything you need, from food to fishing equipment, right through your computer. Of course, this has meant that commerce has been forced to adapt to the changing co[ Read Article]

Manning and Manning-Can Either Brother Win the Big One?

It was just over a year ago, after the Colts lost to the Pats in their post-season contest, that Boomer Esiason said on national television, "I think maybe Peyton (Manning) is this generation's Dan Marino." Esiason went on to state that Manning "is a great football player, but he's not going to get[ Read Article]

Branding, Branding, Branding - MSN fails to keep it Straight

Sometimes you see promotions come along and you wonder: did they just do that? The current MSN promotion called msnsearchandwin is a prime example of this. Not only do they use “black hat” or at least “questionable” tactics on the site, but the messaging is inconsistent. In this article [ Read Article]

The New MSN Search Interface :: A positive change or the antithesis of transformation?

Now, instead of wide blue bars there are sleek silver-grey bars. Also, the top bar where the search box is became narrower. To me this makes the page seem less “closed in” and more visually appealing. I now feel as if I can trust the results more because they have more room. I’ve also noti[ Read Article]

Malta Holidays

With Malta visitor numbers static in recent years and facing new competiton from former Eastern Bloc countries offering cheap holidays, the recent announcement by the Maltese government that negotiations were at an advanced stage with two low cost airlines has[ Read Article]

Drug Rehab Treatment Centers as an Experience, not a Punishment

Choosing a drug rehab treatment center is a decision that calls for both negative and positive emotions. Nobody wants addiction to overtake their life to the point that rehab is the necessary step. However, the decision to go to one is something to look forward to, as it is the decision to rebui[ Read Article]

Some ways to improve your king content

There are thousands of articles, books and forum posts which showed that content is king in search engine optimization (SEO). In this article, you can find some ways that can help you improve this king content for your web site. * Content for people first, not for search engines - Some webmaste[ Read Article]

Aerosmith Just Keeps On Rockin’

For over three decades, Aerosmith have been one of rock's most revered and popular bands, crafting classic songs full of raw guitar runs and intensely energetic vocals. The band first reached fame in the 1970’s with a string of hits including "Dream On," "Sweet Emotion" and "Walk This Way." During t[ Read Article]

Chicago Cubs Pitcher Mark Prior Re-signs

After many trips through the rumor mill, Mark Prior accepted the Chicago Cubs’ offer on January 27 to a one-year, $3.65 million contract. That is $900,000 more than the salary he would have earned under the contract he voided in November. Since Prior's definitive season in 2003 (18-6), he has cooled[ Read Article]

Social Networking - The Next Great Marketing Medium?

There has been a virtual explosion of social networking sites in the past couple of years. Even the big players like Google, Yahoo and MSN are getting into it. With so much interest in how social networks work, one begins to wonder if there is marketing potential within these social network[ Read Article]

How to choose paid directory for web site listing?

How to choose paid directory for web site listing? Search Engines are the major source of traffic for any website. High search engine ranking can boost number of your visitors and in turn leads to increase in sales. The best way to get top search engine placement is to improve link popularity [ Read Article]

Addiction Treatment Centers Using Experiential Therapies

Life is experience. Substance dependence overtakes a person’s ability to make her own decisions to experience life, and life is no longer actively participated in. Therefore, in overcoming addiction, it is vital to learn to re-experience life. This lesson helps a treatment center resident reint[ Read Article]

The DH: Making Life Tough for AL Pitchers

In 1973 Major League Baseball instituted three rules designed to lessen the power of pitchers and create more offense. One theory at work was that the game needed to be energized and that more hitting would create additional runs and excitement. Both the National and American Leagues lowered th[ Read Article]

Vacation on the Beach the Smart Way

Vacation on the Beach the Smart Way Almost everyone agrees; there is no more relaxing way to vacation than to take it to the beach. For the vacationer/traveler who hasn't considered a beach house rental before, they represent an affordable and fun family oriented alternative. There is an intell[ Read Article]

Malta Holidays and Hotels Buzzed by New Jets

With Malta visitor numbers static in recent years and facing new competiton from former Eastern Bloc countries offering cheap holidays, the recent announcement by the Maltese government that negotiations were at an advanced stage with two low cost airlines has sparked hopes that the island will see [ Read Article]

The Rising Cost of Prescription Drugs

If you’re like many Americans, the rising cost of prescription drugs may be costing you your health. In particular, seniors living on a fixed income with no insurance are finding it difficult to pay for necessary prescriptions out-of-pocket, and as a result, may be failing to receive the treatment[ Read Article]

Who's Tops in Hockey and Who's Not

The National Hockey League needs to do more to encourage better coverage of the hockey games. With so many other sports realizing national coverage, the NHL is sometimes forgotten. However, this year, there's a race for the Stanley Cup, and only one is set to win it. But which team will that be? [ Read Article]

The Danger Of Rounding Up Your Debts

Rounding up your debts is one of the biggest dangers to your financial position. It's also one of the easiest ways for your debts to get out of control. This way of thinking is best summed up by the following comment; ‘I already owe $27500 so what’s another $500. It takes my debt to a nice round [ Read Article]

 

World Top Stories :
Political Memo: Bain Strategy Against Romney May Have Pitfalls for Obama
Attacks by President Obama’s campaign against Mitt Romney’s work in private equity have strained the relationship between Democrats and the financial industry.<br clear="both" style="clear: both;"/> <br clear="both" style="clear: both;"/> <a href="http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=40e46f30f99d5f33a6bfa06660d23277&p=1"><img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://ads.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=40e46f30f99d5f33a6bfa06660d23277&p=1"/></a>


 

Copyright © 2006 Realook.com All Rights Reserved.