Sailfish

We just had our second cold front of the winter season hit us today while fishing in December in Islamorada.  It should just help our reef fishing continue to get better and better. Islamorada Sailfishing Charters are extremely popular from November through March. Sailfish are without question one of the most exciting game-fish we catch in the Florida Keys. We use light tackle (12- 20 lb test), and fish the edge of the Reef with live bait. Sailfish are thought to be the fastest fish in the ocean, reaching speeds of 67 mph. They fight great, are extremely acrobatic, and we catch and release all of them. The last few trips most of the fish have been up shallow, just inside the Reef in 30′-40′ of water. They’ve been chasing big schools of ballyhoo (also known as “showering” because of all the water splashing around. I was unable to run the last Islamorada Reef Fishing Trip on the Bn’M, but the good thing is we always have other great Captains ready to go. On the 19th Capt. Hunter ran the boat and put Jim and his group on 4 sailfish  releases! They lost a 5th one close to the boat. They also anchored down and caught about 10 yellowtail snapper, the perfect amount to take to a local restaurant and have your own fresh catch cooked up.

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

We did a 1/2 day Islamorada fishing charter today aboard the Bn’M. We had Paul and his brother out to celebrate Paul’s birthday. A full day fishing trip always gives you more time and options, but in the winter time we have lots of successful 1/2 day trips since we are only fishing the Reef (4 – 5 miles out). We caught live bait right off the bait and then I asked them what they want to focus on. They both said sailfish, so that made that decision easy! It was really quite the first two hours but then the bait started to “shower” and the Islamorada sailfish moved up on top of the reef chasing big schools of ballyhoo. We saw about half a dozen fish and managed to get 2 bites, and fortunately caught and released both sailfish! It was Paul’s first sailfish so Congrats! Quite often the sailfish will become finicky and not bite the hook baits, but we out smarted two of them and called it a day soon after catching the fish.