What is Sailfishing?
Sailfishing is the angling pursuit of sailfish, one of the types of billfish. A sailfish gets its name from the pronounced dorsal fin, which looks like a sail. And it’s a billfish – so it has a long elongated upper jaw (rostrum or bill) that forms the shape of a spear.
Sailfish also grow very rapidly. It’s incredible, but they can reach 4-5 feet in length within their first year. In the Atlantic and Caribbean, they can reach a size of approximately 120 lbs.
Fishermen pursue sailfish for many reasons. If you want to catch a billfish, the sailfish is arguably the easiest of all billed species to locate and capture. They are considered a trophy catch because they are in the billfish family.
Sailfish are also purported to be the fastest fish in the ocean. Wikipedia lists the sailfish as the fastest marine animal, with a top speed of 68 mph. These fish are also highly acrobatic. When hooked, these fish use their incredible speed and strength to leap out of the water in an effort to free themselves.
All these attributes make them a worthy adversary and prized catch.
Where are Sailfish Found?
Sailfish can be found in the temperate ocean waters of the Americas, both in the Atlantic and Pacific. Although these fish are similar, each ocean is home to a separate species, with the Atlantic sailfish known as Istiophorus albicans.
Locally, sailfish are especially abundant in Florida waters. From Fort Pierce south to Key West, they can often be found in packs, feeding on the small baitfish available in South Florida’s extensive reef ecosystem.
The Miami metropolitan area is home to a tremendous sailfishing habitat. During the peak season, our pristine marine environment is home to dozens of fishing tournaments for a reason. During these tournaments angling enthusiasts and professional fisherman flock to our shores in pursuit of sailfish and hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money.
It’s common for tournament participants to individually release dozens of sailfish over the course of a 2-3 day tournament. At the same time, the entire fleet of anglers may account for hundreds of releases. The record total number of sailfish catches in a Florida tournament is 969! So, if you are looking to catch a sailfish, Miami is the epicenter of a thriving fishery.
Fishing Methods
Live Baiting
In Miami, the predominant tactic among fishermen targeting sailfish is live baiting. Live baiting, as the name implies, is using a live bait to entice a fish to bite. After all, fish are drawn to our area because of the abundance of baitfish that swim in our waters. It’s simply a matter of catching some of these baitfish, attaching a hook, and waiting for a bite – it seems so easy. It’s actually not difficult, but as with so many things, the devil is the details.
Baits
The overwhelming live bait of choice among anglers are goggle eyes – also known as bigeye scad. These are a much sought-after and prized baitfish for South Florida fishermen. These baits are just the right size, swim vigorously, and have a lot of silvery flash – all good qualities when trying to attract the attention of sailfish. In particular, the vibrations of a struggling goggle eye is like a dinner bell to any nearby marine predators.
If you want to try and catch these baitfish yourself, it requires going offshore at night and fishing depths of 200-500 feet of water looking for the schools of baitfish. Goggle eye fishing is a specialized skill onto its own – I could devote an entire article for just this endeavor.
Fishing for goggle eyes is not for everyone, but because of their demand, goggles can also be purchased from local bait fishermen. Live goggle eyes can generally be purchased for $50-80 a dozen, but during peak times like tournaments, a dozen goggle eyes may fetch $100-150 per dozen.
There are also many other live baits ideally suited for targeting sailfish. These include ballyhoo, threadfin hearing, blue runners, pilchards, pinfish, and mullet. These baitfish are more common and easier to catch for the average weekend warrior. Many of these baitfish are also available to purchase from local bait boats for less than goggle eyes.
Bait Presentation
One way to present your baits is to slow troll your baits in a typical trolling pattern. A pair of flat lines anywhere from 25 to 50 feet. Next, a pair of lines on the short rigger anywhere from 75 to 100 feet, and then your long riggers further back. The reason you slow troll live baits is to keep them alive. Too much speed, and you risk drowning your baits or causing them to spin. At times, you can momentarily take your boat out of gear and allow the baits to settle.
Another popular live bait presentation is drifting. In this scenario, you put another full spread of baits and allow the wind and current to push your boat through the desired fishing zone. You can also incorporate a few variations while drifting. For example, you can add lead (weights) to some of the rigs to present the baits at different levels in the water column. Not all bites will come on the surface. And if you are not exclusively fishing for sailfish, midwater or baits near the bottom will expand the possibility of catching other fish species.
Kite Fishing
If sailfish are your primary target, the single most productive method of presenting live baits is kite fishing. This is where your live bait lines are suspended from a kite. Each kite can hold up to 3 lines. Each fishing rod line is attached to the main kite line through a release clip. The clip has a tensioner that will hold the line while fishing but release the line when enough force is applied – like a large fish taking the bait.
Kite fishing allows you to (1) spread and manage the baits in a controlled fashion, (2) maintain the baits near the surface where you can monitor them and where they are most likely to draw a strike, and (3) live baits at the surface tend to swim more vigorously and struggle thus sending vibrations through the water signaling any predators nearby.
Optimum Conditions
Wintertime and early spring are the peak sailfishing times off Miami Beach – although they are available and present year-round. In the winter months, cold fronts move through the area regularly. These cold fronts lower the water temperature and bring north and northeast winds, which are ideal conditions for sailfish.
Sailfish prefer water temperatures in the 70-80 degree range. They are known to frequent the mid to deeper reefs from 70 to 250 feet in depth. They are also more active feeders when there is a current flowing through the area. The presence of a north-flowing current opposing a wind out of the northeast can really turn the bite on.
Popular Tackle Choices
Luckily, you really don’t need fancy tackle. 20-lb. tackle in either conventional or spinning is the norm. In many of the fishing techniques touched on above, conventional gear would work best, but spinning gear is perfectly acceptable. Whatever gear you choose, it should have good, well-maintained drags capable of smoothly handling the blistering runs of a sailfish. Typical rods are fiberglass or graphite blanks – with a length of 6.5′ for conventional and 7′ for spinners.
Nowadays, circle hooks are used almost exclusively for sailfish. Studies have shown circle hooks result in better hookup ratios while decreasing fish mortality. J-hooks have a higher probability of hooking a fish inside their mouths or further down their digestive tract, causing harm. In contrast, circle hooks will almost always result in the fish being hooked in the corner of its mouth. Most sailfish tournaments mandate the exclusive use of circle hooks.
When using circle hooks, it’s important not to “set the hook,” as you see with bass fishermen. Instead of jerking the rod, you want to reel slowly and allow the circle hook to slide into position at the corner of the fish’s mouth. This will result in greater survival rates and also make it easier to release the fish unharmed.
Sailfish Conservation
The sailfish fishery in Florida is a true conservation success story. Conservation efforts have been ongoing for decades and have changed with the times. The 1960s ushered in the concept that sailfish should be tagged and released – with the tags came systematic scientific data collection. In 1990, gill nets were banned in the South Atlantic, and in 1990, Florida signed their own net ban. In 2001, over 100,000 square miles of coastal waters were closed to longliners along the southeastern U.S. All these measures saved countless sailfish and other species from the indiscriminate killing of bycatch.
By the mid-2000s, sailfish tournaments saw record numbers of sailfish caught and released.
Expanding on conservation consciousness, sailfishing has become almost exclusively a catch-and-release fishery. It’s still possible to harvest a sailfish with a permit, but honestly, it’s frowned upon by the fishing community. If you want to mount your trophy catch, almost all taxidermy companies use artificial mounts that look better than natural mounts. All you really need are the fish’s measurements.
Today, an average Joe fisherman can venture offshore in Miami and have a reasonable shot of catching one or more sailfish when the conditions are favorable. Some say the sailfish fishery has never been better.
