Come Sail Away

This past Thursday was a special one, for many reasons. First, we had the chance to go fishing again, secondly, our crew consisted of some really cool folks, including my brother, Kevin, and thirdly, we caught a beautiful Sailfish, in less than 60 feet of water!!...I love my job!

After moving around a little bit the day before, we finally found a good school of large King mackerel that were very willing to eat, so....we headed straight for 'em early Thursday, and it was game on. At first, we were fishing with big Threadfin that we brought with us from inshore, and the Kings didn't mind at all. Once again, the first bait in the water got 'sky-rocketed' by the big King of the day, and 10 minutes later, Matt brought a solid 28-pound Kingfish to the business end of the gaff. The King fish bite was hot and the action was non-stop. Denny, Craig, Bryan, Matt and Kevin all got the chance to dance around the deck of the Jawbreaker-doing the Kingfish shuffle, and let me tell you, it's even more fun in a 4-5 foot swell!

Well, the action did not just end right there. No, we had a special visitor get a little too close to our 'short line', just 15 feet from the transom, and could not resist the offering of a frisky bait....Sailfish on!!!...That's right, in the middle of our spread, a Sailfish emerged from the chop and began a classic tail walk across the canvas of this live painting! Everyone on board was in awe, and that turned into pure excitement, as this marvelous fish continued to put on an aerial show like no other. Matt was next in the line-up and took to the Sail with intent, and 1 hour and 20 minutes later, we brought her in for a quick photo, followed by a perfect release, which involved 'dragging' her by the bill, with the boat going forward, until she kicked off on her own....Glory days!!..Check out Matt and first-mate, Jon, with the Catch of a lifetime!

Although it is a rare occurrence to catch big Sailfish in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico, this is my third one hooked, and second one brought boat-side... and what a great feeling it is to see such a majestic creature just show up in the spread. An incidental catch while Kingfishing is usually the way I describe it, and the memory/fish of a lifetime!!!Happy fishing folks,Capt.Dan