Mere miles separate low and high tally tournament releases.

Sailfish Alley can be confusing. One day the sails are on the north end, a few days later to the south. Sometimes vice versa. This phenomena was highly evident this week as tournament sailfishers headed out of two ports—Fort Pierce for the Pelican Yacht Club Billfish Tournament and Palm Beach for the Silver Sailfish Derby.

Derby competitors enjoyed a banner day on Thursday with 59 boats recording 110 sailfish releases. Fishing was much slower to north, where 35 boats fishing the Pelican posted only 10 releases.

The word around the docks is that conditions were much better off West Palm Beach. Current edges at the green-to-blue color change were defined and loaded with bait. Not so up north said many captains who spent the day trolling nondescript waters mostly devoid of bait.

FS