Overlapping Bills

By Mike Holliday

A sailfish brings smiles.

In the time it took to point out a fish on the teaser, three more came into view, and everyone on board knew we were going to be in the weeds. But that's what you're looking for with sailfish--multiple hookups and more commotion in the cockpit than the filming of Titanic's water scenes. It's the kind of action billfishermen thrive on--spontaneous, irregular and quick, but that doesn't mean it's confusing.

At the instant I pointed to a fish in the bait spread, everyone jumped to their assigned roles of feeding a rigged ballyhoo to one after another of the aroused sailfish. In less time than it takes to rig a ballyhoo, a quad of sailfish was in the air and peeling line.

We caught and released three of the fish within 15 minutes. The fourth fish became tail-wrapped, and labored for another 10 minutes before becoming untangled and released. The four-for-four ratio was pretty impressive for any outing, but it wasn't going to make much of an impact in the tournament, since the leading boat released 22 fish that day.

Hooking multiple sailfish isn't uncommon off Southeast Florida, but consistently attracting and putting a hook in multiples is one of the biggest keys to winning billfish tournaments in the area. It's a tournament strategy just about every boat employs, and one that the Fort Pierce charter crews follow on a daily basis in order to compete with the livebait practitioners to the south.

When the sailfish are biting off Stuart, boats following the fish from Fort Pierce to the north, and Palm Beach to the south, meet to deploy their respective fishing techniques. Anytime large groups of boats come together to pursue a body or school of fish, the competition is going to be fierce, but when some boats are fishing rigged baits and others live bait, there's sure to be more than a little tournament pride on the line.

In the early days of sailfishing, boats would target the species by trolling rigged baits exclusively, but once the feeding habits of the species became understood and bait-catching techniques developed, live bait became the technique of choice for luring numbers of fish to the hook. That isn't to say that livebaiting is the best or most consistent means of catching sailfish. In fact, most of the boats that fish north of Stuart still troll rigged baits with excellent results. The same is true with many boats in the Keys.

Improvements in rigging techniques and bait availability have also advanced dead-bait trolling to a new level, and with the advent of natural-bait teasers, rigged-bait trolling can actually outfish livebait fishing in some instances. It's when the two techniques come together, as they do each winter off Stuart, that the debates over each style of fishing takes place.

In dead-bait sailfish tournaments, the charterboat Temptress is a feared competitor. The crew pursues sailfish as a primary target the entire year--fishing off Fort Pierce from December through March, then off Cancun April through June and in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, during late summer and early fall. Chip Shafer is one of the more knowledgeable and successful sailfish captains in the country, and he strictly fishes rigged baits.

A good portion of Shafer's success can be attributed to bait and teaser preparation. Mate Jimmy Grant starts the morning by rigging two mullet teaser chains with anywhere from three to six mullet on each chain. The mullet are generally 10 to 12 inches in length, small enough to attract the sailfish, but large enough that the fish will cautiously attack the baits. Each mullet is weighted with three to six ounces of lead to keep the baits below the surface where they'll be easy for a fish to locate.

Each teaser is placed off the outriggers just outside the propwash to the corner of the stern. A flatline bait is stationed to the outside and just behind the teasers. As the fish attacks a teaser, it will usually move off to grab the smaller ballyhoo on the flatline, either thinking it's one of the mullet or just a bite-sized bait. If the fish fails to see the ballyhoo or a fish has already eaten the flatline ballyhoo but another fish is attacking the teaser, another small rigged ballyhoo can be dropped in front of the fish and to one side of the teaser. In most cases, the fish will jump on the easy meal.

The same strategy works when fishing dredge teaser chains, which incorporate 15 to 20 rigged ballyhoo on a weighted spreader bar. Dredges more closely mimic a small school of ballyhoo, although like the mullet teaser, the dredge is composed of larger hookless baits. As fish come up to inspect the dredge, the smaller ballyhoo on the flatlines attract their attention. Once fish are hooked up and into their initial run, the rigger lines can be reeled up to the teaser or pitch baits dropped back to the other fish.

As with any type of fishing, there are tricks to the trade that dramatically tip the success rate in favor of the angler. The Temptress crew rigs all the ballyhoo with the hook placed stiffly in the chest of the bait just below the throat. This way, the hook will not spin to one side, or into the bait when the fish strikes. All the hooks are hand-sharpened and attached to the leaders with crimps. Steel wire pins that in the past were used to close the mouth of the bait are avoided because occasionally the pin may poke the fish in the mouth and cause it to drop the bait. Instead, all ballyhoo are rigged using Monel wire, with wraps through the eye socket and the wire poked up through the chin to seal the mouth shut.

Shafer will fish most of the ballyhoo naked, although he might add a blue-and-white skirt to one bait or put out a stripbait with a blue and white or pink skirt ahead of it. Half the ballyhoo are rigged for skipping, and half are rigged to dig a little and swim a foot or two below the surface by adding a 1/4-ounce weight and splitting the bill of the bait. The baits are constantly changed out and different patterns of skipping and swimming ballyhoo are moved around in the spread until the fish show a preference. In most cases, it's good to have both types out, as the splash of a skipping bait will add more attraction to the spread and diving baits look like frail members of the subsurface teasers.

Sailfish migrating south along the eastern seaboard tend to adhere to specific water temperatures, and when those comfort zones attract massive schools of bait, it's no surprise that the fish congregate in huge numbers. That's particularly true in the waters from Cape Canaveral to Fort Pierce, where the continental shelf extends 25 miles or more out to sea and deep water follows a gradually developing edge. Sailfish accumulate along the drop, eventually converging into a huge body of fish as they locate pods of bait. If the forage is plentiful and the water has good color and clarity and is about 76 degrees, the fish can stay there for weeks at a time. In these areas, the bite takes place in 100 to 150 feet of water.

To lure a fish away from the food source, many veterans prefer to troll rigged baits from school to school. In most cases, the fast-moving dead baits are just as effective as live bait for pulling a fish off a bait pod. It's a technique that's highly effective because of the sheer numbers of fish in the area. As those schools approach the stretch of coast from Palm Beach to Ft. Lauderdale, where the continental shelf drops off only a mile or so from shore, their feeding behavior changes. The Gulf Stream has a stronger effect on the water temperature and bait tends to hold over natural and artificial reefs rather than current edges and breaks offshore. The bite here frequently occurs in deeper water, with the average around 100 to 300 feet.

When sailfish are holding over a reef or wreck, live bait will outfish rigged baits most of the time. That's because the live baits can remain in front of the fish for longer periods, tantalizing the fish and allowing it to look the bait over before it decides to eat. The longer an easy meal remains in the strike zone, the better the chances it will get crushed, and that equation increases tenfold when the bait is struggling or swimming in a way that draws attention.

One of the most effective means of attracting sailfish to a live bait is to hang the bait from a kite, where it will slash and splash across the surface in the waves. When fish are feeding high in the water column, they have a hard time resisting the commotion above. The kite also keeps the bait away from the boat and in a small area, allowing the fish to easily catch and consume the meal.

There are times when slow-trolling or drifting with live baits is just as effective as using a kite. Those methods seem to work best when the fish are spread out. A drifting boat can cover more water by deploying both surface and deep baits. If there are enough rod holders on a boat, a kite can also be utilized to place baits on the downwind side of the boat, thus covering the gamut of fishing presentations.

Flatline baits typically swim only a foot or two below the surface, so one bait should be placed closer to the boat than the other. The farthest bait should be set about 100 to 125 feet from the boat, and another bait set at about half that distance. A 1- to 2-ounce rubbercore sinker placed just below the knot connecting the leader to the line will take a deep bait down about 30 feet. A heavier sash-style sinker can be attached to the line with a rubber band or piece of copper wire so it will break away when a fish strikes, yet get the bait 50 or 60 feet down.

Often, the sailfish school thins out as it reaches the deeper coastal waters off Palm Beach, affording better slow-trolling opportunities, but pressure from anglers is what tends to break the pods up off Stuart. There are days when a stretch of water looks like the condo line on Miami Beach from a distance because of all the boats congregated in one area. While a strong body of fish will still provide hookups even with the added boat pressure, after several days of working the school, the fish tend to spread out and range farther in search of food.