Capt. Joe Kane, a 15-year veteran who runs the 36-foot Sandbob from the Radisson Bahia Mar Charter Fleet, was just one of many experts puzzled by the turn of events.

"The tournament was not consistent with the usual pattern here," he said. "We're usually in between 125 and 250 feet, looking for a color change, but we've had lots of south current this year, and that's thrown a monkey wrench into fishing by the numbers."

Normally, Kane catches lots of sailfish off Lauderdale in winter, with 5-release days considered good. His preferred method, used by many charterboats, is kite fishing with a live goggle-eye that's bridled to a livebait hook with floss or Dacron through the back between the pectoral and dorsal fins. Another favorite is a lower lip-hooked live ballyhoo slow-trolled off an outrigger. Other baits that he uses for kites and flatlines, depending on availability, are bullet bonitos, blue runners, pilchards, speedos and tinker mackerel, many of which can be caught with sabikis or small jigs near marker buoys and inshore structure.

"I like a hard current change," Kane explained. "Noticeable signs of current will have a color break, hopefully inside 200 feet. If it's outside 300, depending on conditions, more often than not I'll sit over the reef in closer."

Operating a large, twin-inboard-powered vessel, Kane powerdrifts with his nose into the wind. Smaller boats may deploy a sea anchor to help moderate the drift.

Although things do get flip-flopped, as with the billfish tournament, these tactics are proven off Fort Lauderdale. Sometimes the old guard gets caught off guard by a deeper bite, but even when that happens there's still a chance sails will pop up right where you'd normally expect them.

We spent a few hours in 600 to 650 feet with nothing to show but a 10-pound dolphin, so we closed up shop and headed for 140 feet to work our way inside with the easterly wind for kingfish. When we got there, we spotted a boat releasing a sailfish, and so we skipped the wire traces and sent out two more pilchards and our last goggle-eye on straight 60-pound monofilament under floating balloons. Over went the makeshift sea anchor--a 5-gallon bucket tied to a length of rope.

I figured the sailfish was a freak catch, so I rigged up a 12-pound spinning rod with a 2-ounce deep-jig and a double-hooked dead ballyhoo. Wouldn't you know it--as soon as the jig touched bottom I saw a purple shadow hovering beneath the farthest red balloon. "Sailfish on the long bait!" I yelled, frantically retrieving line from my kingfish project, which then seemed a trifle silly.

Before John could grab the rod to feed any sort of dropback, the balloon took off zipping across the water, the line came tight and Whammo! the fish was on. Ten minutes and several hundred yards of line later, Mike Bumpus reached over the side and leadered the fish--a real bruiser. We tagged and released our single in just 100 feet of water, then spent the remainder of the day listening to the VHF reports from lucky livebaiters outside. "For Pete's sake, they're still at it!" John laughed. The whole scenario stinks of something I once heard from Nick Smith, a Palm Beach sailfish master, at the West Palm Beach Florida Sportsman Fishing Show last year. "So many anglers get bent out of shape when they don't see exactly what they've read about in magazines and books," he remarked in his seminar. Smith went on to describe various things such as weedlines, tidelines, thermoclines and all the other standard mumbo jumbo, but he finished his lecture with a simple summary: "But wherever you see a sailfish, that's where they are." His comment was not aimed at insulting the intelligence of his audience, and they didn't take it that way, either. I watched many experienced anglers rub their lips and narrow their eyes in deep thought.

Is it such a gamble to leave fishless waters? When there's nothing to lose, heading a little farther offshore just might be the ticket.

Don't mistake my words: Nobody's saying that Florida's sailfish are moving into deeper waters permanently. To the contrary, they'll probably hang out over the Lauderdale reefs and color changes the rest of this winter, and you can bet Capt. Kane and other skippers will continue to rack up releases and keep this part of the coast high on the list of sailfishing destinations.

Fortune simply chose to smile on the risk-takers at this year's tournamant. They were in the right place with the right techniques at the right time.

On the other hand, there's no doubt there will come another day when the current is light, the reefs are empty and the radio is silent. You won't see any color change, flying fish, birds, weedlines or any of the usual signs of fish.

When that day arrives, hopefully you'll ask yourself the simple question: Is 600 feet really too deep for sailfish?

You'll never know what's out there until you have a look.

Try the Light Wire

On the subject of livebait rigging for sailfish, the new light-wire, offset, super-sharp hooks with upturned eyes merit some discussion. The design originated in salmon fishing, of all things, but it's ideal for sailfishing.

When you're fishing a delicate bait like a pilchard or threadfin, a heavy hook cripples the action. It also expedites the destruction of tissues in the bait's back or lips, depending on where you've pinned the hook. Personally, I prefer hooking flatline pilchards through the nose, and that's almost impossible with a chunky hook, especially with smaller baits. Live ballyhoo, too, swim much more naturally with the light wire stuck in their lower jaw.

Many captains fish Eagle Claw Lazer-Sharp L194s in the 3/0 to 6/0 sizes on 20-pound spinning tackle, and not one has complained of the hooks straightening under pressure, so I'm pretty keen on the little hooks. Owner and Mustad make similar hooks, and there are doubtless others, too. The hooks are sharp right out of the package, and the light wire penetrates easily with a minimum of hookset.