Treasure Coast sails shadow bait schools. Some days they're shallow, other times they run deep.

Why Did All This Happen?

To bluewater specialists, winter has long been known as Florida’s sailfish season. Annually, a southward migration occurs along the east coast in association with the arrival of sweeping cold fronts, falling coastal water temperatures and climbing northeasterly sea conditions. Historically, catch numbers were so strong that areas earned nicknames like “Sailfish Alley” or, as Stuart is known, “Sailfish Capital of the World.”

According to West Palm Beach Fishing Club executive director Tom Twyford, sailfish fans were lucky that the season’s peak activity coincided with the heart of the tournament season.

“If these fish had swung by our coast on a Monday, we may never have known how many were out there,” Twyford joked. “There was an accumulation of factors that combined to allow us to see incredible catch numbers.”

For one, he noted, “We had assembled exceptional anglers who were very proficient at catching sailfish. Having that much collective coverage of that much water certainly contributed to a higher than average number of catches.

“There also seemed to be a really good supply of bait,” noted Miami-based Capt. Ray Rosher, who guided Get Lit anglers Kitt Toomey, Peter Miller, Charmaine Rosher and crewman Jon Cooper to a record 45 releases and the Silver Sailfish Derby win. “There were lots of schools of sardines and cigar minnows off Hobe Sound, with what seemed to be several sailfish balling each school.

“The best day of the tournament, we caught 25 and didn’t win the daily award,” Rosher said. “I knew it was going to be a good day because just about everywhere we looked we saw free-jumpers. I actually had to tell my crew to stop telling me when they saw one because there were just so many sails in the air at any given time.”

Rosher added, “It looked like Mexico out there.”

Like the west wind—often believed to decrease the chances of good sailfishing—Rosher noted that a full moon close to the tournament did little to suppress the bite.

“A lot of times it’s believed that the full moon results in a slow sailfish bite as the fish go deeper or feed at night,” he observed. “Well, we sure saw the fish, which only proves one thing—you just have to be ready for anything all the time.”

Cameron doesn’t even try to explain his best season in eight years, that also included three tournament victories.

“I’ve been here fishing my whole life and I still can’t figure it out,” Cameron laughed. “Sailfish are like women—it’s impossible to figure out either one.”

“We had quite a few good days during the season where we’d steam off an edge and see the birds working,” Cameron said. “We’d get up close and see so many fish cutting through the bait. It was great how many times we saw that.”

During John Jolley’s career as a biologist with what is now the Florida Marine Research Institute, he was able to study sailfish movements. From 1970 to 1980, Jolley was among the first to use sonic tags in sailfish, and he compiled recreational and commercial tagging data to track the species’ numbers.

According to Jolley, anglers benefited from a variety of conditions. “There was definitely some combination of large numbers of bait combined with water temperature and currents that caused the sailfish to become concentrated.

“The sheer numbers of fish we saw last year also probably represented two to three strong year classes from sailfish spawns.”

Jolley suspects that sailfish have been relatively unaffected by commercial longlining activity in the Northern Atlantic.

“Most sailfish are caught by recreational anglers and released and that conservation ethic is also helping a great deal,” he noted.

Many anglers believe that the state ban on large nets in coastal waters has helped nearshore populations of baitfish to again thrive. That may be a critical factor contributing to recent aggregations of sailfish.

“We saw sardines and greenies like never before this year and just look at how the kingfishing has come back,” said Capt. Dave Berard, who started fishing in Fort Pierce in the late 1970s. “There’s probably a correlation to the amount of bait we had around here.”

Capt. Dave Chasmar, who piloted Blue By You during a record bite at the Sailfish Point Yacht Club Invitational (Jan. 16), agrees.

“For years, we ran out of St. Lucie inlet and had to turn south until we found bait and sailfish down off Hobe Sound,” he said. “It does seem like in the past few years, the bait has been more plentiful and spread out.

“Some captains I know like to fish the cleaner water and ran out to 250 feet to find it. Others, who didn’t feel that clean water was as important, starting fishing shallower. It didn’t seem to matter either way—everyone was catching fish.”

As to the coming season, Chasmar echoed the sentiments of many a sailfish angler: “I wonder what it’s going to be like, but wouldn’t it be nice to have two seasons like that back-to-back?”