Just over a mile off Key Biscayne, a sailfish is posed before release.

One of the best reasons to target South Florida sailfish in summer is that very few other boats will be doing it. Most will be running and gunning well offshore in search of dolphin and tuna, leaving the fishing grounds known as “the edge” just outside of the reef (normally a parking lot on weekends during the high season), a desolate tract of ocean all to yourself. Don’t get me wrong, I love chasing birds and scouting the open ocean from Government Cut to The Bahamas just as much as the next guy, but with the rising cost of fuel, and the time commitment involved, sometimes it’s nice to only run a couple of miles, shut the engines down and drift the edge on a calm summer day. From what we’ve seen the last few years in Miami, that means a chance at a summertime sailfish.

There is no mistaking their presence. Some experts believe our year-round sailfish prospects signal an increase in the stocks. It’s hard arguing with that. Captain Ray Rosher, a tournament-winning Miami charterboat skipper, summed up this theory pretty well: “Every year it seems like Miami is having a better season than the season before, and that carries over into the summer as well. A good barometer to draw an idea of where the population is heading is looking at the number of sailfish releases that are winning tournaments. It has more than tripled in the last 20 years. It’s a combination of better anglers along with an increased awareness in release techniques that makes up these numbers. However, you can’t overlook what improved conservation practices are doing for the population.” The day I spoke with Rosher, a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist was actually on his charterboat, Miss Britt, hoping to place satellite tags in sailfish to better understand their movements in late spring and summer

The most obvious difference between winter and summer in South Florida is the wind. It blows hard in the winter and typically out of the north, while in summer we have, for the most part, a light breeze from the southeast or no wind at all. I asked Rosher if he thought flying the kite was a necessity in the summer when targeting sails. “A kite is great, but not a necessity. Basically, a few flatlines and a few deep lines would cover it. The biggest difference in summer is that you’re faced with a lot of calm days, so helium becomes a bigger issue if you really want to fly the kites. You have to be prepared for that.”

On calm days, it can pay to deploy a fishing kite with helium balloon attached.

I first happened across a summertime sail while bottom fishing a wreck in about 125 feet of water off of Key Biscayne. Our target was mutton snapper and grouper that afternoon. Small pilchards were sent down to entice a bite. After several drifts, watching my two buddies pull up a couple of snapper and one undersize grouper, I decided to rig a flatline to deploy on the next drift simply out of boredom. As we passed close to the wreck my buddy felt a strike while dropping his rig down. It felt like a big kingfish that pulled hard for a second or two then the line went slack. Thinking his line was cut, he began retrieving it while uttering a few choice words under his breath. Suddenly the surface exploded as a feisty sailfish shot skyward, tail over bill, head shaking back into the water. I told my friend to reel hard, that the fish was still on. As he was cranking with a vengeance to come tight on that fish, the flatline that I had forgotten all about began peeling off line. I quickly picked up the rod and with one turn of the handle the fish went airborne; sail number two on. There it was; a doubleheader of sailfish while bottom fishing in the dead of summer.