Natural ballyhoo teaser can be used to lure sails in close.

Islamorada has become the epicenter for fly fishing for sails in the Keys. There are lots of sails there in December and January and only limited numbers of pesky ’cuda and mackerel. Quite frequently, sailfish are found up on the reef in clear water busting ballyhoo, which is the teaser bait of choice. Islamorada resident Sandy Moret caught the sail-on-fly bug a half-dozen years ago and has been developing interest in it. He founded the annual two-day Islamorada Invitational Fly Rod Sailfish Tournament, now in its sixth year. It draws an average of 15 boats, and a few sails are normally caught. As expected, the Islamorada boats start out with a baitwell full of live ballyhoo. Baits are rigged carefully on light wire without a hook and are slow-trolled about 50 feet behind the boat on spinning rods. A spinning rod is preferred also to cast to a sail spotted chasing bait on the reef. You should have only two teasers in the wake on flatlines at a time, and the baits have to be changed out once they stop swimming under their own power.

Standard gear is a 10- to 12-weight fly rod and a 400-grain sinking tip line. You don’t have to cast far, but the cast has to put the fly in position so the fish will hit it going away, if possible. You are usually so excited that you can’t do much more than flop the fly into the water and hope you’re not standing on your fly line. Again, a line tamer is highly recommended.

As for Florida sailfish flies, Keys fish seem to like a pilchard or a ballyhoo pattern. When the teaser is jerked away, the sail is going to be looking for the baitfish that just escaped, not three pounds of white feathers that anglers toss at Pacific sails. I swear by the Pilchard Special, originated by Miami guide and fly tyer Chris Dean, and also have hooked up with a ballyhoo imitation made of synthetic Super Hair that is 6 inches long overall. There’s debate whether single-hook or double-hook flies are best. I have done well with both types.

Keys charter captain Randy Towe recently overheard my discussions with Sandy Moret and Billy Pate about sails on fly and offered to take us out to see if we could actually hook one. Towe’s 45-foot walkaround sportfisherman of his own design is very conducive to offshore fly fishing. It was an education to watch Towe’s crew at work. First stop was the edge of the reef to catch ballyhoo. Three throws of the net put three dozen ’hoos in the baitwell and ten minutes later we were fishing. Towe’s teasing rig was impressive. He put three ballyhoo on one rod and a single bait on another. Instead of hooks, thin copper wire was inserted under and through the bait’s lower jaw and then wrapped around the bill and line. I was amazed at how long the baits tolerated this rig. They seemed to do fine until something started chewing on them. You couldn’t use this setup in Key West, but it sure worked well in the Middle Keys.

We slow-trolled the teasers by bumping the engines in and out of gear. A week’s worth of north winds had activated the sails, so he didn’t have to wait long for the first fish to come into the daisy chain teaser. One mate brought in the single teaser, but kept it ready in case the sail lost interest. The daisy chain was never more than 60 feet behind the boat so it was just seconds before the sail was lured into casting range.

Billy Pate and I have been friends for a few decades, but I’d never actually fished for sails with him. His fly rod looked older than either of the mates. It was the first graphite 12-weight produced by Fenwick, but it still worked! But then again, why wouldn’t it? He used a sinking shooting head attached to 50 yards of 50-pound hi-vis mono. Pate made one back cast and then shot the fly a few yards to the right and beyond the sailfish. The mate jerked the teasers out of the water, the fish turned, and then calmly swam over and stared at Pate’s fly. Then it casually swam away, obviously not impressed by Pate’s credentials. We had two more fish come up on the teasers that day, but they had little interest in the baits and no interest whatsoever in a fly.

This is what prime sailfish conditions look like along the Florida Keys.

Everything has to go perfectly if you hope to tease sails with live bait. You need the right conditions, usually a chilly northeast wind, and the “right” fish, that is, one that’s either very hungry or very stupid. And when you put it all together, as anyone who has hooked a sail on fly will tell you, it’s probably the most exciting and intense flyrod fishing of all.

My final advice for this “road less traveled” is to pick a captain who has done this before and book him for a chilly day in December or January when the fish are hot. If things go right, you’re in for the time of your life if you can just manage to stay calm and get the fly out of the boat!

FS