Live-Baiters Top 1,400 Sailfish to Set New Record—Tournament Insider

Possible U.S. record at Sailfish Challenge; Big sheepshead wins El Cheapo.

June 13, 2025 By Matt Badolato

History was rewritten during the 22nd annual Sailfish Challenge in February. The fleet fishing the South Florida sailfish tournament broke what is believed to be a U.S. record for the most sailfish released in an event when 1,467 sailfish were caught over two days.

By noon of the opening day, the fleet of 61 boats had released 447 sails. By lines out in the afternoon, the final tally reached an unprecedented 912 releases.

To put the bite in perspective, the winning team, Pompano Beach-based Native Son, averaged a sailfish release every eight minutes in the first four hours of the tournament. They finished day one with 48 sails—thought to be the most ever caught by a boat in a single day during a tournament in North America.

Steve Dougherty of Jupiter (and former managing editor at Florida Sportsman) was aboard the 39-foot SeaVee Native Son captained by Art Sapp. He described the fishing as the absolute best he’s ever seen.

“We stopped off Delray Beach in the morning and could see tailing sails at 6:45, in the dark. We knew there were fish there,” said Dougherty. “We sat and watched sailfish all around the boat until we could put lines in at 8.”

They were hooked up within minutes of lines-in. Deploying a spread of live goggle eyes below kites, they released their first fish eight minutes into the tournament. They released two more in the next five minutes, and the action continued like that all day.

“It was non-stop, every bait we put in the water got hit,” Dougherty said. “We had several triple and quad hookups, and at one point we had seven sails on at once. I’ll never forget that—I watched as five sailfish were in the air at one time.”

Sapp’s team strictly fishes live goggle eyes and other live baits beneath kites, and Dougherty attributes the quality and health of those baits to their success.

“Art always brings in amazing live bait, and lots of it. We’re always ready for a bite like that to happen, and it finally did.” Circle hooks ensure fish aren’t gut-hooked, but they also provide a more solid connection with maniacally jumping sails. When hooked into multiple sails, Dougherty says they like to swim besides each other, increasing the risk of one fish chafing off another.

“It’s all so visual, you’re seeing these fish feed,” he said. “Sails are very inquisitive fish, there’s never an idle time. They come up slow, throw their sail up, circle the bait. You’ve got to know what your bait is doing. The fights can be as short as ten seconds from hook up to leader touch.”

Native Son was fishing in around 120 feet of water, less than a mile from the beach. They caught all their first day fish within a half-mile radius.

Captain Sapp ran back to the same area on Day 2, but found a reversed current running south, and after a short time made a run south towards Miami. There they found purple-blue water and finning sails. Adding an additional 17 sails to their count, they finished with a total of 65 sailfish to win the tournament.

“I was using a good-sized live mud crab on a brand new rod,” said Edwards, who works as a live utility heavy equipment operator. “It was my first cast with that rod, the first cast of the day, the first bait in the water. After that we only had a few other hits the whole day, but nothing stuck.”

Angler holds up a large sheepshead fish. — Matthew Edwards of Jacksonville and the El Cheapo winner, a 10.67-pound sheepshead.

Edwards was fishing with friends Shawn Singletary and David Jones, also of Jacksonville. They anchored near bridge pilings in the St. Johns River. Rough weather made it difficult for the bigger boats to fish their usual offshore spots, so Edwards’ local knowledge of the inshore spots gave his team the home field advantage.

“We heard of a ten-pound fish caught by that particular bridge a couple weeks before, so we knew there was a chance to pull a big one from there,” Edwards said. “Right after we caught this one, we saw the second-place fish caught.”

The runner-up, a 10.51-pounder caught by Michael Horne Jr., was caught just 40 yards away from them at the same bridge. In third place was a 9.45-pounder caught by Ricky Hartsfield.

“Sheepshead are finicky this time of year,” said Edwards. “We don’t catch a whole bunch, but the quality is high. We knew our fish would put us on the board, but we didn’t think we’d win it.”

Edwards rigs for sheepshead with a Carolina sliding sinker rig, a half-ounce weight above an eight-inch leader and a 2/0 live bait style hook. “This was definitely a lifelong memory for us. Not bad for a few boys in a little 13-foot boat.”

Nimrod Takes Wahoo Event

Live bait wahoo fishing has become increasingly popular in north Florida and for good reason—it produces some seriously big fish.

Trolling a live blue runner over a hard bottom area approximately 50 miles off St. Augustine, Michael Gwiazda and his crew on the Lure’M In found one heck of a second-place wahoo during the two-week Don Combs Wahoo Roundup.

“It was a bumpy ride out, but a pretty easy day,” said Gwiazda, who lives in St. Augustine. “We found good bait—blue runners and bonito—and bounced around a few spots between St. Augustine and Jacksonville.”

After deploying a spread of big live baits, the crew saw a shark approach the spread and cleared the lines. As soon as the shark disappeared, a lit-up wahoo entered the scene and made a pass on their baits while they were redeploying.

“He came and swiped a bait and missed, then came back and we hooked up,” Gwiazda said. “The fish ran towards a local charter boat, and we radioed the captain to let him know.”

Two anglers in a boat with large wahoo fish. — The crew of 'Lure ‘Em In' were all smiles after boating a 101.6-pound wahoo during the Don Combs Wahoo Roundup.

The charter boat, Legend, run by Captain Jimmy Laidler, heard the call and graciously turned away to prevent a cutoff.

“The fish became dead weight, and we thought it may have gotten sharked,” said Gwiazda. “I was driving, and didn’t know how big it was until I heard the guys yell for an extra gaff. When it came on deck I could see it was huge.”

Their wahoo weighed 101.6 pounds.

During the wahoo round-up, captains have their choice of two days to fish during a two-week period.

For livebaiting wahoo, Gwiazda revealed his preferred set up:

“We use 30-pound Momoi Diamond mainline and a 40-pound fluorocarbon top shot. I like 7x7 90-pound stainless cable, about five feet of it to prevent cutoffs. For blue runners we use a 6/0 J-hook in the front and two 1/0 treble stingers. We’ll use bigger or smaller hooks to match the bait we find.”

In first place was the 106.6-pound wahoo caught by Connor Phillips and his crew aboard the Nimrod. Third place went to Reel Hungry run by Kevin Carter for their 100.1-pounder.