Fun with Sails

Finally, the weather has cooperated and we've been able to get out the past two days.

Yesterday we worked for nearly an hour to get bait.  The pesky hornbellies were really a pain.  We pull in 6 baitfish at a time and two out of three times would put them back because they weren't the right kind.  At the end of the time, we had 3 baits!  Ugh!

Off we went in search of sailfish.  We barely got the baitfish out and BAM!  One of the lines got hit.  Soon after that, the other line got hit!  One fish spit the hook right away.  But Frank fought the other for a while.  Sadly, it too was in the "early release program".  :o)  We relocated, switched to dead bait and trolled for a while but couldn't raise anything.  So we headed in a little shallower and put out our one last live bait.  And waited and waited.  Nothing was even remotely interested so we called it a day.

Sunday promised to be a better day.  The winds laid down during the night, meaning it was supposed to be a little calmer than the day before. 

We left the dock early and we were anxiously looking forward to getting lots of bait.

 We thought we were early!  But the "bait spot" looked like the Kmart parking lot when there was a blue light special!

We loaded up the livewell and headed offshore.  We started in relatively shallow water and again, barely got the baits in the water when the balloons started bobbing and the little baits were up at the surface.  We had a double strike!  One fish went after the bait, but cut through the line of the other to get to it.  But one was hooked good and I got to fight it! 

It was BEAUTIFUL!  There was so much jumping and air-time!  What amazing creatures!

This is the "zoomed in" version of the sailfish!

 We retraced our path putting out new baits, but no luck.  So we relocated to a different area.  There were so many Portuguese Man O War!  We have never seen so many!

Baby Man-o-wars

 We came into what looked like a very productive area!  Smooth water for a long stretch, filled with weeds and all sorts of flotsam.  We drifted around it, through it and beside it, but no luck.  (Then again, based on the radio chatter, nobody else was having much luck either.)

 We tried a different strategy and sure enough, it worked!  There was so much excitement!  Two more sailfish were interested in our bait.  Again, one got hooked, but only after cutting through the line and his buddy getting a free lunch.  Frank was on tap to fight this one! 

Bill to the left, tail to the right! 

More sailfish action

Frank's fish was pretty feisty and thrashed about quite a bit as it got closer to the boat.  Very exciting!

We still had a few baits and after trying for another hour in shallower waters, we decided to call it a day. 
All though we didn't have any fish to clean when we got back to the dock, we had a great day!