sail fish, April 1 & 4 ........ from P

My brother, C, said “We probably won’t catch anything, but let’s troll this lure behind the boat while we are sailing.” He had paid attention when Tom the fishing guide had rigged our lines on the charter boat several days before. C used his new found knowledge to rig the little rubber skirted lure with an optimistically large hook and topped it off with a squid cocktail. He dropped it over the stern and let it skip along in the wake of our 7 knot sailing speed. Less than a minute. No kidding. Boom! Pandemonium. The reel was screaming as line was being ripped from it. I pointed Senara into the wind, K and I scrambled to furl the genoa in an attempt to stop the boat as C was getting a grip on the pole to join the fight. Some ten minutes later, C landed a 10 to 12 pound Barracuda. Huge fish. After releasing him, and re-setting the sails we were back on our course toward Boca Grande. C again trailed the little lure in our wake, and everyone relaxed again. For two minutes. Then, fish on!! Again, we pointed up Senara, furled the gennie, C fought the fish, and fought the fish, and fought it some more. Then I fought it for a while. Finally, up comes another big fish – this time it was a Bonita. Man he can fight! C caught a second Bonita and a King Mackerel within the next hour. K got a lot of practice doing quick-stops while under sail. We were finally exhausted from catching fish, and decided to just sail the boat for a while. Several days later C walked over to the charter docks and talked with our old fishing guide, Tom, who said he was not surprised by our fishing success on Senara. He said that trolling from a sailboat is the best possible fishing; no engine noise, no churning propeller to scare the fish, perfect trolling speed. I am now a believer. It also helps to be in one of the most fertile fishing grounds in the world. Now I know why they call them sail-fish! Or maybe not.

Hoisting a Bonita over the transom. It's even harder than it looks.

Just a couple of pictures, then you can go swimming again.