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How to catch Sailfish
Sailfish feed in 70–84°F water and bite best at 74–80°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 12 waters.
About
Florida's fish: the sail raised on the edge of the Gulf Stream off Palm Beach, Stuart and the Keys on a north wind in winter, tail-walking on a kite bait. Released, always, with a photo in the water.
How to fish it
Kite-fish live baits along the edge in 100 to 200 feet on a cold front; circle hooks, a long drop-back, and the fish stays in the water for the picture.
What it eats
Live bait for it
Goggle-eyesBridled through the eye sockets for sailfish and kingfish, kite-fished or slow-trolled.
Pilchards (whitebait)Free-lined or under a cork, hooked through the nose on a #1 to 2/0 circle hook. The one bait that catches everything inshore.
Threadfin herring (greenbacks)Nose-hooked on a circle hook and free-lined, or slow-trolled. Fragile — handle them wet and fast.
BallyhooRigged on a wire or mono trolling rig, skipping or swimming, behind a skirt or naked.What to fish it with
the sizes that fish itThe rule
not confirmed hereCatch-and-release in practice; a federal HMS permit is required to possess one — confirm at NOAA HMS and MyFWC.
The current rule →Where it is, month by month
Atlantic sailfish follow warm blue water along the Gulf Stream. In summer they spread north — off North Carolina, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle's offshore water and through the Gulf. When the first cold fronts come in late November they push south along Florida's east coast and hit a bottleneck from Fort Pierce to Palm Beach, 'Sailfish Alley', where the Stream runs within ten miles of the beach. December through February is the season, the fish tailing down-sea on the north wind behind each front in 100–250 feet, and the Keys and Miami fish well into March. A mild winter with few fronts leaves them scattered and farther north. On the Pacific side, sails live off Mexico and Central America and only stray north.