InTheBite

Florida’s unDOCKumented Dock Records & Notable Catches

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sailfish thrashing around the surface

In light of the recent dock records in the Florida Keys, we’ve dug up some material of notable catches we’ve published through the years.*

map of florida

Florida

NEW SMYRNA

Heavy Hitter caught 41 sailfish trolling in a single day out of Ponce Inlet.

  • David Grubbs was the owner/operator at the time.

FT PIERCE

January 10, 2019, Grand Slam released 38 sailfish trolling dead baits during the Pelican Yacht Club Tournament

  • Capt: David Grubbs

Floridian caught 32 sailfish trolling on dead baits in January 2004.

STUART

December 1997

Boneshaker caught 22 sailfish trolling.

WEST PALM BEACH 

2006

Get Lit caught 35 sailfish in the Silver Sailfish Derby.

  • Capt: Ray Rosher
  • Anglers: Kitt Toomey
  • Mates: Charmain Rosher and Jon Cooper

Wrenegade caught 26 sails live baiting.

  • Capt: Jimmy Fields
  • Anglers: Charlie Scippola and Tony Cummings
  • Mate: Winston Wren

Feb 3, 1980 Elbow 7 caught 83 sailfish on live bait.

  • Capt: Albert Johnston
  • Angler: Louis Boski
  • Mate: Unknown

No Problem that same day caught 54 in three hours on live bait, the boat had to head in early in order to get someone to the airport.

  • Capt: Jack Morrow
  • Angler: Dave Dickenson
  • Mate: Tim Sperling

FT LAUDERDALE

April 9, 2009 Vitamin Sea Too caught 50 sailfish on live bait.

  • Captain: Tim Maddock,
  • Anglers/Crew: Mike Dinnen, Mike Reisert, Jon Krieg, Chris Meeks, Chris Zidar

MIAMI

May 1, 2019 Sandman, captained by John Dudas, caught 43 sailfish and one white marlin off Miami.

  • Crew: Diomedes Adames, Jeffrey Liederman, Steven Stallings, Sandra MacMillan

Owls Nest, captained by Matt Tambor, caught 36 sailfish on live bait out of Government Cut, a host of local quality mates were the anglers and they believe they would have caught more if they didn’t run out of bait.

March 6, 2019

L&H, captained by Jimmy David, caught 41 sailfish off Miami.

  • Mates: James David, Troy Hall
  • Anglers: Rick Smith, Matt Bowman

ISLAMORADA

Vice Versa boat crew with 76 release flags

April 23, 2020 Vice Versa, captained by Scott Martin, hold the record with 76 sailfish released in a day on live bait.

April 24, 2020 Shaka, captained by Tim Maddock, released 64 sails on April 24.

Was caught 38 sailfish on live mullet back in the 60’s.

  • Capt: Buck Stark

Kalex caught 20 sailfish live baiting (unverified if single-day record).

  • Capt: Alex Alder
  • Mate: James Allen

January of 2007 Catch 22 caught 7 swordfish without the use of electric reels.

  • Capt: Scott Stanczyk,
  • Angler: Richard Stanczyk,
  • Mate: Kristian Zeher

Marathon (Middle Keys)

April 12, 2020 Captain Marty Lewis and the crew of the Main One, out of Marathon’s Main Attraction charters, broke the record with 70 releases.

May 10, 2005 Main Attraction, captained by Marty Lewis, caught 36 sails on live bait.

April 15, 2003 Main Attraction, captained by Marty Lewis, also caught 25 sailfish on live baits.

Key West (Lower Keys)

2004

Tim Greene was an angler onboard the Beachcomber when it caught 3 blues in one day.

  • Capt: Daryl Simeon
  • Anglers: Tim Greene and Kurt Kirvan
  • Mate: Unknown

The biggest blue marlin caught out of Key West weighs 784 lbs. and is hanging at the Key West airport.

1999

Petticoat II caught 6 blue marlin in a single day.

  • Capt: Norman Wood and Wayne Hunt
  • Angler: Jim Hardy
  • Mate: Unknown

Outside the State

Born2run released 10 blue marlin during the two-and-a-half-day Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic

  • Capt. Myles Colley
  • Mates: Tyler Maxwell, Robert Bonifay, Doug Franklin, Alex Pinney and Brian “Beaver” Paul.
  • Owners, Dana and Lisa Foster

March 11 & 12, 2021 the Vaquero crew established a new proclaimed one day Pacific Sailfish release record totaling 164.

  • Captain Lance Hightower

So that’s what we have so far! We are still working on this eastern region. If any information needs to be corrected, please let us know. Also we really want to give everybody onboard the recognition they deserve so if you see any unknowns or listings that have the captain, angler or mates name missing please fill us in. Once again amy@inthebite.com.

*Records are only used if they can be verified by reputable captains.

Do you have any comments or questions for us? We’d love to hear from you.

 

Florida Keys 70 Sailfish Day

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Main One with 70 sailfish flags By Elliott Stark

Captain Marty Lewis and his wife Katie own and operate Main Attraction Charters out of Key Colony Beach, Florida. With five working charter boats, the Lewises are no stranger to the waters of the Lower Keys. It was this experience and familiarity that led to a hunch that turned into what may have been the best day of sailfishing in the history of the Florida Keys. On Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020, Captain Marty Lewis and the crew of the Main One, a 49’ Cape Fear, released a Keys’ record 70 sails.

Here’s how it happened.

“I took my wife and daughter out tuna fishing on Saturday off of Marathon. It was a slick calm day but I could see that the Gulf Stream was running in close. I knew that the next day might be a good day to go sailfishing but it was Easter Sunday. I asked my wife if I could go and she gave me hall pass to go fishing,” Lewis explains with a bit of a laugh.

girl holding blackfin tuna

Katie Lewis with a nice, day-before-Easter blackfin

Upon returning to the dock after fishing Lewis’ mate, Digger Rodamer, sent out a group text to round up a crew for the following day. The next day, Digger, Shelby Bentley, Aaron “Nautical” Sutcliffe, Steve Fitzgerald and Joe Marino joined Marty to head offshore. Loaded up with 800 or 1,000 live pilchards the crew departed the dock at Key Colony Beach Marina at 7:00.

keys sailfish on leader

They started fishing about 25 miles west of Marathon. Captain Marty found what he was looking for—the spot where the Gulf Stream tucked in—off of the American Shoal near Big Pine Key.  “Every fish we caught was tailing. We cast live pilchards to them. There was no kite fishing or trolling. We probably saw 100 fish on the day, but we couldn’t get to all of them. Almost all of those that we cast a bait to ate—only two or three turned away. There was no pressure on them, we only saw two or three other boats out,” Lewis describes.

sailfish flipping on leader

Lewis and company caught their first fish at 10:00. Forty minutes later the tally was up to six. “We had a steady stream of groups of fish passing through most of the day. There were two rallies when we’d have a guy hooked up on the bow and a guy fighting one at the stern and then we’d hook others. One time we had a guy fighting a fish for an hour. We must have caught eight or ten fish while he was fighting his.”

By 3:15 pm the tally eclipsed 40. By 5:00 the total was 60 and the crew realized they had a shot a breaking the Keys’ record of 65 sailfish releases in a day.  Lewis kept a running tally with his wife Katie over text message. The final text came through at 6:35—“70 and done.”

It was a record breaking day for the veteran charter captain and a group of his buddies. Captain Marty spent the day in the tower directing his guys where to cast as sailfish tailed into range. The fish were caught on Mustad ultra point 6/0 circle hooks using 30 and 40 pound leader.  All of the fish were caught slinging live pilchards to tailers on Penn spinning outfits.

News of the epic day brought led 30 or 40 boats to fish the area the next day. While Capt. Marty decided to take Monday off (after all he wasn’t going to catch 70 again) the bite continued for the next couple of days. Monday produced 46 releases followed by 30 on Tuesday. The hot streak produced an incredible 146 sails over three consecutive days for Main Attraction Sportfishing Charters.

Captain Marty Lewis and the crew of the Main One– and all the a whole pile of sailfish flags! 70 of them.

To book a day with Marty and the Main Attraction Charters, visit them at: www.mainattraction.org or give them a call at: 305.289.0071