By Scott “Fraz” Murray
So many times, I’m asked about how much a captain should get paid. Sometimes, I’m asked by the captain and sometimes I’m asked by the owners. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason on what a captain should or shouldn’t make.
Back in the day, there was an unwritten rule that a captain should make a grand per foot. I don’t know who came up with that…but it was ignorant.
The latest offerings from Pettit—Odyssey HD and Trinidad HD multi-season bottom paints— are set to forever change how owners and captains view paint. Just how fundamental is the change? Pettit believes that the time has come for multi-year paints to be covered by a multi-year warranty. Pettit stands behind each product to the tune of an 18-month limited warranty against hard growth.
Odyssey HD multi-season antifouling combines controlled polishing ablative technology with a high copper content to provide a paint film strong enough to handle the tough marine environment from coast to coast. Odyssey HD is compatible over most finishes. It is V.O.C. compliant in all states and will not build up over time leaving running surfaces smooth and clean. Odyssey HD’s copolymer resins withstand hauling and relaunching without losing effectiveness.
Trinidad HD provides excellent, long lasting protection even under the toughest antifouling conditions. Its durable, hard and modified epoxy finish has excellent adhesion, and is highly abrasion resistant. Trinidad HD provides dependable in-water antifouling protection while meeting the 330 grams per liter V.O.C. regulations. It does not require movement and works equally as well at the dock or underway. Trinidad HD is compatible over most hard antifouling finishes.
Boat yard managers who have seen the paints in action are further impressed by the dry times. Rapid dry times, and the ability to apply multiple paints in the same day, saves time and money for yard operators and captains alike. Both of these bottom paints focus heavily on boatyard efficiency. Both products are formulated to dry significantly faster, offer increased coverage, and reduce odor for a more applicator friendly application. Trinidad HD and Odyssey HD both dry five times faster than our competition at an air temperature of 70 degrees.
Trinidad HD is available in black, blue and red. Odyssey HD is available in black, blue, red and green after December 1st 2020. Application methods include rush, roller, or spray. For complete preparation and usage instructions visit Pettit Marine Paint online at www.pettitpaint.com/HD.
Whether you need to set up for your first time kite fishing or just need to get dialed in for the season, Tigress offers a complete line of kites, accessories and rod holders. A one stop shop, Tigress offers three varieties of kite (Specialty Lite Wind, All-Purpose, and Hi Velocity Models) and everything that goes with it. From line assembly kits, storage bags, a full array of clips, ceramic rings, line marker tape, kite assembly boxes, balloons, kite braid, strings, and kite ring assemblies, the Tigress catalog provides a great resource and checklist to make sure that you have everything you need before you’re on the water. To cap it off, the company provides a great line of rod holders and clusters as well. From the dual kite rod to the five banger, Tigress offers multiple formulations to add rod capacity to any cockpit. For more, please visit: www.tigressoutriggers.com.
Poly Planar Ocean Series speakers are designed to both stand up to the elements and surround your boat with crisp, clear sound. Salt, sun, and spray resistant, the Ocean Series is available in 6.5” and 8” models. The 6.5” are peak power rated at 480 watts per pair, the 8” speakers at 500 watts per pair. Both models feature a high power, long-excursion woofer with a 35mm voice coil. 3-year warranty. For more, please visit: www.polyplanar.com.
The OZ Radial EZ Marine (MSRP $249) is an all-in-one, portable, rechargeable ozone generator that destroys odors, mold, mildew and fungus. Perfect for the truck, boat, garage, or kitchen, it emits a powerful stream of ozone in 360 degrees while offering multiple operating modes and will charge your mobile devices via the built-in USB port. The Radial EZ’s highly practical canister shape can be placed into almost any cup or bottle holder. It can also be placed flat, on its side or hung by the included tether strap. Operating up to eight hours on a single charge, Revolutionary CycleCleanTM technology allows Radial EZ to moderate output by alternating between active and resting phases for maximum efficiency and longer product life. The OZ Radial Nano (MSRP $179.99) offers similar functionality for smaller places. For more, please visit: www.OzByScentLok.com.
Do you have any comments or questions for us? We’d love to hear from you.
By Capt. Adam Peeples
There is arguably no better way to present a live bait to a cruising game fish than by suspending it helplessly splashing on the surface of the water using a kite fishing setup. Kite fishing has typically been associated with the South Florida sailfish and king mackerel fisheries, but it’s not unusual to see a kite flying in many other areas of the world—the guys in California and Mexico are using them to great effect to catch tuna.
Kite fishing allows anglers to fish multiple live baits on the surface while keeping the mainline and leader out of the water. The obvious advantage here is that wary and leader shy gamefish only see a frightened and erratic live bait on the surface. Keeping everything out of site increases the likelihood of a bite when compared to a standard flat line drift bait set up—where the leader and terminal tackle are visible to the fish.
While both large sportfish vessels and center consoles can effectively fish a kite spread, center consoles have a definitive advantage when it comes to suspending live baits from a kite and drifting. For proof of this advantage, look no further than the sailfish tournament results in South Florida.
Captain Chris Lemieux of Le-mieux Charters in Boynton Beach, Florida offers kite fishing charters from his 27 Conch. An expert kite fisherman and captain, Lemieux’s kite fishing setup involves one or two Tigress specialty lite wind kites, which he says can be used in ninety percent of the conditions he typically encounters. Lemieux operates his kites on Diawa Tanacom electric reels rigged with 50-80lb braided line.
He typically fishes three baits per kite, with the first swivel set at 100’ and then 75’ between each clip. Captain Lemieux also deploys a sea anchor while kite fishing. The sea anchor slows the drift speed with the wind and current, allowing the kites to catch more air and fly efficiently. This setup allows Lemieux to freely drift while not having to man the helm.
He can effectively fish multiple flat lines and a single kite solo. Adding one crew member allows him to fish two kites and multiple flat lines. This is a real advantage over kite fishing from a sportfish, as the captain is not constantly at the helm keeping the bow into the elements. This allows the center console crew to do more with less, presenting many more baits with minimal crew requirements.
While not a common sight in the Northern Gulf of Mexico, there are a few captains who utilize the effectiveness of kite fishing to their advantage. Captain Tim Kline of Recess Fishing Charters out of Pensacola, Florida taps into his South Florida roots and is known to use a kite for multiple applications aboard his Contender 31T. You wouldn’t normally associate kite fishing with sword fishing, but Captain Kline loves to put a kite up while drifting for daytime swordfish offshore.
Kline says that his favorite thing about fishing a live bait from the kite is the ability to fish heavier leader to fool leader shy and picky yellowfin tuna. In addition to tuna, Kline has hooked blue marlin, white marlin, jumbo mahi, and even wahoo on the kite while sword fishing. He typically fishes one large blue runner on the kite while sword fishing and has a dedicated crew member operating the kite fishing setup.
He has his kite rigged on a Diawa Tanacom 1000 with 80lb braided line, with the clip about 100’ from the kite. He also uses the kite to target smoker king mackerel during the fall run in Pensacola bay. Kline fishes from the anchor and uses a similar kite setup but adds a second clip about 50’ from the first clip. This allows him to fish two baits on the kite and two flat line baits simultaneously, covering as much water as possible. Kline says the 360-degree fishability of a center console is a definite advantage of fishing a kite in both situations.
When it comes to live bait fishing, kite fishing is king. Just because kite fishing has typically been associated with the South Florida live bait sailfish fishery doesn’t mean there aren’t a host of other areas and fisheries that could benefit from utilizing kites to present live baits or even artificial offerings. West coast crews and even some Northern Gulf crews are having success bump trolling artificial flying fish from a kite for jumbo tunas.
With an incredible amount of options for various kites, rod holder setups, electric reels, and rigging, a beginner to kite fishing may feel a bit overwhelmed at first. As with any specialized fishing tactic, kite fishing requires a lot of practice to become proficient. Rather than just diving right in to running two kites and several baits, novice kite fishing anglers should start slow and build up their skillset.
Start with launching and recovering the kite from the boat with no baits, and gain confidence with your setup and crew. As the crew becomes proficient with one element of kite fishing, adding an extra bait or even adding a second kite will become much easier than just diving straight into a two-kite spread. For any crew serious about live bait fishing, kite fishing is a skill that should not go overlooked.
Whether you’re running the boat, manning the rod or trying to get your team in shape, everyone could use a refresher on making the most of your bites. In this video, originally published in 2017, acclaimed tournament angler Fred Hardwick outlines an ingenious, practical way of getting a fell for the drop back. If that were not enough, check out what the best fishing teams on the professional series are doing in 2019. For even more from the archives, check out the bottom link– a 2014 round table with some of professional sportfishing’s best…. Have things changed? Are they the same?
Fishing for sails in Florida is a numbers game. Those who play it seem to be getting faster and more efficient with every passing season.
Sailfish 2.0 (click here…)
A Q&A with 4 of the Best Captains in the Business
The Art of Sailfishing (click here…)
by Dave Ferrell
Capt. Peter B. Wright, a guy that’s caught quite a lot of giant marlin, often says that the best fishing teams aren’t determined by how big a fish they catch…It’s how many they catch that matters. Wright’s logic says that you can’t determine the exact size of the fish that takes your bait, but you can control how many bites you get, and how many fish you successfully capture out of those bites.
Therefore, it is the team that can get a bite, catch a fish and then redeploy the baits quickly to get yet another bite that usually comes out on top in a numbers-based release event. It is for this reason that any team that places in the top five of an east Florida sailfish tournament can probably be plopped down in any of the world’s billfish hot spots and be kicking butt in no time at all. Fishing for sails in Florida is a numbers game. Those who play it seem to be getting faster and more efficient with every passing season.
Change is Good
While it might not seem like it to those close to the sport, a lot of things have changed over the years for those targeting sails. Not too long ago, it was wire leaders and split-tailed mullet that caught all the sails from West Palm to Key West. These days its dredge fishing, circle hooks, 40-pound fluorocarbon leaders and live-bait kite fishing that dominates the scene. When the bite gets hot, usually during the winter months, double digit days become commonplace and good crews can really rack up the numbers. Catching double digit Florida sails is not as easy as many people think…Atlantic sails can be finicky on the bite and only a tight-lipped white marlin is harder to hook than a petite Palm Beach sail.
Two changes are perhaps the most profound. For one thing, we don’t keep them anymore. That leaves a lot more of them available for you to catch. “The first Miami Billfish Tournament was a one-point-per-pound event. The second year it was a hybrid with points for release and killed fish,” says Capt. Ray Rosher, owner the Miss Britt out of Miami, Florida. “Later on, we all complained bitterly when we were forced to use circle hooks in the tournaments. Now we would pay double to get to use them…sometimes, change is good.” Those two changes alone, the advent of the release ethic and the use of circle hooks, probably contribute as much, or more, to today’s double-digit numbers than any learned technique. Besides knowing how to kite fish, of course.
The practice of fishing live baits on circle hooks, dangling the baits just at, or below the water’s surface, is probably the most effective way to catch good numbers of sailfish, especially if they are concentrated in a certain area or depth. Capt. Bouncer Smith, who charter fishes his Bouncer’s Dusky, out of Miami, is an expert kite fisherman and has seen quite a few innovations in the game. “I had a customer one time that was watching me struggle with some helium balloons on a calm day. He decided he was going to help me out and invent a kite-shaped helium balloon,” said Bouncer. “He tinkered with the idea for a couple of years and tried to come up with a helium-filled kite that measured 36 x 36 x 4 inches. It had a lot of potential, but it never came to fruition.”
Capt. Bouncer Smith has been at the forefront of sailfish innovation for decades.
“Probably the two most notable things I’ve seen recently are the use of Mylar dredges in the kite spread and the use of underwater lights during the daytime,” says Bouncer. “They will take a dredge teaser, fill it with Mylar strips with ballyhoo or some other baitfish imprinted on them, and then hang it under a bullet float in between two kites.” Wave and wind action bobs the loaded dredge up and down and brings fish into sight range of the kite baits. “Guys are also strobing their underwater lights during the day to get fish’s attention as well,” says Bouncer.
“I usually use a sea anchor most of the time so that requires power fishing. This winter I plan on hanging one of those mylar dredges right underneath the center console. I think it will do well underneath the boat,” he says.
Not one to stay comfortable in the way he does things, Bouncer is willing to give anything a go if he thinks it might bring more action. “At one time, we put some underwater speakers out to see if they would attract sails and get them to come to the boat. We played the same noise that scientists use to call sharks [low frequency, pulsed, white noise], but it didn’t seem to work for us,” said Bouncer.
“I’m waiting for the day when a guy pulls his kites in and starts flying his lines out on a pair of drones! Can you imagine that? Not having to worry about the wind? Just two drones sitting out there at the perfect height…not even having to watch them? That would be the cat’s meow,” says Bouncer.
Game Changers
Good numbers only breed more innovation, as crews try to catch just one more fish than the guys in the next slip. Few work harder at trying to catch more fish, quickly and efficiently than Rosher. On top of his charter boat operations, Rosher also owns R&R Tackle – a company that manufactures all manner of innovative tackle and accessories. Most of the products he sells came about by trying to fulfill a need that he encountered on his daily outings.
Even so, he doesn’t make or sell either of his first two picks for recent great sailfish innovations. “One of the big changes,” says Rosher, “is the use of super-fast electric kite reels to retrieve the kites. Consequently, these reels have taught the guys the benefits of speed. We all have a basic understanding of how to take care of our baits, make the proper rigs, set up for a drift correctly etc. Now, it’s become a lot like NASCAR, where the quickest pit crews get the cars around faster. In fishing, the crew that gets the bites, and then redeploys quickly, catches more double and triples…and wins more tournaments,” says Rosher.
Rosher uses Hooker kite reels for several reasons. “I believe they are the fastest kite reels out there,” he says. “I don’t have experience with a lot of the other brands, but these are pretty fast reels. Guys used to be happy just having ANY electric reel, now we have these ultra-fast ones that can clear big marks. This allows you to put four clips on a kite line instead of three, which allows you to fish four lines on each side. And all four clips can fit on one kite reel.”
Rapidly retrieving, deploying and adjusting your kite baits can make all the difference in a tournament sailfish scenario. Rosher uses a Hooker Electric.
Even something so seemingly insignificant as a kite clip can become an item of intense scrutiny in Rosher’s quest for increased speed and efficiency. Rosher’s newly designed M2 clips are a fraction of the weight of traditional clips and excel on day’s with very light winds. “They work in all winds actually, but they really help on calm days. Even if you are using helium assist, kite lines will sag on calm days, and any added weight makes them sag even more. If your kite line is sagging and you get bit, a fish can burn through your other baits in an instant. Elevation is your friend in kite fishing. If your kite isn’t sagging you can lift the other baits out of the water and then get another bite. These clips allow you to fish more clips on very calm days.”
The additional clip also gives you the option of putting more baits out when one gets bit. “If the long gets bit, you can advance the other two baits and add another short. This puts a new bait right back into the spot where you got the first bite and results in a large number of doubles and triples,” says Rosher. “During a recent event we had some pretty tough fishing, but we got a bite on our right long – our shallowest bait. We backed up on it and caught it. I decided to put all of our stuff out a little shallower. By the time we had caught that one fish, all of our baits were up in our little tubes and I was moving an 1/8th of a mile back up in front of the pack. We ended up catching seven of them and doubled the next boat. I’m not trying to be some kind of braggart either, I’m just saying that good team work – speed and efficiency – wins tournaments.”
R and R Tackle makes an assortment of innovative clips for kites and outriggers.
Advancements in kite design also allow you to spend more days on the water. “Kites have improved significantly,” says Rosher. “With both Lewis and SFE putting a lot of emphasis on light and heavy wind models. The ultralights really help if they can keep me from having to blow up a balloon with helium.”
As always, picking the right reel for the job is critical, especially when dealing with the long distances and light tackle commonly used when targeting sails with kites. “All of my reels are designed specifically for live bait sail fishing. Which means they have to have a high speed retrieve and very consistent drags. The reel I use is the Penn Fathom 40 NLDHS (Narrow Lever Drag High Speed). It retails for $249 and that’s very reasonable…I’m currently on my third season with the reels on my boat. There are others that do the same thing, but these are the ones I can talk about because I use them every day.”
Details Make a Difference
Nowhere was it more evident on how far Rosher will go to improve efficiency than when he talked about the design on his new rigging needles for live baits. “We like to bridle our live baits when kite fishing and we use a needle that we made to use with our specific bands,” he says. “Instead of a hole, it has a restrictor that lets you snap a band in place quickly and easily. It’s a synthetic needle [not metal] with soft edges so you can’t snag or damage a band. I tried to make them of metal, but I couldn’t make them as soft as I needed them to be. These are plenty strong enough to do the job, plus I can round the edges and flatten the sides to keep them from rolling around on a flat surface.”
“Our rigging bands come in two sizes, ½-inch and 1 3/8-inch, in either black or clear. They are made to our exact specifications because it’s really hard to get that sweet spot of being strong but not too strong. They need to hold the bait, but then let it go away on the hookup. You don’t want them to stay too well attached. I saw in Australia how those big baits tied on with 130-pound Dacron wouldn’t come off and the fish would come up shaking its head, throwing the whole thing away.”
It’s no secret that boats frequently placing near the top of most sailfish tournaments in south Florida use pen-raised live baits. Rosher, who does quite well in tournaments, is known as a master at raising and keeping live baits. “I put all of our focus on products that I needed…things I couldn’t find out in the marketplace. Our bait pens come with a food tray in them, and we even sell food…wet or dry. Our double fine mesh bait nets allow you to transfer large amounts of live baits very quickly, without damaging the slime layer. They even have a clear plastic bottom that holds water to keep them lubricated, but also fools the baits into swimming straight into the net instead of trying to avoid it.” Rosher even makes small bait tubes for pilchards and goggle eyes that feature adjustable, individual flow controls and that allow you to store bridled baits ready for deployment as soon as the boat stops.
Old School Too
Kite fishing might have inched ahead with more recent sail fishing innovations, and that’s just fine for traditional troll fisherman like Tony Huerta, owner of the Lo Que Sea. Huerta and crew are regular top five finishers in many of the most prestigious marlin and sailfish tournaments in south Florida and the Bahamas. Huerta chuckled when I asked him what, if anything, he’s been doing differently over the last few years that he thought might have improved his odds.
Success in modern sailfishing is a team effort that requires coordinated work, skill and the ability to keep fishing while hooked up.
“We are doing the exact same things. We might pull a bigger dredge on tournament days – triples or even quads, but nothing much is different. We’ve got a blue and white dredge on one side, and a blue and black on the other. We still pull green squids and a blue and white express with a mackerel in it. We prospect one side, all day long, even in sunny conditions. A lot of boats use high speed reels, but we still use TLD 20 two speeds. I think a lot of anglers pull the baits away from the fish with the high speeds. There’s really not much to it…run them over and hang on to the ones you see,” he says.
Oh, if it were just that easy.
