Sailfish Set ups.

[Muddog]

OK I was wondering what do I use for sailfish? Like I go out and sword and do some drift mostly for dolphin but like I am interested in sailfish. I fish usually 16-20 miles out of Ft. Lauderdale. any advice on fishing for sails?

[TLD-Danny]

well there are many ways to sailfish one you can kite-fish. Two you can set your drift up deep and drift shallow with live baits. Three you can run up on them after you see one free-jump and put a bait in the area.
1. Kite-Fishing Usually depending on the wind you will use various weights of the kite and depending on you fish as many baits as possible on a single kite (The usuall is 2 to 3 baits, that mean 2 or 3 clips) After getting your kite up some people use a sea anchor to slow the drift. You can start your drift in depths from 80-160ft. And for the kind of tackle you can fish light 15-20lb spin gear and 20-30lb conventional gear. Usually people with have a bimini a few feet above their leader. After you have a bimini you can put heavier leader like 50 or 60 mono or flouro (your choice) so now you should have 6-10ft of a bimini and leader now hooks many tournements prefer circle hooks like size 5/0's to 7/0's.
2. Drifting with livies- You can start your drift from 80-160ft with maybe a deep rod set up on a down-rigger or if you dont have one a 2oz or 4oz lead and a leader, and when you put a deep rod out puts some wire like size 4-6wire incase of wahoo or kings. You can put out a flat line also no weight just a leader and bait. A float rod is a good choice to on the boat i work on we fish a long and short. Many species will find you that way dolphin, sails, tunas, kings, and maybe a wahoo.
3. When looking for an area to set up a drift you may see a sail free-jump get in that area and throw a couple chummies in the water to see if he there and in one of the chummies have a hooked one on a flat line rod. And hopefully he eats.

Good Luck

[miamiangler1]

Easiest way is like you do for king mackerel ... I just drift two rods with livies ... if you get 5-6 inch pilchards are my favorate! I will use either a 10 # outfit ... or 20 # spinning gear ... I`ll put one out 250ft and one at 100ft behind the boat .. I use copper wire on the reel seat to hook the line to ... so when the sail hits ..it will release the line ...if the winds are blowing you in to shore ... I will start my drift in 250 ft of water ... if west wind I will start at 90 ft ...if you see sails jumping .. mark the depth on your recorder and fish that depth ... hope this will help you land some sails !

[DIRTYFOOT2]

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