I was looking at all the weather reports on the east coast (St Augustine for wahoo or Boca Raton for sails), I decided to head back over to Boca Raton for another shot at a sailfish. We had gone there one day last month and when 0 for 1 on the sails and boated a few mahi despite the rainy conditions all day which were not forecasted. Thought I'd invite a few people on this trip who had never ventured to the other side.
The crew for this trip was Greg, his son Nick, TommyZ (a local charter captain), and Justin. Plans were set to meet at my shop at 1am. They were there at 12:40am so off we went. we arrived at the boat ramp in Boca Raton at 5:30am. Met up with Jim, a friend of mine in Boca for live bait and headed out the inlet by 6:20am. This was the sunrise in Boca Raton:
We started in 250 to 400ft high speed trolling for wahoo. At 8:30am, we gave up on that, we had no strikes, so we set up in the 180 to 210ft range for sails. Send 2 lines down on the riggers and I was in the process of getting the kite ready when the drag on the line 90ft begins to sing. Nick takes control of the rod and the fights on.
10minutes later:
Another 20 minutes, he was feeling the pain, this was not anything like inshore trout, red, and snook that he is good at:
After a few more minutes he let his dad, Greg take over:
15 minutes later:
Above: TommyZ, sitting on the coffin box waiting, below still waiting:
Finally after an hour and ten minutes we saw what was on the end of the line, a bull shark, estimated somewhere near 7ft, broke him off. Ran back into the 180ft range and started all over. Next up was a small king which was released. At 11am, decided to run offshore to the 700ft range and high speed troll in hopes of mahi, tuna or for that matter anything. At the 1060ft range, 11 miles offshore of Boca Inlet, we found life in the blue water. Small tuna and mahi were busting the surface. We were trolling a black Ilander shirted hoo on the long line w/a 2lb cigar trolling weight, a blue/white Ilander shirted hoo w/2lb cigar weight on the left flat, a Braid speedster red/black on the right flat, and a naked hoo in the prop wash. Our only strike in that zone came at 12:40pm and 13minutes later this is what came in off the black Ilander:
I happened to be the lucky angler on this catch:
Nick with a quick shot:
The release:
We all thought this was a juvenile blue marlin and kept that thought until today (Sunday 1/7/07). It now appears that this is either a Hatchet Marlin or long Bill Spearfish, I have sent these pictures out and am awaiting conformation on the type of billfish.
We tried trolling a little longer before heading back to the 180ft range after the sail we came for. Decide to see if there was any life on the bottom in a spot I've got in 198ft. We make several drifts over when TommyZ hooked up:
This is what he manhandled from 198ft:
A 45lb AJ, after that he had to rest. We have video of that fight, will try to figure out how to post that soon. We also had a flat line out with a gog that got picked up by a sail after the aj fight. Nick had her on for a brief run and after several small aerial jumps the sail spit the hook. The sharks moved in at 2:45 so we decide to call it a day.
Back home by 8:30pm. It was a great day with new found fishing friends and hope to get together again soon for a possible wahoo trip. Greg, Nick, and TommyZ, thank you for joining Justin and I on a memorable trip to the other side.
Several fisherman informed me that the billfish is a spearfish. I had also sent pictures to NMFS. Randy at NMFS has confirmed what they have told me, it is a Spearfish. They are going to study the pics alittle more and appreciate getting them over to them as there has been alot of discussion as of late on Spearfish/Marlin. Got the sword,sail,and spear off the list, next up a Marlin- black,blue or white, not is any order.
Our trip to Boca Raton (Another First) 
photob
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