Just got back from a trip to Isla Mujeres where the sailfishing is flat out nuts. Autumn and I flew over and met my brother and his friend at the airport. We all traveled over to Isla together; the boys to fish, Autumn to lay on the beach. We fished with our friends on the Bi-Op-Sea, a 59 Spencer out Pirates Cove, NC. Captain Jesse Grantizki and his mate Matt always treat us well and this trip was no exception. Each year they run the boat down to Isla for a few months and then usually head over to the Dominican Republic for the marlin bite. Jesse and Matt made a brief stop in Key West. Unfortunately, when they called me, I was in NC....oops. They made the 14-15 hour run over to Isla (leaving KW at 10pm), burning a measly 700 gallons in the process. That might sound like a ton of fuel, but I was surprised to see that the boat only burns about 60 gallons an hour at a 28knot cruise! And that is with twin 1015hp Cats. Nice...
Anyhoo, on to the fishing.... The first day (Friday) proved to be everything that we were expecting. Within 4 minutes of lines in the water, we had a mahi-mahi in the boat. A few minutes later we had our first sail. We were only fishing maybe 5-7 miles from the beach in about 80 feet of water and the sails were thick! Throughout the day, we kept getting covered up with sailfish. Double and tripleheaders were a common occurrence, with mate Matt always on the ball in the pit. We ended the first day with a total of 19 sails landed with shots at probably twice as many. We also had 2 mahi and one bonito, plus a ton of toothy bites (either wahoo or kings).
The next day(Saturday), Autumn wanted to get in the action so she came along to take a shot at her first sailfish. Again, we didn't wait long. Literally within 5 minutes of putting the baits in, she was hooked up. We had high hopes for the day since the winds had laid down a bit and my brother and I were now in tune with hooking the sails. This type of fishing is different from anything I'd ever done before. All baits are rigged with circle hooks and all reels are trolled in near free spool. When a sail takes the bait, you immediately take the clicker off and put the reel into full freespool. It is the total opposite of what you want to do! After you fed the fish and felt confident that he had the bait, you'd slowly ease up the drag to come tight on the fish. Sometimes you missed (wait, MANY times you missed), but many times you hooked up. So the day proceeded again with multiple double, triple, and even quadruple hookups. There were times when there were more sailfish in the spread than we had baits to hook them with! It's not a bad situation to be in, trust me! After Autumn contributed her own brand of chum to the ocean(Zucaritas and boxed milk, plus some nachos from the night before...yummy), the sails really turned on. Autumn rallied hard and ended up with 7 sails and a mahi for the day. What other girl gets out there and lands 7 sailfish, interspersed with some regurgitation? We finished off the day with 24 landed and again, at least twice as many opportunities. It's a good thing when your arms are sore and your hand is getting blisters from winding non-stop all day.
The third day wasn't even scheduled to happen. All of our flights weren't until late in the afternoon, so Jesse offered to take us out for the morning bite and then drop us off over in Cancun, avoiding the ferry all together. How could we pass that offer up? The morning started off a bit slower, without a bite for a solid hour. However, that quickly changed. Utter pandemonium erupted -- "left long!, right short!, right long!, right teaser!...." they were everywhere....we fished for maybe 3.5 hours and landed 9 sails, and again, with shots at maybe 20 fish.
Words can't describe the excitement of this kind of fishing. When a pack of sails strolls into your spread, you watch it happen. Rarely do you get a bite without seeing it. And to make it even more fun, you are actively trying to get the fish to take your bait; either by bringing the bait in closer, dropping it back and letting it sink, working it a bit to give it some action, this is NOT just trolling baits all day. And everything is purely standup tackle....TLD 20 reels spooled with 25lb test mono, a short top shot of 80lb, and then a 60lb leader to the circle hooked ballyhoo. The effectiveness of the circle hooks, also was impressive. Only one fish that was brought to the boat was questionable upon release and that was only because it was tail wrapped. But even that sail eventually swam away.
If you have yet to make it to Isla Mujeres for sailfish season, do it. Yeah, you may have more consistent fishing year round in other parts of the world, but I don't think there is anywhere that can offer 50 to 100 shots a day at sailfish like Isla can during its peak. And if you like BIG boats, this place is mecca. They come from all over the world and it is neat to watch the camaraderie on the docks at the end of the day. So get over there, find Jesse on the Bi-Op-Sea, and catch some sails! If that doesn't happen, head to the Outer Banks during the summer and have Jesse get you on some mahi, tuna, or white marlin. He runs a great operation and you've gotta love a 59' custom Carolina boat that is part of the 50mph club!
Sailfish Gone Wild -- Isla Mujeres, Mexico 01/08 
