Went out in the ocean this morning, beautiful day with too calm of seas.  Had a west wind so we knew that bite would be slow and it was.  Caught a small blue runner so I put in my Avet trying to get a spinner shark, no luck.   I baited up a dead sardine and I was letting my line out by hand, maybe 30 or 40yds out I get a hit, felt like a king bite.  Take the reel out of free spool and now the drag is smoking and the rod is bending.  After while I get the fish boatside and to my surprise I see a huge dorsal fin, a Sailfish !  My partner grabs the leader that was tangled with several other lines, as he was pulling the leader the sail starts a run(an experienced mate would have boated that fish for sure)..........boom fish off, but a nice thrill.  Fish appeared to be 5-6' in length, a good size sailfish.

Nice job, Snook.  Been a while since I've caught a sailfish.  Wish I was out on the water today, would have been a gorgeous day to get out and drag some baits on the reef edges.

That's awesome!

Good for you.  Glad you got your line stretched by a great fish.

Kelley

That was an unexpected surprise.

A surprise, yes, but not totally unexpected, I know this is the time of year for them. I was hopeful and prayed a bit..........lol. We have caught them on frozen sardine before, also can get them trolling but the preferred method by charter boats is live bait under a kite. I had a big strike on a spoon while trolling but never saw the fish, may have been a wahoo. When I go offshore I checkout a few forums and websites to see what's going on.