Blue Waters Movements fishing report

[Fishing Report]

It's not often that you get to write about quadruple digit Sailfish releases in a tournament, however, in the case of the 75th annual Silver Sailfish Derby, hosted by the West Palm Beach Fishing Club on Jan 5-7, that is exactly what happened. There was a buzz in the air inside the historic fishing club building on the night of the kickoff party. Word traveled fast throughout the fleet as boats returned from fishing the day prior to the start of the tournament. 39 releases for the Reely Tight, 44 releases for Weez in the Keys, 30 releases for High Stakes, 24 releases for Sandman! The first true cold front of the season had the fish pouring through in a feeding frenzy!

Teams realized quickly that they were going to need to bring their game face for day 1 of the tournament in order to keep up with the blistering pace that some of the boats would be likely to post.

From the onset of the 8am lines in announcement, it was pure pandemonium. Prior to the 2012 event, the single day record for the Derby was 258 releases by a field of 50 boats. That record was shattered in the 2012 event within the first 3 hours of the tournament - over 270 fish were released. The hottest bite was between Juno Pier and Jupiter Inlet outside of 200 feet of water. By the end of the day, a record setting 659 Sailfish were released - an average of 1.37 Sailfsh reports per minute! Several boats posted over 20 releases in the tournament, with 1 of them, Get Lit, eclipsing the 30 fish mark. Get Lit released 36 fish on Day 1.

While Day 2 did not produce the same intensity of fishing as day 1, by any other standard the fishing was still spectacular. 356 Sailfish were released on day 2 bringing the 2-day tally to 1,024 releases! Get Lit, Palacio de los Jugos and Sandman each had 16 releases. Get Lit still maintained a commanding lead with 52 total releases in the tournament. Sandman was the closest boat to them with 39 releases.

As the wind dropped out on day 3 so did the pace of the fishing. Jichi won the day with 8 releases. Contributions from the rest of the field brought the 3-day total to 1,174 releases, an average of 25.52 releases per boat! If that's not world class fishing, I don't know what is. Get Lit commondeered the lead on Day 1 and never gave it up. They finished the tournament with 58 total releases. The Derby provided a great documentation of the strength of this fishery. We look forward to many more tournament stories just like this one thanks in great part to the billfish conservation practices of recreational fishermen up and down the coast over the years.











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Soup du Jour




Yeeee Hawwww! I don't know if this hillbilly from West Virginia knew how rare this catch was, but Ryan Saxe, a high school principal from Milton, WV caught this juvenile Tiger Shark on the reef outside of Boca Inlet on New Year's Eve! While Tiger Sharks are more common offshore and in the waters off the Bahamas, they are far less common along the coastal waters here in South Florida. This fish was caught in 60 feet of water on straight mono and a circle hook. She was released in healthy condition. Truly a beautiful fish. Nice job cuz!

Pompano Nautical Flea Market
Jan 28-29, 2012

Miami Boat Show
Feb 16-20, 2012
Sailfish Challenge
Feb 23-26, 2012



What's Biting?

Holy Sailfish! A strong cold front passed through South Florida last last week and flipped the switch on Sailfishing in a big way. The bite has been nothing short of world class. It should only continue to improve as the winter progresses and more fronts push bodies of fish down the coast.

Congratulations to the Silver Sailfish Derby for setting a new tournament record in the 75th anniversary of the Derby last week. 46 boats combined to release near 1,200 fish in 3 days! Over 650 fish were released on Day 1 of the tournament with the Get Lit team posting 36 of those releases. The FishHead Soup sponsored Encore Fishing Team posted a great ratio in the Derby, going 32/38. Nice job guys! The Jupiter Billfish tournament just concluded today as well. Congratulations to Doing it All, winners of the live bait division and Outlaw, top boat in the troller's division. Doing it All and Miss Annie battled back and forth all day long today with numerous lead changes, but it was Daryl Deka's Doing it All team with key releases in the last few minutes of the tournament that pushed them into the winner's circle with 39 total releases.

The Wahoo bite has been very good off the Southeast coast of Florida in December on into January. If you don't mind buring the fuel, the Wahoo fishing on the other side has been pretty good as well. The best Wahoo reports in the Bahamas have been coming from the South.

While you can't keep them due to the seasonal closure, the grouper fishing has been very good along the reef as well, particularly for Gag Groupers. Beware, they are bruisers. Be prepared to lose more than you catch!


Bluewater Movements, Inc. | PO Box 50114 | Lighthouse Point, FL 33074