Blue Water Report sent to us from Alli DeYoung
Alli DeYoung is right at the end of her 30 minutes fight with a 7 foot 60 pound sail, which she caught while fishing Islamorada, Florida!
While fishing with her father Dan DeYoung on the "Kalex" (charter boat) located Islamorada,
Florida “big catching deals happened!” Alli sent me her detailed fishing report and it goes like this ...
Alli wrote:
As a Christmas present, my parents surprised me with a trip to achieve
a goal I have had for some time, to catch a bill fish. On January
third we chartered a boat called the "Kalex" out of Islamorada,
Florida. We left out of Bud n' Mary's Marina and headed out to get
bait. The water was so clear that I could see the bottom at 30 feet of
depth. To get bait, we mixed chum and sand and threw a little bits
into the water. Ballyhoo came off of the reef and hid in the sand
cloud from the predator barracuda. We didn't want the barracuda eating
our bait so we threw scrap ballyhoo in the opposite direction to keep
the barracuda occupied while our mate Mr. Richard threw a cast net on
the bait. After a couple rounds of throwing the sand and net we had
our bait. While we were getting bait, Captain Alex said, “There you go,
now you got your bill fish!" I thought that was quite funny.
Now time to fish.... We put two live ballyhoo out on spinning rods and trolled
an area about 1,000 yards long and 200 yards wide about four miles
offshore. The water depth was anywhere from 30 to 90 feet. It felt
really weird being able to see the marina from where we were fishing.
Right away I caught a Mahi Mahi. As soon as we re-baited our lines
Captain Alex spots a sailfish from the tower. We quickly pulled up to
the sail and pitched a live ballyhoo right in front of his face. He
bit it and the rod was handed to me. He did not want to come to the
boat. He drained the spool and logged up as we were backing down on
him. He would get tired and I could gain on him, but the minute he
saw the boat he would repeat the same routine about three more times.
Soon Mr. Richard was able to grab the leader. He was a big one. The
captain estimate he was about 7 feet and 60 pounds. I was so happy
that I had caught my first sail. I had never felt so tired after
fighting a fish. It took about 20-30 minutes to bring him in. Talk
about being on cloud nine - what a dream come true. The next sail was
much smaller so I let daddy have that one. Later on I hooked two more.
For the day the boat went 4:6 with sailfish and 1 Mahi Mahi. As we
were coming back in I turned to daddy and said I could not wait to
tell y'all about the day.
Alli DeYoung’s sail fish making way!
Alli DeYoung caught, fought, and landed this fine sail fish! Now this is what I would call a “sail fish catching smile!”