The Girls Get 11 Sails

Annie and Laurel were back at it again.  This time they enlisted the help of Laurels big brother James!  Catching eleven sailfish in one day is an accomplishment for even the most seasoned of pro teams but for a ten, fourteen, and eighteen year old crew it is something to be proud of.  On this day the weather was windy and rough but the fishing more than made up for it!  The morning started off great with a few nice mahi's.  Soon after the mahi's were resting comfortably in the box, a sail grabbed the right long and we were off to the races.  Annie did her usual stellar job and just like that we had the fish released and the baits back out.  I felt confident that we were going to keep seeing fish as the conditions were great (aside from it being very rough)!  As the L&H continued to drift north, sailfish continued to come to the kite baits and Annie continued to make it look easy catching them!  By early afternoon our young anglers had released seven sailfish, all of them singles.  If we were to reach double digit releases it was paramount that we would find a multiple.  With only a little bit of fishing time left in the day I scanned the water, looking for anything that would give us that extra little boost we needed.  Then, offshore of us I saw a group of three sailfish tailing to the south.  It would be nearly impossible to get the kite baits to these fish so I quickly maneuvered the L&H into position for our team to cast to the fish with spinning rods.  Like a well oiled machine, the crew got three baits out to the three fish.  I'M ON! I'M ON! I'M ON! echoed up to the tuna tower from the fishermen down in the cockpit.  All three sailfish took to the air and went strait offshore melting line off the light spinning outfits.  I started backing offshore and water poored over the transom as Laurel got her fish first.  James had his fish under control and seconds later Jim grabbed the leader and released our nineth sail of the day.  By now Annie was getting low on line so I had to turn and chase her fish to avoid backing into the rough sea.  Annie gained some much needed line back as we continued to chased the fish down this time going forward.  I was able to get upsea of the angry sail and spun the maneuverable, L&H  hard so we would be able to coast down the big waves.  The fish came up jumping again and this time Jim was able to grab the leader on a nice sail for the tenth time of the day!  We put the baits out once more and right away we were hooked up!  Annie made quick work of this fish, the eleventh one for the L&H!  It made me very happy to see our young anglers fish like pros today!  A day I will not soon forget:)