By Ed Killer
News of exciting sailfish action burned up the docks. According to reports, the sailfish bite off the coast of Martin and St. Lucie counties had achieved epic proportions. Marauding packs of sailfish arose in the propwash behind spreads of trolling baits like wolves surrounding a small herd of elk. One by one, the wily spindlebeaks lit up purple and black, inhaled hooked baits and peeled off to enjoy their fishy snacks.
As conventional reels fed off line, anglers waited for the perfect moment to reel tight and set hooks into corners of jaws. All at once, as if choreographed, a team of three or four anglers could have four sailfish leap from the waves in unison.
Simply put, it was the kind of fishing few men had ever seen.
The beauty of this description of world-class sportfishing action is that there is no specific time line for its occurrence. It happened in January 1938. It happened in January 2012. December 1997. December 1977. December 1941. December 2011.
Welcome to the Sailfish Capital of the World. In this part of Florida tackling 10 sailfish in a day is simply a day’s work, or rather, play.
The area’s legacy as a destination for exciting fishing adventures began around the same time that charter fishing as a profession emerged from the genre of commercial fishing. It was the 1930s and small coastal towns like Stuart had one hotel. Visitors to the hotel, carried here by Henry Flagler’s railroad, found beautiful weather, friendly locals and very little to keep themselves occupied. Meanwhile, the real action in town was down at any of the area’s busy fish houses where fishermen brought back their catches to be salted and iced and loaded onto trains for the trip north to Fulton Fish Market. Bluefish, mackerel, trout, snapper and sheepshead were among the catches sent packing. Other fish with very little use to commercial fishermen like tarpon, snook, sharks, jack crevalle and sailfish were not harvested much due to poor food value.
Visiting men with little to do while visiting Stuart, eventually convinced some of the commercial fishermen to take them fishing. Heck, they would even pay for the chance to go fishing with them.
And just like that, an industry was born.
By the late 1930’s, community leaders realized that tourism and seasonal residents would one day drive the local economy. What better way to promote the region than to celebrate its two greatest assets: cheap land and great fishing?
Ernie Lyons, longtime editor of the Stuart News, and Bob Bell, leader of the Stuart Jaycees, invited outdoors and sports writers from the major newspaper markets around the country to come to Stuart for a visit. While here, usually during the winter, they would fish and sometimes hunt a little bit, with Lyons, a true outdoorsman, and his local skipper contacts. Offshore, they discovered the great wintertime sport fishery here for sailfish, kingfish, dolphin and even a few blackfin tuna.
Frequently, the sports writers returned to New York, Washington, Boston, Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Chicago and wrote about this incredible little fishing town in Stuart.
One week, in January 1938, there was a particularly exciting bite off Stuart while a group of writers visited Lyons. One even suggested that this little place has such good sailfishing it should call itself the capital of the sport.
No one had to run that by Lyons and Bell twice. Within weeks, there were signs at the edges of town welcoming folks to “Stuart: The Sailfish Capital of the World.”
Fast forward 74 years.
Now instead of telegrams, mail and weekly newspaper columns, the world works on a different communication system. Now when there is a good sailfish bite, the news is relayed through social networking, email and blogs on what has become a 24-hour news cycle.
And the fishing is better, too. Conservation programs and ethical angling practices not in place in the 1930s enables anglers to catch more fish in more locations more quickly and release them with more energy and strength. The use of circle hooks, the dedication to trolled ballyhoo, the use of the boat while fighting a fish, electronics, a wider base of knowledge among the captains has improved and increased fishing success among those who follow the glorious sailfish.
As a result, tournament records that could never before been imagined are being shattered every few years. Unprecedented catches of 300 and 400 sailfish in a couple of days from a few years ago have risen to 500 and 600. During last year’s Pelican Yacht Club Invitational, a tournament with over 30 years of fishing experience, the fleet smashed its all-time record with a catch of 736 sailfish in four days. This one tournament has seen its catch record change three times since 2004 and the 736 crushed its 2010 set record of 408.
But that is just one event. Many anglers in these parts have enjoyed many double-digit sailfish catch days since the turn of the century. What will happen this coming season? It’s anyone’s guess for sure, but it’s a safe bet the sailfish will be snapping.
And whether you want to send out the good news this coming season via telegram or via Twitter, the fish will be waiting and they will be hungry.
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