BEACH INSIDER

Blue Water, Big Fish

Trolling for big game off the Florida Panhandle

Frank Sargeant | Special to The News Herald
Multiple outboards on big center consoles create fast, capable offshore fishing machines, and some charter operations now use them to get out to billfish country in a hurry. [MAKO MARINE/CONTRIBUTED PHOTO]

Offshore trolling requires a good imagination. If you can't visualize, every minute, that great spear of a giant billfish slashing through the water behind that 5-pound lure bouncing in the wake, it can become an exercise in boredom.

There's a whole lot of waiting between strikes most days when you go big game fishing. Sometimes, there are days between the billfish bites, in fact. Some days a yellowfin tuna, a wahoo or several high-flying dolphin-fish (mahi) may spice up the action, as well as the grill — nothing like still-twitching fillets cooked at sea to whet the appetite. But some days that purple-black sea seems as empty as the back side of the moon for miles and miles.

The only attraction for the fish out there is the interface between currents, where different speeds, densities or temperatures of water cause a rip, a seam in the water, along which the golden Sargasso weed along with all the ocean flotsam gathers, sometimes in slowly whirling drifts that extend for miles.

Beneath the sargasso are tiny fish of several kinds, and beneath them are often "chicken" dolphin weighing 2 to 5 pounds, sometimes even smaller wahoo and baby tuna. And far down below, the gamefish lurk, looking upward, always on the move, waiting to come up like a rocket, seize their prey and head back down like a bolt of lightning. Flying fish, transparent butterflies, jump off the top of the waves and fly for hundreds of yards. It's their escape mechanism, but sometimes they seem to be doing it just because they can.

Occasionally mako sharks and blue sharks slide by, hoping for a wounded tuna or dolphin, a sick blue marlin. Oceanic dolphin — they look similar to the inshore bottlenose dolphin but have white dappling and are a bit smaller — sometimes show up in rolling schools of dozens at a time, sliding in close for a look at the strange visitors plowing up their turf.

But what there is mostly is a lot of empty water, a mile deep and more. The smart billfish skippers know how to cut their odds of straining all through this open sea to find productive spots, using the ROFF's sea surface temperature charts and other electronics to help them home in. But it's still a matter of covering a whole lot of water.

Some like pulling "Kona" heads, artificial lures that can be towed at speeds of 10 knots and more, allowing them to cover lots of water. The lures have a proven history of producing, particularly on marlin and wahoo. The strikes are violent beyond belief. The combination of boat speed and the speed of the fish is a true test of tackle until the skipper gets things under control and the angler gets buckled up to the rod.

However, many serious bluewater fishers like either rigged dead bait, which skips from the outriggers in the wake, or live tuna that may weigh 7 to 10 pounds, rigged on a bridle behind a massive forged 12/0 hook. The process covers less water, but if the boat is in an area where bait and billfish are abundant, it can actually be more effective than trolling an artificial because the fish are more likely to eat the real thing if they see it.

Big game menagerie

Waters off the Panhandle offer an impressive selection of big game fishes from April through October, with dolphin, sailfish, blackfin tuna and wahoo showing up in May and early June, blue marlin in June and July, and white marlin in September and October. Swordfish are around all summer, but are caught almost entirely at night on baits drifted deep.

The blue marlin is the premiere gamefish of the Gulf, and the Panhandle has produced some monsters, including the current Florida record of 1046 pounds, caught in 1985 in the Bay Point Invitational Billfish Tournament. Another fish estimated to weigh over 1,000 pounds has been caught and released since. Several over 600 pounds have been weighed already this summer.

Dolphin (mahi) are typically 15 to 20 pounds, but larger fish are caught regularly, while wahoo run anywhere from 20 pounds up. Sailfish are a lot lighter than they look, with fish of 40 to 75 pounds typical.

What it costs

Going billfishing in your own boat is generally not a good plan unless you're an experienced seaman with years of offshore operation under your belt. The specialized boats, gear and techniques required make this an expert's game, and you're by far better off hiring a good charter captain.

It obviously costs a lot of money to run a charterboat capable of fishing far offshore where the billfishes dwell. The boats get 1 to 2 miles per gallon on plane, and may cover over 200 miles in a day, not counting all the fuel they burn at trolling speed for many hours. They also have pricey dock fees to pay, commercial insurance costs, boat and tackle maintenance and of course what may be an astronomical boat payment, plus wages for a trained mate, essential for handling large gamefish.

So it's not surprising that it costs a lot of money to book a billfish charter. An 8-hour charter is typically around $1,200 for up to six anglers. Since it takes over an hour to get out to serious billfish country most of the time, you're better off booking 12 hours at $1,800 or so. Larger boats can carry more than six passengers if the captain has the right license, which allows splitting the ticket more ways.

There are two types of boats that run out to big game waters. The classic sportfisherman, which is typically a cabin boat with air conditioning, galley and full head, starts at around 45 feet. These are usually powered by inboard diesels, and they typically run at speeds around 20 to 25 knots, which is to say about 25 to 28 mph. They are wide-beamed and highly seaworthy, and some old salts say the sound of the diesel engines on some of them have a peculiar capability to "raise" fish or draw them to the baits.

The second type of boat fishing offshore is the center console, and these days some are being built in lengths approaching 50 feet. These are powered by multiple outboards, recently up to four 400's, and they can be very fast, with speeds of 50 and even 60 mph in calm seas. The obvious advantage here is that you get out where the fish are a lot faster, so get more fishing hours, fewer running hours, for your charter fee.

The disadvantage of the center console is that you are likely to get wet from spray or rain — make that you are certain to get wet from spray or rain — and there is no cabin and no AC to get away from the wind, sun, heat or rain, though there may be a small head in the console. Because they are open at the bow, they are less seaworthy than the express sportfisherman style.

They are nearly always limited to six passengers, so you can't split the ticket quite as much as on the larger sportfish boats, but the charter fees are sometimes lower. They are narrower across the beam than the big sportfish rigs, and have more vee to the bottom so they tend to roll more in beam seas. However, anglers who are used to fishing in open boats inshore or in freshwater sometimes find themselves more at home on this type of fishing platform.

Selecting right charter

There are many levels of capability among charter skippers. Some guys are always "lucky," and these are the guys you want to spend your money with.

And, as is the case with much in life, being lucky is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity in offshore fishing.

The "lucky" skipper will usually have a clean, well-maintained boat with quality tackle, the best baits and lures, and a well-trained, pleasant and efficient mate. He's going to keep tabs on the fish movements through Roff's and other current monitoring systems, and he's going to be dialed in to the dock talk of who is seeing fish where and when.

Fortunately, these days social media gives all of us a chance to grade our experiences, and to get an advance look at services we might want to use, as reported by those who have tried them.

Of course, you can't let one bad review put you off an otherwise great skipper; some who hire a charter have completely unrealistic expectations. Complaining that you did not hook up with a "grander" in your 8-hour charter is not kosher. Complaining that you left the dock an hour late, that the bait was rotten, the reels corroded and that the head had not been cleaned for a month, on the other hand, is useful information.

Best bet is to select your top two or three skippers, then get them on the phone and discuss how they fish and what you can expect in a day on the water. The in-person conversation will tell you a lot more than many email and Facebook messages, so that there are no surprises when you get to the docks.

Last but not least, if you have doubts about whether offshore trolling is for you, it probably isn't. It takes a lot of patience and optimism, and there are more days that the billfish do not cooperate than when they do. You might want to opt for a grouper-snapper trip instead, where the action is fast and you're just about certain to get a nice bag of fillets to carry home with you.