Thanks to The Weekly Fisherman for this report
36 Sailfish Caught in One Day of Keys Fishing
Captain Marty Lewis and mate Jamie Platt, of the charter boat MAIN ATTRACTION out of Key Colony Beach Marina and their anglers Rich Sloan of Ft. Lauderdale, Bruce Connolly of Ft. Lauderdale and National Marine Fisheries representative, Derke Snodgrass caught and released 36 sailfish Tuesday, May 10th, 2005.

The group’s 36 sailfish releases is the highest single day total that anyone contacted by our publication, or the MAIN ATTRACTION crew can remember in south Florida history. Moreover, as of press time it is not perfectly clear whether or not there is any official record keeping regarding released sailfish in Florida. However, many calls were made to top charter boat fishermen in the state, and using that as official criteria, Captain Lewis and crew’s catch is the highest single day mark. Captain John Dudas of the L&H charter boat out of Miami reportedly caught 35 sails on a single day.

“There were a lot of fish out there. I think when I was younger I might have had a day where I saw more fish, but this is definitely the most, by far that we’ve ever hooked up. Also, this is the most I’ve ever seen this time of year. I think we went 36 for 40, maybe 39, it was really hard to count when fishing was as hot as it was today. It was a great day, and we couldn’t have done it without the crew we had, everyone did a great job. Captain Marty and his mate, Jamie Platt are always one of the top producers of sailfish catches in the Keys. Not long ago, perhaps last year, maybe 2003 the guys came back to the docks flying 25 sailfish release flags! Consistently, the MAIN ATTRACTION crew is amongst the top producing charter boats in the Keys, or for that matter in the entire state. “We’ve been fishing with Marty and Jamie for five years, at least three times a year. We always fish the Leon Shell tournament with them, plus numerous other days. These guys work, and fish hard! They take their profession serious, and I’ve learned, when Marty says we should do a particular type of fishing, we do it. When we got in town and he said we should sailfish today, we went sailfishing,” Angler Bruce Connolly. “It was Bruce’s Birthday today, and what a great day it was, we must have seen at least 75 sailfish. From 8:30AM until we pulled the lines out at around 4:30PM we had sailfish behind the boat. We didn’t have time to hardly eat a sandwich! It was really non-stop action, and I credit that to the how hard these guys work,” Angler Rich Sloan.

National Marine Fisheries biologist Derke J.G. Snodgrass was aboard to take place in a satellite tagging program, and what a day he had. “We tagged multiple fish with the latest in technology, satellite tags. These satellite tags transmit data on light, depth and sea tempature every 30 seconds for 120 days. After the 120th day the tags pop off the fish and transmit the data back to us at NMFS. We also tagged many fish today with the traditional tags that get recorded when someone else catches the fish and reports the tag to us.” Derke and several other biologists are in the Keys this week tagging fish. “We called Captain Jim Sharpe of the SEA BOOTS charter boat out of Summerland, Key in on the fish, and helped them get a couple fish tagged,” Capt. Lewis.

Captain Lewis, like all good fishermen was a little reluctant to say exactly where he found the large body of fish. However, he did indicate that they fished west of Marathon between American Shoal and Sand Key Lighthouse. Now for those of you familiar with Key’s waters, that’s a big spread, but it’s safe to say the sailfishing was good throughout the Lower Keys. Moreover, along with the SEA BOOTS charter boat out of Summerland, Key, Captain Steve Rodger on the SPEAR ONE charter boat out of Murray’s Marina in Key West reportedly caught and released at least 18 sails.

Congratulations boys, pretty work!