The Florida Factor: 365 Days Of Fishing

The Florida Factor: 365 Days Of Fishing

- Gary Reich

Without overgeneralizing, Florida’s citizenry and I generally don’t mix well. Whether it’s the drivers who blast down Interstate 95 at 100 mph, the people who show up at Chipotle in their pajamas to pick up dinner, or the owners of quad-engine center consoles who seem intent on running me over on my way out of the inlet, the Sunshine State’s way of doing things sometimes is more than my grumpy disposition can handle.

But then, there’s the fishing. As bitter cold set in earlier this year and the

Chesapeake iced over, I traveled to Miami to run Pursuit’s DC 365 dual console (look for a feature in the May issue of Soundings). On tap for the day was fishing over a complex of wreck sites and slow-trolling live baits for sailfish. As we loaded our gear and untied the lines, the crew reported a slow morning of fishing. “It’s too calm for good sailfish fishing,” our captain said.

We set up drifts over the wrecks, but the Gulf Stream was roaring, which made it difficult to get a good one. Pursuit had hired a photographer to go along with us, and he was in the water as we fished. “There’s a big current line over there,” he said. “I don’t see much else, though.” After about 10 drifts we moved farther south.