It was Tim’s birthday weekend and him and his family decided to take a trip to South Florida for a fun time and of course some good fishing! It was pouring all morning so Tim’s 8am trip had to be pushed back to noon. By the time we were all on the boat and out the inlet the majority of the rain had stopped and we had a slight drizzle but nothing that made the conditions unfishable. Despite the rain and cloudy skies we had smooth seas and happy faces.

Today’s goal was the catch tuna for Tim’s wife and hopefully a wahoo. As soon as we were in 100ft of water we put the spread out. Two planer reels in the rod holders with seawitches, a long shot and two rigged ballyhoos in the riggers. Within the first hour we caught a “bomber” sized bonito but then the bite seemed to shut down for the next 45 minutes. We thought about switching gears and bottom fishing but everyone voted to keep trying for Blackfin Tuna.

Shortly after that the left rigger bait went and off and almost simultaneously the right rigger as well. Both Tim and his son were fighting a fish. The first fish got to the boat quickly, a nice football sized Blackfin Tuna! Tim continued to fight his fish for another ten minutes. I knew at that point he had something good on. Once his fish was boat side, I looked down into the water and saw a 15lb Blackfin Tuna! Everyone was thrilled, it’s not everyday you catch a tuna that size! We stayed in the area and continued to catch more football sized tunas and bonitos. The next rod to go off was our long planer rod, the rod was bouncing like crazy and everyone got excited, shortly after we had the bite we lost the fish and we were bit off clean. Our wahoo got away…

In the last hour of the trip we decided it was time to start trolling home. On the way in the long rigger bait started screaming drag, the fish was taking so much line I was worried we were going to get spooled. We looked back and saw a sailfish jumping in the air. Emily started yelling, “It’s a sailfish. its a sailfish! Clear the spread!” With the help of our anglers, Emily and I cleared the spread and we quickly began to chase this fish down. Tim and his son took turns fighting the sail, after about 15 minutes I was able to touch the leader and made it an official “catch”. The next step was to grab the bill for some quick pictures and enjoy the moment. Once everyone had their chance at a picture we released the sailfish back into the water.

Everyone was ecstatic! It’s tradition to jump in the water after your first sailfish so thats exactly what Tim did! It was a great day for everyone. Happy Birthday Tim!

If you’re looking to do some offshore fishing in the Pompano Beach area give Gale Force Fishing a call and we will be happy to put you on the fish for some Family Fun Fishing!

Captain Emily Gale and Captain Amanda Gale

A Birthday Sailfish!