High-leaping Atlantic sails gather at the northern end of Sailfish Alley in early winter.

A walk down Fort Pierce docks reads like a Who’s Who list of sailfish chasers. You’ll see boats, and crews, from all over the state—Jax, St. Augustine, St. Pete, Tampa, Daytona Beach, Panama City—plus a few from other locales that voyaged long distances to berth here.

What’s more, every tale you’ve read in our pages in previous issues comes true when cool northerly winds push the main body of fish past the Cape and into town. Best yet, it’s all available for Florida trailer boaters within short striking distance daily—if you time it right, say November through early January.

Timing involves playing the cold fronts to your advantage. Rough seas and high winds mean little when you’re dragging baits behind a 50- or 60-footer. Head out in the average mid-20-foot center console and winter conditions take on new meaning. Not many of us care to rock and roll in chilly seas for fun. Planning your trips for calm days between fronts is the way to go. Chances are you’ll release plenty of sails without enduring any hardships.

Release Grounds

Billfish top the chart, on land and sea.

Finding hot sailfish waters takes a keen eye and attention to details. A series of reefs shadows the coastline in about 65 feet of water southeast of Fort Pierce Inlet. The coral heads attract bait and predators, particularly sailfish. Frequently, though, by late November water temps at the 65-foot depths run too chilly for sailfish comfort—once repeated fronts roll into town. When the temperature gauge dips into the low 70s, head out a little farther to the reefline between 120 and 150 feet of water. That’s where you’ll find the largest concentration of sails and bait.

Many days, an edge forms near the 120-foot reef (locals call it the 8-Mile), due to its proximity to the Gulf Stream. In winter, warm spinoffs from the Stream bring bait pods and sails closer to shore, so it pays to really watch the bottom machine for pods suspended in the water column. After locating these bait balls, stick close to them—especially if you mark larger, boomerang-shaped fish above, below or patrolling the outskirts of the bait pod. There’s a good probability that the fish you’re marking are sails, and in case you’re not familiar with spindlebeak ways, sails rarely travel alone. They’re more of a “pack” fish that hunt prey in small groups.

Natural bottom structures attract sailfish and so do the not-so-natural ones, such as artificial reefs and wrecks. Wrecks, by the way, can be very productive for sailfishers. The best seem to be smaller ones such as sunken boats or culverts with pronounced vertical relief resting on bottom in 100 to 200 feet of water. Florida Sportsman Fishing Chart No. 6, Fort Pierce/Stuart shows several excellent sailfish wrecks and reefs along with the layout of the land and reef contours off the coastline. As a general rule, good sailfish waters are about a 10- to 15-mile run from the inlet.

Sportfisher navigated Fort Pierce Inlet.

Sails sometimes reveal their whereabouts by surface activity. A north swell with northwest winds often prods sails to “tail” or surf downsea. Many times this occurs just shoreward of the western edge of the northerly flowing Gulf Stream, out of the hard-running current. It takes a trained eye to spot a sickle tail slicing down the face of a swell, but once you get dialed in, seeing tailers increases your chances of hookups significantly. Proven approaches for intercepting tailers include dragging a bait spread in front of a fish’s bill or tossing a pitchbait to fish.