Is it a sailboat or a sport fishing boat?
I love sails when it’s time to go from point A to point B and the wind is favorable, but let’s face it fellow cruisers, managing sails when you have a pissed off fish on the end of your line is a royal pain in the ass. So, in this section I address some work arounds and discuss strategies.
I also want to point out that when it comes to fishing, I am not normal compared to most cruisers. We take our boat out regularly just to fish. I love it, and Andi loves to eat fish, so we make it work!
When we purchased Fearless in July 2019, I considered myself a pretty decent fisherman. I grew up trolling from our sailboat and fishing off piers and breakwaters during New England summers, so I had grandiose dreams of catching a non-stop supply of fish from our new boat. What a laugh! Chasing pelagic fish from a sailboat proved to be the most frustrating task in the world for me…until I met Kevin Ferrie (www.livethevoyage.com). The second video above was taken on his boat. I am just off camera to the right trying to slow the screaming reel as a sailfish runs off with our bait. It’s not an understatement to say the Kevin completely re-characterized my approach to fishing, and taught me everything I thought I already knew. Kevin grew up near Merritt Island, FL and some of his childhood friends are now world champion tournament captains. He knows his stuff!! His wife, Stephanie (like me, from the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts) is the fish finder.
While Kevin was teaching me how to run a spread and rig natural baits, she was at the helm teaching Andi how to read bottom contours, weed lines, bird activity, and currents. Kevin will tell you with a big smile that there is a reason they don’t call fishing “catching.” There are a lot of details to which one must pay attention if you want to make the leap from dragging lures through the water to hooking, boating, and eating fish like Mahi, Wahoo, and Tuna.
After meeting up with Kevin, Stephanie, and their four amazing kids on SV Serendipity and cruising with them for four months, we went from Fishless to Fearless!
The video below was shot by our friends Brad and Teasy Cook on HangTime, a Fountaine-Pajot Saona 47. It lays out a lot of the strategy and set-up Kevin and Steph taught us. One of the big lessons Kev stresses is to be flexible. Start your day with a plan, then be willing to change baits and routes based on conditions and what the fish are hitting or not hitting. If nothing is working, CHANGE IT UP!!
