written by Evan Anderson

In this episode of Into the Blue, Captains Scott Walker and Steve Rodger meet up in Key Largo to do some wintertime sail-fishing, as well as to break in Walker’s new boat with a set of Yamaha XTO Offshore motors on the back. We’ll dive into some of their best practices for catching sailfish this time of year as well as how to properly break in a brand new motor.

LIVE BALLYHOO ARE KEY

Walker and Rodger get an early start to get ahead of the game and catch plenty of ballyhoo for the day, the most effective bait for catching sailfish in the wintertime. “We had to get up a little earlier to catch some ballyhoo because when the sailfish are here in the winter they’re chasing big schools of ballyhoo all over,” says Walker, “these fish are dialed in on ballyhoo. You’ve gotta match the hatch.”

The difficult part about using ballyhoo is that they are difficult to keep alive for very long, and you need them to be active enough that the movement will cause sailfish to go after them. “It’s nice to have two wells on your boat,” explains Rodger, “You can hair hook some (don’t touch them if you can avoid it) leave them in your back well, and then throw the cast net towards the end.” But he warns that the ballyhoo caught in your cast net will likely not last past midday, so use those first.

WATCH THE SAND

The main method for catching sailfish in the wintertime is still kite-fishing, which results in the best possible presentation of your bait. But don’t just motor from point A to point B without much thought, advocates Walker. “The beautiful thing about fishing in the Florida Keys is our white sand edge of the reef,” he explains, “It’s where the sailfish, dolphin, and all pelagics can roll in out of the deep, get a quick meal, and then shoot back out. So when we’re going from Point A to Point B, we’re not just running full speed. It’s just as beneficial to be in the tower and watch the sand. If you’re lucky, you’ll see a sailfish on his way in to find a ballyhoo.”

That’s exactly how it worked out for the two hosts who ended up hooking a sailfish that they’d seen over the sand 5 feet from the boat.

BREAKING IN A NEW MOTOR

Before they head out to catch their sailfish, Walker spends some time describing his process for breaking in the motors on his new Yellowfin. “The Yamaha 425’s are just absolute beasts,” he says with an excited smile, “they need to be taken care of just like anything else. Taking care of them starts with the proper break-in. The first day you’ve got to just tone it down, you gotta run her for an hour, 2,000 rpm’s. Grab the wife, the dog, and go for a boat ride up and down the Keys. And then the second hour has to be up to 4,000 rpm’s; and then after that you can let the big dogs eat.”