Sailfish single day catch records being broken in the Florida Keys with up to 76 sailfish released in a single day

Absolutely incredible sailfishing going on in the Florida Keys especially around Islamorada. April 2020 will be remembered as one of the absolute best sailfishing months ever witnessed anywhere in the world. Not just one single day or one week of great fishing, but almost the entire month of April has been insane!

Usually sight fishing for sailfish in the Florida Keys happens when the gulf stream current pushes inside of the outer reef and the wind adds to the current so the sailfish get up into the waves where they ride them to conserve energy.  They swim right at the surface in the waves with the top of their tails sticking out. 

When sailfish tail like this in the waves they can still be hard to see as they blend into the blue offshore waters very well. But the Florida Keys has special conditions that allow very effective sight fishing for these tailing sailfish. Inside the reef there are white sandy channels that run between the reefs and along the inside of them. This white sand turns the water to a powder blue. And when the darker sailfish swim in this powder blue water you can easily spot them to cast a live bait in front of their bills.

Powder blue water in the Keys happens in water as shallow as 15 ft out to 60 ft of water and some areas even to 90 ft of water.  Deeper than that the reefs overtake the sand bottom which turns the water the well known dark offshore blue color and the sailfish are harder to spot unlike in the powder blue water.

Powder blue water with tailing sailfish in the picture below to show how the dark sailfish show up in the light blue water.

April and May are the best months for sailfish tailing conditions in the Florida Keys

Most years a few days in April or May have perfect conditions for great sight fishing for tailing sailfish in the Florida Keys. This year however most of April has been incredible for sailfishing with fantastic tailing conditions where the wind and current current worked perfectly together.

April started out with some boats getting great catches of sailfish with many boats getting double digit releases.  One boat this early April released 46 sailfish which was incredible. But the conditions were about to get epic.

Easter Sunday the conditions were perfect, Main One caught and released 70 sailfish in a single day.

Easter Sunday on April 12th the conditions were perfect. The Main Attraction fishing crew were ready as they were anticipating some great conditions. That Sunday Main Attraction crew caught and released 70 sailfish in a single day! Breaking the Florida Keys single day sailfish catch total that used to stand at 65. Now after this incredible day the new Florida Keys release record jumped to 70 releases in a single day!

Main Attraction crew catches 46 sailfish the next day bringing their two day total to 116 sailfish releases

The perfect Florida Keys sailfishing conditions continued and the Main Attraction crew went out the next day and caught 46 more sailfish. Bringing their two day total to 116 sailfish.

Other boats went out and had a spectacular day as well, many boats in double digits all the way up to releases of 50 + sailfish in a single day.

Main Attraction fishing crew kept the streak going and caught 30 more sailfish on day 3 for a total of 146 sailfish in 3 days

As the conditions were still great, the Main Attraction fishing crew went back out after the sails. They caught 30 more sailfish on day 3. Bringing their 3 day streak to 146 sailfish caught and released!

Again other boats went out and caught huge numbers as well but the Main Attraction fishing crew definatly stole the show with their 3 day total after starting Day one on Easter Sunday with their record breaking single day catch total of 70 sailfish releases. 

April 22nd Main One caught 51 more sailfish in the Florida Keys

From April 15th to April 21st the sailfishing was good but not as good as it was the week before. Some boats were racking up 10 to 20 releases in a single day. With the highest reported daily total in that week being 36 as the largest single day total between the days from April 15th to 21st.

Then April 22nd the conditions became perfect again. The Main One went out and caught another 51 sailfish. Adding to there amazing catch and release totals for the year, and an unbelievable total for the month of April alone.

But one fishing team did the unthinkable…

Then the unbelievable happened.

The single day catch record for the Florida Keys of 70 sailfish caught and released set on April 12th by the Main Attraction crew was broken 10 days later on April 22nd 2020 by team Vice Versa Fishing Team with 76 sailfish released in a single day.

They crushed the newest record of 70 releases that everyone thought would stand for years. But instead that record only lasted 10 days. Fishing off of their Freeman Boatworks 42 LR they expertly sight fished the tailing sailfish in the powder blue water casting live bait on spinning rods to schools of sailfish catching and releasing 76 sailfish in a single day while fishing in the Florida Keys. The spinning rods were rigged with 40 to 60 lb floro and 6/0 circle hooks.

Also on April 22nd Team Shaka released 40 sailfish and they had an even better day out on the 23rd as well.

The incredible tailing conditions continued for a few more days with boats racking up huge numbers from April 21st to April 25th.

Team Shaka caught 40 sailfish on April 22nd and 64 sailfish on April 23rd out of Islamorada Florida

The incredible tailing conditions continued for a few more days with boats racking up huge numbers from April 21st to April 25th. Team Shaka caught an incredible 64 sailfish on April 23rd. Bringing their two day streak to 104 sailfish.

April 24th Bar South released 41 sailfish. And “Catchalottafish” out of World Wide Sportsman in Islamorada with Capt. Ross DeMarzo released another 43 sailfish.

This is some absolutely incredible fishing to have such insane sailfish releases with numbers as high as these over the course of almost the entire month of April. Sailfishing in the Florida Keys through the whole month of April 2020 will be remembered for a long time!

Amazing sailfishing in the Florida Keys continued to the end of April

Fishing Boat “Reel Easy” caught and released 41 sailfish on April 28th continuing the amazing sailfishing all the way through April.

April 2020 will be remembered for a long time for those who were lucky enough to be able to fish in the Florida Keys.  As the Florida Keys are shut down due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus no one who does not live there has been let into the island chain. But for those lucky ones that were able to get out fishing in April of 2020 will remember how amazing it was, but also how strange it was not being able to run any charter fishing trips due to the social distancing rules.

Over 300 sailfish caught by Main Attraction in the month of April 2020 in the Florida Keys

April 28th the Main Attraction caught another 17 sailfish bringing their incredible month total to 287 sailfish. So the last day of April they went back out to see if they could break 300.

April 29th they worked hard and caught another 15 sailfish bringing their total for the month of April to 302 sailfish. One incredible feat that will be nearly impossible to beat.

Although their Florida Keys single day sailfish catch record of 70 set on Easter Sunday was broken by Fishing Team Visa Versa 10 days later with 76 sailfish released. So they may not hold the single day sailfish release record anymore. But it will likely be a long time before their month of April catch record is broken. 302 sailfish caught and released in a single month is other worldly!

Florida record for most sailfish releases in a single day is 83 set in 1980 off West Palm Beach aboard the Elbo 7 a 53 ft Monterey

The previous Florida Keys sailfish release record of 65 sailfish set on May 23rd 2018 aboard the 39 SeaVee named Silent Hunter. Was broken with 70 sailfish caught and released on April 12th 2020 by the Main Attraction fishing crew. Only to be broken again 10 days later on April 22nd 2020 with 76 sailfish caught and released by team Vice Versa Fishing.

But if that is the Florida Keys record what is the Florida record and not just the Florida Keys record?

The Florida record for most sailfish caught in a single day was accomplished on Feb 3rd 1980 by the boat Elbo 7 while fishing out of West Palm Beach Florida. The Elbo 7 was a 53 ft Monterey sport fishing boat and the West Palm Beach Fishing Club has all the archived information about Elbo 7 catching the astonishing 83 sailfish in a single day.