These Anglers Thriving Outside Their Fishing Comfort Zone

MIAMI _ Recovering from his disappointment at the demise of the Billfish Xtreme Release League circuit last year, Miami’s Rob Ruwitch competed in the offshore division of last week’s Keymorada Fishing Tournament in Islamorada.

Ruwitch, 43, finished in the runner-up position behind Fort Lauderdale’s Mitch Howell. Howell, an accomplished back country angler, released three redfish, three permit, three bonefish, a snook, and a bull shark to take grand champion honors in the two-day contest. Ruwitch released four permit, two sailfish and weighed a 29-pound blackfin tuna.

For Ruwitch, who competes on the No Mercy/Contender team in local billfish tournaments, fishing in the Keys with Islamorada offshore captains Steve Leopold and Alex Adler opened some new horizons: He experienced the traditional Upper Keys slow-trolled bally hoo method of sailfishing and caught his first of several permit on the 80-foot-deep Eagle wreck.

“This permit deal on the wreck is (good),” Ruwitch told Adler in wide-eyed wonder. “This is just a cool fishery.”

Ruwitch actually caught and released 14 permit in two days of fishing, but under tournament rules, he could only count two fish per species per day. By the tournament’s second and final day, after having already boated the tuna and let two sailfish go, he wasn’t sure he was ready to tangle with another formidable permit.

“I don’t wanna 40-pounder, dude,” he cautioned Adler, as the captain climbed up to his sportfisher’s tuna tower. “You’re gonna kill me.”

Adler ignored him, spotted the spawning permit just below the surface around the wreck, and directed him and fishing partner Chris Wolchak where to cast their live crabs. Both hooked up and performed the familiar cockpit shuffle dance of fighting fish while trying not to tangle lines, guided by mate Gunner Guthrie.

After a fight of about 10 minutes, both brought their fish to boatside. Neither permit looked 40 pounds, but easily weighed upwards of 20.

By permit time, it had already been quite an afternoon. Armed with only a handful of threadfin herring and not too many more netted bally hoo, the crew of Kalex never got a fish in the boat until about 1:30 p.m. But that first fish was a sailfish which ate a threadfin hanging from a kite in 140 feet of water north of Alligator Reef light.

Adler said he became accustomed to kite fishing this past winter because it was more productive than the traditional Keys method of slow-trolling or pitching live bally hoo to sailfish on the reef.

“We had a lot of calm weather and the fish were in deep water,” Adler explained. “We needed friskier baits than a bally hoo on the surface to be productive. A bally hoo is a dormant bait compared to a sardine or pilchard or herring.”

At midafternoon, the 29-pound blackfin ate another kite-baited, non-dormant threadfin, leaping clean out of the water to ensure it engulfed the shiny herring. But the second and final sailfish behaved true to Keys form and devoured a bally hoo swimming off the right short outrigger.

“Let him eat! Let him eat it!” Adler directed Ruwitch.

Although not accustomed to this style of fishing, Ruwitch was highly experienced in feeding reluctant sailfish which, at first, may mouth a live bait without actually devouring it. So he had no problem following directions. When Adler was satisfied that the sail had committed itself, he commanded, “Wind! Wind! Get it tight!”

Ruwitch complied, and brought the fish to boatside for a legal release a few moments later. He roared with happiness.

“How `bout that?” he said joyfully. “I’ve caught a bazillion of them and I still get excited.

“It was a traditional Keys live bally hoo bite!”

Ruwitch and Adler had operated somewhat outside their comfort zones that day, but to the betterment of both. Their ability to change up and do what works instead of following old habits is a textbook illustration of the old angling axiom that 10 percent of fishermen catch 90 percent of the fish.

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(c) 2008, The Miami Herald.

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ISLAMORADA

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