Wherever you go in Stuart, Florida, there are references to Stuart being the "Sailfish Capital of the World." It got this title back in 1938 when Stuart News editor Ernie Lyons hosted half a dozen sports writers from major newspapers across the country and took them deep sea fishing. That week, fishing boats caught over 1,000 sailfish off Stuart, and one of those writers went back home and wrote an article giving the city that nickname, which the City of Stuart later adopted. And according to Ed Killer, a former outdoors columnist for the Stuart News, sailfish are still plentiful off Stuart. But not being a fisherman (or is it fishing person now?), all I want to know is what the difference is between a sailfish and a blue marlin, which Ernest Hemingway used to go after in the Gulf Stream off Key West and Havana. The answer: sailfish range in size from 6 to 11 feet and can weigh from 120 to 200 pounds, while blue marlins range from 10 to 14 feet in length and weigh from 200 to 1,500 pounds. Talk about a whole different kind of animal. The big question - are there blue marlins off the coast of Stuart? Yes, but they are deep-water fish that hang out in the Gulf Stream, 25 to 50 miles offshore. And if you want to come down to Stuart to go sailfish or blue marlin fishing, expect to pay a small fortune to charter a boat, especially if you are going after those blue marlin. I myself prefer to just hang out around the pier. And by the way, the sailfish statue in the photograph above is located at the entrance to downtown Stuart, created by artist Geoffry C. Smith and donated to the City of Stuart by Edward M. Sellian, Jr.
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