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Gorgeous day, wind was perfect at about 10 mph. We made it out further than we had before, a channel between two islands that had a ripping current and deep water. We'd been trolling every time we go out for a while, never had so much as a nibble. But we caught 3 fish that day, it was awesome! Yellowtail snapper, small tarpon, and in the picture a blue runner.

Woohoo! Congrats, nothing like fishing with your son. I've been out on a few "fishing sails" with a work buddy - who lives and breathes fishing - with some success. Some things we noted while trolling for stripers:

-Don't try to tack with the rig in the water - pull it in first, then tack/jibe, then go again. First time we tried tacking, my buddy wound up "catching" the centerboard.

-3-4 knots boat speed appears to be the sweet spot for trolling. Fish can't hear us, all they see is a lure swimming on past at reasonable baitfish speeds

-Most important, and here's where I think you guys lucked into the same situation we did - Fish like to feed at the drop-offs. Namely where there is a steep slope underwater. My local lakes are all dammed reservoirs (damNed too!), so there's various old creek-beds down at the bottom. We quickly figured out that the best trolling opportunities were along the old creeks, and we mapped them out. Makes for fun navigation for me, and good fishing for my work buddy. You probably had the same conditions in your channel between two islands. So check out the charts. You're in the Keys, right? Plenty of drop-offs.

All the best,

Tom