Sea-Doo, Snook, and Sailfish: The Ultimate Florida Fishing Experience

On the daily morning commute, as cars and trucks hustle up and down I-95, the sun kisses the North Atlantic Ocean east of Jupiter, Fla., illuminating a world of sunlit possibilities.

For many of the millions jammed onto the Florida peninsula, that daily opportunity is to realize fame and fortune in the playground and business world of the rich and famous. For others, it’s simply about beach time, golf, or a family day at the Magic Kingdom.

Florida’s Angling Adventures Await

But others seek a different experience when visiting Florida, hoping for a dreamy day of outdoor recreation that involves a rod and reel, or perhaps a fly rod, tools that open the door to a few hours spent casting lures, flies and bait at inshore species ranging from redfish and snook to tarpon and black-tipped sharks.

Given the wealth of Florida’s angling opportunities, it’s little wonder that a daily parade of big and little boats, kayaks, canoes, and Sea-Doo personal watercrafts make their way up and down I-95 too, ready to patrol shallow estuaries near Jupiter, Stuart, and other towns dotting the mainland around some of the country’s most famous inshore fishing spots like the legendary Mosquito Lagoon.

Trophy Snook Territory

Certainly, those areas—including the exclusive real estate and golf course country that lies adjacent to the Intercoastal Waterway north of Jupiter where I recently got to fish with the Sea-Doo team—have much to offer in terms of inshore fishing possibilities. Especially for huge snook that can weigh more than 25 pounds and put up a stellar fight when they are hooked by anglers visiting the region.

Jupiter, and nearby Stuart—the home of Florida Sportsman magazine—are arguably the nation’s top angling destinations for trophy-sized snook. After the weather and offshore winds scrubbed our Plan A to head for blue water, a Plan B option was quite intriguing as I flew into Palm Beach and soon climbed aboard a Sea-Doo FishPro Apex.

After all, who could be disappointed with a pivot like that? Chasing giant snook, casting lures and various baits at shadowy-looking spots near the estates and boat docks of waterfront homes in a region where celebrities such as Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, and others live.

The Gulf Stream’s Offshore Riches

But there’s another siren angling call in the Treasure Coast region along the eastern flank of the Florida peninsula, especially in the pelagic waters that lie nearby where the rich blue depths of the Gulf Stream make their closest approach to the state. As they do, the Gulf Stream brings a warm current of ocean water that is sometimes less than five miles away from the golf courses, opulent shopping spots, and sandy beaches near and north of the Palm Beach area.

That conveyor belt of tropical waters and aquatic life rolls by swiftly as the invisible Gulf Stream river pulses to the north and east, and as it does so, it brings a rich bounty of offshore angling possibilities with rod and reels and fly rods, action that includes all kinds of bucket list species including blackfin tuna, mahi-mahi, kingfish, bonitos, amberjacks, and more.

The pinnacle of Florida’s east coast offshore angler’s smorgasbord is the chance to hook up with a sailfish, anywhere from Fort Pierce in the north to Palm Beach in the south, the fabled “Sailfish Alley” where the warm, blue waters of the Gulf Stream swing close to the mainland and bring this spectacular billfish into waters ranging from hundreds of feet in depth to as shallow as 40 or 50-feet at certain times of the year.

Because of such close proximity to the glitz and glamour of some of the most exclusive real estate in the country, plying the Gulf Stream waters for sailfish is an integral part of angling culture around Palm Beach, with the Sailfish Club of Florida starting up in 1914 and the club's Invitational Gold Cup Team Tournament—scheduled for Jan. 27-31, 2026 —taking place every year since 1972 as sailfish anglers flood into the region.

No Yacht? No Problem.

As I recently discovered on my Sea-Doo adventure to Florida, you don’t have to book an expensive charter trip to the blue water, or own an ocean-going angling yacht that is priced like a mainland home. At least you don’t need any of that according to one adventurous angler who has made quite a name for herself in recent years chasing pelagic species like blackfin tuna, amberjack, and her favorite, the Atlantic sailfish, all without the six-figure or more ocean-going crafts that daily head out to sea from Jupiter and Palm Beach.

Sea-Doo Ambassador and Influencer: Bri Andrassy

That angler is Bri Andrassy, a professor of nursing at Palm Beach Atlantic University who lives in Jupiter with her husband Robbie. Andrassy—actually, Dr. Andrassy, that is—is a deeply talented and caring medical professional, regarded as a tough but fair educator who demands the very best of her students. While she regularly uses medicine and stethoscopes in her work, these tools are just one aspect of Andrassy's life. She is also a lifelong angler with a strong passion for Florida’s saltwater environments. After catching her first keeper-sized fish with a Mickey Mouse rod and reel at the age of three, Andrassy has been forever hooked on fishing and Florida’s waterfront lifestyle.

Andrassy is one of Sea-Doo's most popular Fish Pro Ambassadors, as I was about to see firsthand. The 28-year-old got her start in the deep water by chasing Florida's Atlantic sailfish years ago and when she first saw Sea-Doo's Fish Pro model, there were quick dreams for Andrassy to up her pelagic angling game. After getting her first Sea-Doo, she has gone on to become an expert utilizing the personal watercrafts and catching fish from them, using her FishPro Trophy model to head offshore as often as her schedule will allow.

Andrassy routinely finds herself offshore during the warmer months of spring, summer, and fall when she isn’t teaching. But even in what passes for wintertime in Florida, she will put on waterproof bibs, an extra sun shirt hoodie, waterproof footwear, and sunscreen to head off the coastline to battle Florida’s legendary sailfish. Just the other day, Andrassy was offshore on a bright, sunny day with limited chop on the Atlantic’s surface as she headed offshore with Alex Sanville, a bass fishing pro who is a new member of the Sea-Doo FishPro Ambassador team. On a balmy winter day, the Sea-Doo team of two headed for the blue water on their FishPro Trophy models and eventually found some saltwater angling adventure.

Before the day was done, several species had been caught, including kingfish, the chief ingredient for Andrassy’s famed smoked fish dip. However, it wasn’t just the dinner table that was calling her attention that day. Andrassy also focused on sailfish conservation, doing what she does best in Atlantic waters. Back in 2021, she became the first woman to catch a marlin from a kayak, landing a 200-pound striped marlin after a battle lasting more than four hours in Mexico’s Magdalena Bay, just offshore from San Carlos.

This time, on a chamber of commerce day in Florida’s Atlantic waters, Andrassy didn’t catch a marlin, but she did achieve yet another billfish catch of the beautiful Atlantic sailfish that swim the Gulf Stream waters near her Jupiter home.

"We are hooked up on a sail!" beamed Andrassy as the rod bent and line disappeared from her reel in screaming fashion. "Whoo-hoo, this is the best feeling in the world! He’s really putting on a show!"

After a lengthy battle, the sizable sailfish—one of the Creator’s most beautiful aquatic critters—was boatside as Sanville brought his Sea-Doo alongside Andrassy and put in place an orange tag that will help fisheries biologists continue to figure out the pelagic world of sailfish and how to ensure that these magnificent creatures provide angling thrills for decades to come.

Fishing with Friends and the Sea-Doo Advantage

While I was in Florida and got to fish with Andrassy—and others including veteran Miami Herald outdoors writer Steve Waters, Georgia Outdoor News writer and editor Braelin Smallwood, and Sea-Doo’s Tim Olson to name a few—her passion for sailfish and blackfin tuna was obvious, even if the heavy winds and big swells offshore kept us from venturing out to the Gulf Stream.

But there was no such weather a few days ago just after Christmas as Andrassy landed one of the countless sailfish she has caught and released over the years.

“This catch was a wild one!,” she said on her recent YouTube video with a huge smile. “Sailfish are my favorite to target; this lassoed one made me chase it three times before we got a tag in.”

While the billfish battle took a good while, Andrassy and Sanville’s Sea-Doo models were well equipped to manage everything the sailfish and the ocean voyage could bring their way, including having to hit the electric starter multiple times and chase the fish down to land it quickly before any unwanted sharks showed up.

With a total of five fishing rod holders, a Garmin fish finder and GPS unit, a spacious bench seat, a built-in trolling mode and gunwale footrests, the 17-foot Sea-Doo is tailor-made for serious inshore and offshore fishing performance. Or, if you want to take the day off from serious angling and go diving or swimming instead, this highly versatile personal watercraft and its ST3 hull design, 70-liter fuel capacity, and 170 hp Rotax engine is capable of everything from shallow water fishing for snook to sailfish offshore to even crossing from Florida over to the Bahamas as Andrassy likes to do on occasion with her Sea-Doo pro staff pals.

My Florida Sea-Doo Experience

In my trip to Florida, I didn’t catch any sailfish, blackfin tuna, or even a trophy-sized snook as I sampled what the Sea-Doo FishPro Apex and the company’s Switch Cruise pontoon boat could do in waters not far from the famed Jupiter lighthouse. But I’m the king of catching little fish that I have to look up to identify and there was ample opportunity to do that as I hit the Florida salt. I even found out that not only does the Sea-Doo FishPro personal watercraft excel at inshore and offshore adventures, but it also has the ability to carefully move slowly into a collection of mangroves where a saltwater Zara Spook with multiple treble hooks is buried up after an errant cast.

How did the Sea-Doo PWC perform as I went deep into the mangroves to do some surgery of my own and retrieve a favored topwater plug? Well, let’s just say that I got the lure back, as well as another one that the same mangrove had captured from another angler.

And while I didn’t get that big trophy snook I’m forever chasing after, nor a sailfish or blackfin tuna that I’ve often dreamed of catching, it wasn’t because of the Sea-Doo platform I rode aboard during my time in eastern Florida.

My only problem? I never could figure out a way to get the Sea-Doo in my carry-on luggage and back home to North Texas.

But then that’s just another reason to head back east once again, and maybe this time, the winds will cooperate and Dr. Andrassy can teach a Texas angling wannabe about how to catch a deep sounding sailfish out on the ocean blue.

Florida Gulf Stream, I’ll see you soon.

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