The angling feat seemed a bit incredible.

But when veteran Key West light tackle skipper Mike Weinhofer calls, you pay close attention.

A sailfish leaps while hooked up to an angler's line off the Florida Keys. (Photo by Andy Newman / Florida Keys News Bureau)

“Andy, we had a boat catch and release 50 sailfish today off Key West,” Mike told me.

“Mike, did I hear you right?” I said. “That’s 50, not 15. Right?”

Mike responded affirmatively.

To release 15 in a single day is amazing enough, but 50?

So I spoke to Tim Maddock of Pompano Beach, Fla., who was in Key West with his angling crew tuning up for the World Sailfish Championship that begins April 14. The contest is definitively not for the amateur. There’s a $1.6 million cash prize purse at stake.

Tim, who owns the Vitamin Sea Too, a 33-foot Contender, will fish the tournament with Mike Reisert, Chris Zidar, Jon Kreig, Chris Meek and Mike Dinnen.

It’s the same group that scored the 50 releases Thursday, April 9.

“The fish were just pouring through,” Tim told me. “We had 60 bites and caught 50 of them.”

Tim said he ran out of bait three times, borrowing each time from a nearby boat.

For certain, the 50 releases in a single day of fishing is a Florida Keys record. The previous Keys record was 37 sailfish releases in one day, achieved in May 2005 by Captain Marty Lewis on the Main Attraction while fishing off Marathon.

I tried to check if it was a state record, but the International Game Fish Association does not keep records for number of fish releases and no one was home at The Billfish Foundation, perhaps because of the Good Friday holiday.

I asked Tim if he had wished he could have waited to catch the 50 during next week’s tournament.

“Of course,” he said. “The World Sailfish tournament is in its seventh year and it’s never been won with more than 15 fish.

“Timing is everything,” Tim said.