You’ll find anglers on bridges and beaches, bait shops open long before dawn, big tackle stores that carry enough gear to outfit a fleet of sport-fishers, and a line-up of fishing tournaments year-round. Numbers tell the story, too.

Jacksonville has the highest rate, per capita, of fishing license holders of the four biggest Florida metropolitan areas. That beats Tampa-St. Pete, Orlando, and Miami-Fort Lauderdale. Jacksonville takes the crown for the hardest-fishing big city in Florida.

The region’s rivers, maze-like marshes, bays, the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), jetties, beaches, and offshore grounds form a network of waters unlike any other in Florida. Two spring scenarios to target are shallow-water redfish and trout, and offshore, schools of migrating dolphin swarming at the Ledge.

Catch Seatrout and Redfish in Jacksonville

Big tides breathe life into Jacksonville’s extensive marsh-and-creek system.

“We have a 5-foot tidal swing, on average, every 6 hours, so the locations to fish are constantly changing,” says Capt. Buzz Brannon, who’s guided anglers in Jacksonville for more than two decades.  He runs an 18-foot Beavertail Vengeance in the shallows, stalking reds, trout, flounder, and other species on spin and fly. One of his favorite bites is for “hillbilly bonefish,” what some folks call redfish when they get them in the grass on big tides, he says.

For seatrout, Brannon likes dusk and dawn, low-light times. In the spring, when the finger mullet show up, both trout and redfish take topwater lures. “Anything with a hard edge along the St. Johns will be holding mullet,” he says.

Fishing the city’s infrastructure — bridges, docks, seawalls, and industrial installations along the water (where legally accessible) — produces a variety of species. Both natural and manmade habitats hold good fish in Jacksonville, one of the city’s many surprises for visiting anglers.

It’s been the best year of redfishing Brannon has seen for quite some time. In 2012, an increase in the redfish bag limit to 2 fish per person took a toll on the redfish. In September 2022, the bag limit was lowered back to one redfish per person, and since then, the fishing has been steadily improving, Brannon says.

The nourishment of those rich waters flowing in the St. Johns generates and draws abundant life to the nearshore and offshore waters, including a pelagic fishery that’s been a standout hotspot in recent years— the Ledge.

Big Dolphin off Jacksonville

About 55 to 65 miles off Jacksonville, depending on the marina’s location, the continental shelf slopes down from 120-foot depths and then drops off to 175 feet deep — the Ledge. The Gulf Stream runs nearby, and when its warm waters or any of its warm eddies circulate over the Ledge’s structure, prey, and predators get drawn into those dynamic flows. In winter, these waters hold good numbers of big wahoo, ranging up to 70 and 100 pounds, often caught high-speed trolling and more recently, Capt. Tim Altman of Hoodoo Charters says, by live-baiting.

“Guys are having incredible days for wahoo at the Ledge slow-trolling live baits like blue runners and bonito,” says Altman, a multiple-time wahoo tournament winner and a fanatic for those fish.

Capt. Altman runs 11-hour charter trips to the Ledge for pelagics including wahoo and dolphin aboard his Saltwater Challenge, a 36-foot Contender with triple Mercurys. In April, the game switches to catching big dolphin.

“We’ve crushed it the last few years for big dolphin at the Ledge, lots of them,” he says. “We’ll start going out for them between April 12 and 15, and the biggest fish are early in the year. We get a good month and a half of solid dolphin fishing.”

His good news about dolphin fishing may surprise people who’ve heard about a lack of fish in recent years around South Florida and the Keys.

“I’m aware that South Florida has seen a real decline in their dolphin fishing, especially around Key West, Marathon, and Miami. I can’t explain the difference in Northeast and South Florida fishing,” Altman says. “The old-school guys say the migratory pattern for yellowfin tuna has changed, so maybe that’s the case with dolphin, too, or maybe the currents have changed.”

Dolphin at the Ledge

Altman and his crew leave his Amelia Island marina at 5 a.m. and head out to the Ledge for an 11-hour trip. He’ll check RipCharts on his phone and screenshot the image of the temperature breaks at the Ledge. On his Simrad he also has SirrusXM weather for sea surface temperature readings offshore. He’s looking for temperature breaks with ocean water temps 76 degrees and warmer, weed lines, and edges.

“During dolphin season, as we get near the Ledge, I’ll put out small Nomads or a horse ballyhoo skirted with an Ilander on a planer with wire to target wahoo. Beyond the Ledge, we’ll run everything on the surface.

“Some days skirted stuff works, but I don’t believe there’s anything more effective for dolphin than a properly rigged, chin-weighted, split-bill ballyhoo,” he says. “When you see that big dolphin coming, or if you get a hit, you free spool it for 15 to 25 seconds, and I’m telling you that works.”

The dolphin come through in packs, and between times Altman and crew can also bottom fish for triggers, snapper, grouper, or whatever’s in season. They’ll likely have sardines in the livewell and they’ll chum dolphin by their boat with cuttlefish or squid, keeping a lookout, ready to throw a live bait to any big fish coming to the boat.

“You’ve got to be ready for those big fish. You’ll have a bunch of schoolies, the boat’s kicked out of gear and you’re live-baiting. The fish get all around you. Then you’ll see the dolphin scatter and that’s indicative of a shark or a big dolphin coming in to tear them up. I’ll tell you it’s incredible when you see that big dolphin coming through the water to you. Man, that’s fun.”

Jacksonville Florida Fishing Captains

• Capt. Tim Altman, Hoodoo Charters, (904) 859-6314, www.hoodoocharters.com
• Capt. Buzz Brannon, Northeast Florida Angling, (904) 570-7878, www.northeastfloridaangling.com

Bait Stores

•             B & M Bait & Tackle, Jacksonville, (904) 249-3933
•             Brown’s Creek Bait & Tackle, Jacksonville, (904) 757-1600
•             FishBites Trading Post, St. Augustine, (904) 217-8012

Note: Special thanks to the FWC and its licensing department for the analysis of its data on fishing license holders by municipality across the entire state of Florida.

The post The Hardest-Fishing City in Florida appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

It was a first-time trip tapping Mexico’s famed Cabo San Lucas offshore fishing for Randy Romero and his wife Araceli. From a Cabo resort they booked a last-minute half-day charter on Aug. 17 through Pacific Time Sports Fishing. And on Aug. 18 they headed offshore with Capt. Jose Gonzalez and his mating son Juan on their boat the La Patrona.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” said Romero, age 30, from Milton-Freewater, Oregon, located east of Portland. “I’d never been there previously, and Araceli had never even been on a boat.”

But off they went, trolling for dolphin and billfish about 10 miles offshore. Late in trip they were heading back to the marina when they spotted a dolphin jump out of the water.

“We headed that way, and when we got to where we saw the fish leaped we had a strike from a big dolphin,” says Romero. “The fish started jumping, and running, and I started cranking on my reel.”

The more it jumped the more excited the boat crew got as they realized it was a giant of a dolphin, or dorado.

“They started calling it a dinosaur fish,” he added. “They called other boats on the radio, and they all started chiming in about the dinosaur fish we had on. It was wild and incredibly exciting.”

Romero fought the fish nearly 30 minutes, with the dolphin jumping repeatedly. Finally, they got close to their prize, and Juan gaffed it and brought it aboard.

“We all started high-fiving and jumping up and down,” he continued. “Capt. Jose said it’s biggest dorado he’s seen in 8 years chartering at Cabo – a real dinosaur catch, he said.”

The fishing fleet and marina were well aware of their catch, and a cluster of boats followed the La Patrona back to the marina to witness the weighing and congratulate the anglers and boat crew.

At the dock the fish measured 68-inches long, and weighed just a few ounces shy of 81-pounds. Randy’s fish is in a rare category of dolphin weighing over 80-pounds, with only a few IGFA fish recorded at better than 80-pounds.

The IGFA All-Tackle World Record dolphin is 87-pounds, caught in Costa Rica in 1976 by angler Manuel Salazar. That fish measured 69.50 inches in length. It’s less than two inches longer than Randy’s 68-inch dolphin from Cabo.

Only four other dolphin weighing over 80 pounds are in the IGFA records book. So Randy’s catch is in rare company.

To top off their Cabo fishing day, Araceli Romero delighted in battling a striped marlin, but losing it right at the boat.

“We had a great day with a beautiful sunrise, fun captain and crew,” said Randy. “When we first started fishing that day Araceli was getting seasick. Then we caught the dolphin and she forgot all about it. Then she fought her marlin, and never mentioned being ill again.

“We can’t wait to go fishing again, and Araceli is ready to go.”

The post A Near-World Record Dolphin appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Offshore anglers should be prepared for significant changes to the federal regulations governing the taking of dolphinfish along the East Coast. That’s the word from Chris Burrows, chairman of the Dolphin/Wahoo Advisory Panel for the South Atlantic Marine Fishery Council.

Burrows has served on the federal council’s dolphin advisory panel for over a decade, and a meeting he attended in Charleston was eye-opening in the impacts Carolina dolphin anglers and others may face in the future.

He says two important proposed changes are on tap. One is that the 20-inch minimum size for dolphinfish could be extended south of the border of North and South Carolina, perhaps expanding to the entire East Coast of the Atlantic, including Maine where some fish are being caught these days.

The second important change the federal council may impose is a reduction in dolphin limits for individuals or for per boat harvest.

Burrows states in Carolina Sportsman that nearly 80 percent of U.S. East Coast dolphin are caught in Florida (65 percent) or North Carolina (23 percent). A dozen other East Coast states make up the remaining 20 percent of the annual dolphin catch.

Florida already has a 20-inch minimum size limit on federal-waters-caught dolphin. But the state’s close proximity to bluewater and expansive weedlines in the Gulf Stream are much more available to Florida anglers than for fishermen in other states, says Burrows.

“Expanding the (dolphinfish) size limit north may be well-intentioned,” says Burrows. “But I think it would do far more harm to charter boat anglers and the recreational experience in general than it would result in a benefit to the dolphin population.”

Burrows contends that North Carolina charter boats and recreational fishermen target smaller dolphin in summer when they’re prolific.

“This is the bread and butter of the charter fleet at the Outer Banks in July and August,” he contends. “More restrictive measures on what they can bring home will almost certainly mean reduced bookings. This in turn hurts hotels, restaurants, and other businesses in a tourism-based economy.”

Dolphin size restrictions will result in anglers culling, or releasing smaller dolphin, to upgrade to larger fish to keep. Burrows doesn’t know what the mortality rate of released dolphin is, but he believes it’s possible that more fish could be killed by the process than preserved.

He notes that dolphin are one of the fastest growing fish in the ocean and that they can spawn at 18 inches in size. Further, he states that dolphin have a 99 percent mortality rate in their first year of life.

Scientists also know that dolphin are comparatively short-lived, with fish over 5-years old rare to the species.

Bag limits on dolphin have been self-imposed by Outer Banks charter captains for years, with 10 fish per person dolphin limits deemed responsible for those tapping the fishery.

Burrows believes commercial long-line fishing operations have the potential to be most devastating to dolphin stocks along the Atlantic Coast. With current tight restrictions on longlining for sharks, tuna, billfish and other species, and with commercial bottomfishing also highly regulated, dolphin seem to be the most obvious target for commercial boats now.

“With basic longline gear, a basic commercial license, and a $50 operator’s card, anyone can longline dolphin,” states Burrows. “It is hard to find a weedline in May that doesn’t have longline gear set next to it.”

Burrows believes this has hurt the population of large dolphin and impacted the best fish for spawning. It’s also hurts Carolina charter fishermen.

“In 2015, for the first time in history, the commercial Annual Catch Limit for dolphin was met in June, which ended that fishery for the year,” Burrows continues. “Subsequent years have come close to the same levels.

“A limited and regulated longline fishery won’t hurt the stocks of these fish or the recreational fishery. But having it accessible to too many boats certainly can.”

The post Changes In Dolphin Fishing Regulations Coming To The Atlantic Coast appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Thirty miles off Oregon Inlet, North Carolina, trolling down a weed line in a 50-foot sportfish, we ambushed a pack of big dolphin. The fish attacked our spread, leaping out of the water, slashing behind a skipping bait, greyhounding from one side of the spread to the other.

With outrigger pins popping, rods bending over and lines coming tight, mate William Howell called anglers out of the cabin while Capt. Jason Snead put the teal-green Dream Girl into a tight turn.

Once all the rods were heaving with big fish and the reels losing line, Howell instructed the anglers to grab a gimbal belt and a fishing rod. Snead kept the boat idling forward while the anglers worked their fish to the boat.

Big dolphin don’t come easy. The broad green-and-blue fish streaked side to side and leaped into the air, frantic to escape. The anglers labored over their reels while captain and mate orchestrated a line dance with anglers shuffling around the cockpit to stay untangled.

In short order, Howell handlined each mahi close to the boat, gaffing it and swinging it into the fish box. As the anglers shared high-fives and back slaps, Howell deployed the lines and Snead bumped the boat back to trolling speed. Dream Girl lurched and rolled over waves and troughs and all eyes searched the sea to find the next weed line.

Dolphin Season

This scene played out a few years ago. Today, Howell runs his own boat, Drifter. I caught up with him in late spring as he prepared for another season of dolphin fishing.

Howell expects bigger fish to show up off Oregon Inlet in April and hang out all summer. From mid-summer to early fall, the bulls move north. Between June and September, anglers from Virginia to New Jersey see their best big-dolphin action.

At least that’s how it’s supposed to go. The last few years, anglers have seen fewer big dolphin in early summer. So, when the sargassum weed lines up and the dolphin are on the feed, anglers need to be ready to make the most of the opportunity.

Finding Mahi

Howell generally hunts dolphin from 20 fathoms to the edge of the continental shelf. But to find big fish, Howell depends on sea-surface-temperature charts. “Water temperature is more important than depth,” he says. He looks for a substantial change in water temperature and color.

Once the boat crosses the change, Howell searches for floating sargassum that serves as a dolphin oasis. According to Howell, ideal conditions include a southwest wind blowing the weed against the edge of the Gulf Stream current.

Farther up the coast, anglers fishing off mid-Atlantic states don’t have the reliable Gulf Stream current found off Hatteras. Instead, they look for less significant changes in water temperature, clarity, altimetry and plankton levels that help amass sargassum and floating flotsam, which hold dolphin.

Once Howell finds the weed line, he slows the boat to 6 knots and puts out four rods. “I keep the spread limited to four rods to reduce tangles and keep the fish focused,” he says.

Big dolphin play like puppies in a dog park. Fewer baits in the water keep the dolphin on target and improve the chances for a good bite. If a dolphin hits a lure and misses, though, pull the ravaged hook out of the water and drop a fresh bait back.

Rigging a naked, unweighted skipping ballyhoo takes just a few minutes. In this video, the author walks you through the basic procedure.

Tackle and Rigging

Howell targets bulls with a quiver of 20-pound trolling rods paired with lever-drag reels spooled with 30-pound monofilament. To the end of the line, he ties a Bimini-to-no-name-knot connection to attach a 24-foot length of 80-pound mono and ties a 250-pound snap swivel to the end. For the leader, he ties a surgeon’s loop at the end of a 5-foot piece of 50-pound monofilament and terminates that with a 7/0, short-shank, thin-wire J-hook. Slip the surgeon’s loop into the snap swivel to complete the rig.

To add the bait, select a small ballyhoo, thaw it in saltwater and remove the eyes. Squeeze the bait and break its back. Take a 12-inch piece of copper rigging wire and thread one inch of it through the hook eye. Wrap that short end around the hook shank, leaving the remaining 11 inches of wire as a long tag end.

Hold the ballyhoo upside down and insert the point of the hook into the base of the gills. Thread the ballyhoo onto the hook as if threading a soft-plastic artificial onto a jig head. The point of the hook exits the belly and the eye of the hook rides beneath the ballyhoo’s eye.

Pass the long tag end of the rigging wire through the ballyhoo’s eye socket two times. Push the tip of the wire up through the base of the ballyhoo’s bill and then wrap the wire around 1/2 inch of the bill. Break off the remainder of the bill. 

Howell rigs some of the ballyhoo with a chin weight so that they slightly submerge, but he prefers to skip unweighted baits along the surface. 

Captain’s Tips

To deploy his four baits, he uses a mix of short rigger, long rigger and flat line positions. He keeps four more rods rigged and ready to pitch to dolphin in the spread. “I wouldn’t want more than six dolphin on at once,” he laughs, imagining the chaos that would create. 

He lets the baits drop back in the spread until they skip across the water or swim just below the surface without spending more than a few seconds in the water or in the air.

When a school of dolphin attacks, Howell keeps the boat trolling until all rods host fish. If a dolphin strikes short, he picks up the rod and jerks it, then drops the rod tip to make what’s left of the bait shoot across the water and sink back to the fish. If that doesn’t elicit another bite, he instructs the angler to pull in the bait while another angler drops a fresh ballyhoo into the spread.

Once a fish is hooked, he keeps the boat moving slowly ahead while the angler reels. “The key is to keep the fish behind the boat and the lines untangled,” he says.

When the fish is within 20 feet of the boat, Howell sets the 6-foot gaff in reach and lightly takes the line in his hands. Carefully, he guides the fish by holding the line low to the water to keep the fish’s head submerged. If the dolphin gets its head above water, it jumps into the air and most likely throws the hook.

Read Next: Mahi Fishing Tips

Once the dolphin is gaffable, Howell strokes it in the back just behind the head. Then, in one motion, he lifts the fish out of the water and swings it into the fish box — where it often explodes in a frenzy of tail whipping, rod-breaking energy.

When big dolphin school up behind the boat, or Howell finds a pack of fish on a float, he slows the boat and drops a rigged ballyhoo to the dolphin. He jigs the bait back and forth to get the fish’s attention. When he fires up a feeding frenzy, Howell can catch big dolphin one after another. “Dolphin fishing is one of the coolest things we get to do,” he says. Fast action, aggressive fish and an explosive fight make dolphin a fan favorite. “People love to catch them.”

The post How to Catch Dolphin in the Mid-Atlantic appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Organizers of the Presidential Challenge Charitable Foundation will host a two-month worldwide virtual fishing tournament for female angling teams. The competition launches Feb. 1 and runs through March 31.

Anglers can fish anywhere in the world from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for six days, at any time during the two-month period. Eligible species include all marlins, sailfish and spearfish — all of which must be released — tuna and mahi.

Entry is $600 per team, and proceeds will benefit worldwide conservation and aid women’s programs around the world. Prize categories include top three teams overall, most marlin releases, most sailfish release, longest three mahi, top February team, top March team and more.

Entries are open, and you must enter at least a week before you begin fishing. Scoring will take place using the CaptApp application, which verifies catches using video and geo-location. Cellular reception is not required for the app to operate.

For more information, visit Presidential Women’s World Virtual Fishing Challenge.

Read Next: Meet Joan Vernon

The post Women’s World Virtual Fishing Challenge Launches in February appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

“What our study shows is that even a relatively brief, low-level exposure to oil harms the swimming capabilities of mahi-mahi, and likely other large pelagic fish, during the early life stages,” said Edward Mager, UM Rosenstiel School postdoctoral associate and lead author of the study. “If you harm a fish’s ability to swim you also harm its ability to perform actions that are critical for survival, such as catching prey and evading predation.”

In a laboratory experiment at the UM Experimental Hatchery and in UM Rosenstiel School Maytag Chair and Professor Martin Grosell’s laboratory, researchers exposed larvae and juvenile mahi-mahi to Deepwater Horizon crude oil to simulate environmental conditions during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The crude oil used in the study was collected on July 29, 2010 from surface slicks during the Deepwater Horizon incident.

Two groups of mahi-mahi were exposed to crude oil alongside controls exposed to clean seawater. One group was exposed for 48 hours during the embryonic-larval stage and then raised in clean seawater to the juvenile stage, while the other group was raised in clean seawater to the juvenile stage and then exposed to oil for 24 hours. The 48-hour embryonic-larval exposure group resulted in a 37% decrease in swimming velocity as juveniles, while juveniles exposed for a 24-hour period had a 22% decrease in swimming velocity.

“The study demonstrates how careful measurements of physiological performance may reveal subtle, yet highly significant impacts of environmental contamination,” said Martin Grosell, Maytag chair and professor of ichthyology at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School and a co-author of the study.

Swimming performance in fish is important for foraging, predator avoidance and migration. Physiological impairment of swimming ability may decrease fish survival, and result in a decline in fish population levels for a period of time. Researchers suggest that a similar impairment in swimming performance may have occurred in other large, pelagic fish that reside in the Gulf of Mexico.

Mahi-mahi, also known as dolphin fish, is highly sought after for sport fishing and commercial fishing. Fertilized eggs of mahi-mahi float near the surface of the northern Gulf of Mexico, an area coinciding with the spill zone, where they are believed to remain during their early stages of development.

A recent study published in the March 25 issue in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) from the research team, including UM Rosenstiel School scientists from this study, showed that several Gulf of Mexico fish embryos developed serious defects in heart development following exposure to crude oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The study concluded that, “losses of early life stages were likely for Gulf populations of tunas, amberjack, swordfish, billfish, and other large predators that spawned in oiled surface habitats.”

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the northern Gulf of Mexico released more than four million barrels of crude oil into the surrounding waters during the nearly two month event, which occurred during the seasonal spawning window for many large, commercially and ecologically important open-ocean fish species such as bluefin and yellowfin tunas, mahi mahi, king and Spanish mackerels.

The study, titled “Acute Embryonic or Juvenile Exposure to Deepwater Horizon Crude Oil Impairs the Swimming Performance of Mahi-Mahi (Coryphaena hippurus), was published in the early online edition of the journal Environmental Science and Technology. The co-authors include Mager, Grosell, Daniel D. Benetti, John D. Stieglitz, Ronald Hoenig and Charlotte Bodinier of the UM Rosenstiel School School; Andrew J. Esbaugh of the University of Texas; and John P. Incardona and Nathaniel L. Scholtz of the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.

The paper is available online at: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es501628k.

The post New Study Shows Deepwater Horizon Crude Oil Impairs Swimming Performance of Juvenile Mahi-Mahi appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

day 7

One 211-pound yellowfin tuna saved the day to an otherwise slow afternoon at the banks. If you check out a topography map of the Baja Mexico Coast, along the Pacific Ocean, it’s hard to miss the banks, ridges and drop-offs that start about 25 miles offshore. That’s big yellowfin tuna country all the way into February.

Average depths that we fished ranged from 55 to 65 fathoms. Hopscotching north along the Baja Peninsula, we trolled and anchored whenever the conditions were favorable.

At the first bank we started, there really wasn’t much happening. Capt. Ekstrom explains it this way: The yellowfin tuna come up onto the shallower banks during certain times of the day. It’s hard to predict when the trophy tuna will show themselves on the sonar — that’s why it’s vitally important to always “soak” mackerel baits.

Angler Gunner Kruse “hung” his tuna just minutes after Ekstrom called out over the speaker that some “cows were underneath the boat deep.” The fish swam erratically around the boat, twisting the main line into the anchor a number of times. You can bet Kruse thanked mates Blake and Jimmy for the tangles they prevented.

The tuna fought far from the boat, straight up and down, and even circled the boat a number of times. Finally, the tuna battled fervently just below the top thermocline, trying to stay in that cooler mid level water. But Kruse won the battle, and Eckstrom was there to photograph the fish along with the three gaff men.

The photo included with this blog post is a picture of Capt. Ekstrom hanging off the side of the boat to take a picture of the 200-plus-pound tuna.

Moving between banks, we were always on the lookout for schools of dolphin or kelp paddies. We jumped between banks often because there was no current and little signs of life, about the worst conditions you can ask for, says Ekstrom.

The first school of porpoise that we ran into had under-10-pound yellwofin tuna mixed in, so we didn’t spend much time with them. At another point, Ekstrom spotted a school of porpoise about 8 miles ahead of the boat with his binocs. When we reached the birds and dolphins, it was disappointing to see no tuna with them.

Our constant companion, the sea lion, was always there to chomp pieces of fish in our chum line. We named him Bobo. That sea dog seemed to follow our boat and was ready for fish-freebies whenever we anchored. We also met a local Mexican fishing crew, setting lines for sharks from their panga. We passed them some of our chunk baits, along with some muffins and potato pancakes for lunch. They left happy!

One event that happened after last night’s blog post was a flurry of dorado fishing action. At about 9 p.m., with half the boat sleeping, three anglers started catching dorado as they schooled underneath the boat. There was a call out over the radio to grab a rod and get fishing, but the school left just as soon as it came. I awoke to fish flopping at the deck, but was about 2 minutes late to the action. By the time I had my bait out in the water, the fish had moved on.

The post A Long-Range Journal: Day 7 appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Big School of Mahi

Mahi are a pelagic species that can sometimes be found migrating in schools of hundreds or even thousands of fish. This video shows a school of small “peanuts” following one of their friends, who has been hooked. Mahi are commonly known to follow other hooked fish, and anglers often keep the hooked fish in the water to score an easy mahi bite.

Catching a Mahi from Shore

This angler was on his way to the airport in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, when he decided to stop at a local beach to take some casts. Surprisingly, he hooked onto a nice-size dorado. He was using 15-pound line and got spooled twice! Luckily, the knot connecting the line to the spool didn’t break, and after an hour, he caught and released the fish.

Mahimahi Off Guatemala

The team from Simms Fishing Products fly-fish for mahimahi.

Jigging for Mahi

A school of mahi off Singer Island, Florida, chases a jig until a fish is eventually hooked and reeled in.

Mahi Off Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is located off the southern tip of India which proves that these fish can be found around the world. The Sri Lankans refer to the fish as “wanna.”

The post 5 Thrilling Mahi Videos appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Dorado Fishing Kicks into High Gear

Ocean water temperatures off the coast of Southern California have skyrocketed in the last two weeks, and that has ushered in a wave of exotic gamefish, including the ultra-popular dorado. On a recent offshore trip aboard my boat, Split Decision, with my son Josh and good friend Mark Wisch we found water temperatures as high as 75 degrees F — an indicator of El Nino conditions.

We found dorado — also known as mahi or dodos — under floating kelp paddies as close as nine miles from Dana Point Harbor. These fish ranged from 10 to 15 pounds and offered excellent light-tackle action. We were casting and slow-trolling live sardines on 20- t0 25-pound-test fluorocarbon leaders.

Dorado are relatively scarce off Southern California during most of the year, only coming up this far north when the water warms into the high 60s or low 70s. So when they do come into range, anglers go into a frenzy I like to call “mahi madness” in which they race their boats from kelp paddy to kelp paddy looking for fish. Sometimes several boat close in on a single paddy at once, but usually they work together taking turns drifting by the floating kelp, allowing everyone a shot at the fish, often exchanging information and even sharing live bait with other boats.

And when it works out that way, it makes me proud to be a sportfisherman.

Next, view photos from the trip »

The post Anglers Catch “Mahi Madness” as Dorado Invade Southern California Ocean Waters appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.