The offshore word is dolphin (mahi-mahi) and lots of them. The only problem is that they have been mostly peanut size with plenty of under sized fish that need to be released. I am seeing way to many anglers bringing in lots of fish under the minimum size 20" fork length. The vast majority of action in the Government Cut to Haulover Inlet area has been in the 6 - 12 mile range. Beyond that, the ocean clears up and finding birds and floaters is your only hope for success. So far this season, I have found a large range and size of floaters and have yet to find any dolphin under them. Within the 6 - 12 mile range there has been plenty of weedlines, large grass patches, and plenty of birds.
Saturday (6/25) morning, Brad Coren and friends Jesse and Jose finally got to go dolphin fishing after having to reschedule twice due to bad weather. The third time was their lucky charm. We found decent size schoolies and one gaffer under several flocks of birds in the 10.5 - 13 mile range. If you were the first to find the birds, you got several fish before the school either shut off or moved on. There were also many under sized peanuts mixed in. Jose got the big fish of the day (15#'s) and cane poled it into to the boat and proceeded to throw his body across the fish to keep it from flopping around. He had us all laughing like crazy as he fought the fish both in the water and in the boat. We ended the morning with 10 keeper fish and many throw backs.
Sunday (6/26) morning Stephan Louvere and his friends Erik, Jim, and John were back for round two of dolphin fishing. Their first trip was in May when the dolphin fishing left a bit to be desired. This time, they got to see what dolphin fishing and dolphin fever is all about. The fish were in the 6.5 to 7.5 mile range and we had to work hard to find keeper size fish. We had constant action with fish in the 18 to 19.5 inch range and it seemed like we caught 2 to 3 undersized fish for every keeper. Around 11 AM we decided to run out and see if we could find some larger fish. Beyond 10 miles, the ocean got very clean. At 14.5 miles, we found a swim buoy with only a barracuda around it. We followed numerous birds who were searching just like we were. Working our way back in, we found very different conditions. The weedlines and large patches had been broken up by the change in wind direction and increase in wind speed. We had 12 keepers in the fish box and must have released at least that many and probably more. It's hard to keep track when the action is coming fast and furious.
Monday (6/27) was an afternoon/evening trip that I donated to the MET Fishing Tournament. We caught herring at the bent range marker and worked our way offshore to dolphin fish. We had 9 - 14 knot winds, so the seas were up a bit and sloppy. Our first bait got hit as I was putting it out and Tom caught a nice 10# barracuda that put on a great aerial show with numerous jumps. Next, frigate birds had us working our way out a bit further to the 6 mile range and once again like the last 2 days, we found only peanut size fish. We had a blast catching and releasing these fish. Another frigate bird put us on more schools of peanut sized fish. We lost track of how many, but most of the time all of us were hooked up. We finally put 1 legal size fish in the box and decided to head back in to try for some tarpon. Inshore, the seas were much calmer. So calm in fact that we caught the bottom with our bait due to such a slow drift. We all saw tarpon rolling and were waiting patiently for the sundown period. It wasn't to be as some very fierce thunderstorms moved in and we decided to error on the side of safety and call it a night. As we made the run back to Spinnaker Marina, we watched the storms developing all around us. About 10 minutes into my cleaning the boat, the skies opened up and I knew for sure that we had made the right decision.
As you can see, there are plenty of dolphin offshore. Finding decent size fish has been very hit and miss. There have been a few around, however, most anglers have been having to wade through lots of smaller ones to get a few to take home. Yes, you'll hear about someone catching a 20 or 30 pound fish, but when you talk with them, that's all they got that trip. They missed out on all the fun of catching and releasing lots of fish and getting to keep a few in the process. Who knows, the bigger fish could move in on your next trip. That's what makes fishing so challenging and interesting.
Remember the size limit (20" from lower jaw to the fork in the tail) and bag limit (10 per person) and have fun.
Captain Dave