We had a full day dolphin fishing trip today.
I had some regular customers and all day to find them some fish. We got an early start, I think we were the second boat off the dock. I was looking forward to a good day. Things just felt right.
There has been an overabundance of Sargasso weed
the last few months. Some Sargasso weed is good. Too much makes it hard to troll without the baits getting full of the weed. The last few weeks there has been weed line after weed line. Somedays the biggest challenge is picking the “right” weed line. The one with fish on it.
So, we ran south through beautiful blue water
looking but not finding any Sargasso weed. We ran until we were out about 15 miles and finally found some big patches. If you find the weed, usually you find the fish and we did. We hooked a couple “keepers” on the first patch we went by and the action was pretty steady from there on. Not all the fish were “keepers”, but the action was great and we were putting enough fish in the box that I knew it was going to be a successful day.
The wind was out of the south
and so the sargasso weed was laying in lines going north and south. It moved offshore as it went west so once we found it we trolled up and down the lines then west to the next line. Allday, long it was north and south along the weed, then move southwest to the next patch. I only trolled east every once in a while to go back to a patch or piece of debris that was still holding fish. Basically, we were going west all day, yet because the current was running very hard to the east we were, in effect, going backward. You could not tell without looking at the Chartplotter, but we moved 5 miles east by trolling North-south and west all-day long.
Unfortunately, that means that the Sargasso weed
we fished on today, will probably be above Marathon Key tomorrow. The good thing is that, hopefully, there will be a new batch of weed moving up from the west. Weed that nobody has fished yet. It’s like getting a “new” ocean to fish.
By the end of the day,
we had about 18 “keeper” dolphin.The biggest one was a Bull dolphin about 15lbs. We released a couple of Barracudas. One of the most exciting moments of the day was when we saw a blue marlin chasing a couple of small dolphin. A blue marlin is one of the top predators in the sea. When he wants dinner, something is going to die. We saw a big splash and a small dolphin went flying in the air. He was lunch when he hit the water. A few moments later we saw another big splash and a small dolphin greyhounding through the water. Dolphin can swim fast, but a blue marlin is much faster. We could see the marlin also greyhounding through the water after the dolphin. I don’t think the dolphin got away.
We trolled around the area for a little while
. Hoping the marlin wanted another snack. Maybe ballyhoo for dessert, but we never saw it again. Still, it was an awesome show and most of my customers got to see it also