August 30, 2015
It’s been a much better Dolphin this season compared to the last few years. We spent a good part of the summer anchored up and snapper fishing in July and August in 2012, 2013 & 2014. We caught fish and my customers all seemed pretty happy. Yellowtail and Gray snapper are absolutely delicious.
But Dolphin, (Mahi) and Wahoo are also delicious and a bit more fun to catch.
Thankfully this year, we’ve been catching decent dolphin most days with a fair number of wahoo mixed in.
Personally, I attribute this to two things. First, we’ve had eastbound current in the deep water all summer. When the current is moving, the area of the ocean we’re fishing “renews” on a daily basis and also, it tends to keep the water cooler. You can’t see it, but when the water is moving east at a knot or two, it’s turning over so the surface of the ocean doesn’t get too hot and the fish don’t go deep.
Second, we’ve had a tremendous amount of Sargasso Weed this year. Sargasso is the free-floating weed that grows on the surface of the ocean. It provides habitat and protection for billions of small critters. Shrimp, crabs, seahorse and small fish all inhabit the weed and the bigger fish know it, so they prowl the weed looking for a meal. If we have the weed without current, you can end up fishing the same patch of weed 2, 3 or 4 days in a row until it floats out of the area. Simply, it gets fished out. If there is current, even if it’s only 1 knot, the weed you fish today, will be 25 miles away tomorrow and the weed you fish tomorrow is 25 miles away today and odds are nobody has fished it! New weed, new bait and hopefully a new crop of dolphin and wahoo following it. The last few years, we’ve had the weed, but not the current and dolphin fishing got very slow by early July. I don’t know how long the current will hold but it’s helping to keep the fishing good which is good for my hairline…..well maybe too late for that, but good for my blood pressure and a good thing for the customers. I hope it holds……….we’ll see
