There has been
some Sailfish and dolphin around lately. Offshore has been good dolphin fishing for the last week or so. Most of the best fishing has been in relatively close. 300-500 ft of water has been the most productive. There have also been some Sailfish on the color change with live baiting being the most effective way to catch them.
Unfortunately, it’s been an either-or situation.
Either troll for the dolphin or hunt for live bait to use sailfishing. If you spend you spend time in the morning looking for live bait, a lot of boats are going to get on the dolphin before you and you will get what they miss. If you go dolphin fishing early, it is difficult to find the bait in the middle of the day when the sun gets high. So even though there has been some Sailfish and dolphin around we generally have been catching only dolphin because that is what my customers wanted.
The Sailfish will and do hit on a trolling bait.
but there haven’t been many hooked lately. Today that was different. There were a number hooked outside the color change where the dolphin have been. We had one on for a while, but it made a tremendous run and got off after a little while.
Naturally, I wasn’t happy it got off,
but it was nice to finally hook one. My mate has been a bit “snakebit” when it comes to sailfish lately. He’s caught plenty over the years, He’s good at it. But everyone has a slump. Paul has been 0 for 7 on Sailfish lately. Now it’s not his job to land the fish, it’s his job to hook it. On all 7 Sailfish, the angler had the rod in their hands and was fighting the fish. In most cases the angler didn’t do anything wrong, the fish just go off.
I’m not sure which is worse,
hooking them and losing them or not hooking them at all. At least if we are hooking some sailfish, we know we are doing something right, so I guess that is a good sign.
Dolphin fishing was a little slower today.
We got some decent fish, not as many as past days and none in the 20-30 lb range. We’ve been getting those size fish all week. At least we have Sailfish and dolphin around. They are quality fish and it keeps it interesting for both the customers and crews alike