![]() It’s your call.Offshore coverage from Steinhatchee River south to Anna Maria Island and out to the Florida Middle Grounds (100 miles). A wire leader reduces bites but could save a wahoo. Opt for a 40- or 50-pound fluoro leader, but be advised: Wahoo also lurk deep. Position a 10-ounce breakaway sinker 40 feet above the leader and lower the bait to the desired depth. When dolphin hold deep, this bait can make your day. 2: When stopping to investigate a find, send a live bait down a hundred feet or so. Choose a topwater chugger, such as the Williamson Popper Pro 130 with two single hooks, to mimic a flying fish. Even school fish that have retreated after being worked over will come back for another look. Curious by nature, dolphin rise from the depths, drawn by the commotion. Intel: Study daily current changes for trends to consistently find fish. Live Targets: Concentrate on birds and surface weeds. Leader: 40- or 50-pound fluorocarbon, 15 feet long (wind-on)īaits: Squid, fresh ballyhoo, live bait, topwater chugger Fast Facts for SuccessĮdges: Scout for temperature breaks, especially over structure. Rods: 7-foot, rated for 30- to 50-pound line Reels: Penn Slammer III 5500 to 7500, or similar-size spinning Keep a spinning reel, such as the Penn Slammer III, rigged and ready with lures and natural baits when running and gunning on weed lines or in open water. And these loners are usually big - exactly the ones we don’t want swimming away. It will become the most important outfit on the boat when a big dolphin appears under a bird, around debris, or simply swims past the boat. It’s a most pleasant surprise.Īnd lastly, keep a pitch-bait spin outfit ready to go with a fresh ballyhoo, squid or live bait. Many times, a big bull or cow stalking the perimeter will move in. When fighting a fish, always keep a bait soaking beyond the activity. Maintain trolling speed and direction to encourage multiple hookups. When a dolphin is hooked up on the troll, there could be several others with it. Try running a bit up-current and regrouping.” Don’t stray too far from where you’ve seen fish. “The fish might be confined to a square-mile area. If you troll, stay in the same area where you saw or caught a fish when running and gunning, he says. “Get ahead of them with a pitch bait or trolling spread.” “I’ve seen dolphin surfing down these rips and chasing flying fish,” Attales says. The rips that occur off the Florida Keys are solid trolling zones, the more turbulent, the better. ![]() Pockets of flying fish activity are also good trolling areas. Concentrate on bottom contour lines, rips and even the edge along the continental shelf in 600 feet. Rig ballyhoo ahead of time for efficient deployment. If a weed line is devoid of life, run parallel to it, periodically stopping to check for life, or continue searching. Weed lines create cover for a variety of juvenile sea life, and where smaller sea life abounds - brine shrimp, sargassum fish, puffers, bar jacks, banded rudder fish - count on larger predators, particularly dolphin, seeking them out. And even fewer birds working into the current often indicate larger dolphin. Fewer birds working with the current are often on school fish. Other than an odd dolphin or two on the outskirts, it’s best to keep searching. Knowing how to read the birds on the screen - and recognize visual clues - saves effort and fuel.įor example, large clusters of birds, especially in late summer, often signify skipjacks in cooler water. And some radars, such as my Simrad with Bird Mode, automatically tune themselves. With practice, open-array radars can be fine-tuned to mark birds. Working birds, particularly frigates, are excellent, reliable signs. Attales and I were hooked up with two large bulls and trying for that third fish, all while the boat was moving along, exactly the chaos that dolphin anglers love. Then another big bull hit an outrigger bait, and then a third charged through the spread. We hadn’t finished our first pass before the 30-pound monofilament line racing off the starboard transom outfit startled us, followed by a big bull dolphin leaping from the sea. With two ballyhoo skipping behind outriggers and two off flat lines, we settled into an up-sea trolling pattern along one side of the weed line, steering around displaced clumps. Shannon Attales and I had been running and gunning most of the morning, until this find.Īfter looking for dolphin by cruising up and down the line to no avail, the quantities of baitfish huddling underneath the weeds convinced us to back off the throttles and go on the troll. ![]() George PoveromoĪ line of sargassum stretched for about a half-mile, in 1,100 feet of royal-blue water off Islamorada in the Florida Keys.
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