When you mention going Dolphin fishing to a non fishing person the first think that comes to mind is that you are going to fry up Flipper. So the more exotic name Mahi Mahi has caught on in recent years. Regardless of what you call them, they are great to eat and a lot of fun to catch. Most of us choose to troll looking for weed lines or some other floating object in the ocean. I’ve caught many fish over fifty pounds and have found that most of the big fish always hit big baits. I pull C&H Aliens with select Ballyhoo or Flame lures with horse Ballyhoo when using baits. When pulling these lure bait combinations I use a singe hook rig. Usually a Mustad 7732 nine/0. I prefer to just pull lures. The Express lures from C&H are good choices with White over blue being my favorite. I also pull C&H Swimmers and Stubbys. All of my large lures I rig with two hooks, two 7732 10/0’s. My speed is about the same with both set ups, between nine and ten knots. The sea condition is what makes the difference. You want you baits to be in the water and not jumping out because of sea conditions. I also find that many sea gulls will help locate feeding fish.
In the Bahamas you will find Frigate birds over feeding fish. On the east coast and Gulf of Mexico sea gulls will often follow feeding schools or big single fish. Dolphin are schooling fish and if you catch one you should stay in the area and try for another strike. Many times when you catch one fish several others will follow the hooked fish to the boat. You can throw lures like the C&H Alien Jig (Chanteuse) or you can pitch out a piece of squid or Ballyhoo. Many times you will find that the fish will not take a bait unless it is moving.
The New Alien Jigs come in several sizes ranging from two to eight ounces. If the wind is calm two ounces is all you will need. With a good spinning rod outfit you can cast this lures for several hundred feet. In south Florida many captains prefer the run and gun method. This just means that they run around the ocean looking for floating debris of weed lines. Then they cast lures or use chum to attract fish to the boat. I some case Dolphin can get very picky and it is hard to get they to bite anything except he chum. In this case you need to go to a sixty pound fluorocarbon leader and a live bait hood that is very small but strong. In some cases I just tie the hook directly to my twenty pound line on my spinning reel.
My pet peeve is the boat that comes in barging about their big catch of Dolphin but when you open the cooler they have killed dozens of one and two pound fish. Remember this, A Dolphin can grow to over fifty pounds in just two years if conditions are good.
Let those small fish live to fight another day.