By Capt. Bouncer Smith
Boats fishing offshore have had good catches of mahi from 5 to 20 pounds. Let’s look at ways to get those mahi behind your boat this summer.
We all know, or should know, that when one mahi is having fun or getting a meal, then all the mahi want in on the action. When you hook the first mahi of a school, the number one rule is to keep an active hooked fish around the boat to keep the school with your boat.
When you haven’t hooked or found the school yet, you need to make it look like you have happy mahi behind your boat. The best way to do that is to drag a threeinch Reel Tease teaser 30 feet behind your boat whenever you are moving 2 to 12 knots in offshore waters. This teaser imitates a nice school sized bull mahi feeding behind your boat. This draws more school mahi, big mahi and other big fish like marlin and wahoo to crash the party behind your boat.
To add to your spread you can run medium Reel Tease teasers from your outrigger teaser reels or even eight feet in front of larger lures to attract attention to these baits. With marbles rattling in these teasers scientist say fish will come from great distances in response to the sounds they emit.
Reel Tease also offers the ultimate attractor in front of your smaller mahi lures, the “Gamefish Kandy.” This attractor can rattle with small marbles inside, emit menhaden oil, or there is a chum model that emits chum. When you look behind the boat and see this school of imitation baitfish and imitation mahi, you know action is just over the next wave. Other weapons you can try are very large mahi colored lures used as teasers and medium/large lures used in front of smaller lures. These will help you have better days offshore catching those mahi we love.
Be sure to bring lots of ice when headed offshore. Your mahi come in the boat out of 80 degree water at a temperature of 80 degrees and you must cool them down to enjoy good healthy dinners. Adding seawater to your mahi and ice in the fish box will spread that cold temperature all around your catch and make it the tastiest ever.
Good fishing.