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+--- Thread: Dolphin Fishing Remains Strong (/showthread.php?tid=209537)
Dolphin Fishing Remains Strong - KnotNancy - 07-03-2005
Dolphin continue to make a strong showing. One day you find some decent size fish and the next they are almost all throw backs. The unfortunate thing that I am seeing is that way to many boats are keeping under size fish and lots of them. Distance offshore doesn't seem to matter much as to what size fish you will find. I have talked with anglers who fished out as far as 31 miles and they were catching the same under size fish that we were finding at 10 - 15 miles out. Others are finding birds working over schools of fish that turn out to be under size. The main thing is to catch and release a few, have some fun with light tackle, and then move on and try to find some larger fish.
Friday (7/1), Tino and Ruben finally were able to get their schedules to match so they could get out and spend some time fishing together. The weather was beautiful all day and the fish were very cooperative. At 9.8 miles, slow trolling live pilchards got our first two fish on a very weak weedline. The good news was that the fish were in the 5 - 7 pound range. Our next action came at 13.5 miles under several birds. Once again, the fish were mostly in the 5 - 7 pound class with a few throw backs mixed in. It took some searching to find the third group of fish, however, the search was well worth it as we hit the mother load. Up till this time, there have been no dolphin on any of the floaters that I have found. That changed today with the pallet we found. As they say, we hit the mother load. The big fish of the day was a 12# fish that took it's time about wanting to eat our bait. Many of the fish that Tino caught were on jigs and 8# line. This added to the challenge, fun, and excitement. After we left the pallet, the ocean seemed to dry up and Ruben caught the final fish (a throw back) of the day on a weedline that was 6 miles out.
Saturday (7/2), John Perkins, his dad, Bob, brother Kree, and friend John were looking forward to day of dolphin fishing. The action started on a large patch at 10.5 miles. Every fish we caught was a throw back. Many of the boats around us were keeping every fish they caught. We moved out to another large patch at 14.5 miles and found the same action. We kept having fun catching them on live pilchards, cut bait, and jigs. We finally caught 1 legal fish for the box. Boats out as far as 31 miles were catching the same size fish. Almost everyone was in the 18 - 19.5 inch range. At one point, I saw a frigate bird dive to an explosion on the surface about 100 yards from us. We moved to the area quickly and tossed out a live bait on a 12# spinning outfit. We got our reward when a 25# cow broke the surface and headed east away from us. John (friend) wasn't going to let the fish get away and fought it like a pro. During the course of the fight, the fish made 8 - 10 great leaps that had me holding my breath with each one. In the end, the fish came aboard and joined it's smaller relative in the fish box. After some celebrating and pictures, we moved to another patch and continued catching and releasing the smaller fish. With a quickly dwindling bait supply and continued small fish, we decided to call it a day and enjoyed our long ride back to Spinnaker Marina.
Captain Dave Kostyo
Knot Nancy Fishing Charters
305 620-5896 Charter
305 965-9454 Cell
www.knotnancy.com
nkostyo@bellsouth.net
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