Years ago, I considered relocating to South Florida to continue fishing full time. I was spending a lot of the winter there already, and I thought it would be a natural progression for where my life was headed. A year-round season and much shorter runs to blue water were highly desirable.
Captains and mates from the Carolinas were in high demand, especially in the Florida Keys, mainly because those that fish are aware of the effort it takes to be successful offshore in the Carolinas. I must also admit, the lifestyle of the place was attractive to me when I was in my twenties as well. I thought about it for a couple of seasons and ultimately decided against it. Who knows about the path not traveled, so who can say what would have happened if I had done that?
I do know this. The time I spent in Palm Beach and the Florida Keys taught me a lot of things that were useful back home, especially with regards to dolphin fishing. Say what you want about Florida fishermen, but they do see a lot of dolphinfish.
Different rules
The concept of releasing small dolphin was unheard of to me until I made my first offshore trip out of Boynton Beach Inlet in Palm Beach County. We caught a bunch of fish on that first trip, but less than half went home. I thought my friend Mike was joking when he told me to “throw back that little guy,” but it turns out he was serious. It was taboo to come home with fish under about 25 inches among his fishing club peers. That fish would have been on the ice immediately back home, no questions asked. Several years later, Florida was one of the states that implemented a 20-inch minimum size limit on dolphin. South Carolina was on that list. North Carolina was not.
This is not a political column this month. I’ve been bent out of shape and all over the issue of a dolphin size limit in the Carolinas in previous columns, and it has taken up a lot of my personal time in a bunch of different ways. Suffice to say, a minimum size limit in Florida makes sense for their fishery, given their unique access. It doesn’t make sense in North Carolina, and at this moment, recreational and charter boat anglers can still catch bailer dolphin. Diesel powered charter boats are very good at doing this. They have it down to a science. They find the fish, break out the bailing rods, and work a circle, where there is always a hooked fish in the water, keeping the school close and feeding.
Anglers in center consoles generally don’t even attempt to bail dolphin. Virtually all of their dolphin catches come from trolling. My best fishing buddy in North Carolina (who was either a captain or a mate for more than a thousand trips out of Hatteras Inlet) has told me again and again that “you can’t bail dolphin from an outboard-powered boat.” I will agree that it’s a lot more difficult. However, if you change your technique up a bit, and prep for an encounter with some schoolies, you might find out that you have a really rewarding trip. You don’t even have to tell anyone that you are dolphin fishing “South Florida Style.”
Go small for fun
Scaling down in tackle size makes this experience a lot of fun. If you’re targeting just dolphin, all you really need to bring is 5 or 6 light trolling outfits, no bigger than a TLD-20 or 25. You also need a spinning outfit for everyone on the boat, spooled up with 30-pound braid and a shot of 40-pound mono. Thread a ¼-ounce egg sinker on the line and tie on a small snap swivel, just big enough to stop the weight. Snap on a leader of 50-pound fluorocarbon about 3 feet long, tied to a short shank hook. These are the fun rods. If you really want to get crazy, bring a committed spinning outfit just to throw lures at these fish. You could also bring a fly rod. But make no mistake, the spinning rods with bait will get the most action.
You’re going to troll to find the fish. So many South Florida fishermen troll for dolphin without a single pack of ballyhoo on the boat. Initially I thought they were just lazy, stupid, or both, but I realized there are some major advantages to simply trolling a few plastic plugs. You can troll faster and cover more water this way. It’s also very simple and quick to pick everything up and run from spot to spot if you see birds working off in the distance (or on the radar). Run an un-baited small squid chain from a flat line and some small plugs from the other flat line and on the outriggers, with another small plug right down the middle. The usual dolphin colors of pink/white, green/chartreuse, or blue/white work just fine. You are just looking for one bite.
When the rigger clip pops and a dolphin jumps, you know you’re ready to go to work. Slow the boat down, make a gradual turn towards the fish, and have the angler fight it at a controlled pace. When the fish gets close, get the spinning outfits ready. You will generally see flashes through the water, as other dolphin from the school follow the hooked fish towards the boat. It’s time to fire away. You will see a lot of the bites that you get when you are targeting dolphin this way. You have to resist the temptation to immediately set the hook when you see a fish take the bait. With a spinning rod, the best practice is to just leave the bail open and let the fish swim away with it. Count to five as slowly as you can. Then close the bail and start reeling. Most of the time a sharp hook will do the job and there’s no giant hook set needed. The key now is to keep a fish hooked at all times and keep the school around the boat. Communicate with your other anglers to reduce the possibility of tangling, and to make sure the fish you are hooking are coming into the boat at a controlled pace. You don’t have to leave the first fish hooked out there the entire time, just stagger out those fish that you do hook.
I haven’t said a word about bait yet, but don’t think it’s unimportant. Cut squid is the bread and butter of this style of fishing. It works just fine most of the time, but better options are available. Strips of bonita (false albacore) are irresistible to dolphin, and with the skin left on, they hold up great on a hook. One bonita goes a long way, and you can salt, freeze, and re-use it as well. Finally, when you have the opportunity on one of these light tackle dolphin trips, stop on the way out and jig up a livewell full of live cigar minnows. The smaller ones are often inhaled as soon as they hit the water near a school of hungry dolphin. What’s more, the biggest dolphin in the school often patrol the outer edges, so a longer cast with a bigger cigar minnow might put you on the best fish of the trip.
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