Most offshore anglers in South Florida are focused on
catching dolphin in the month of June. The colorful fish — not the mammal — are
popular because they fight hard and jump a lot, they can be caught on a variety
of baits and lures, and people love to eat them.
Although dolphin are caught year-round locally, this is the
time of year when they are plentiful. The bag limit is 10 fish, a minimum of 20-inches
long— per person per day or 60 fish per boat, whichever is less. Many anglers
keep only enough dolphin for a few meals — the fish are terrific fried,
blackened or in tacos — and safely release everything else back into the water.
Late spring and summer are when dolphin are often found in
schools ranging from half a dozen to dozens of fish. Locating those schools is
usually a matter of locating birds, weedlines, or floating debris.
Weedlines, patches of
grass and debris such as tree trunks and wooden pallets, attract baitfish,
which attract dolphin. Birds often hover over dolphin, hoping they’ll chase
bait to the surface. Like serious
bird-watchers hoping to spot a species they’ve never seen before, dolphin
fishermen are always on the lookout for frigate birds.
Also known as a man-o’-war bird, a frigate
bird has a forked tail and a wide wingspan that allows it to soar over the
ocean, then suddenly swoop down to catch a fish with its long, hooked bill. The
bird does not dive into the water. Instead, it waits for dolphin to send flying
fish and other small fish fleeing to the surface. When a baitfish goes
airborne, the frigate zips in and snags it. (A frigate also scores easy meals
by harassing other seabirds so that they drop their catch, which the frigate
grabs before it hits the water.)
When running offshore, some captains will stop every five
minutes or so to scan the horizon with binoculars in the hopes of spotting
birds or debris. Others will designate crew members to keep an eye on the sky.
If frigate birds are swooping, that’s a good sign. If birds
are sky-high, they’re looking for dolphin, so it might not be worthwhile to
race over to them.
“High birds, if they’re way up there, they’re taking
advantage of their eyesight to look for something to play with,” said Capt.
Bouncer Smith, a legendary charter fishing captain in Miami Beach. “If they’re
200 feet high, they’re probably into something. When they start to dive, then
they’re really in the game.”
Smith added that anglers must pay attention to the direction
a frigate bird is flying.
“If birds are working to the
north, they’re over smaller dolphin or tunas,” Smith said. “If a bird is on
good-sized fish, he’s going to be going south, because good-sized fish go
against the current. The big dolphin are swimming just fast enough to hold their
position in the current — the Gulf Stream is moving north at 3-4 mph — and eat
what comes by.”
Smith, who runs
charters out of Miami Beach Marina on Bouncer’s Dusky 33 (CaptBouncer.com),
said anglers need to get ahead of a frigate flying south to have a shot at
catching the dolphin the bird is following. If they stay to the north of a
south-flying bird, the fish have already passed their boat.
“A lot of times when you’re on frigate birds, you’ve got to
wind the lines in and get ahead of the frigate and let the dolphin catch up to
you,” Smith said.
Once his boat is in position, Smith rigs two
spinning outfits with live baits — pilchards, goggle-eyes, small blue runners,
or cigar minnows — hooked through the nose. He has his anglers cast the baits
50-100 feet behind the boat. They leave the reel bails open and control the
lines with their index fingers while Smith idles ahead of the bird.
“When a fish eats, give him a short drop-back,
close the bail and wind,” said Smith.
Once you’re hooked up, it’s not unusual for
the rest of the school to appear behind the boat. That’s when fishing can get
frantic, with multiple anglers fighting fish and trying to not tangle their
lines. Like a choreographer, Smith often has to tell anglers to go over or
under another angler’s line.
To keep dolphin around
the boat, many anglers leave one or more hooked fish in the water, which
attracts other dolphin. When the next fish is hooked, the first one
can be boated, and so on. If, after you’ve boated several dolphin, the school
disappears, try splashing the water with a gaff to get the fish to return
because it sounds like a feeding frenzy that they’re missing out on.
When the schoolies
are solid behind the boat, you can catch them on dead bait, jigs, topwater
plugs, and even flies. Smith recommends buying a 1-pound box of squid
and casting the 3- to 4-inch baits to the fish. A one-ounce kingfish jig
retrieved as fast as possible also entices strikes from dolphin. But Smith’s
favorite way to catch schoolies is on a fly rod.
“Better too small a fly than too big a fly,” said Smith, adding that
yellow is an effective color. It also helps to toss out a few glass minnows every
once in a while, to keep the fish turned on.
