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Enjoy and Tight lines,
Captdallas2
This is great cooked outdoors or in.
8-oz diced salt pork
2-pounds fish fillets (normally redfish, but snapper works too.)
1-cup each diced onions, bell pepper and celery.
2-cans crushed tomatoes
1-regular size bottle ketchup
¼ cup flour
about ½ a can of tomato paste I forget this some times and it’s still good
Cayenne pepper- I use about a teaspoon for a hint, some guy like a lot more!
In a cast iron Dutch oven, or a just a big pot if you’re indoors, render the salt pork over medium-high heat. When the pork is crispy brown, there should be about a ¼ cup of fat in the pot. Add the same amount of flour and make a rue. You do this by stirring the flour and oil (pork fat in this case), making a paste that you cook until the flour toasts to the color you like. Adding a little flour or oil may be required to get the paste right. I like a dark blonde rue not quite penny colored, for this chowder. Add the diced veggies, one teaspoon each cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper and sauté until onions are translucent. Add both cans of tomatoes and ½ bottle of the ketchup. Simmer covered for 30 minutes stirring occasionally and checking to make sure it’s not going dry. Cooking outside, I normally have to pour in some beer from time to time. So a can of beer should actually be in the recipe. After 30 minutes, you may need the rest of the ketchup and tomato paste. It should be fairly thick for a soup but a bit thin for a stew. If it looks thin add the ketchup and tomato paste, if it looks too thick, more beer. This is the time to taste and adjust your seasoning. Then add the seasoned fish, (salt and pepper) and simmer until the fillets start breaking up while you stir. With your spoon, break the fillets into bite size pieces and you are done! The whole process can take 45 minutes over an hour, so make sure you have plenty of beer on ice.
Serve over a bed of white rice and have some pepper vinegar on the table. Some fresh biscuits with butter makes a great side. We don’t garnish when we cook out doors.
Capt. Dallas
Pepper vinegar: Take a clean 6 ½ ounce coke bottle and stuff it full on whole hot peppers. The Datil peppers are my favorite. Then fill the bottle with white vinegar. Put one of those plastic coke caps on the bottle a let it sit in the fridge a few months. As you use the vinegar, add a little more to the bottle from time to time. Keeps for a century or two.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Creamy Fish Chowder
Hearty and delicious
2-pounds diced red potatoes with the skin on
1-pound fresh fish fillets coarsely diced
1 1/2-quart milk
1-cup grated pepper jack cheese
3-table spoons butter
¼ cup finely diced fresh basil
Boil dice potatoes in salted boiling water until fork tender. In large pot slowly heat milk to avoid scalding then add cheese and stir until cheese is well blended. Add potatoes, fish, basil and butter to cheesy milk sauce. Simmer for five minutes until fish is cooked but still firm. Salt and pepper to taste. A sprinkle of Paprika and a few oyster crackers is all the garnish you need.
Variation: Use half potatoes and half Yucca root. Tasty!
Enjoy,
Capt. Dallas
2-pounds diced red potatoes with the skin on
1-pound fresh fish fillets coarsely diced
1 1/2-quart milk
1-cup grated pepper jack cheese
3-table spoons butter
¼ cup finely diced fresh basil
Boil dice potatoes in salted boiling water until fork tender. In large pot slowly heat milk to avoid scalding then add cheese and stir until cheese is well blended. Add potatoes, fish, basil and butter to cheesy milk sauce. Simmer for five minutes until fish is cooked but still firm. Salt and pepper to taste. A sprinkle of Paprika and a few oyster crackers is all the garnish you need.
Variation: Use half potatoes and half Yucca root. Tasty!
Enjoy,
Capt. Dallas
Easy crab and pasta salad
The imitation crabmeat is great for making this great simple salad.
1-8oz package imitation crabmeat
1-8oz box of tricolor rotinni pasta
1-8oz package frozen peas and dice carrots
1-cup honey mustard dressing
Cook pasta in large pot full of salted boiling water per directions. Add frozen veggies at the end and remove from heat. Let the pasta and veggies stand for a few minutes while you crumble the crabmeat in a large bowl. Strain pasta and veggies and put in the bowl with crabmeat and add the dressing. Mix well, chill and serve. This is not only a good starter salad it is a full meal at our house.
Capt. Dallas
1-8oz package imitation crabmeat
1-8oz box of tricolor rotinni pasta
1-8oz package frozen peas and dice carrots
1-cup honey mustard dressing
Cook pasta in large pot full of salted boiling water per directions. Add frozen veggies at the end and remove from heat. Let the pasta and veggies stand for a few minutes while you crumble the crabmeat in a large bowl. Strain pasta and veggies and put in the bowl with crabmeat and add the dressing. Mix well, chill and serve. This is not only a good starter salad it is a full meal at our house.
Capt. Dallas
Friday, December 15, 2006
Fishing the Florida Keys - Sailfish Basics
Fishing for sailfish is a pretty big thing this time of year in the Florida Keys. Sails normally run November through April. The peak time will vary some each year and some years are much better than others. It is still pretty much world class fishing every year. A charter having four to six shots a day is a good average. Most of the sailfish are caught on live bait, Pilchards, ballyhoo, goggle eyes and other, in that order. Dead bait trolling and lures will produce, but not as well as the live bait.
More and more captains employ drift fishing with live chumming as their preferred method. Kite fishing is used by a few, but isn’t very effective if you have not found the fish. I prefer to mix it up, running and gunning a while to locate bait and sails, then live baitfish for them. Sight casting to the fish is really what I like once the fish are found, but drifting in a good area loaded with bait is what happens most of the time.
While a bait tank full of Pilchards or ballyhoo is preferred, sometimes you have to go with what you have. Blue runners, pinfish, yellowtail snapper and even needlefish have produced sails for me.
Rigging for sails is pretty much like rigging for tarpon. On the spinners I have 5 to 8 feet of double line and 6 to 8 feet of monofilament leader. Normally fifty to sixty pound leader is all I use and fluorocarbon isn't a big deal with me. The hook is a 5/0 to 7/0 J or a 6/0 to 9/0 new type circle; it depends on my bait, mate and my customers. With Pilchards or any live bait other than ballyhoo, just hook them in the nostrils. With ballyhoo, I hook them in the upper lip and use a short piece of copper rigging wire to wrap the bill and hook shank. Blue runners are tough to fish because at the first sign of a sail they try to climb back in the live well. This means I will use a balloon about six in front of the blue runners. This makes them look a little more stupid and I can keep an eye on them. Having a bait look stupid isn’t a bad thing. Darwin’s survival of the fittest theory explains the reason. Stupid or defective critters are removed from the gene pool quickly.
For conventional rods, I use the wind on leader setup described in the six basic knots posting. I use the conventional a lot of the time when I have rookie anglers and no mate. I teach anglers how to let the bait on the conventional tackle out and drive the boat in front of the fish. This also works on regular drift fishing. I really like having my customers fight big sails on light spinning outfits. Catching an 80-pound sail on ten or twelve pound test is a hoot that you can brag about later. The tournament guys use 30 pound on their spinners and thirty to fifty pound on their conventional rods to rack up numbers. That’s fine, I know how to do that too, I just prefer the light tackle and the shorter leaders. Who was it that said its not destination, it’s the journey. That’s fishing and me.
Finding the fish is the fun part for me. I’m looking for birds working, bait sprays, black trash bags in the water (that’s what a sailfish looks like swimming in the water) and free jumpers. Free jumping sails are neat to see, but you rarely get one in your lines. That said you have to check them out anyway. Come on! You got a shot right!
Best depths to hunt for sailfish in the winter is 100 to 300 feet. They can be on the reef or all the way past the ledge. Whether you need to run to alligator light or the Sambos is your guess. I normally work from Bonefish towers to Bahai Honda. Well, once I ran to American shoal and did pretty well. It’s all fishing and sailfish are a very worthy adversary. If you have never tried it, get off your dead butt and give it a go!
Tight lines,
Capt. Dallas
More and more captains employ drift fishing with live chumming as their preferred method. Kite fishing is used by a few, but isn’t very effective if you have not found the fish. I prefer to mix it up, running and gunning a while to locate bait and sails, then live baitfish for them. Sight casting to the fish is really what I like once the fish are found, but drifting in a good area loaded with bait is what happens most of the time.
While a bait tank full of Pilchards or ballyhoo is preferred, sometimes you have to go with what you have. Blue runners, pinfish, yellowtail snapper and even needlefish have produced sails for me.
Rigging for sails is pretty much like rigging for tarpon. On the spinners I have 5 to 8 feet of double line and 6 to 8 feet of monofilament leader. Normally fifty to sixty pound leader is all I use and fluorocarbon isn't a big deal with me. The hook is a 5/0 to 7/0 J or a 6/0 to 9/0 new type circle; it depends on my bait, mate and my customers. With Pilchards or any live bait other than ballyhoo, just hook them in the nostrils. With ballyhoo, I hook them in the upper lip and use a short piece of copper rigging wire to wrap the bill and hook shank. Blue runners are tough to fish because at the first sign of a sail they try to climb back in the live well. This means I will use a balloon about six in front of the blue runners. This makes them look a little more stupid and I can keep an eye on them. Having a bait look stupid isn’t a bad thing. Darwin’s survival of the fittest theory explains the reason. Stupid or defective critters are removed from the gene pool quickly.
For conventional rods, I use the wind on leader setup described in the six basic knots posting. I use the conventional a lot of the time when I have rookie anglers and no mate. I teach anglers how to let the bait on the conventional tackle out and drive the boat in front of the fish. This also works on regular drift fishing. I really like having my customers fight big sails on light spinning outfits. Catching an 80-pound sail on ten or twelve pound test is a hoot that you can brag about later. The tournament guys use 30 pound on their spinners and thirty to fifty pound on their conventional rods to rack up numbers. That’s fine, I know how to do that too, I just prefer the light tackle and the shorter leaders. Who was it that said its not destination, it’s the journey. That’s fishing and me.
Finding the fish is the fun part for me. I’m looking for birds working, bait sprays, black trash bags in the water (that’s what a sailfish looks like swimming in the water) and free jumpers. Free jumping sails are neat to see, but you rarely get one in your lines. That said you have to check them out anyway. Come on! You got a shot right!
Best depths to hunt for sailfish in the winter is 100 to 300 feet. They can be on the reef or all the way past the ledge. Whether you need to run to alligator light or the Sambos is your guess. I normally work from Bonefish towers to Bahai Honda. Well, once I ran to American shoal and did pretty well. It’s all fishing and sailfish are a very worthy adversary. If you have never tried it, get off your dead butt and give it a go!
Tight lines,
Capt. Dallas
Monday, December 11, 2006
Moon Phases And Fishing
Most people that come down to the keys on vacation don’t take the time to consider the moon phase before the trip. The moon can affect your fishing, so let’s take a little look at what to expect.
The quarter moons are generally accepted as being the best moons for fishing. These provide the average current flows, so the fish are normally settled down to a normal pattern. So these are great moons to plan your trip around.
New moons have higher tides, so there will be stronger currents. Coming up on a new moon, most fish will bite a little better. They are taking advantage of the stronger currents moving more bait past them. As the new moon passes, the bite will slow a little, but the fish rarely get lockjaw. I’ve never had much trouble finding fish on a new moon unless the tides are exceptionally high or low.
The full moon is the weirdest. As with the new moon the days leading to full normally have an increased bite and the days following a bit of a slow down. But unlike the new moon, following the full, the fish can just shutdown. Most people blame the full moon’s light at night causing the fish to gorge themselves, so they aren’t hungry during the day. There can be a lot of truth in this, but a friend of mine that raised fish gave me a little better theory.
Most fish spawn around the full moon. Depending on the type of fish, the timing of the spawn varies. Pelagic species tend to spawn before the full. This helps insure that their roe gets scatter to the maximum, helping improve survival. Bottom dwellers, tend to spawn just after the full moon so their roe will be spread, but still have the maximum time in normal currents to hatch in the general area of the spawn. This way, grouper and snapper larvae are most likely to end up in a friendly environment and not in the middle of the Gulf Stream.
In the winter, spawning isn’t really on the minds of most fish because the water temperature is too low. But fish really aren’t renown for serious thinking. With everything right for the spawn except for the temperature, some fish will just get confused so to speak. So snapper, which pretty much only know how to eat, procreate and defecate, forget about the first. Because of this, one or two days following the full moon, the Yellowtail bite can just plain suck. Dolphin, a pelagic suffers from the same confusion, and one or two days prior to or the day of the full moon may do the same thing, with a bit of a slow down following the moon.
Tarpon tend to fire up around the full moon. This could indicate that tarpon typically spawn well off the full moon or that they just don’t give a rip. Hogfish, Porgies and Mackerel tend to behave like the Tarpon do and will bite just about anytime.
Fishing around the full moon can be fantastic. Just be a little more flexible on the species you are looking for. I’ve done pretty good fishing for what’s biting instead of what I want. This is called no brainer fishing by some, but it works for me. So don’t worry about the full moon too much, just listen to your guide or captain and go with the flow. Even big time Marlin fishermen that hate the full moon will still fish it. Some of the biggest Marlin hooked up, have bitten on the full moon. And you bill fishermen should remember that sword fishing peaks on the full. So just go with the flow.
Tight lines
Capt. Dallas
The quarter moons are generally accepted as being the best moons for fishing. These provide the average current flows, so the fish are normally settled down to a normal pattern. So these are great moons to plan your trip around.
New moons have higher tides, so there will be stronger currents. Coming up on a new moon, most fish will bite a little better. They are taking advantage of the stronger currents moving more bait past them. As the new moon passes, the bite will slow a little, but the fish rarely get lockjaw. I’ve never had much trouble finding fish on a new moon unless the tides are exceptionally high or low.
The full moon is the weirdest. As with the new moon the days leading to full normally have an increased bite and the days following a bit of a slow down. But unlike the new moon, following the full, the fish can just shutdown. Most people blame the full moon’s light at night causing the fish to gorge themselves, so they aren’t hungry during the day. There can be a lot of truth in this, but a friend of mine that raised fish gave me a little better theory.
Most fish spawn around the full moon. Depending on the type of fish, the timing of the spawn varies. Pelagic species tend to spawn before the full. This helps insure that their roe gets scatter to the maximum, helping improve survival. Bottom dwellers, tend to spawn just after the full moon so their roe will be spread, but still have the maximum time in normal currents to hatch in the general area of the spawn. This way, grouper and snapper larvae are most likely to end up in a friendly environment and not in the middle of the Gulf Stream.
In the winter, spawning isn’t really on the minds of most fish because the water temperature is too low. But fish really aren’t renown for serious thinking. With everything right for the spawn except for the temperature, some fish will just get confused so to speak. So snapper, which pretty much only know how to eat, procreate and defecate, forget about the first. Because of this, one or two days following the full moon, the Yellowtail bite can just plain suck. Dolphin, a pelagic suffers from the same confusion, and one or two days prior to or the day of the full moon may do the same thing, with a bit of a slow down following the moon.
Tarpon tend to fire up around the full moon. This could indicate that tarpon typically spawn well off the full moon or that they just don’t give a rip. Hogfish, Porgies and Mackerel tend to behave like the Tarpon do and will bite just about anytime.
Fishing around the full moon can be fantastic. Just be a little more flexible on the species you are looking for. I’ve done pretty good fishing for what’s biting instead of what I want. This is called no brainer fishing by some, but it works for me. So don’t worry about the full moon too much, just listen to your guide or captain and go with the flow. Even big time Marlin fishermen that hate the full moon will still fish it. Some of the biggest Marlin hooked up, have bitten on the full moon. And you bill fishermen should remember that sword fishing peaks on the full. So just go with the flow.
Tight lines
Capt. Dallas
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Fishing the Florida Keys - Bridge Fishing Basics
The Florida Keys bridges are right at 100 years old now. That is 100 years of sea life growth and 100 years of spoiling and erosion. The habitat created by the thousands of man-made reefs is pretty remarkable. Other than tarpon fishing, most brochures and fishing magazines give these bridges little press. The fishing at these bridges deserves much more respect.
Chartering 300 days a year, every day isn’t perfect. The seas kick up, the severe thunder storms start building, so running a dozen miles or more to catch fish is not always an option. Thankful, I learned to fish the bridges so I’ve saved a lot of trips. For meat fishermen, the bridges will produce nice yellowtail, mangrove and mutton snapper. If you are familiar with the areas of the bridge you are fishing, Hogfish, keeper Grouper, Jew fish, mackerel, pompano, permit, tarpon, sharks and even an occasional Cobia or bonefish are possible. That’s a pretty big mixed bag!
The biggest trick about fishing the bridge is adjusting to the current. An ideal half-day trip would be to catch the last 1 ½ hours of one tide then fish the slack and turn. For the snapper and actually most of the other species, chumming is the ticket. A steady chum slick and adjusting the weight on your line to keep the bait in the strike zone is the game plan. The strike zone is normally a foot or two off the bottom or a couple feet below the surface. Live bait by far produces best. Live shrimp, pilchards, small pinfish, blue crabs and the like greatly out perform dead baits. That doesn’t mean dead don’t work, just that live bait worked properly kicks it up. Remember, less is more fishing live bait. Smaller hooks, lighter leaders and the least weight you can fish.
For sharks, dead bait on the bottom or live bait on the surface. Same for the tarpon only sight casting with plugs or live bait has to be considered. Plugs can be an absolute hoot at the bridges. Mirror lures, Bombers, spooks they all have their day. I’ve had customers have 9 hits in ten casts. This is normally around the slack tide, but the fish can fire up at any time.
The biggest problem I have as a charter captain is that customers read all the glossy magazines. The magazines don’t talk about the bridges. The railroad that died at sea provides some of the oldest artificial reefs in all of Florida. Never under estimate the fishing at the bridges.
Tight lines
Capt. Dallas
Chartering 300 days a year, every day isn’t perfect. The seas kick up, the severe thunder storms start building, so running a dozen miles or more to catch fish is not always an option. Thankful, I learned to fish the bridges so I’ve saved a lot of trips. For meat fishermen, the bridges will produce nice yellowtail, mangrove and mutton snapper. If you are familiar with the areas of the bridge you are fishing, Hogfish, keeper Grouper, Jew fish, mackerel, pompano, permit, tarpon, sharks and even an occasional Cobia or bonefish are possible. That’s a pretty big mixed bag!
The biggest trick about fishing the bridge is adjusting to the current. An ideal half-day trip would be to catch the last 1 ½ hours of one tide then fish the slack and turn. For the snapper and actually most of the other species, chumming is the ticket. A steady chum slick and adjusting the weight on your line to keep the bait in the strike zone is the game plan. The strike zone is normally a foot or two off the bottom or a couple feet below the surface. Live bait by far produces best. Live shrimp, pilchards, small pinfish, blue crabs and the like greatly out perform dead baits. That doesn’t mean dead don’t work, just that live bait worked properly kicks it up. Remember, less is more fishing live bait. Smaller hooks, lighter leaders and the least weight you can fish.
For sharks, dead bait on the bottom or live bait on the surface. Same for the tarpon only sight casting with plugs or live bait has to be considered. Plugs can be an absolute hoot at the bridges. Mirror lures, Bombers, spooks they all have their day. I’ve had customers have 9 hits in ten casts. This is normally around the slack tide, but the fish can fire up at any time.
The biggest problem I have as a charter captain is that customers read all the glossy magazines. The magazines don’t talk about the bridges. The railroad that died at sea provides some of the oldest artificial reefs in all of Florida. Never under estimate the fishing at the bridges.
Tight lines
Capt. Dallas
Fishing the Florida Keys - Basic Dolphin Fishing Tips
Dolphin a.k.a. Mahi Mahi, Dorado and Dolphin the fish, are really the perfect game fish as told by Capt. Jim Sharpe, in his book, Dolphin, The Perfect Game Fish. Few are more acrobatic, colorful or tasty, than the Dolphin. In the Florida Keys they can be caught any month of the year. April through May are considered the best months for big Dolphin, June through August can be great fishing for slammers as well. Slammers, Dolphin over thirty pounds are plentiful in these months but are often lost in the huge schools of peanuts or schoolies that are everywhere. Techniques used for catching these beautiful fish varies a little from captain to captain, but it all boils down to one thing, Find The Fish!
Most of the east coast has access to the Gulf Stream, which flows anywhere from 5 to 75 miles off the coast. This is the zone where the blue water pelagic species, Billfish, Wahoo, Tuna and Dolphin are found. In the Keys it is a little different, when water temperatures are uniform all over the Florida Straits, pelagic fish can be found anywhere. A Sargasso weed line found off Georgia will, almost always produce in May. Here in the Keys you may cross twenty weed lines before you find fish. So here are a few tips:
Surface water temperature: Any significant water temperature variation can hold fish. Typically, the higher the temperature, the better the bet. Look for a minimum of 74 degree and a maximum of 84 degrees water temperature. This has been my best temperature range. That’s why the Gulf Stream is the spot to fish. In the Keys more often than not, this holds true as well. But bayside water flow will create color changes anywhere from the edge of the reef to five miles past the reef. These color changes, green to blue, or power blue to cobalt blue are hot spots not to be over looked.
Weed lines: Sargasso weed is the ticket. Sargasso is living, floating vegetation that is full on life. If you find a good weed line that is alive, meaning you see bait in the line, there will be fish somewhere. Grass lines, created with a variety of bay grasses, are dead vegetation. Dying grass will hold little bait and therefore little fish. Every year, people catch a few fish in these grass lines, but the proper weed line will blow a grass line away. Look for the good stuff.
Eddy currents: Whether created by one of the Humps south of the Keys or by changing flow in the Gulf stream current will hold fish and normally big ones. Most of the eddy currents will be near a surface water temperature change.
Floaters: Floating debris is the most popular Dolphin indicator. Older floaters loaded with barnacles and bait are usually a Dolphin gold mine. But don’t overlook smaller floaters, like coconuts, trap buoys with line trailing down, or just a bucket or board. These can all hold fish.
The problem in the Keys is that a beautiful weed line or a fantastic floater, can move over the reef on one tide and back out offshore with the next. The reef fish, yellowtails, mackerel, jacks and chubs will eat everything out of the line and the line will hold squat. Look for bait in your line before devoting your whole day to trolling it. Birds, working the weed line is a good clue you may be in the right place.
As for birds, Frigates and Sooty Terns are the best to watch. Any type of tern is worth a look, but the Sooty terns don’t get wet, they rely on the predator fish to drive bait to the surface. Bigger fish normally have fewer birds. Hundreds of terns will normally be on a school of tuna or smaller dolphin. One or two terns lazily following a weed line are normally on a few bigger fish. Any frigate is worth a look, the lower the better, but if it’s slow, try following a high flier. Their eyes are a lot better than yours. They will normally see the bait sprays first.
Just about any bait you can think of will catch Dolphin. Ballyhoo are the number one bait used with straight plastics the second. I normally fast troll (7 to 10 knots) smaller plastics lures until I find fish then switch to ballyhoo if the plastics aren’t working, which is pretty rare. Having pitch rods rigged with ballyhoo or a nice, fat live bait, are a must. Most of my bigger fish have been hooked sight casting to a bull following a smaller fish hooked while trolling.
Bailing schoolies normally goes something like this, keep a hooked fish in the water and catch as may of his buddies with bait chunks on spinning tackle, as you like. Start with about five foot of leader and a 5/0 to 7/0 hook and a chunk of ballyhoo or squid. Keep that pitch rod rigged and ready for another big boy, just in case.
Dolphin fishing requires a bit of hunting. All of what I said before can be lumped into one thing, find something different. I highly recommend you check out a copy of Capt. Jim’s book and get down here to do some catching.
Tight Lines
Capt. Dallas
Most of the east coast has access to the Gulf Stream, which flows anywhere from 5 to 75 miles off the coast. This is the zone where the blue water pelagic species, Billfish, Wahoo, Tuna and Dolphin are found. In the Keys it is a little different, when water temperatures are uniform all over the Florida Straits, pelagic fish can be found anywhere. A Sargasso weed line found off Georgia will, almost always produce in May. Here in the Keys you may cross twenty weed lines before you find fish. So here are a few tips:
Surface water temperature: Any significant water temperature variation can hold fish. Typically, the higher the temperature, the better the bet. Look for a minimum of 74 degree and a maximum of 84 degrees water temperature. This has been my best temperature range. That’s why the Gulf Stream is the spot to fish. In the Keys more often than not, this holds true as well. But bayside water flow will create color changes anywhere from the edge of the reef to five miles past the reef. These color changes, green to blue, or power blue to cobalt blue are hot spots not to be over looked.
Weed lines: Sargasso weed is the ticket. Sargasso is living, floating vegetation that is full on life. If you find a good weed line that is alive, meaning you see bait in the line, there will be fish somewhere. Grass lines, created with a variety of bay grasses, are dead vegetation. Dying grass will hold little bait and therefore little fish. Every year, people catch a few fish in these grass lines, but the proper weed line will blow a grass line away. Look for the good stuff.
Eddy currents: Whether created by one of the Humps south of the Keys or by changing flow in the Gulf stream current will hold fish and normally big ones. Most of the eddy currents will be near a surface water temperature change.
Floaters: Floating debris is the most popular Dolphin indicator. Older floaters loaded with barnacles and bait are usually a Dolphin gold mine. But don’t overlook smaller floaters, like coconuts, trap buoys with line trailing down, or just a bucket or board. These can all hold fish.
The problem in the Keys is that a beautiful weed line or a fantastic floater, can move over the reef on one tide and back out offshore with the next. The reef fish, yellowtails, mackerel, jacks and chubs will eat everything out of the line and the line will hold squat. Look for bait in your line before devoting your whole day to trolling it. Birds, working the weed line is a good clue you may be in the right place.
As for birds, Frigates and Sooty Terns are the best to watch. Any type of tern is worth a look, but the Sooty terns don’t get wet, they rely on the predator fish to drive bait to the surface. Bigger fish normally have fewer birds. Hundreds of terns will normally be on a school of tuna or smaller dolphin. One or two terns lazily following a weed line are normally on a few bigger fish. Any frigate is worth a look, the lower the better, but if it’s slow, try following a high flier. Their eyes are a lot better than yours. They will normally see the bait sprays first.
Just about any bait you can think of will catch Dolphin. Ballyhoo are the number one bait used with straight plastics the second. I normally fast troll (7 to 10 knots) smaller plastics lures until I find fish then switch to ballyhoo if the plastics aren’t working, which is pretty rare. Having pitch rods rigged with ballyhoo or a nice, fat live bait, are a must. Most of my bigger fish have been hooked sight casting to a bull following a smaller fish hooked while trolling.
Bailing schoolies normally goes something like this, keep a hooked fish in the water and catch as may of his buddies with bait chunks on spinning tackle, as you like. Start with about five foot of leader and a 5/0 to 7/0 hook and a chunk of ballyhoo or squid. Keep that pitch rod rigged and ready for another big boy, just in case.
Dolphin fishing requires a bit of hunting. All of what I said before can be lumped into one thing, find something different. I highly recommend you check out a copy of Capt. Jim’s book and get down here to do some catching.
Tight Lines
Capt. Dallas
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