Anyone who fished the 98’ White Marlin Open remembers how the first week of August found anglers frustrated by seven days of strong northeast winds and rough seas. Conditions weren’t fun, and maybe that’s a week a lot of fishermen would like to forget, but some good did come of it, and I don’t just mean that we found out how strong our boats and stomachs were (or weren’t).

Day after day easterly winds pushed offshore waters closer to shore. When things finally calmed down, anglers were delighted to find beautiful clean water and lots of sargassum weed as close in as the twenty fathom line. Right away anglers fishing the 20-30 fathom zone found an increase in billfish hookups, an excellent yellowfin tuna bite, and some pretty good wahoo action. But most of all, thanks to clean water and lots of grass - the dolphin fishing went ballistic!

Right from the start, let me say that I’m calling these fish "dolphin" because I’m talking about fishing off the U.S. east coast. Perhaps if I was describing the Mexican fishery I use "dorado" or in Hawaii call them "mahi-mahi". But since we’re all big people here, I figure I don’t have to candy-coat the name so folks won’t think I referring to Flipper. So much for trying to be "politically correct"!

THE ULTIMATE OFFSHORE GAMEFISH - When it comes to just being an all-round great offshore gamefish, I don’t think anything comes close to the dolphin. They’re relatively abundant, they can be taken using just about any fishing method an angler desires, they come in sizes small enough that little children can have fun with them and large enough to tax the skill and stamina of any big game veteran. The dolphin’s spectacular fight often keeps them more in the air then the water, they’re absolutely beautiful, easy to clean, and are one of the best tasting fish in the sea. What more could you ask for?

FISHING DEBRIS - After a long, unproductive day of trolling, a big old piece of lumber covered with goose neck barnacles can be one of the most welcome and uplifting sights for an offshore fisherman. Probably the best known fact about dolphin is their affinity for hanging around floating debris. It doesn’t matter if it’s a telephone pole, a patch of seaweed, or a bucket, if it’s spent enough time in the right water it’s a potential dolphin magnet.

It’s hard to say exactly why a dolphin would choose to hold beneath a 5’ length of rope or a bushel basket, but likely the love-affair starts far to the south in the Sargasso Sea. Here, among millions of acres of sargassum weed, life for much of the ocean’s creatures begins.

Carried north by Gulf Stream currents, sargassum weed brings with it thousands of species of marine animals, including dolphin. The floating weeds are entire ecosystems of their own offering residents food, cover, and act a sort of reference point in the ocean. Periodically, easterly winds push sargassum weed out of the Gulf Stream and into the shallower shelf waters. Among these separated "weedlines" and "patches" are found much of the life that originated far to the south.

As it they move west, congregations of weed often break-up leaving dolphin without the large blocks of the natural cover they’re accustomed to. Now, drift a floating boat cushion, or wooden pallet into the equation, and some dolphin might just figure they’ve found a new hangout.

To the fisherman in dolphin country, this means that anything they find floating on the surface, whether natural or man-made, is worth checking for fish. Debris that’s been in the water for a long time has the best potential for holding fish and can be identified by the growth of grass and barnacles.

Considering the relationship between dolphin and weed, anglers should pay close attention to any grass in their fishing area. Any type of seaweed might hold dolphin, but anglers should remember that the bright yellow/orange sargassum weed is prime habitat as it comes from the dolphin’s homeland. The greenish/brown seaweed sometimes seen offshore comes from inshore waters and is, therefore, less likely to hold fish.

When conditions are right, wind and currents will push weed into long "weedlines" resembling paths over the ocean that anglers can often troll along for miles. Other times the sargassum weed is all broken up and scattered. Trolling through such conditions is like picking one’s way through a mine field. The fish might be in there, but the trick can be catching a bunch before the crew, frustrated from constantly clearing weeds off the lines, orders the boat out to open water!

TROLLING - Around the globe, trolling has traditionally been the most common method for catching dolphin. For good reason too, by covering a lot of water, anglers can locate weedlines, floating debris, temperature breaks, pods of bait, or anything else that might concentrate fish in an area.

Around here it’s hard to say whether more dolphin are caught trolling or bailing. But certainly most of the big dolphin are caught trolling. It’s somewhat ironic too that few of these fish are caught by anglers actually trolling for dolphin. Instead, fishermen typically rig their baits and lures to catch billfish or tuna. If dolphin attack that’s (usually) fine. But in fishermen’s pursuit of bigger quarry, the yellow and green speedsters are pretty much just a welcomed by-catch.

The dolphin’s voracious appetite means that just about anything a fisherman might drag, these fish are likely to bite. There are, however, a few little tricks fishermen can employ that will target dolphin more specifically, and possibly allow them to snag some of the more finicky fish.

Big dolphin will attack any size terminal rig. But the average (under 20 lb.) fish will more readily hit small baits, or lures in the 4-6" range. Jap feathers and Zuker type lures are favorites especially in green/yellow or blue/white patterns. As for baits, #12 or the smaller #16 ballyhoo are great, as are bonito or dolphin belly strips rigged behind a sea-witch, plastic skirt, or feather.

Anglers will often start their day pulling for tuna or billfish. Dolphin rigs are set-up and ready, but not put out until weedlines, floating debris, or other "habitat" is encountered. This way anglers can focus on the big "glory" fish and still be ready to take advantage of dolphin opportunities as they come along.

The trick is to quickly get the rigged trolling baits in, and the other baits out before the dolphin attack. A feat that can save a lot of time, effort, expense, and aggravation re-rigging an entire spread of costly trolling baits quickly demolished by a hungry school of little dolphin.

When they spot surface debris, anglers shouldn’t worry about trolling too close to it right away. Large gamefish often hang around and feed on small dolphin congregated beneath such objects. One tactic is to first spend some time circling from a distance with big baits, then switch over to dolphin rigs, move in and target whatever is under the debris.

Dolphin will sometimes move quite far from their home to snatch up a meal. Anytime anglers get what they think is a blind strike, they should immediately start circling and looking for anything floating that they didn’t see before the bite. Especially on choppy days, or if the debris is very small, fishermen might catch a fish or two, but miss an opportunity for a lot more bites by not spotting, and fishing over, the "nest".

BAILING - "Bailing" is a term that’s used to describe a method of catching dolphin whereby the boat is stopped and anglers attempt to catch them from a school, or from a group of fish, that has congregated beneath a floating object.

Known as "bailers" the typical dolphin taken using this method will average 2-5 pounds. Fortunately, what they lack in size, bailers usually make up for in numbers. It’s not uncommon for anglers to quickly fill a cooler with these tasty fish when a school they’re fishing is hungry.

The typical fishing scenario whereby anglers end up bailing dolphin usually starts with them trolling until they hook a dolphin or two as they pass some sort of floating debris. At this point the anglers might bring in all their trolling lines and prepare light tackle rods with small 1/0 - 3/0 hooks on about 3’ of 30 lb. leader. Chunk type baits are cut from ballyhoo, bonito, squid, butterfish or about any other baitfish available to put on the hooks and to use for chum.

The boat is then pulled within casting range of the debris, a small handful of chum is thrown into the water to get the fish feeding, and hooked baits are cast or floated back to the hungry fish.

Response is immediate as the hungry fish rush to snap up the baits before their schoolmates get them first. This is where things in the cockpit get crazy, and messy - real quick. Dolphin go absolutely nuts when they hit the deck, they shake, vibrate, jump, and slither around on their stomachs like a snake. Meanwhile they’re spraying blood and breakfast all over everywhere. With two or three anglers steadily pulling fish after fish over the side, the scene of a nice clean boat with nice clean anglers changes into something resembling a horror movie in about two minutes!

Experienced fishermen know that the best approach to bailing dolphin is to have no more than half the crew handling the rods, and the other half cutting bait, chumming, baiting hooks, removing hooks from fish, putting fish in the cooler, and washing down blood and fish puke. Oh yea, they must also put some of the sneakier fish back into the cooler that jumped out the first time!

Eventually, after they see enough of their relatives take the elevator ride up to the boat and not return, even the hungriest bunch of dolphin will start getting finicky and avoid anglers hooked baits. This is when fishermen should poke around their tackle boxes for bucktails, spoons, metal jigs, or surface plugs. Any lure with a lot of flash or action can induce a response from dolphin that have turned-off to bait.

Since big fish are more prone to be on the outskirts of the rest of the school, lures cast out and away, or sunk down deep below the fish that are being bailed, will sometimes get bites from large "gaffer" size dolphin.

FLY FISHING - With the recent boom in saltwater fly fishing popularity, more anglers are realizing that dolphin are prime targets for the long rods. Aside from using live bait, a properly presented fly is probably the most effective way to tempt a dolphin to bite. Everything about dolphin speaks favorably to the fly fisherman.

Size - Since these fish might be encountered in sizes ranging from one to over fifty pounds, it can certainly be said that there’s a dolphin out there capable of taxing the skill and tackle of any fly fishermen from beginner to expert.

Consistency - In late when summer dolphin establish residency under buoys, bass and lobster pot markers, fly fishermen can put to sea with reasonable certainty that they will be able to locate fish. This isn’t "shot in the dark type fishing" experienced anglers will know exactly where to go to get on the fish.

Responsive - When dolphin are hungry they’ll probably eat any fly pattern someone has in their box. When they’re not so hungry it might take a little experimenting, but the right color and pattern will eventually be found and fish will be caught.

Variety of tackle - Since dolphin come in all sizes, anglers can get away with using quite a variety of fly tackle. Most fishermen will likely find that 8 to 10-weight rods with decent reels will handle most of the fish they encounter although some might prefer going as high as 12-weight if they have ambitions of tangling with the really big monsters.

COURTESY - I remember a beautiful flat calm day a few years ago. We were trolling an area without another boat in sight. Spotting a old foam cushion on the surface, I naturally trolled past it. Immediately we hooked a nice dolphin. We boated the fish and made another pass, when we hooked the second fish we could see that the school beneath the cushion was huge and obviously hungry!

The fish were nice size and our tackle was light, so every time we hooked up we’d stop the boat, play the dolphin out, and then return to the school. The fish were cooperating at a steady pace so we chose to continue trolling past the cushion rather than stopping to bail the fish.

After about fifteen minutes I noticed a small boat running directly towards us. Obviously they had seen us making a lot of turns and realized we had something going on. With the amount of fish that were there, two boats could easily have taken turns trolling past the cushion and everyone could have been successful.

Unfortunately, the four guys on the other boat rushed in, shut down five feet from the cushion, threw out a handful of chum, and all started casting spinning rods. I tried trolling past but couldn’t get close enough because they were casting so far out, and in every direction. Besides, now the dolphin were feeding so heavily on all the chum they were tossing over that the fish were spoiled and wouldn’t hit a trolled bait.

It’s common courtesy that if someone finds debris that no one else fishes it until they’re through and move away, or until they’re called by the other boat to come over and take part in the action. At the very least the anglers on the other boat that day should have trolled the cushion, like we were doing. After we left, if they wanted to try bailing the dolphin that would be their option.

FREEZING - If there’s anything about dolphin that’s not good, it’s their life expectancy in the freezer. Vacuum wrap, double wrap, freeze them in water, so many ways to try and maintain the wonderful flavor of fresh dolphin but, alas, nothing really seems to work for long term storage. The fact is, some fish keep well, some don’t. Dolphin is on the top of the list of those that don’t.

Anglers should keep this in mind when they hit the mother-load of cooperative fish, keeping only what they’ll eat fresh, and freezing just enough to get them through the next two or three months. Much longer than that and frozen dolphin fillets tend to get a strong freezer-like taste to them. No sense in killing and wasting even a single one of these extraordinary and perfect gamefish.