I hooked into a dolphin fishing the folly boat landing! they cruise that river and i was bottom fishing cut croaker, a pod of em rolled by then BAM rod gone! i was sittin down my rod was propped up on the fence, secure for any red, then the thing flys about 6ft over the rail and into the water. then its gone! i have also hooked and fought a few seagulls(they are hard to dehook!)
A small fish in hand is better than big fish in promise
Funny and recently appropriate story…
Fished on Monday and had a little help from flipper. A couple of dolphins actually pushed a medium-sized school of reds toward our boat. We had been following…OK, chasing this school and hooked one prior to this encounter. As the school was herded into close casting range I hooked up. This was about a 27 inch fish and gave a heck of a fight. I was using 11 lb. tippet so I was pretty ginger about bringing this guy in. One dolphin from the pod sat just barely in the deeper water head out flipping his chin up like he was sayin’ “HOOK ME UP! I HOOKED YOU UP”. The fish was eventually brought about 8 feet in front of the dolphin and the river ERUPTED! There is no doubt that this dolphin was chasing my fish. The fish ran shallow and the dolphin left. I landed the fish and there were no marks to indicate that it had been attacked. Funny thing is, when I noticed this behavior (chin nod )I asked my partner if he’s ever seen a dolphin take one off the line. His answer “NO” with a chuckle. But because the dolphin looked determined about this he busted out the video camera. videoed for a bit and set it down right before the blow up-NO…REALLY I SWEAR!
cant really speak much for boats since any time im at cooper river its shore fishin on base, but whenever the dolphins are in the middle of the river it doesnt seem to have much affect, but any time they go right where my line is…game over. never had a dolphin come after my fish, but i have had a gator start chasing a gar i hooked.