Last wednesday, the schoolie dolphin (15~25 lb) class started showing up in small groups around a buoy way east of Florida and North of the Bahamas. Nothing like waking up on the boat, spotting a fish and then catching him to start the day. Caught the fish on a flat side Butterfly jig, but couldn’t anyone to bite it after that.
On Thursday, I did manage to hook up with another dolphinfish with a Calcutta flash foil, but lost it after the splice knot for my braid gave out. I sight casted to the pack and of course the biggest one slammed it. My buddy hooked up again later in the day with the foil but the fish shook the hook. We stuck to hand lining for the rest of the trip. My buddy hauled in a 25 lb Bull ‘Old Man and the Sea’ style after losing the fish on light spin tackle.
I would guess within two weeks there should be some reports of such around here.
So my suggestion to the center console fleet is to get the tackle in order and get ready, because no one wants to miss the Dolphinfish bite.
Really enjoyed some nice weather on the 8 day at sea trip we had. Got to bring back some delicious tunas(Bigeye, Yellowfin, and Albacore). Caught a few marker swords, but nothing to brag about.
Looking for to a few days on land, before the next trip.