Dancing With Dolphin: Find, Entice And Catch Mahi

(Originally published November/December 2018)

By Capt. Doug Kelley

Dolphin fishing in the Florida Keys is one of the most popular fisheries we have. Many anglers come from all over to fish for dolphin off the Keys, and Marathon is one of best areas to target them. April through July provides the best fishing here, though they are available year-round. There are many different techniques used to catch these fish. You can troll for them, drift live baits, kite fish and even catch them on jigs in certain conditions. Locating the fish is the primary part of dolphin fishing; you must find them if you really want to be successful, and you need to look for certain things to find them. There are techniques that work well for catching them once you find them, and I will go over them.

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Finding dolphin can be tricky if you have never done it before. You are looking for a few basic conditions. These fish move from day to day with the Gulf Stream, and where you catch them one day you may not catch them the next. So begin with finding the Gulf Stream.

Locating the stream can be done a few different ways. You can do it simply by keeping an eye on the water temperature gauge on your depth sounder. You are looking for