Offshore Dolphin (Mahi Mahi) Sport Fishing Islamorada

Fishing Charters Florida Keys with Captain Rick Killgore

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Paul Zagat catches 30 lb. dolphin that he hooked himself as they were tailing down sea.

   

Ed Lint's son, Jaret, catches this 30 pound "slammer" dolphin, and they catch "big gaffer" dolphin along with some nice blackfin tunas.

         

 

Chris and Hope Dorsey came back, but this time instead of trying to best their 10 tarpon released one July 14th they wanted to go offshore to fill the cooler. As we ran out we found a floating pallet, and we caught a couple nice gaffers on it. There were a couple nice triple tail, but we could not keep our baits from the jacks and trigger fish. We gave it a good try, but I knew Chris wanted to catch bigger fish too not just good eating fish so we started trolling again. We caught enough dolphin for the box, but it was slow for the fleet on the radio - lots of undersized fish - same for us. I started my way back in after getting over 20 miles offshore

Trolling a weed line the left rigger gets knocked down, I turn expecting a dolphin and a billfish comes out of water shaking and jumping all over. I could not see it's dorsal, just it's belly as it charged the boat. I punched the boat to keep the line tight. Then it made a nice run. Chris had the rod, and I got him up to the bow so we could follow it. It was not more than 50 pounds. It could be a white marlin or even a small blue this time of year, the suspense was gnawing at me. Then it jumped up again, tail-walking right at the boat 150 yards out. I had to floor it in reverse to help keep the line tight. What was it I couldn't see clearly, a white marlin? Then it jumped again now just 50 yards out and I see the sail, sailfish, a great fish to catch while dolphin fishing.

I decide to run in to hit a wreck for snapper or amberjacks, because the dolphin fishing was spotty for keepers. That was a good decision. First drop Chris hooks and catches a nice mutton snapper around 14 pounds. Then we dropped a second time for Hope, and she catches another mutton snapper around 12 lbs. In two drops we catch two big mutton snapper at the end of the day. Now a day that started out tough for dolphin just became a GREAT DAY: one sailfish released, two big mutton snappers, and a good box of dolphin. Photos will be up this week.

It could not happen to a better couple. Chris serves on the front lines in the "War on Terror" in the "Special Forces" for around the last 10 years. Thank you so much Chris and Hope for your all's sacrifice for "our safety and freedom" keeping our enemies at bay a long way away from our country. I am so happy you all had another great day fishing down here with me. You all really deserve it, and you all are a pleasure to fish with.

Rob Sanderson and his friend have a fun day primarily blue marlin fishing. We had the big #50 test stand-ups out most of the day. We saw one small billfish up on the surface, which seemed to be bigger than a sailfish but not that big. It never came upon the baits, and I worked that area good. Around early afternoon we started to look for dolphin, and the first set of birds we found we caught these dolphin. After that they said they had enough, and we returned a little early.

Half day fishing with the Mendeck family, and we got chased around by bad weather to boot.

We caught these two dolphin within the first half hour of fishing on a perfect day for dolphin fishing. It was blowing 15 knots out of the S.E., 3' to 5' seas, and the birds were chasing the dolphin tailing down sea - perfect. Unfortunately the kids got sea sick, and we had to run in. One of my friends caught 30 dolphin over 20 lbs. and 4 or 5 over 30 lbs.

My boat is very good in rough water, more stable than one would expect. It does not get tossed around like a large offshore boat with a cabin and tower and a deep-V which is a lot of top heavy weight exacerbating the fulcrum effect of rocking left and right.

This was a tough day fishing, because it was the second day of strong west wind, which is very bad for offshore fishing. The dolphin like an east wind to surf the waves against the current so as to cover more water to catch more bait. But I found a current line at the end of the day and the frigate birds were following numerous groups of dolphin tailing the waves coming from the west going with the current, a very peculiar situation.

Byron Fields, and friends caught these three of six nice dolphin while sight casting to them as they were tailing down sea. This is very fun for the angler, and challenging. You are very involved while doing this. I run the boat up top and you have to bait your own hooks and cast to the fish and pivot your rods around to back to troll if you do not get a hit after the cast. When I find another fish tailing, we get at least another angler up to the bow to cast while keeping at least one bait trolling behind the boat.

Of course if we are looking for fish and trolling, we have a full spread out. Including rods set up for the hopeful shot at a big blue marlin.

Kids love dolphin fishing. This was a slow day for the fleet, but we managed to find these dolphin. We caught two nice triple tails and numerous bar jacks under a pallet too.

Here is a father and son from Miami with a couple "heavy lifter" size dolphin on a slow day with another west wind.

 

Kids love catching dolphin, especially schoolies. That is my nephew, Bennett. He and his brother, Eddie, caught at least 20 out of that school.

A nice photo of the boat from the front.