Hurricane season is winding down and we took a beating here in Florida this year. Fall is also kicking in and water temps are coming down. This combination has the inshore water getting cooler and green making a more dramatic contrast between the ever-flowing Gulf Stream’s blue water. Recently we had a weather window a week after a brush with Hurricane Milton. While many were severely damaged by this storm, we were lucky to escape major issues here on the East Coast of Central Florida. We pulled up our SatFish SST chart online and saw a dramatic break between inshore water and the current of the Stream. We decided to go check it out and we had heard a few decent dolphin reports a day or two previous.
What we didn’t know was just how stirred up the water was for the first 30 miles. We found hideous green-brown water from the giant swells reaching down and stirring up the bottom. We did find a strip of semi-clean water in 170 feet with some flying fish kicking out of our wake. We made a mental note as a fall-back plan, but thanks to the insight of the SatFish chart, we knew we were looking for a more distinct break. As we approached 500 feet, the edge was plain as day. Dirty brown water boiling up against blue with a scattering of weed and debris. The temperature jumped from 81.5 to 83.5 as we crossed into the clean, blue water.
This was definitely the place to set out our dolphin spread and see if anyone was home. Outriggers deployed, suction cup flatline clips in place, we started feeding out our spread of naked swimmer ballyhoo behind the boat while doing about 6 knots. While sending the second bait up the rigger, the clip popped and a small dolphin attacked the bait. This began a steady pick of gaffer and bailer dolphin that lasted for hours. We also hooked up, but jumped off a sailfish. We followed the edge back to the southwest and by the end of the day we were back in 200 feet.
We were targeting dolphin using sailfish techniques of small ballyhoo rigged naked with Ringer swivels and ¼ ounce chin weights. When the ballyhoo are prepped and rigged this way, they swim as if they’ve come back to life. It makes a highly edible presentation because there is no plastic or hair adorning the bait to hinder swallowing it quickly. Another benefit of this style is the fact that all of your rigged baits fit in ziplock bags waiting for deployment. It eliminates a cooler full of leaders and hooks getting tangled. You grab a ballyhoo, flex it to re-limber it, and pass your hook through the o-ring or eye of a swivel.
The trade is that your baits don’t make as much commotion in the spread so we offset this fact by always pulling a teaser. Teasers come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and complexity. From simple squid chains to high-tech dredges, the goal is to elevate the fish attracting presence behind your boat and draw fish towards your spread where they then pick off and devour your easy-to-eat naked baits. I think it’s important to keep your spread manageable for the weather conditions, size of boat, and number and experience of your crew. I want a simple but effective spread where I don’t risk losing fish because I have too much going on.
We were fishing on the 39 SeaVee, Lola. We fish two outriggers, two flat lines and a shotgun off the rod tip from the rocket launcher. One squid chain teaser with a dolphin belly/Ilander lure combo chasing the last 8-inch squid. I like a tough, but natural strip on the back of the teaser so that a fish that nips it gets the taste and feel of the real thing. A strip of bonita or dolphin belly secured without a hook is my go-to. I rig a snap swivel in the back of the last squid and make the tipped trailer a chugger head or Ilander on its own short leader so it can be rigged and stored in the bait cooler.
One last, but very important step in this style of fishing is the way we set up the reels. This is what we always called “Dink” fishing and way back we used short shank J-hooks just in the chin of the bait. Just as in the modern method of “swivel” baits, the hook is way forward in the bait and the fish needs time to eat the bait completely. Many use circle hooks in the swivel application for billfish, but we also use a short shank J-hook when dolphin fishing. It’s purely personal preference and it is fished the same way. So, in order to build in an automatic, extended drop back, we fish the reels with just the slightest tension from the drag and the clicker on. A lever drag reel works best and you have to feather just enough drag to prevent a backlash on a hard bite. The goal is for the fish to take line without feeling any pressure. To do this we have to twist the line before we put it in the outrigger clip and that keeps the line from just paying out from the reel. The clip is set as light as possible and the bait must be put in place in the spread before putting the line in the clip. The twists keep the line from sliding through the clip until a bite. The clip pops and the drop back begins.
The line starts to pay off the reel with the clicker on and the angler heads to the reel. We like to scoop up the rod and take the clicker off to reduce the pressure even more. After a 4 to 6 second drop back, we engage the reel to your fighting drag and begin to reel down tight. The fish should have had plenty of time to eat their way to the hook and the hook up ratio is very good using this method. It’s also just plain fun. If you see the fish before it bites, you can pick up the reel, kill the clicker and be waiting in full free spool to feed him with no resistance. If not, the set up will drop back to the fish until the angler can get there to hook it up. If you’re too slow, a dolphin will sometimes swim across the spread and eat a second bait because they don’t suspect the light rig. If a fish ever comes up jumping during the drop back, then you better tighten up quick because you’ve been made.
This method is something we do when we feel like dolphin or sails are the most likely fish to encounter and we have a definite structure or edge to fish. This is where the SST charts shine. They help you know where to find the break created when water masses are shearing against each other collecting weeds, trash, and bait. This is most likely where any gamefish in the area will also congregate to feed. For more general trolling we often add a deep line with a trolling sinker and a wire leader bait for wahoo. You can also put a wire leader on the shotgun. But if I’m catching dolphin on an edge, I pull the deep line out of the spread because it’s hard to catch a fish that jumps with the sinker or planar in-line and it takes longer to clear in an active bite. Give this method a try and see how your hook ups improve and so does your fun!
