Mahi Madness

by Capt. Joe Hendrix

It’s mahi mahi madness here in the Keys. We have continued to have a big mass of mahi move through the Keys the last two months. We are very lucky because we can catch our limit easily and quickly. They have been mostly schoolie-sized mahi (anywhere from a 3 to 10 lb. fish), but, it has been fun.

There have been some massive schools of fish. It is always hard to estimate how many fish are in a school, but I would have to guess that some seem to be a hundred or more.

It also seems like the fish are a little closer to shore (15 miles and closer), which has been great for charter fishing - saves on gas.

Mahi are such a great fish to catch - they pull, they jump and, sometimes, they even go deep. On top of that, they are pretty as well. There is nothing better than getting a great picture of a freshly caught mahi right out of the water with all their amazing colors. And, most people’s favorite part is that they are excellent eating.

Like I mentioned, we have had a lot of schoolie-sized fish so far this year, which has been great, because they are a great fight on light tackle, and are, in my opinion, the better eating size. We have been catching a few trophy-sized ones as well, but not in good numbers.

On top of the mahi fishing, the tuna fishing has gotten worth talking about as well. We are starting to see some nice fish move on to the humps in our area. At the same time, our live pilchards are starting to move in, which makes for some fun fishing. When it works out, we catch as many pilchards as we can and take them to the hump. Then, we can chum the tunas right behind the boat by throwing several free ones and then throwing a hook bait. We also catch the bigger ones in the crowd this way.

It’s good to see that the tunas are showing up in good numbers. This gives us some more good fishing as the mahi fishing starts to slow down. But, right now, it’s awesome that we can get a little of both, making for some great fishing months!

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