Blue Water Fishing
From the deep blue water to the shallow reef, trolling is always a good choice. Nearly all the fish you catch trolling are pelagic fish, which means they migrate during certain times of the year.
In the summer that includes mahi mahi (dolphin) and in the winter sailfish are the most popular to catch. In the winter, we mostly go after sailfish in 80 ft to 200 ft of water using live ballyhoo, pilchards, or thread herring.
We use 4 lines on the surface, 1 down deep and 1 teaser to raise the fish. Slow trolling in and out of gear usually works the best. Sailfish are not the only fish you might see in addition to mahi mahi(dolphin), king fish, barracuda, black fin tuna, bonito, sharks, and wahoo can be caught as well.
All of the sailfish on the Second Nature are safely released using circle hooks. We use light tackle on most rods and reels when trolling with 20 to 40 lb mono on nearly everything. Big mahi mahi (dolphin) and sailfish can fight up to one hour or more. All of the fish you might catch in the winter can also be caught in the summer. For the mahi mahi, the 6 and 8 hr trip is better so we can travel farther offshore and get in deeper water ranging from 100 to 2,000 feet.
In the summer, monster mahi travel south against the current while smaller mahi travel north in large schools of sometimes 100 fish or more. This is where you might get a chance at a blue marlin feeding on the small mahi mahi. There are blue marlin and white marlin here, but the are not as plentiful as sailfish.
Trolling 5 to 8 knots while using fresh rigged ballyhoo will put a variety of fish on the boat. If for some reason the blue water is slow, trolling across the reef always provides action.
Here, you will find yellow tail and mutton snapper; black, red, jag grouper, cero, Spanish, king mackerel, barracuda, bar jacks and any of the blue water fish can be on the reef feeding on schools of bait like ballyhoo. Some of the good eating fish are kept for dinner and others are released. Trolling is different every day, so anything can happen in a big ocean.
