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Many on this board have far, far more experience than me on this subject, but I thought I'd share this trick with anyone that, like me, is just starting out.
I discovered a way of targetting the biggest mahi in a school this summer on my friend's boat the Whitecap III. It might be well-known technique, but I've never read it, so here goes:
When you pull up to a pot or piece of floating debris with a school of mahi under it, throw out a handful or two of butterfish chunks to get them in the mood. Then rig the biggest whole butterfish you can find just like you'd rig it for tuna (hide the hook through the mouth in the belly). When you lob out the big butterfish, a regular size mahi will grab it and run - let her go with it: keep your bail open or your reel in freespool and let her run. The bigger fish will see your fish running and shadow it. When your fish drops the bait to turn it around to swallow, a big one will come right up and steal it out from under your fish's nose. That's when you set the hook. I figured this out accidentaly when using a live snapper for bait. I tried to set the hook on a smaller fish, but it couldn't really get the bait in its mouth, so I yanked the bait out of its mouth by mistake and a much bigger fish came out of nowhere and nailed it. On that trip we managed to pull from a school of mostly 8#-10# fish two 18# females and a 22# bull (which I had a blast with on 15# spinning gear). Hope this help someone catch a big one!
I discovered a way of targetting the biggest mahi in a school this summer on my friend's boat the Whitecap III. It might be well-known technique, but I've never read it, so here goes:
When you pull up to a pot or piece of floating debris with a school of mahi under it, throw out a handful or two of butterfish chunks to get them in the mood. Then rig the biggest whole butterfish you can find just like you'd rig it for tuna (hide the hook through the mouth in the belly). When you lob out the big butterfish, a regular size mahi will grab it and run - let her go with it: keep your bail open or your reel in freespool and let her run. The bigger fish will see your fish running and shadow it. When your fish drops the bait to turn it around to swallow, a big one will come right up and steal it out from under your fish's nose. That's when you set the hook. I figured this out accidentaly when using a live snapper for bait. I tried to set the hook on a smaller fish, but it couldn't really get the bait in its mouth, so I yanked the bait out of its mouth by mistake and a much bigger fish came out of nowhere and nailed it. On that trip we managed to pull from a school of mostly 8#-10# fish two 18# females and a 22# bull (which I had a blast with on 15# spinning gear). Hope this help someone catch a big one!
