August Mahi dolphin fishing has been pretty good. After the winds of June and May finally slowed down the mahi mahi fishing started to heat up out in the blue water South of Key West. Although we have not seen many of the flat calm “dog days” of summer our key west deep sea fishing charters are still getting out far enough to find and then catch the dolphin fish that so many folks come to Key West to fish for.
Mahi Dolphin Fishing Report
August is typically really hot and this year it has not failed to produce the heat. We certainly have had some very hot days so far. Wind wise thought lately we have really had a nice weather pattern that has allowed us to get out into the Blue Water. Breezes from the south east and South South East have been prevailing so far this month. The windier days have been tearing the weed lines apart, making it very difficult to troll in certain areas where these broken weed lines are scattered all over hell and back. On board my 47ft Viking the INXS I have been finding those broken up weed lines between 500 and 800 feet last few days. That equates roughly to 12 to 16 miles out. My mate, Garret, and I don’t mind fishing the broken weed as long as it produces some results but lately that’s not been the case so moving offshore has been required to get into some nice fish. Moving out past those broken Weed lines getting closer to the wall and beyond I’ve been fishing areas that have shown up with monstrous large solid batches of weed that are acres in Size. Very impressive for sure however, these large monster patches of weed are not holding the fish. I’ve been finding the mahi out 50 sometimes 100 yards away from the weed line out in the Blue Water where they can maybe retreat back to the big Weed patches for shelter. I’m not sure but I thought for sure when I got up next to these big weed patches, we would just start seeing tons of fish and we did not.
It seems that the last few days before the full moon this this month the bite for the mahi-mahi dolphin didn’t really come on until about 10:30 to 11 o’clock for most of us out there working trolling trying to get our folks some fish. The occasional Sailfish was caught and a few wahoo which is typical for a full moon. Overall, the dolphin Fishing’s been pretty good with nice sizable fish.
Typically, this time of year we get mostly schoolies which are fish that are barely legal. That’s just over the 20 inch mark. Not to mention the huge number of peanuts that we often run into a peanut is an undersized dolphin are very small. That said the last few trips I’ve been out on. We’ve got some fish up to an approaching 28 inches. put a few of those in the box and that makes for a nice dinner.
Fishing Techniques
On board the INXS here out of Key West we typically troll six and sometimes seven lines. This includes four baits across the top two baits down deep off the Downrigger’s and sometimes one very long bait way in the back off of our upper outrigger we call the shotgun. Most of our lures have ballyhoo in them for meat and we often throw a lot of naked Ballyhoo!, which do not have lures or skirts more of a natural approach. Definitely the fishing we’ve noticed lately has been the larger fish have been hitting our larger lures, and everybody wants to meat.
On our short lines, we typically run Iland lures such as the Seastar or sail star that have plunger heads on them on the top to give a nice surface action and we stagger them one’s a little bit longer than the other. On our long positions will typically run the Iland Junior on one side and then a naked natural ballyhoo on the other to start with on most of our days just to kind of see what the bites gonna be like. Our main goal in our trolling spread is to attract larger fish, and stay away from the peanuts.
Mahi Fishing Forecast
Looking at the Long Range Forecast AKA L.R.F. I see that the winds will pretty much stay consistent out of the Southeast keeping our flow very good for dolphin fishing. The Gulf Stream current has been very close to the reef and that’s nice however, most of our quality fish will probably be found very deep maybe near the wall and that’s about 20 miles out. Up against the reef, there are still of kingfish Bonito barracudas and the occasional tuna still being caught, but for the quality mahis I’m afraid the long runs will be needed.
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Booking A Deep Sea Fishing Charter
A couple of considerations when booking a deep sea fishing charter this time of year, especially in August. Is booking last minute is Ok and Make sure that you book at least a six or an eight hour deep Sea Fishing charter. These two things we’ll get you the best results. Everybody wants larger fish and they want a number of fish. A six or eight hour day in August will definitely benefit the outcome of your day.
Pro tip is to keep in mind that it’s very hot in August so an air-conditioned Boat may be requirement for you and your group. My boat, the INXS out of Key West has two air-conditioning systems in it that keep it very nice and cool inside in case somebody needs to relieve themselves from the heat.
Booking a fishing charter is very easy. All you have to do is call my office and speak to Gennifer. She will go over all the details, the pricing and the amenities of every boat that we have on our list, including the INXS.
Call Direct 305-292-7212
Text Us 786-847-3808
Email Me Steven@fishingkeywest.com
