Sailfish techniques for catching mahi mahi

Sailfish 272CC Fishing © Sailfish Boats

Dolphin fish, commonly referred to using their Hawaiian name "mahi mahi" to avoid confusion with dolphin mammals ("Flipper"), ranks as one of the most popular fish in the ocean.

They are found world-wide in temperate offshore waters, they fight hard, they have gorgeous coloration, and they make excellent table fare. What's not to like?

Mahi grow very quickly, they only live four- or five-years tops, and they are voracious feeders, so they can be easy to catch. But as any seasoned mahi angler knows, they can also develop lockjaw and refuse almost everything you throw at them. So here are a few tips to help find mahi offshore and get them to bite.

It's common knowledge that mahi are often found under debris floating on the surface. This can be weed lines, patches of weed, a floating tree limb, or even a floating bucket. Check out anything and everything you find floating in blue water, and always assume a fish or two might be there.

You can do this by simply stopping and looking, or if you don't see them milling around under the flotsam, take a cast or two to make sure. Mahi love yellow bucktail jigs and they will also fall for a cut chunk of ballyhoo. If you do pull up to some floating debris and see the tell-tale blue and green mahi colors below, have a Ziplock bag full of pre-cut ballyhoo chunks ready. Toss a few chunks and you can often trigger a feeding frenzy.

Then cast chunks on hooks and you can begin picking them off. Remember to always leave one hooked fish in the water until someone else hooks a second fish, then you can boat the first one. The school will stay with the hooked fish, almost always enabling you to catch a few before they lose interest.

But what if there is no floating debris offshore? You can always troll for the fish using trolling feathers or rigged ballyhoo. But many savvy anglers prefer the "Run-and-Gun" method of locating mahi. That entails running around in the boat searching for signs of fish and then casting to them. Birds are the most common way these anglers find the mahi.

Frigate birds, often called "Man-O-War" birds, circle high in the air offshore using their keen eyesight to spot feeding fish below. When you see a frigate bird diving, always head straight to where they dove. That will often be mahi driving bait fish to the surface, where you can cast to them.

Learn to pay attention to the birds, and they will become your best allies in finding and catching more mahi mahi!