A planned deep-drop session out of the Florida Keys turned into a quick mahi run earlier this week when an 8-pound weight couldn't hold bottom in 600 feet of water and the only fishable option was to follow the trolling fleet. The result, on the camera of Angelooutdoors, was a workable morning of dorado in the calm.
The video, filmed two days ago, opens just after 7am with the sun barely up. "Calmer today, so we're going to be going deeper today," the host narrates as the boat heads further offshore than usual. The plan was to deep-drop the structure off the Keys for the resident bottom fish that hold there year-round. The current had other ideas.
"We didn't have good luck with deep-dropping at 600 feet of water," the host explains after the bottom rig refused to settle. "The current is too strong. Even with an 8-pound weight it won't hold the bottom. We saw a couple of boats trolling and joined them and got lucky with three mahi-mahi, took two small almaco jack, and also one rainbow runner."
Florida's recreational dolphinfish bag rules played squarely into the day. The minimum legal length is 20 inches at the fork. The first fish over the rail measured 23, the second a clean 23 again and the third 21, all keepers. "Beautiful mahi-mahi, Don," the host calls to his fishing partner as the first fish hits the deck. "Scored. Our legal limit is 20 inches. This is 23. Beautiful fish."
A second wave of mahi worked over the spread before it went quiet. The crew watched fish circle the boat after the hook-up, took advantage of the school behaviour and put squid baits down to try and pick off the followers. The bigger of those did exactly what Florida mahi will do under pressure — repeatedly ate the bait without committing to a hook.
"That thing got the squid. So you got a freebie," the host laughs as the fish takes another squid off the leader. "What the heck? That thing is smart. We're just feeding it. We're just feeding the mahi."
The successful trolling rigs were a textbook Keys dolphin spread. "We used a pink seawitch with a bonita strip and also a blue billy bait and a bonita strip," the host notes. Both are workhorse, small-skirt mahi lures designed to be teased along the surface and dressed with a strip of natural bait — the bonita giving the whole rig a wagging tail and the right scent profile when a school comes up.
The bycatch was, again, classic for the region in late spring. A pair of small almaco jacks slammed the trolled baits — "they eat anything," the host laughs as one comes over the rail — alongside a rainbow runner that ate before the camera could pick it up. The crew kept the slot-legal jacks and runner and put back the undersized fish, including a 19-and-a-half-inch dorado that fell half an inch short of the keeper line.
The day ended with five mahi to the boat, three of them keepers, after a planned bottom trip got switched on the fly. "Gorgeous day in the Florida Keys," the host signs off. "We're 600 feet deep. Plenty of fish to eat today." When the deep-drop won't hold, trolling pink seawitches and blue billy baits with a bonita strip behind a Florida Keys boat will almost always cover the day.
