An early Florida Keys morning that was meant to be a deep-drop session turned, mid-tide, into a textbook bonita-strip mahi run. The video from Angelooutdoors, posted two days ago, is a useful reminder that flexibility is the Keys offshore angler's best lure.
The day started before sunrise. "It's calmer today, so we're going to be going deeper today," the host explains in the first minute, the deck still wet from the run out. The original plan was to deep-drop the structure off the Keys for the bottom species that hold there. Six hundred feet of water and an 8-pound weight should have been enough on a normal day.
"We didn't have good luck with deep-dropping at 600 feet of water," he says after the rig drifted at depth. "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."
The trolling switch turned the day. The Florida recreational dolphinfish minimum length is 20 inches at the fork — and the first three keepers hit the deck at 23, 23 and 21 inches respectively. "Beautiful mahi-mahi, Don," he calls to his fishing partner as the first one rolls boatside. "Our legal limit is 20 inches. This is 23. Beautiful fish."
What is striking from the footage is how textbook the schools behaved. The first hook-up brought a follower under the boat almost immediately. "There's another mahi at the back," the host calls. "Let's get that one. There's another one following it." A jig and a squid bait went down to try to intercept, and the bigger follower repeatedly stripped the squid off the leader without committing to the hook.
"What the heck? That thing is smart," the host laughs as the squid disappears for the third time. "We're just feeding the mahi."
The spread is the bit anyone running a Keys mahi day should note. "We used a pink seawitch with a bonita strip, and also a blue billy bait and a bonita strip," the host confirms. The pink seawitch is a colour that has produced for decades in the Keys, and the blue billy bait is the small-skirt offshore lure that the Florida fleet has built its dolphin spread around. The bonita-strip dressing is the part that often gets skipped — a fresh, supple natural-bait dressing that fish track with their mouths.
The by-catch is also a tell. "Those are small almaco jack," the host says when a lighter rod loads up. "They eat anything." A rainbow runner ate at speed and was kept along with the legal almacos, both of which travel well to the smoker and table.
The day ended with five mahi to the boat — three keepers, one 19-and-a-half that went back, and one shaker — alongside the two almaco jacks and the rainbow runner. "Gorgeous day in the Florida Keys," the host signs off. "We're 600 feet deep. Plenty of fish to eat today."
For the Anglerfishing.pro reader heading out of the Keys in May, the lesson is the standard one. If the deep-drop will not hold bottom, look for the trolling fleet. A pink seawitch and a blue billy bait, both dressed with bonita strip, will cover any mahi school working the surface in clean water at first light.
