CAPTAIN JOEL’S FISHIN’ HOLES

Early

Early season mahi (dolphin) fishing is heating up already. I always call dolphin mahi or dorado so that non-anglers who may be reading this won't think I'm writing about Flipper or Winter the dolphin. Many regard Marathon as the mahi capital of the world – even Marathon High School’s mascot is the Dolphins. March through October is what most consider mahi season, even though the fishery is never technically closed here in the Keys.

Big mahi have been showing up between 15 and 30 miles offshore. Several big bulls have been caught this month in and around the Marathon Humps. Weed lines have been forming, birds have been on ballyhoo, and floating objects are being found more often than usual due to all the migrant vessels. These are the three main things we look for while mahi fishing.

We haven't been catching a lot of mahi, so the quantity is normal for this time of year, but when we find one of the three things we're looking for – weeds, birds or floaters – we've been catching big mahi, so the quality has been better this year than in years past.

Some people attribute the great quality this year to the drop in the bag limit starting last year. Some say that the Bahamians are concentrating their commercial fishing efforts on lobstering rather than dolphin fishing to capitalize on the Chinese market in the wake of growing U.S. sanctions against China. Some even say it has to do with global warming, giving mahi more tropical-type water to spawn in.

While no one can say for sure, for whatever reason, anglers are bagging more big mahi this winter than in years past.

…is a fifth-generation Floridian and second-generation fishing captain who owns and operates Ana Banana Fishing Company in Marathon. His passions include fishing, hunting and spending time with his family.

Our number one bait for mahi is trolling rigged ballyhoo. Many people catch their own ballyhoo and rig them for trolling. Since we're chartering almost every day, we don't have the time or energy to rig our own. We buy most of our pre-rigged ballyhoo from Captain Hook’s in Marathon.

The second bait would be trolling a pink- and root beer-colored squiggly. I like to buy my squigglies from the Tackle Box in Marathon, which makes a squiggly called the “Triple D” that works wonders.

The third-best bait is live bait. If I can't catch my own live bait I get it from Captain Lucas Ponzoa by boat or Deana Smart by boat or truck. I also buy tackle and bait at Big Time Bait and Tackle and Marathon Bait and Tackle. Pilchards are my favorite live bait for mahi. If you can find goggleeyes they are probably even better, but hard to find.

1. ‘Young guns’ captain Tucker Carlson, J.C. Carlson, Clay Daniels and Michael Ruiz fished their way to a third-place finish in the Largest Dolphin category in the 2022 Bull & Cow Tournament. BARRY GAUKEL/ Keys Weekly

2. Roger Haines shows off his stud bull. CONTRIBUTED

3. Bill Sherman holds up a trophy. CONTRIBUTED

We haven't been catching a lot of mahi, so the quantity is normal for this time of year, but when we find one of the three things we're looking for – weeds, birds or floaters – we've been catching big mahi, so the quality has been better this year than in years past.

We fish several mahi tournaments each year and we love them all. Our favorite mahi tournament of the year is called the Marathon Bull and Cow Tournament, scheduled this year for May 5-7. The tournament awards up to $25,000 in prizes and reserves some prize money for other species like tuna, wahoo and tripletail. Prizes are given for the heaviest three-fish combo, the largest overall fish and the largest combined bull and cow weight, among others.

If you want to catch an early season trophy bull, go now! Hope to see y'all out there!

To book a charter with Ana Banana, call or text Capt. Joel at 813-267-4401 or Capt. Jojo at 305-879-0564, or visit anabananafishing.com.