Watch the Water for Fish

The boat had barely settled from a plane when my son began stripping line to put a bait in the backwash. Two minutes later, he had another flat line behind the boat skipping the wave crests thirty yards back. We were headed for blue water and some dolphin fishing on the ledge some forty miles off of St Augustine, Florida, when we ran into a whole school, or maybe I should say flock, of flying fish. I learned a long time ago never to pass up a school of flying fish. Perhaps the all time favorite food for dolphin, they always draw the attention of at least a few feeding fish.

This particular school of flying fish was comparatively close to shore. We picked them up at around ten miles in only seventy feet of water. Normally we don't see them until we reach a depth of at least one hundred feet. But, here they were, and by now we had four flat lines skipping some skirted cigar minnows.

It didn't take very long for the fish to find our baits, and we soon had a double on the two longest lines. They weren't big fish - maybe seven or eight pounds each, but they did stretch our strings, and they would make for some fine grilling! We boated them both, re-baited and dropped the two lines back. One slow circle back into the flying fish and we had two more dolphin hooked up.

We stayed with the flying fish for a while and caught several more dolphin. While we trolled, I pulled out the downrigger and mounted it on the stern. I took one of the lines with the skirted cigar minnow and put it down about forty feet under the boat and continued to troll. It only took about two minutes for the downrigger line to be hit, and a good sized king mackerel took off on a hundred yard run.

I looked around as I fought the king and realized we had come upon a mixed school of cigar minnows and Spanish sardines. That meant, among other things, that kings would be in the area. They have a nice habit of circling these schools of baitfish and leisurely snacking on them throughout the day. Baits, either live and slow trolled or dead and fast trolled around the outside of the baitfish school, can catch quite a few kings in a day.

We continued to troll one deep line and three flat lines around the baitfish school. We picked up two more small dolphin and three more kings over the next two hours. The fish total for the day was impressive for a run to the ledge, but even more impressive when you consider that we never got more than about nine miles offshore. Boats that made the run all the way to the ledge came back with about the same number of dolphin, although theirs were considerably larger on average. I was glad to give up the bigger fish for the fuel and time we saved by not having to travel the sixty mile circuit.

Next time you head out, be aware of what is going on in the water. Baitfish attract predator fish, and there is no reason I can think of for not fishing the area around a big baitfish school. And, if you scare up some flying fish while you are running, make it a point to circle back and drag a couple of flat lines through the area. It will most surely pay off with fish in the box! Tell us your fishing experiences and reports on the Saltwater Fishing Forum.