Prime months for dolphin shift to late summer
It used to be that April, May and June were the best months of the year to catch dolphin in South Florida, but that has changed.
August and September have become the prime times to catch the colorful, hard-fighting fish in South Florida, with the good fishing continuing in the fall. That’s good news for anglers who were disappointed by slow dolphin fishing this past spring.
Although there is no hard scientific evidence behind the change, local captains have some solid theories based on years of fishing experience.
“I believe the reason that these fish are getting later and later in the season is because of the rising temperature year after year,” said Capt. Abie Raymond of Miami Beach (www.gohardfishing.com). “Especially the last four years straight with the super warm winters we’ve been having. Everything is about two months later than it used to be.
“So whereas we used to have great sailfishing usually in February and March like clockwork, now it’s more like April and May. Same with the dolphin. Those big springtime dolphin that used to come down here, you’d see them in March and April; now you see them in May and June.”
Raymond said those fish quickly swim to the Caribbean, where they spawn. Last month and this month, anglers are seeing the result of that breeding activity.
“We have all these schoolie dolphin come out of the Caribbean basin and they’re drifting north right now,” he said. “These fish are going to keep drifting north and feeding as long as they can, before the first cold front comes. They probably won’t push back down until about October, November. These same schoolie fish will be about 8 to 15 pounds by then. Those fish come south usually chasing ballyhoo on the reef and in shallow water.
“That seems to be the cycle. Big fish spawn in May and June in the Caribbean basin, the schoolies drift back up in August and September — those fish are all about barely keeper size. And then they come back down about October and November.”
Capt. Richard Stanczyk said that August was by far the best month for catching dolphin for the offshore boats at Bud N’ Mary’s Marina in Islamorada (www.budnmarys.com) and he expects September to be every bit as good.
“Our best dolphin fishing is now,” said Stanczyk, noting that his brother, Capt. Scott Stanczyk of Catch 22, “probably limited out four or five days in a row, meaning 10 per passenger. This is definitely without question the best month. There are huge numbers of school dolphin and gaffer dolphin.”
He added that he never saw a “big run of really big dolphin” that used to be a hallmark of fishing in the Florida Keys. “It wasn’t uncommon for us 30 years ago to catch 20 big dolphin in a day, 20-35 pounds.”
Stanczyk talked about how fish adapt genetically to conditions. In simple terms, the dumb fish get caught and the smart fish survive. So it’s likely that today’s dolphin don’t bite as eagerly as they used to, and they also travel different migratory routes to avoid the fishing pressure in South Florida.
“Twenty years ago there were 300 hooks out there a day,” he said. “Now there are 3,000, which is a big factor.
“To catch a big bull dolphin today, very rarely will they raise to the troll. You have to get in front of them, slow down, and more than likely you’re going to have to put a live bait out there and a lot of times lighten up your leader.”
Fishing out of Bill Bird Marina, Raymond has been starting his dolphinfishing days by cast-netting hundreds of pilchards to use for bait and for chumming. Then he heads offshore in his 26-foot C-Hawk, which has a tower, to look for floating debris or birds such as sooty terns that are wheeling tightly and low to the water, which is often a sign that dolphin are present.
“I pull up to those birds and I’m up in my little tower, and if I see even one dolphin, I run down and get a big scoop of those pilchards out of the livewell and I spray them out there with the net,” Raymond said. “I throw like about 20 free samples, and if that school pops up and starts frenzying on them, then I start pitching baits.
“That’s how I’ve been catching them. It’s just live-chumming them, basically, so they think that my boat has just become a greater source of baitfish than whatever they were feeding on, so they stick with it for a while. Even if they’re on a little floater, mine has more bait at the moment, so they stick with me for a little bit.”
THE REASON THAT THESE FISH ARE GETTING LATER AND LATER … IS BECAUSE OF THE RISING TEMPERATURE YEAR AFTER YEAR.
Capt. Abie Raymond