# where have the mahi gone?



## dirtyd (Aug 10, 2010)

We are not finding mahi in the usual places this year or last year either. we are finding weedlines from 30 miles out to 60 miles and they arent holding anything but bait. A few tiny chickens here and there, but no size to them very small. Anyone else having the same results? Whats going on?


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## DRILHER (Apr 4, 2010)

Well here's a few. 

People keep catching and killing all the babies. Seen boats bringing in over 50 then later finding half of them in the trash. Most of these are so small the fillet would be too small to do much with. 

There will be more as the shrimp boats start chumming

There has been nothing but green water in that range so far this year. It has started to move back in lately though 


The Snapper ate them


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## redfish555 (Feb 25, 2012)

Yep I don't get why people keep baby mahi and not let them grow I have my own limit if its not 24 inches I'm not keeping it


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## Ruthless53 (Jul 6, 2007)

redfish555 said:


> Yep I don't get why people keep baby mahi and not let them grow I have my own limit if its not 24 inches I'm not keeping it


You do know that chicken (schoolie) dolphin are a totally different species than a big bull or cow dolphin right? Related of course but they will never grow to be very big.


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## jhp3435 (Jan 8, 2013)

Just imagine a kid who could of one day caught one of those fish and made his day. That's a lot better scenario than putting them in a trash can. I think the same about kingfish since some people kill them and waste them. Kind of makes you a little sick to your stomach.


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## dirtyd (Aug 10, 2010)

We were thinking it has something to do with the oil spill. Or possibly the currents from carribean arent bringing them this way. But maybe it is just anglers keeping too many babies. were gonna keep pushing further out looking for the bigger ones.


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## Ruthless53 (Jul 6, 2007)

You can fish a weedlines all day long but if its not on the upwelling side of the current or other conditions don't bring the plankton and krill there then your not going to find much of any fish. Conditions could be perfect looking to the eye but when there's no krill then there's no pin fish/small fish then there's no chickens then there's no pelagics. If you don't do the research then your going on luck and that's an expensive gamble. Once again the biggest most chickens ever grow to is a couple (2/3)lbs.


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## DRILHER (Apr 4, 2010)

There are pompano Dolphin. Most that you we catch are common Dolphin. Florida has a 20" fork tail length size limit.

You can catch small AJs and call them Almaco Jacks but most are not.

If it's legal well then it's your right. Just saying if you kill them all before they can breed then don't complain when the numbers go down.

Or use all the Black Fins for chum and then complain when it's getting harder to catch them for bait. They sell bait before you go out.

Getting in a little prePoco trolling


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## Ruthless53 (Jul 6, 2007)

http://www.thejump.net/fishlist/dolphin.htm

First paragraph

Dolphin, Dorado, Mahi Mahi (Caryphaena hippurus) not to be confused with its smaller relative the Chicken Dolphin, is a colorful fish caught in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Atlantic Ocean. Bull dolphin are the larger of the dolphin species. (90 lbs max) that are mostly yellow with green, blue and white spots and a blue top and white belly.

Last paragraph

The chicken dolphin commonly weight 1 pound and is much more numerous than the bull dolphin.


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## Ruthless53 (Jul 6, 2007)

Thereâ€™s a second species of dolphin in Florida waters known as the *pompano* *dolphin*, Coryphaena equisetis. Itâ€™s less elongated than the larger cousin, *and never reaches sizes much over two feet long and weights of 5 pounds. *If you get into a big school of *â€œchickenâ€ dolphin*, they are probably pompano dolphin-some scientists believe theyâ€™re more common than the â€œcommonâ€ dolphin. One sure way to tell which species you have in hand is to check the anal fin. Common dolphin have a notch near the front, but pompano dolphin do not. For regulatory purposes, Florida considers them one species, with no separate bag limit. (The dolphin limit is 10 daily, with no minimum or maximum size.)

Read more: http://www.floridasportsman.com/201...hin_s_0005_dolphin_description/#ixzz2YxC9M86y


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## My Little Big boat (Apr 24, 2012)

Well I just learned something new... I always thought they were baby's..


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## Ruthless53 (Jul 6, 2007)

Kind of like Ling or cobia....we mostly refer to them as ling most places call them cobia. Here we call them chickens and other places they must call them pompano. Honestly it's the first time I've heard them refered to as pompano dolphin. Always learn something on here.


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## dirtyd (Aug 10, 2010)

OK, I had to research the matter. The difference can be distinguished by the tooth patch on their tongue The common dolphin has an oval patch and the pompano has a square patch


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## Ruthless53 (Jul 6, 2007)

dirtyd said:


> OK, I had to research the matter. The difference can be distinguished by the tooth patch on their tongue The common dolphin has an oval patch and the pompano has a square patch


Best way:

One sure way to tell which species you have in hand is to check the anal fin. Common dolphin have a notch near the front, but pompano dolphin do not.


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## Swells (Nov 27, 2007)

As to the OP's question, nobody really understands why fish can seem to swarm at times, and then mysteriously disappear for no reason - even if there is bait and ideal conditions. Like many things in life it could be three things ... normal migration, upwelling, circular current eddies, predation, sickness, a bad reproduction year, environmental conditions like temperature and salinity, and so forth. 

And then consider the GOM itself, which appears to be a flat lake (today it does) but in reality there are "highways of the sea" where the pelagics like to roam. Here's the Mississippi current, the Mexico current, some intruding tongues of blue water, and some eddies off Louisiana and SPI. Those are just the surface currents and there are other ones mid-water and down deep. Fish know this. We do not, and can only guess where the fish will be. 

IMHO the seaweed season is about over and the pompano dolphin will be congregating on structure like buoys and shrimp boats as the season progresses. In the spring, the pompano dolphin move in when the waters and seaweed hit about 72-75-78 degrees and there seems to large amounts of them. At 85 degrees like it is now, maybe not so good. In other words, the fish might be looking for cooler waters, maybe. It's a mystery and every day on the water it is a different thing.


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## marlinboy (Oct 3, 2007)

From scientific articles that I have read given the reproduction rate and rate of growth to maturity (only 1 year) I doubt very much that recreational fishermen in the gulf of mexico could even make a small dent in the population. Although I absolutley agree that we should not waste any meat that we catch, I think that we as recreational fishermen have been deluged by the media and government for harming the environment by over fishing, and some of us even believe it! There are far bigger factors involved than us, taking a few fish once in a while!


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## msdt-99517 (Aug 29, 2007)

Today out of matagorda we caught 6 in the 10 pound range. Tons of chickens. Left to get bigger. Weed that held the bigger ones were at 30 miles.


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## James Howell (May 21, 2004)

That information is incorrect Ruthless, the vast majority of what you call chickens are small common dolphin. There are pompano dolphin in the gulf, but they are fairly rare (I've seen maybe 20 out of thousands of dolphin over the years). Chicken dolphin is not a proper name, just a common vernacular used by fisherman (we can go back to the strawberry grouper discussions, actually no such fish in the science). Dolphin grow EXCEEEDINGLY fast, today's chickens will be up to 12 lbs by the end of their first year of life, and dolphin don't tend to live past four or five years old (i.e. the big 40-50 lbers are generally 4 yrs. old). As far as where they are/went to, they are back near as I can tell, the past two weeks we have run into good concentrations on weeds within 30 miles of freeport.


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## ilike2fish (Dec 5, 2011)

IMHO, it's most probably the color of the water... You can catch wahoo all day in green water but for your bigger dolphin it seems like you have to be in blue water.

I have trouble believing that fishing pressure or those other reasons previously mentioned have anything to do with you catching less dolphin.

There are probably just as many dolphin out there.. Maybe you will just have to go out further to find the blue water.


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## McDaniel8402 (Dec 7, 2011)

We hit a weedline at ~18 miles out of Freeport on Saturday, and it was covered in schoolies / chicken dolphin. I threw everything but the kitchen sink at em and couldn;t entice a bite. Not sure why. I was using my usual "chicken dolphin weedline" jig that typically works well, and they wouldn't have anything to do with it. Saw lots of em, but no takers. Caught one small cobia that was CPR'd. Fishing was kinda slow overall. Filled the box, but took us all day, and about 1/2 the fish came in via speargun.


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## Klesak1 (Aug 29, 2012)

We had a nice 59" dolphin last week and a couple of nice ones this weekend they are out there but they are in deeper water!


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