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Post by plastered on Jul 7, 2024 4:46:17 GMT -5
Since dolphin fishing been slow headed out to deep drop and got a mess of nice size Rosies.We fished deeper than usual 900 ft. Boats talking on radio were not finding any dolphin.Idid talk to a buddy that got 18 on the 42 line weed and debri.7 lbers.
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Post by drgibby on Jul 7, 2024 7:15:55 GMT -5
I dolphin fished the Keys in May and June for over 40 years. Stopped going 5 or 6 years ago. Sounds like that fishery is in REAL TROUBLE!
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Post by plastered on Jul 7, 2024 8:33:01 GMT -5
Buddy just sent pics found a tree trunk 20 ft long 3 ft around no dolphin.Funny thing when deep dropping a bird landed next to the boat waiting for scraps.Ate 2 squid and a ballyhoo.
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Post by drgibby on Jul 7, 2024 16:42:39 GMT -5
That's bad! I don't get it. They shut the GOM Gag fishery down and I cannot honestly stay from them. Sounds like the dolphin fishery in South Fl. has been on the verge of collapsing for a couple of years and they don't do squat. Go figure..............
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Post by Laxcoach on Jul 10, 2024 21:55:49 GMT -5
Over the past 4 years (2 in lower keys, 2 in lighthouse point), I have observed that most of the great weed lines and dolphin are much further out.
Last year, I was in LHP for 5 weeks and went out at least 50% of the time because the weather was perfect. We caught very few dolphin inside of 15 miles. The year before was a little better.
The two years before that, I had to run 25+ miles out of stock island to “woods wall” to reliably get dolphin. That’s where it drops from 1800 to 3000 pretty quickly. The weeds and dolphin were always there. Anything closer was a scattered weed mess, if there were any weeds.
All that said, it’s not just our government that needs to respond. Dolphin are migratory. They are getting overfished long before they get to our waters.
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Post by drgibby on Jul 12, 2024 17:43:15 GMT -5
I wish you would have got to fish Wood's wall back in the early 80's. It is now a mere fraction of what it used to be. If your dolphin wasn't over 40#, no one at the dock really cared. No one kept schoolies, because there were all the teenagers you wanted. Our biggest bull was 56# Biggest wahoo was 74# Plenty of Billfish to, we even managed a spearfish. My how things have changed.
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Post by tropicbird on Jul 12, 2024 21:40:18 GMT -5
What changed? There's no commercial fishing pressure for the species you mentioned on our waters, and I doubt recreational pressure is enough to diminish populations of marlin, wahoo, and dolphin off Florida waters. Commercial fishing pressure in foreign waters? Food availability changes?
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Post by drgibby on Jul 13, 2024 14:29:29 GMT -5
What changed? There's no commercial fishing pressure for the species you mentioned on our waters, and I doubt recreational pressure is enough to diminish populations of marlin, wahoo, and dolphin off Florida waters. Commercial fishing pressure in foreign waters? Food availability changes? I would guess there are multiple factors that have caused the decline. There used to be commercial fishing pressure in the Keys, but now I don't think there are enough fish to make it worthwhile. Twenty years ago, it was common see trap boats fishing for dolphin when lobster and stone crab were closed. Mahi is on the menu at many restaurants all over the country where it wasn't twenty years ago. It is getting caught somewhere! There has been a huge increase in recreational pressure in the past twenty years. No place is off limits with today's boats. Running 30-40 miles is the norm, whereas twenty years ago most folks didn't get out of sight of land in the Keys. It is sad when you see the results of the Dolphin tournaments these days. Most of the fish that win now would not have been kept in the past. Granted there are exceptions, but if look at the archives from past tournaments you will be amazed. I dolphin fished in May and June in the lower Keys from the late 70's until about 5 years ago. My mentor was Jim Sharpe who ran Sea Boots out of Summerland for years. Whatever the cause, the fishery is a hallow shell of what it used to be in the Keys.
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Post by conchydong on Jul 13, 2024 15:37:01 GMT -5
Once the restaurants changed the name from Dolphin to Mahi Mahi that was the beginning of the end.
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