Best mahi day ever

[Mems]

Went out on friday, best mahi day ever. Hundreds of mahi at the buoy. It was sick, we got 40 that day. I got about a dozen on the fly. From 8:00am to 12:30pm I was hooked up with no more than a 5 minute break between fish. They hit everything, flies, poppers, bait, jigs. You name it, they ate it.

At one point I landed a mahi, threw it in the box. Looked back and 100 blue mahi were following us. I told Eric, "Watch this" I flicked the popper back, one pop and on. Put the clamps on that fish landed it and then said, "Watch this" and repeated that in succession and landed a half dozen that way. It was insane.

We filled the hold on Eric's boat. One other boat came buy, but were only trolling big lures and kept going.

I came home and told one of my friends about the mahi bonanza and he went the next day and got 36. This is normal behavior for mahi. The ahi spawned last week and the eggs are floating around. The mahi come in and eat the eggs, it is like miso soup in the water. But this was crazy there were about 300 mahi at the buoy, with a hundred of them jumping at any one time chasing food. I am going to go back out on friday. The freezer is pretty full right now, and my friends all have lots of ceviche and fish tacos for a while. Mahi are so much fun on the fly.

 

[Blktailhunter]

Went out on friday, best mahi day ever. Hundreds of mahi at the buoy. It was sick, we got 40 that day. I got about a dozen on the fly. From 8:00am to 12:30pm I was hooked up with no more than a 5 minute break between fish. They hit everything, flies, poppers, bait, jigs. You name it, they ate it.

At one point I landed a mahi, threw it in the box. Looked back and 100 blue mahi were following us. I told Eric, "Watch this" I flicked the popper back, one pop and on. Put the clamps on that fish landed it and then said, "Watch this" and repeated that in succession and landed a half dozen that way. It was insane.

We filled the hold on Eric's boat. One other boat came buy, but were only trolling big lures and kept going.

I came home and told one of my friends about the mahi bonanza and he went the next day and got 36. This is normal behavior for mahi. The ahi spawned last week and the eggs are floating around. The mahi come in and eat the eggs, it is like miso soup in the water. But this was crazy there were about 300 mahi at the buoy, with a hundred of them jumping at any one time chasing food. I am going to go back out on friday. The freezer is pretty full right now, and my friends all have lots of ceviche and fish tacos for a while. Mahi are so much fun on the fly.

Awesome

Are you allowed to sell your catch in Hawaii to restaurants and such?

 

[SilverFly]

That's awesome. They are close to the perfect fly rod fish. I'll never forget seeing that school of mahi chasing flying fish in that purple/blue water. Wish I could've gotten a fly eat that day but they wanted real meat.

 

[Albula]

I think folks used to be able to catch salmon here in those numbers. And cod and stripers and flounder on the East Coast. Any chance there might be some kind of hidden lesson involved here?

 

[NukeLDO]

Used to catch those in the Gulf Stream off the coast of SC....but not in those numbers....great fighting, jumping, colorful, good eating fish! Sounds like a fun day!

 

[Mems]

Mahi are rabbits of the sea. They have a prolific growth rate of 20lbs in a year. We sold some of the larger ones to a friend who owns a restaurant. Made some gas money. There are no limits in Hawaii on how many you can take. We used most of it to feed family and friends. My freezer is stocked for the winter. Mahi and Ono are the only fish I freeze, ahi is better fresh.