![]() ![]() Since flying fish rank at the top of dolphins’ dietary wish list, lures that imitate flying fish are real winners. A spread of lures is easier to manage and provide a better opportunity to land more fish.” “Dolphin are known for short strikes, and you will not know you are pulling a ballyhoo rig without a tail. ![]() “I troll a wide assortment of lures - and not many ballyhoo - that time of year,” he said. Dolphin are very eager to eat, and it isn’t necessary to rely on rigged ballyhoo this time of year. ![]() One of Sneed’s tactics is to nearly eliminate the typical sea witch-ballyhoo rig on his spring trips. “Without this type of imagery, we would waste a lot of time and fuel looking at our temperature gauges.” “It allows us to increase our time with lines in the water,” he said. Sneed uses an online sea-surface temperature service, Hilton’s Offshore ( to provide a map and location of the best temperature breaks available. When the ride from port to the fishing grounds is already a 2-hour trip, riding for hours looking for a temperature break may not be the best way to utilize the day. Finding those temperature breaks is the key He prefers to find good temperature breaks, and knowing exactly where they are may not be the easiest task without any assistance from remote-imagery sources.ĭolphin are feeding almost non-stop along their northern migration, so they’re not hard to tempt with a variety of baits and lures. But dolphin may be more concentrated in other places with better temperature breaks. Sneed will usually start in places near the Winyah Scarp or the 100/400. The dolphin are generally feeding on the warmer side of the break.” So the dolphin and tuna will be all over these places. And if we find it along a structure, the bait will be thick in these areas. I like to find a least a 3-degree break within a mile or less. “We find them along a hard temperature break. “Dolphin are real sensitive to temperature, and water temperature is the most-important factor for finding dolphin this time of year,” he said. He believes the fish gravitate toward specific areas along the Gulf Stream. Sneed has more than two decades of experience fishing offshore. “During the first part of May, they are here thick, and we catch them real good.”įor a fish that travels more than 5,000 miles a year from New England to the Bahamas and back, it can be a little tricky to know where they may be on any given day off the Carolina coast. “We start picking at them in April, a few fish on every trip,” said Sneed (91). Water temperature is most important factor for dolphins Kevin Sneed of Rigged and Ready Charters out of Holden Beach, N.C., anticipates the dolphin run annually. But it’s not until May that the largest groups of fish show up.Ī bull dolphin that hit a trolled lure is gaffed and headed to the fish box. And they start to trickle within reach of Carolina anglers in April. Their travels begin during the early spring. So their travels take them to many places where forage fish are most abundant.ĭolphin travel in large schools and can be found in places that offer the best opportunity to feed without expending excess energy reserves. They must eat massive quantities of forage to sustain their growth and fuel their metabolism during these long, migratory behaviors. They travel the eastern seaboard from New England to the tropics. For anglers wanting to experience double-digit catches of these beautiful and tasty fish, right now is the time.ĭolphin, aka Mahi mahi, are one of the fastest-growing fishes in the ocean, owners of a king-sized metabolism. Their northward migration brings them off the Carolina coastline. May marks the beginning of the best dolphin fishing. May brings a big push of dolphin into the bluewater off the Carolinas, and anglers who know their habits can fill a fish box in a hurry.īluewater aficionados covet the spring dolphin run, even though the offshore trek to reach these blue-green prizes takes nearly half a day. ![]()
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