How A Fishing Store Brought Us Some Luck

It was summer time and plans were set to go out and get us some Mahi Mahi off the east coast of Miami on our boat called The Soul Mate. Plans were made 2 weeks in advance because it was getting very close to the prime time season to have a good day on the water catching Mahi Mahi. My father ( Captain Ron ) called me and said lets get things ready for May first because the Mahi Mahi we going to be running and we had to get some. I made a phone call to my best friend Dennis and as they say in Texas hold em " I'm all in." Now the only thing we had to do was get things ready for this unbelievable day.

Fishing Store

The weekend before May 1st which was the date schedule for our awesome trip the wife and I decided to go to our favorite fishing store and get some fishing gear. We usually go get some dinner at Islandmorada fishing company before we do our shopping because not only does the wife get a free meal but she also knows that this is a huge tradition for me because May 1st is the time when all us South Eastern Florida fishermen have been waiting for because the weather is nice and warm, the seas are nice and calm, and the Mahi Mahi( dolphin ) are unbelievably hungry.

The wife and I had ourselves an awesome dinner, I had the fried shrimp basket and she had the blackened Mahi Mahi. She told me that she was eating this because she loved to eat Mahi Mahi and she expected to eat it again when we get back from our fishing trip next weekend. You see, the wife knows that when we go fishing we bring back some of the freshest Mahi Mahi on the planet, I am talking 5 hours old at the most before it gets put on the grill.

Guy Harvey Shirts

After our dinner we decided to go and get some fishing tackle that we needed for our trip. We got some islander lures, and also some deep diving Yozuri lures just in case there were some Wahoo down deep feeding on some peanut dolphin as we trolled by a nice school. Then as we were walking towards the cashiers counter we passed some Guy Harvey shirts which I can't pass up buying. I usually get me a new Guy Harvey fishing shirt every time I go fishing because for me I feel it brings us good luck on the water and my superstition is almost always correct. Plus they were only like $20.00 so that was nothing compared to all the money I spent on the other fishing tackle I was buying.

Now the fun began. It was 5 am on May 1st, a nice Saturday morning and my best friend Dennis had just called from the guard gate to let me know he was here. Dennis lives in Port Saint Lucie and always invites me to come up and fish with for snook under the Roosevelt bridge or fish with his brother in law on his boat for Mahi called the lucky Larry all the time so I always want to return the favor somehow. 

We made it to Black Point marina, captain Ron( my Dad) was waiting there with the boat in the water ready to go. We hopped in and idled our way out of the docks and through the channel until it was time that we were out of the manatee zone where we could haul tail in Biscayne bay through Ceasers Cut and out to the fishing grounds.

Long Billed Fishing Hat

We were doing about 45mph on our boat called "The Soul Mate II" which was a 26 foot Hyrdo Sport center console powered by a screaming Yamaha 225 4 stroke outboard. We were cruising so fast that I had to take my long billed fishing hat off to make sure it didn't blow away. We made our way passed pacific reef due east for about 10 minutes and Captain Ron said " We need to hit about 350 because the fishing reports say all the dolphin are loaded up there. Now, I had a problem with this because I usually like to run and gun until we see some nice seaweed patches or some diving birds but Captain Ron was dead set on stopping and start trolling at 350 feet and boy he hit the nail right on the head.

We came to a nice spot exactly 350 feet deep which was proven by our Lowrance depth finder and we dropped our rigged ballyhoo with an Islander big green skirt into the water. Captain Ron had just let out enough line to start trolling on our Penn Senator and clicked the bail and set the rod into one of the rod holders. I was still letting line out on the other rod. Captain Ron decided to have a little breakfast snack which was made by my step mother Leticia. She makes awesome Cuban sandwiches. As any fisherman knows that as soon as you start eating the fish are going to hit and MAN did they ever. 

By the time I set the rod in the rod holder we started to hear the drag on the big Penn start to sing. I couldn't believe that we already had something because I am not joking it was no more than 5 minutes before we got this big hit! I am thinking it is a barracuda or something but I was totally wrong. My dad was looking at the rod singing to all holy hell with a Cuban sandwich in his mouth expecting someone to grab it and I yelled " GRAB IT DAD!!!". He grab the rod and set the hook and just as he did he let out the best words you could hear" HOLY SH*T this is a monster, I can't get no line on him put the engine in neutral Dennis."

Mahi Mahi

We still didn't know what it was but we knew that we had to make a sharp you turn towards the where the fish was running so it wouldn't spool our line. Dennis reacted in a heart beat and we were gaining ground on this monster fish. It didn't jump, and it took a deep dive which was uncharacteristic of a Mahi Mahi so we still didn't know what it was until it started running right towards the boat. As my dad got some line in he thought the fish was tiring out so he gave me the rod and said " Here take it I can't reel it in no more plus I am going to get the gaff." I took the rod and started to get down and dirty on the fish but it decided to take another run. I was pumping up and down trying to reel as much line in as I could but still making sure I wasn't putting too much pressure on the fish just to make sure the line wouldn't snap.

WE FINALLY SAW WHAT IT WAS!

Finally we saw the fish and it was long and slender with beautiful colors like a Wahoo or Kingfish but as it got closer to the surface we realized it was something even better. As I was reeling up the fish made a sudden burst to the surface and the green and yellow colors became apparent. It was a huge female dolphin. Otherwise known as a cow Mahi Mahi. The rounded head and awesome colors showed us the reason why it was giving us such a good fight.

But Wait It Gets Even Better!

This dolphin took me to the left side of the boat and then tried to run under the engine which they always like to do but that wasn't a problem because my best friend Dennis positioned the engine away from that happening which probably saved us from getting cut off. His reaction was supreme and till this day I thank him for it. I started to position the mahi to try and get it next to the boat so my dad could gaff her but every time I did the S.O.B would take out line. Finally, I got her close to the boat and my dad was getting anxious and he went to gaff her and the freaking gaff slipped out of his hand and I heard the ever so naughty words from his mouth " Son of a BI*T$H I lost the F*CK*%G gaff!. But as the quick thinker Dennis was he hit reverse and luckily the handle of the gaff was floating right where my dad could pick it up. Dad grabbed the gaff and with a relief said " I need you to bring this thing as close to the boat as you can." 

I took it as a challenge and said to myself that out of all craziness I AM NOT GOING TO BE THE ONE TO LOOSE THIS FISH FOR US. I got down and dirty again getting the fish closer and I moved my way to the opposite side of the boat dragging the fish so my dad could gaff it and like always he took one swing to the head and got her. I opened up the fish box and him and Dennis both got the beast inside the fish box and closed the door.

Guy Harvey Clothes

We locked down the fish box and began to give each other high fives and some well deserved manly hugs in our celebration of victory. In the process I got some fish blood on my Guy Harvey clothes but it was well worth it because I didn't care. We trolled some more for a couple of hours and didn't get any more hits for the day. We all decided that since we landing this huge Mahi Mahi that it was time to make our way home to the docks and call it an early day.

On our way home I took the fish out and started to take pictures of it and see how much it weighed. The beast was about 4 feet long and weighed in at a whopping 30 pounds our biggest catch yet! We were so happy to get her in the boat that we didn't want to be greedy and call it a day.

We made it to the docks and as we pulled up to the docks the tail was hanging out of our fish box and everyone at Black Point marina had their eyes on us. As my dad went to go get the truck I took the fish out and brought it to the fillet station. All of the cute latin girls and everyone else were eyeing our catch and congradulating us. I filleted the fish and a nice grandmother of latin descent asked if she could take the rest to make some dolphin soup. I said sure and gave it to her. I knew about fish head soup but not about dolphin soup but it didn't matter because we got the good stuff.

Today was an awesome fishing trip and I had the honor of sharing it with my father and my best friend which happened to be the best man at my wedding so needless to say that this fishing trip will stay in my heart forever. We were lucky to have this awesome day and we just hit the right spot at the right time and we had the right fishing accessories too because there were a lot of other boats doing the same thing we were not more than 50 yards away trying to achieve the same results that we had.

Fishing Articles

It proves to you that the reason why fishing is not called catching is because you need to have a little bit of experience and a lot of luck. My thanks goes out to my father Captain Ron and my best friend / best man Dennis because without them this would of never of happened. We have a lot more where this came from, tune into Scents Of The Seas.com for more fishing articles about past fishing experiences.