UTER
How to catch Mahi-mahi
Mahi-mahi feed in 72–88°F water and bite best at 76–84°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 21 waters; in October they are at their peak in The Hawaiian Islands.
About
The fish of the weedlines: green, gold and electric blue, under every floating thing in the Gulf Stream and the deep Gulf from spring to fall, and the best fish for the grill in the sea.
How to fish it
Run the weedlines and the birds; troll ballyhoo and feathers, and when one comes up, keep one hooked in the water — the school stays with it.
What it eats
Live bait for it
BallyhooRigged on a wire or mono trolling rig, skipping or swimming, behind a skirt or naked.
Pilchards (whitebait)Free-lined or under a cork, hooked through the nose on a #1 to 2/0 circle hook. The one bait that catches everything inshore.
Blue runners (hardtails)Nose-hooked and slow-trolled on a wire stinger rig for kings; bridled for sailfish and cobia.What to fish it with
the sizes that fish itThe rule
not confirmed hereMinimum fork length and a bag limit that changed recently — confirm at MyFWC.
The current rule →Where it is, month by month
Mahi grow fast, live a few years, and follow the weed and warm water. Off Florida the run builds in April and May along the Gulf Stream's weed lines, the Carolinas peak from May into July, and the summer fish push as far as the canyons off New Jersey and southern New England in warm years. In the Gulf they're a summer fish off the rigs and the DeSoto Canyon. On the Pacific side, southern California sees them in late summer and fall when warm water reaches north, and Hawaii has spring and fall pulses. Find the frigatebirds, find the floating board or weed patch, and keep one hooked fish in the water to hold the school.