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 Dolphin are feeding almost non-stop along their northern migration, so they’re not hard to tempt with a variety of baits and lures. 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. 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. A bull dolphin that hit a trolled lure is gaffed and headed to the fish box. But it’s not until May that the largest groups of fish show up. 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. Flying fish are a favorite prey, but these opportunistic feeders will happily consume squid, and a wide range of baitfish, and juvenile finfish and crustaceans.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. Though primarily a pelagic species, dolphin will dive hundreds of feet on occasion. Juveniles travel in large schools of similar-size fish, while large adults mostly travel in pairs or trios – usually a bull (male), which sports a tall, square forehead, and 1 or 2 cows (females), with a round, less prominent forehead. They reach a weight of 2 to 3 pounds in under 3 months, 30 pounds in about a year, and some grow to exceed 60 pounds.Īlso called mahi-mahi or dorado, dolphin gravitate towards large clumps of floating sargasso and other flotsam, in search of cover and forage hiding underneath. The neon-bright blues, yellows and greens splattered all over its body make dolphin easy to identify, and its fighting spirit, acrobatic nature and superb quality as table fair make it a favorite of game fish anglers worldwide.įound offshore, and sometimes nearshore, in tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, as well as the Caribbean and Mediterranean seas, dolphin live only 4 to 5 years, but grow incredibly fast.
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