How to Small Boat Mahi Mahi in NJ - NJFishing.com Your Best Online Source for Fishing Information in New Jersey

Gerry Zagorski · #1 07-13-2016, 06:54 AM

Mahi are known to be the fastest growing and most prolific fish in the ocean. Guy Harvey wrote about his Dad capturing a 1.5 pound Mahi, putting it in a large tank with bait fish and in 18 months later it weighed 68 pounds!!

If you’ve not fished for Mahi before, it’s a lot of fun, can be very rewarding and they’re probably one of the best tasting fish in our inshore waters….Once you see one light up like a florescent sign, take a few jumps, do a few cartwheels and scream your drag you will be hooked.

Great thing about them is you don’t need expensive gear and a big Sportfishing boat to fish for them. You can take your own boat and use some of the same gear you use inshore.

In our NJ waters the best Mahi fishing usually occurs in August and September when the water warms up and you don’t need to go that far to get them… Although the fishing in the Canyons is more consistent, that long run is better left up to the big boys… For us small boaters Mahi can be found along the Mudhole if conditions are right. Depending on where you leave from and which area you want to target, the run could be as little as 15 miles or as many as 50 from the northern ports like Manasquan, Belmar and Sandy Hook..

Being a small boater you have to pick your days when conditions are favorable… This usually coincides with a large high pressure system that is forecasted to be in the area for several days and when winds are light and variable forecasted to be 10 knots or less. If you get those conditions, the next thing you want to look for is warm clear water in or along the Mudhole… Best way to do this is to subscribe to offshore satellite services like www.Ripcharts.com. Here you will not only find temperature but water clarity information to help you target the area you want to fish…. Mahi’s love anything that floats and the east and west walls are loaded with Lobster pots which make them easy to target. Find clear warm water and pots and you’ll find the Mahi.

Lastly, when I talk small boats I’m not talking row boats…. Your boat should be at least in the 20 foot range and you need to have a VHF radio, the fuel capacity and wherewithal to do it safely. The general rule with fuel capacity is to have 1/3 of fuel in reserve when you come back home so plan the distance you can fish accordingly.

Now let’s get to fishing….. There are 2 ways to fish for them, trolling or pot hopping. We will cover both here.

Trolling is a great way to cover some ground and find the fish.. Once again pick the area you want to fish and troll around the pots. There might also be some school Bluefin Tuna around in the same areas so I like to put out a 7 line spread with tolling poles in the 20 to 30 pound class with outriggers and pull lures on the small side that both Bluefin and Mahi will hit….. Feathers, Sea witches with small Bally, Islanders and small squid daisy chains and spreader bars and of course, a few cedar plugs in tight to the boat on flat line clips. While you want to put out as many lines as possible out, if you don’t have out riggers, put out as many lines as you can troll without them tangling when you make turns.

You want to set your boat on a path so the outside trolled rigs comes within a few yards of the pot… If the Mahi are there and in the mood they will readily come off the pot and chase your lures. When that happens it’s a perfect opportunity to stop trolling.. If there is one Mahi there are likely more so always have a spinning rod ready with a pitch bait on it and a handful of baits ready to throw. Nothing special here, the same spinning rod and reel you’d use inshore for Stripers is fine. Some even prefer to go lighter for more sport. When you get a knock down trolling, stop the boat and pitch a handful of baits out, then your hooked bait on the spinner. Or you could just continue to troll in the area.

Now let’s move on to pot hopping....
You are going to need some bait so if you can net some fresh spearing, mullet or Peanut Bunker that would be my preference. If you have a live well and keep them alive, all the better but not absolutely necessary. Mahi’s aren’t finicky and will eat fresh, dead or alive or pre frozen baits, some guys like to use killies while others will use small bucktails tipped with squid or spearing. If you can’t net your own bait, I’d suggest frozen spearing, mullet or Peanut Bunker.

The trick here is finding the fish. Once again pots or any floating debris is what you will be targeting with pots being the easiest to find and see. You’ll find that most pots are set up along the shear walls of the Mudhole rather than in the deep so that is where to starting looking.

Here is where a good set of polarized sunglasses like Costas are practically a must http://eyesonfirstave.com/costa/4572753692 . They allow you to pull up on a pot and even in full sun with all the glare, you can look down into the water around the pot and see if anyone is home. I would not go out pot hopping without them.

That brings me to my next point and that is you need near perfect conditions in order to site fish like described above… If the water is not flat it’s challenging to spot the Mahi…. It does not mean you can’t pot hop, it just makes it more challenging.

If you have the conditions the best thing to do is drive around the pots slowly and look for Mahi around them. If you see a flash, throw a handful of bait in the area of the pot and then the same bait, hooked and casted on your spinning pole… The pitched baits gets them excited and feeding and once that happens they will find your hooked bait too…

If you get a Mahi on leave him in the water boat side since often times other Mahi will follow the hooked one. If that happens throw another handful of bait in the area of the hooked Mahi and cast hooked baits in the area and often times you will get another fish.

If conditions are not flat/favorable, you could always pull up to pots hoping there are Mahi on it and use the same methods or, you could go on the troll to see where they are holding then switch to potting.

A few other tips and observations here…..

A trip we made the tail end of the summer, we had committed to troll first and if we raised any fish stop and pot hop. Well, nothing hit on the troll in the first area we targeted, picked up and ran to a different area a trolled there without a touch. At that point we decided stow the trolling gear, head back to the first area since it had more pots and looked fishy and pot hop…. That was the right choice since the first pot we pulled up we sighted some Mahi and it was game on for a few hours hopping from pot to pot. Had we tried to pot hop that area first, we might have had a much better day.

One other thing to consider as well, the afternoon breeze. In the summer, it’s pretty typical for the conditions to be flat in the AM and then around mid afternoon, the south winds summer breeze kicks in… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_breeze This makes it difficult to sight fish and could provide for a bumpy ride home. Since you will likely be running right into it on the way back home, it’s probably best to try to get out early and plan to come home before that breeze starts to kick in. If you happen to get caught in a strong west wind and you have to run a good distance north or south to get home, you might be better off making a straight B line to the beach. As you get tighter into the beach, conditions will improve and you can make your turn north or south and run in more favorable conditions.

Hope this encourages you to get in on this exciting fishery. It’s a lot of fun and once you’ve had some success, you’ll be chomping at the bit and loosing lots of sleep looking at satellite shots, marine forecasts and getting your gear ready. When all the stars align, water, conditions, crew and Mahi, you need to be ready. Summers here and the Mahi won’t be far behind!!