Mudhole Mahi

[Gerry Zagorski]

Although the Mudhole satellite shots showed dingy water, I was itching to get out and could not pass up the opportunity yesterday with the great weather window we had....

Me, Bill and Matt started off on the north western edge throwing spearing and live peanuts at the pots with nothing to show for it so we picked and went on the troll to cover some ground... Nothing on the troll either so lines in and we steamed SE to the Monster Ledge.

On our way we spotted a very concentrated line of pots but committed to running to the Monster we pressed on with a mental note to come back to them later on the way back home.

The water at the Monster was a green/grey and actually worse then we encountered to the north but we stuck with the plan to troll the edge to the south with no love trolling or pot hopping. We did pick up one small bonita pot hopping.

We picked up and ran back north and west to the pots we spotted before and decided to spend the rest of our time pot hopping. First few strings of of pots were vacant as we did some slow passes throwing Spearing at them... Next set of pots Bill throws a live peanut and hooks up immediately with a decent 7 or 8 pounder...

We think we've finally found them and wouldn't you know it the wind starts honking...Tried to tough it out but the wind made it very difficult to continue to pot hop so we decided to troll the area to no avail and headed back home in some sloppy following seas...

Based on my last several trips with nothing on the troll, pot hopping is way more fun and productive so next time out maybe we pot hop the whole day.

For those of you new to pot hopping for Mahi, you need the right conditions...
Best days the winds are 10 knots or less and seas 2 feet or less. This not only allows you to set up near the pots easier but lets you peer down into the water so when you throw a handful of bait to tease them off the pots you can see if anyone is home and commit to that pot or move on to the next.

All in all still a fun day on the water and at least we know they're home and have a good place to start next time...