# "The Mahi Hotel"



## terpdoc (Jan 8, 2012)

We set out to sea at 0500 to get on the troll early. Our hopes were high with tunas in our hearts- bypassed the nipple and to the spur we went. Not as many flyers, no knockdowns all day, went west to dumping grounds and to the elbow.

Morale was low until we found something, spotted from afar... a nice sized boat was working a pattern which appeared to be a weed line. When he pulled off it we saw it to be a floating boat bumper (it was old). Mr. "Batwing" called it the "mahi hotel." Almost all of the fish were pulled off this thing. We pulled some tile off the bottom as well at 570ft depth. Lost a big one we never saw.

WAReilly caught a wahoo on cedar plug confirming Mr. M's suspicion of wahoo (not to mention we did get cut on the first pass) I had to post his pic twice :thumbup:. Had two hook-ups on black fin tuna which came close to the boat several times but we failed to boat any. Triple tail were nicely sized, all fish eating squid. Fights with triple tail and mahi were on light tackle, it was wonderful.

As a bonus: We saw a giant whale shark, along with a school of about 500 spinner dolphin.


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## Achim2 (Apr 25, 2011)

Good reports and great pics! Thanks for sharing!


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Outstanding results!!!! Way ta go guys! Good eats with a great day on the water!


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## Russian (Jan 13, 2009)

Amazing how one floating piece of debris can make or break a trip. Awesome report, thanks for sharing.

For your Mahi/Tripletail/floatsom rig on light tackle what do you use? I know you are using squid as bait, but we sometimes have to use a knocker rig with light weight to get it to cast rather than just a hook and bait. Depends on the weight of the bait usually, but we use squid too. I suppose a small split shot would also work well. I normally have one rod with a gotcha and one with a bare hook or knocker rig for pitching baits.


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## terpdoc (Jan 8, 2012)

Russian said:


> Amazing how one floating piece of debris can make or break a trip. Awesome report, thanks for sharing.
> 
> For your Mahi/Tripletail/floatsom rig on light tackle what do you use? I know you are using squid as bait, but we sometimes have to use a knocker rig with light weight to get it to cast rather than just a hook and bait. Depends on the weight of the bait usually, but we use squid too. I suppose a small split shot would also work well. I normally have one rod with a gotcha and one with a bare hook or knocker rig for pitching baits.


Rus, I can't pretend to be an expert, but everything you said is correct in my books. Truth be told, yesterday everything was trying to eat which made it hard. What we ended up doing was using different kinds of shine and flash lures tipped with small pieces of squid. There were a lot of file fish and jacks which made it almost necessary to chum and distract or even cast at a completely different direction.
I like to use a mahi colored skirt on mono or wire depending on the action with squid on hook. 
Used an old pier fishing trick on the big mahi yesterday and pitch a blind cast where there was no action and a couple of baits turned on it and the bigger fish blasted them out of the way and a 2 sec free spool later he was headed to the box.


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## Russian (Jan 13, 2009)

Nice! Chumming was a good idea for deterring the bait fish. We tend to use whatever we have rigged as well but I've been meaning to see what others are doing for pitch rigs. Thanks for sharing. We've used gotchas, pompano jigs, single hook and squid/small live bait, knocker rigs, you name it. However, a hook and squid has worked the best but need a little lead on it to get the casting distance sometimes or a huge hunk of squid. 
Didn't mean to derail, carry on. Awesome box.


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## Kim (Aug 5, 2008)

Great post! All I can say is "catch em up".


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## Reel Sick (May 4, 2009)

Awesome job Tepdoc great report. This week looks windy and bumpy.


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## WAReilly (Jun 2, 2014)

We had a good time out there, even when we were just sitting around waiting to hear some drag.

I'll get some pics of the whale shark and dolphin posted up as soon as I finish this research paper. I should probably start if I want to finish... haha


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## bcahn (Jan 10, 2013)

Way to salvage your day, awesome pics!


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## ebbtide (Oct 7, 2007)

Glad you got your Mahi Fix.


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