# flipper and bottom fishing



## hydrocat (Sep 7, 2012)

went out this moring, perfect conditions. got up on a good reef, started catching grouper (they were hungry) and here come the damn dolphins...only was able to boat a few fish before they started swimming up and steal the fish off our lines..put a fork in it. between the lefties, the oil companies and now the damn dolphins, its a tough go out there. :wacko:


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## flickerjim (Sep 17, 2012)

Had them do that crap to me too.. My always gets happy when they show up.. I'm always .. "There goes the neighborhood !"


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## hydrocat (Sep 7, 2012)

yea, the kids and the wife love 'em... maybe its only a major problem around common public reefs like the one we were on. i cant imagine them following the boat around from spot to spot.


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## hunkyfish (Apr 6, 2012)

I don't know if you can get them but the bait boats in Destin will give you a couple of small remoras if you ask,,,
When flipper gets close throw a remora out just past him,,,the remora will latch on and flipper will take off raising Hell trying to get rid of him,,, LMAO
Works Pretty Good


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## oxbeast1210 (Jun 21, 2010)

Dang even flipper hates remora!!


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## hydrocat (Sep 7, 2012)

man, i thought about that...having someone chunk a livey over the rail just as i hook up...you know they say those dolphins are as smart as a dog and most dogs are smarter than people so that probably wouldnt work..


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## gator7_5 (Oct 4, 2007)

Between the remoras, the dolphin, and the sharks, fishing on public reefs has become more trouble than it's worth.


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## hydrocat (Sep 7, 2012)

never had too much problem with sharks big enough to do what these dolphins are doing(snaging 10lb grouper off the line)....that said, wouldnt suprise me if they did. fishing close-in, shallow reefs for sea bass and such....forget about it, sharks are hell.


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## Burnt Drag (Jun 3, 2008)

Never, ever do anything to "harass" these precious creatures. You'll get a visit from a gung ho, non sympathetic fed that could care less about how your fishing day turns out. They'll even attempt to entrap you for hearsay, so... beware.


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## JoeyWelch (Sep 25, 2009)

I see these flipper robbed me post all the time and alway's get a kick out of reading them. Maybe I'm just lucky but I have fished with them all around the boat on several occassions and have never had one of them take anything off my hook. But they will lay beside the boat and wait for me to throw the fish back. I have alway's enjoyed feeding them. They are beautiful creatures. Smart too, probably smarter than some people.:yes:

The post are fun to read though.

Like BurntDrag was saying, Please don't do anything to hurt them. They're doing what nature designed them to do.


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## MrFish (Aug 21, 2009)

jlw1972 said:


> I see these flipper robbed me post all the time and alway's get a kick out of reading them. Maybe I'm just lucky but I have fished with them all around the boat on several occassions and have never had one of them take anything off my hook. But they will lay beside the boat and wait for me to throw the fish back. I have alway's enjoyed feeding them. They are beautiful creatures. Smart too, probably smarter than some people.:yes:
> 
> The post are fun to read though.


Yeah, it's not just public reefs. They show up 50-60 miles out, but I have never lost a hooked fish to one. Like said above, they just wait for you to throw them endangered snapper back.


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## ak555 (Jun 25, 2012)

Had a horrible time with flipper when we were out fishing last week. When we went out on Wednesday, we lost over 10 fish to dolphins and 5 plus to sharks. Out of all the fish we hooked, we only got up to the boat two juvenile amberjacks (released), 1 ARS (released), a 5 ft sandbar shark (was not fishing for, but ate a fat pin fish; released), and two heads (one belonging to 12# plus pound red grouper and about a 40# plus amberjack before the sharks ate all the good parts). We did not get to put anything in the cooler.

The dolphins were taking every fish we could get past the sharks.

The dolphins got us so frustrated at the Edge, that we finally decided we had to move often to try and fish before they showed up. So, we would run a mile or more to different spots on the Edge, and do one or two drifts until flipper showed up (our luck when we did get hooked up before flipper arrived the sharks got our fish).

After awhile on the Edge we decided to head to the Timberholes. The same thing happened there with the dolphins except they showed up even before our first drift was completed at three different spots.

Anybody have any idea why they are stealing so many fish? I have fished numerous times with them around and had only one encounter with them stealing fish before.

All and all a very exciting, but an extremely frustrating day.

BTW: We had went out the Friday before that to both the Edge and Timberholes with the same results except we were able to get two fish past them and into the cooler.


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## Kim (Aug 5, 2008)

This will probably go over like a lead balloon but here it is. The dolphin taking hooked fish off our lines or waiting beside the boat for us to throw a fish back in so they can eat it, is a learned behavior. I doubt that anyone can pin down exactly when and how it started but odds are it started with feeding dolphins to get them to come closer to the boat to look at them. About the only thing we can do is just move to another spot and hope for the best.


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## hydrocat (Sep 7, 2012)

im sure it all goes back to people feeding them. just like bears, gators,lions...whatever. when animals learn they can get an easy meal, they adapt and lose thier natural fear of man. sux for us....


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## Burnt Drag (Jun 3, 2008)

*learned behavior*

Yes indeed a learned behavior. When I began fishing the Gulf in 1985 it was un-heard of to have a dolphin take a fish off the hook. Sometime shortly after we began having limits and seasons on Snapper, this problem began. It's also interesting that there were dolphin cruise boats in Destin that were ordered by the feds to cease feeding the dolphins. So, another question rears it's head. If I catch a snapper out of season and or short, am I not in effect breaking the law when I throw it back and flipper eats it?


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## bigrick (Sep 29, 2010)

I had a hell of a time with them saturday at the timber holes and edge and watched them on my sonar diving after fish. Had at least 15 hooked fish taken off by dolphins. I tap a metal bat on my swim ladder and it works pretty well to get them away, the high pitch noise bothers them, try it out


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