Tournament Help

[Kahi]

I plan on fishing fun fish tournament in Miami early May. We will be fishing off a center console, trip 250's. The tournament is basically open to all Miami water and the winner is judged by top Mahi, and overall top 5 fish weighed of Mahi.

We plan on 'run and gunning' till we find debirs, maybe pitch live bait on Mustaad 9175 J hooks...a change for me/us as we switched to circles the past few years for the sails and Kite fishing...

If we come across a nice weed line, plan on putting out a 5 line spread and trolling a mix of naked and skirted (Sea witch and Illanders) Ballyhoo...

Any tips for tournament fishing? trying to come up with a game plan and stick to it.

Advice would be welcome..bullshit comments and shit stirring are not..

[BahamaLure]

I will be there fishing this one as well, would be good to meet you. I will be on the 'Reel-Nauti' should be easy to pick out on account of the insane boat wrap and matching shirts.....

All the above you listed will work on mahi, but this is a short duration 'derby' style tournament and the guy who catches the winning fish will be the one who can FIND such a fish, rather than use the best technique to actually catch it. Personally I will be putting more effort into reading Hilton's sst & chlorophyll charts than anything else, and then hopefully running directly to 'fishy' water. After all you can not catch a fish if there are none where you are.

As for method we will be using both BIG and small lures, mahi will hit large marlin lures over 15" long, indeed if there is a single 'slammer' male in a school this fish will often not bother with small lures or pitched live bait, but will crush a big lure. Don't forget this is a 5 fish aggregate, plus largest single fish so its only worth while to catch big fish, bringing home a box of peanuts gets you nowhere. See you in Miami.

I'll be dragging 4 of these puppies (amongst others)-

[Kahi]

Thanks Bahamalure..Looking forward to it..Fishing on the "My Valium" 36 invincible....see you out there...introduce yourself if you see me first.

[clt_capt]

I see a lot of tournament fishermen switch up from what they normally do to a bunch of "tournament" tactics.

whether that is switching from normal bait rigs to all lures or
all circles - things that they haven't practiced enough with.

If you are successfully catching dolphin now - don't make too many changes just for the tournament...

[Kahi]

Go with what I know, and what we have tried and true over the past few months of fishing together.

[astrobud311]

Hey alan haven't talked to you in a while. That lure is amazing, you do the best work out there brother very very nice !!! Good luck at the tournament.

[BahamaLure]

the Captain does make a good point, using unfamiliar tactics in a tournament can be counter productive for sure. I am definitely not a kite fisherman so that would be a good example of what I will not be doing in Miami!

On the other hand tournaments often require you make changes out of the norm, I think this is an example of that. Point being if you normally go and kite fish live bait for mahi and generally catch a good few fish on an average day that's great... but this is a one day go for it style derby. You will need to find a small number of large fish and the faster the better too before someone else does. Bringing 20 fish back all under 15# each will likely place you 87th despite it being a good day out fishing.

I realize the kite fishing crowd may well still win this, and my tactics of shooting for good looking spots from Hiltons may not. I would just rather make the attempt to tip the scales a little bit in my favor rather than rely on the chance of drifting over not only one, but 5 big fish.

In any case, good luck Kahi, I will try to find you during the festivities though I hear there will be dancing girls, beer and such so who knows!


Astro - where you been? Long time no see! The gold lures I have been playing with for a couple of months, that leaf is real finniky to work with. Heck if you even breath wrong the stuff goes flying. Hopefully i will be able to post up some pics with them and fish after the tournament.

[The Codfather]

Good advice guys! Im doing my first tournament May 2nd, a small 'derby' type. The only thing we plan on changing is running larger lures than normal, cause some marlin have started showing up chowing down on bonita schools, but large bonita and mahi alike will hit a 9" lure. Just adding a bit more intensity and focus to it I guess, making sure everything is perfect. On a normal day, if you screw up theres no pressure, but the moneys on the line and I dont want it to get away.

[BahamaLure]

I have heard about 2 big slammer bull's caught recently between Miami and West Palm, looks like there are fish to be had!

[capt. jakeg]

I have had limited experience fishing down there and by no means am I a pro at fishing that area.
Two things.... try and switch it up from what everyone else is doing. If you have 200 boats all in the same area doing the same thing, chances are you arent gonna do anything more than most of them unless you get lucky. Make your own luck and try somewhere different or use a different technique.

Prefish the tournament.... dont just go down for the fishing days. Show up and try your techniques beforehand and get some practice. Dont leave experimenting for the money days.

One of the biggest dolphin I ever caught was down there in february four or five years ago. Everyone was working 180-250' along the edge of the reef catching a couple sails and chicken dolphin. I put out a carolina style sea witch/ballyhoo spread and went out in the deep to and beyond the islamorada hump. I wasnt fishing the hump, I was just chugging along in the current. While everyone else was catching chickens and sails on the edge, I came in with a box slam full of big dolphins-about 15 of them, all were over 20# and one was over 50#. Huge mahi for that time of year in Miami and the only reason I did so well that day was because I just wanted to make a change from what everyone else was doing.