Robin's Reports

FISHING FOR KIDS
by Robin

Not all offshore fish are HUGE. So, when we come across a situation where the fish are much smaller, we take that as an opportunity to excite the kids with fishing on their own. My eldest, 12yo, is able to work his own rod/reel and put on bait; but, my 8yo still needs some assistance. Here is a video of Jack helping him. You can hear the excitement in Jack's voice, as we've never seen a fish so aggressive that he ate a bare hook. Let me back up: He ate the bait & spit out the hook, but when my son reeled it back in to rebait, the "peanut" dolphin (mahi mahi) attacked a bare hook. It's actually common to do this since they are ravenous eaters.

(In fishermen's lingo, a peanut dolphin is anything below legal keeper size, which is 20" at the fork of the tail. Some fishermen will call a peanut anything below bragging size but still kept in legal limits.) The fish in the video is a baby - 1 ft. We did manage to find 2 keeper fish off the raft.