Metro Mahi - Jersey Pot Hoppin

By Nick Honachefsky

Not known as a conventional mahi hot spot, the New Jersey coast blossoms with dolphin activity from July through September; and the pelagic scrappers aren’t a long drawn 80-mile hour run to the canyon edge. “We’re targeting mahi anywhere from a half mile off the shore out to 15 miles and will run 20 to 30 miles if need be,” says Captain Jerry Malanga @eastbound_malanga. “It’s all about hopping around the lobster pot hi-fliers to find them.” Malanga watches when water temps hit 70 to 75 degrees consistently, ushering in clean and clear bluewater conditions loaded with nutrients. “The first week of August is usually peak time to find dolphin around the hi fliers. I’ll find them in big numbers of 40 to 60 fish around a pot after a big E/NE blow when the spinning currents of the warm water gulf stream eddies push in flotsam and jetsam along with weeds and other floating debris. The dolphin drop off the floating debris, anchor to a pot line and hold tight through the summer.”

Hopping between pots to find prolific ones are the key to success. “I’ll work a whole string of pots and move around, weaving in and out of the hi-flier minefield looking for flashes around the buoys,” notes Malanga. “Usually, I search for the end of the lobster line where two pot buoys are tied close together as they hold more fish with the marine growth both on the pots and the submerged line tethering them.”

To ignite a bite, Malanga brings a whole bucket of freshly seined spearing, idling up to within 20 feet of a pot marker, chucking a handful around a buoy marker then waiting for 30 seconds to spy any flashes.

“Mahi won’t really ever be right on the surface but hold 10 to 30 feet down on the pot line.  If I see fish darting around but they aren’t inhaling any artificials, I’ll throw out live killies or peanut bunker on a 1/0 to 2/0 circle hook. That usually gets them fired up to feed and once one dolphin eats, then they all seem to turn on. “

Once the bite gets roaring, Malanga switches to artificials on lighter tackle, employing a 7-foot medium power, fast action spinning rod and Shimano Stradic 5000 class reel spooled with 30-pound braid fastened via double uni knot connection to a 36-inch piece of 20-pound fluorocarbon leader. Choice lures are a ¾ to 1-ounce leadhead tipped with a 4 to 5-3/4-inch Bubble Gum pink Fin-S or a Rapala X Rap in white or mullet coloring.

“Most mahi in New Jersey within 3 miles of the shoreline are chicken size up to about 5 pounds, increasing in size 3 to 15 miles out averaging in the 10 to 12-pound class, where it’s lucky, but not rare, to land into larger mahi of 25 to 30 pounds.”

Jersey Mahi? Bet on it.