25 dolphin tagged in 4 days!

We tagged 25 dolphin in four days of fishing in Exuma Sound, Bahamas. The largest fished tagged was a 40" bull. We also tagged our first wahoo of the year.

Exuma Sound Dolphin Tagging Trip 3/5-9/07

We fished the Pocket off Chub Cay for two days. Caught one 200 lb blue marlin (Kate + Billy) on a TLD25 spooled with 20 lb test. We were fishing for white marlin when this brute crashed the left teaser then took off with the left short – a naked ballyhoo on 120 lb test leader. Two and a half hours later, Billy leadered the fish then broke him off. According to the GPS tracks, we chased the fish for almost 4 miles before we got him to the boat.

We fished four days out of Highborne Cay targeting dolphin. We caught 47 dolphin averaging 36”, 3 wahoo and jumped off two sailfish. We tagged 25 dolphin plus one 24” wahoo, and for the first time tagged the larger dolphin in the water using a modified billfish tagging stick. Of the dolphin tagged, 17 were female (largest 39”) and 8 were males (largest 40”). We ran into one school of big dolphin and decided to keep some for food and for the marina people. We boated 12 dolphin over 36” in less than 30 minutes. If you ever want to experience true chaos, then fish a dolphin blitz with us.

We also fished for bonefish out of Chub for three days, caught about a dozen fish despite winds over 15 knots. Billy and I attempted to tag one bone but broke the tag stick on the fish’s scales. It is a real challenge to stand in the water holding a fish, measure its length, and tag while the sharks are circling nearby. More field work is needed here to tune our technique and start tagging more fish.

All in all we logged 520 miles in the Makara and over 80 hours of fishing over the 10 days. This does not include the run from North Palm Beach to Chub and back. Captain Steve and Billy did a great job getting us ready for the trip and really showed us what it takes to catch and tag fish.

Andy Quinn finished shooting video for a MVF-Dolphin Tagging video that will be used for educational and conservation work. We are excited about using this video to show others how to tag and demonstrate why tagging is an essential part of the conservation work, involving all anglers.