Dolphin on the line.

[Keith Brown]

I was fishing Northwest of Hakia last week. We were run short of cut plugs due too the Coho. So we switched our bait. My partner switched to a anchovy on a teaser head and I switched to a white with blue Flash Fly both were behind green and silver flashers. The long and the short is I hooked up to what I thought was 100+ pound Spring. The line burned out 90 degrees to the boat faster than any tuna I ever caught. I'm running an Islander reel, before I knew it I thought the reel was going to be spin into a low earth orbit. I had a reel full of new 40 pound mono. I had it on for about 30 seconds then I was surrounded by a feeding pod of dolphins. Even after the dolphins showed up I remember thinking for another 15 seconds I was hanging on to a giant spring and I didn't want to share it with a Dolphin. When I had this thought I remembered marlin fishing with live blue fin tuna in Hawaii and Dolphins showed up the boat captain told me not to worry about catching a dolphin that they were too smart to get hooked and sure enough they stole our tuna.

I'm wondering was me hooking up to a Dolphin 1) A one off freak occurrence, 2) Normal and keep a lookout for Dolphins 3) Are Canadian dolphins not as smart as Hawaiian dolphins 4) Were these Dolphins different species. Any other advice or info beyond reeling up FAST would be appreciated.

The epilogue is that with a few runs back and forth the battle ended after about two minutes when the line runout and the knot failed at the McMhon Snap and the bead chain swivel attached to the flasher where it had preciously been clipped to the cut plug. With that clip I had fought a 26.5 lb and 18 lb and wheel barrow full of 8 to 12 pound Cohos and Springs. I'll be retying my swivel and clip after every big fish or once a day.
P.S. The Islander performed like a champ. I had the drag set to where I thought I was going to snap the 40 pound test. I'm geussing I ran the entire line two or three cycles before it came to the end and broke the knot.

 

[Umos]

Off Vanuatu about a decade ago I had one of my biggest battles w a fish. eventually I got it close to the boat and a pod dolphins was closing along with my catch. I was sure I had hooked one of them, but it ended up being a big yellowfin tuna. But if a random story I guess, all I can say is I never caught a dolphin

 

[CalCom]

Fishing live bait off the Big Island of Hawaii we had rough tooth dolphin picking the bait off the hooks surgically. I was expecting we would hook one up but never did. Having said that, I would not be surprised if one got hooked.

 

[Peppysan]

Several years ago trolling in front of Duval out of Port Hardy, it was a slow day and as we were moving along, a pod of Dolphins were breaking water as they swam by. They were traveling in the same direction of our troll off our port side, then all of a sudden the port side downrigger slammed forward hard (same direction of travel) and started to peel off line. Not really anticipating this situation I didn't know how to react and take some sort of corrective action. The boat was starting to turn with the pull on the downrigger line but within 20 or so seconds the line came free. But with all the extra line out it now allowed the 12lb weight to hit bottom and start dragging. It eventually hung up down there and it is still there today.
I expect that a Dolphin had run into the stainless line perhaps cutting into the animal, which I will never know. I had a good two inch bend in the Scotty stainless arm, that took me a bit to straighten, thankfully it didn't rip off the mount as well.

 

[Keith Brown]

Several years ago trolling in front of Duval out of Port Hardy, it was a slow day and as we were moving along, a pod of Dolphins were breaking water as they swam by. They were traveling in the opposite direction of our troll off our port side, then all of a sudden the port side downrigger slammed forward hard (opposite direction of travel) and started to peel off line. Not really anticipating this situation I didn't know how to react and take some sort of corrective action. The boat was starting to turn with the pull on the downrigger line but within 20 or so seconds the line came free. But with all the extra line out it now allowed the 12lb weight to hit bottom and start dragging. It eventually hung up down there and it is still there today.
I expect that a Dolphin had run into the stainless line perhaps cutting into the animal, which I will never know. I had a good two inch bend in the Scotty stainless arm, that took me a bit to straighten, thankfully it didn't rip off the mount as well.

Hmm now you got me thinking????