[gary91]

We were in 250' of water at night off Matagorda recently with a 4# Blue Runner on a 30 class rod. We noticed a few Flippers nosing around the area about 5 minutes before the rod went off. We almost got spooled before we could get away from the rig and we proceeded to battle this fish? for 1.5 hrs. Fish never fought deep, always way out and near the surface. The runs it would make were blistering fast and we could never really make any headway to get the fish under control at all. It was definitely not a Hammerhead or similar shark as the runs were too intense. My guess was possibly a Mako?

Main question is though:

Will Flipper take a live bait. I have been in the water before and seen them run their snout around a bait to see if a line was attached but I am still curious if anyone has any experience with Flippers taking a bait.

thanks

 

[speckle-catcher]

if it was a dolphin you hooked - it would have have to have come up for air. Perhaps a wahoo or big YFT?

 

[gary91]

Couldn't see 200-300 yds. in the pitch black night to determine that.......

 

[Argo]

You would have heard it come up and jump I am sure. They will go airborn if they are. I have heard of a few encounters with dolphin gettig hooked up though. PAcontender I believe hooked one. Another friend in Fl has hooked one a couple of times and been spooled on 130 class gear one of the times. The other times they leadered the thing and let it go as quick as possible

 

[Capt. Lowtide]

I was shark fishing about 15-years ago on the Port A jetties, when my 9/0 took off...soon after everything went slack. Did not know what to think other than the line busted on the first run from a bad spot. I reeled for a couple of minutes to get in 150-yards packed on tight, decided to take a break and would'nt you know it "flipper" swam up to the rocks with my 4 lb live jackfish and dropped it off for me. My buddy was a 1/4 mile off by then chasing a school of jacks to make bait, so I did'nt have any witnesses...when I told him what happened he said it was the Budweiser making me crazy.
The porpoise was not hooked and the bait was still alive without any serious injuries. To this day I am still puzzled as to what actually happened...did flipper try to eat the bait or was he just playing games with me?

 

[WilliamH]

I was shark fishing about 15-years ago on the Port A jetties, when my 9/0 took off...soon after everything went slack. Did not know what to think other than the line busted on the first run from a bad spot. I reeled for a couple of minutes to get in 150-yards packed on tight, decided to take a break and would'nt you know it "flipper" swam up to the rocks with my 4 lb live jackfish and dropped it off for me. My buddy was a 1/4 mile off by then chasing a school of jacks to make bait, so I did'nt have any witnesses...when I told him what happened he said it was the Budweiser making me crazy.
The porpoise was not hooked and the bait was still alive without any serious injuries. To this day I am still puzzled as to what actually happened...did flipper try to eat the bait or was he just playing games with me?

I guess those dolphins don't think the "Do not feed anglers" signs apply to them!!

 

[Chumly]

Yes

Yes, they will grab your bait and run with it and let go of the bait. Basically playing with it. I have had and seen it happen several times. All during the day. It is highly unlikely that you actually hooked a dolphin. More likely than not it was a large shark. A little too shallow for a sword or YF tuna. Could have been but not likely.

 

[Argo]

The same guy in FL has told me of times dolphins will "play" with the spread he is dragging knocking the lures/bait out of the water and towards the boat.

 

[jtburf]

we saw 2 big (6-8'long) Bottle nose come 10' out of the water straight up and slam under size Snapper the boat beside us was tossing back with out popping their bladders!!! at frist we thought the had escaped from Sea World!!!

Bottom line yes they love Live Bait !!!!


John

 

[Tall1fin]

We hooked one this summer...actually Carlos did (Crabby-D) and it porpoised all over God's Blue Water before we could get most of the line back before cutting it loose. Never put pressure on the "fish" just used the boat to run it down. Have some great video of it jumping way out of the water............

 

[Cru]

Glenn Cook and I hooked one apiece while kingfishing two summers ago. His hit a hooked snake king with a dangling ribbonfish leader attached and mine hit a blue runner with a live-bait kingfish leader. I got about six or seven good jumps out of mine before I tightened the drag enough to break him off. He was freaking completely out! Jumping and chattering! We left those bottlenose with some jewelery! I thought they were too smart to hit fish with hooks in them, but I was wrong.

 

[Freshwaterman]

We have caught ladyfish in Port A near the intercoastal. The Dolphin were having a feast on both the undersized trout and ladyfish. As we reeled them in on light trout tackle, flipper would be following close behind. Yes, one time as I slowly lifted the ladyfish out of the water the dolphin grabbed hold "very gingerly" and ran off 100 yards in about 2 seconds then let go, never got close to the hook. Made me made that the undersized trout were getting snatched up by flipper.

I Bet you had huge 'hoo or large Mako. Kind of strange though??

 

[Crabby-D]

I was hoping for a wahoo, but got flipper instead. At first, I thought the porpoise had my fish, so I was cursing it, "get ofF my fish, flippin' flipper" but then he greyhounded across, and did a few flips. My line followed and all we could do is chase him down a bit with the boat to get some line back, and cut the line. Was probably the best pull ever.


Im in for that next overnighter for tuna, George!!

 

[CoastalOutfitters]

i personally hooked and broke off a porpoise during an SKA tourney a few summers ago on a really pretty fresh ribbon with light brown wire and a few vmc trebles

i pitched a tld 15 with a 24" ribbon out to a weedline and a big bull out of a pod of about 6 swam up, watched it, and i said "anyone ever hook a porpoise" and got the usual reply,

"no they are hook shy" , then chomp...............spool.........shoved my palm in the spool and broke him off.

everyone looked at me and roared laughing, luckily it was only 25 lb sufix, but man ive never seen a reel dump that fast.

 

[Tall1fin]

Crabby........It is extremely offesive to dolphins to refer to them as "greyhounding". Would be the same as you "squidding" along!

 

[Bill S]

Flipper hookup

Several years ago we were fishing A28 and releasing a lot of undersize snapper which the dolphin were making short work of. Decided to freeline a beeliner on flourocabon for amberjack. As you might have guessed we got a flipper hookup. Came to the surface immediately and we cut line as quick as possible. Went back to fishing and there was not one of the 15 or so dolphin that had been working the area in sight. Obviously they communicated a threat.