Part of our routine is to stop at DI Reef and catch pinfish which was challenging with very few finding the live well. While at the reef we hooked up on bluefish and trout, dropped the pinfish trap to soak until the following day, then headed to a spot in 72' with hard bottom and coral. We managed several short Grouper, Triggerfish, French Grunt, and Red Porgy then started trolling Rapala's on a planer (broke the cable and lost the ball on the downrigger) and Mann's Imitator in Pinfish pattern. Water temp was running 72-73. We caught a Bonito (kept for Gouper bait), King (returned), and a couple of short Grouper. Soaked baits in the afternoon and managed a keeper Grouper (caught on a Bonito strip) and a few Amberjack. Motored in to TP to try for trout, but couldn't do much in the 25 knot winds.
Friday I decided to get pins at BP and see if more live bait on the bottom would increase our odds. Not today. The pinfish trap catch added a few to the livewell and a stop at a school of baitfish yieled a few Blue Runners. We tried spots from 45' to 65' with only shorts coming up. Still no Snapper despite dropping squid on light leaders both days. We did get a couple of Black Seabass, but the BS bite did not turn on as in past years. TP yieleded a nice trout and we called it a day after a rough ride home in 4' seas.
Saturday, we headed to new numbers in 65' and brought up several short Grouper on pinfish, one keeper, and a nice Snapper before the bite shut off. Motored out to 70', but lack of water movement seemed to create a Siesta and we hooked up the flat line, chummed, and ate lunch. 10 minutes later the float on the flat line indicates something is messing with the bait which I thought was a shark. Wrong.
Float goes under and up comes somethig with a brilliant blue back. I'm on the rod and spend too much time trying to figure out what the fish is rather than setting the hook, but didn't make the same mistake the next time he took it under. To the boat comes a Mahi with 6-7 of his friends. The next 10 minutes was pandamonium on the boat. We kept the Mahi in the water while 2 others cast a SWA and Skitterwalk to the school. 2 more fish hooked up. Did I mention that we left our bottom rigs out? One of the Mahi managed to find them and wrap around the braided line. At this point I'm getting nervous that the first fish will get loose and we gaff it and drop it in the boat for our first ever Mahi. This fish is clearly upset with being in the boat rather than in the water and proceeds to pound everything in the boat. Dump him in the cooler and gaff the second fish wrapped around the bottom line. One of the guys has fished the Atlantic successfully and continues to preach keeping a fish in the water so we can catch more from the school. I'm too focused with the "bird in hand" and gaff the last fish and a cobalt blue mass swims away. We continued casting and checking sargasum weed patches near us, but could not relocate the fish. Below is a picture of the catch including our school size Mahi.
Why were Mahi in so early and shallow? We noticed that the water temp was up to 77-78 degrees and a distinct weedline was in the area. We speculate that a loop current had spun from the Gulfstream creating the anomaly. Another lesson learned was that we should have taken advantage of the situation and trolled the area, but we decided instead to try for Grouper one more time.
Great time with great friends and I hope some of this information helps others in the area even if it wasn't a big catch trip. We'll be back in the Fall targeting a better tide movement and moon phase period.
By the way, you may be able to see in the picture custom rods in college colors (Georgia Tech, Ohio State, Michigan State). The wife of one of the guys builds high quality spiral wrap grouper/snapper rods, and trout rods. If you're interested, let me know.
Looking forward to seeing the pic's. Check your code...did you select Bigbendfishig.net as the location where the pic was going to be used? Looks like you may need your image code in a bracket 
Your welcome. Keep up the good work 
