Ultimate Mahi
It’s plentiful, if you know when and where to look. It’s a surface-dwelling, migratory, carnivorous critter that roams offshore pretty much everywhere there’s a warm ocean. It will eat just about anything, an appetite that makes it angler-friendly. It has a long, slender body built for speed. It is sexually mature at four to five months, with females spawning three or four times a year and producing 80,000 to 100,000 eggs each time. It rarely lives more than four years but can reach weights close to 100 pounds; while a 40-pounder is a trophy, the official International Game Fish Association all-tackle record is 87 pounds. A pelagic wanderer, mahi live fast and die young.
Its coloring is magnificent: light blue when unstressed, changing to green and yellow when hooked. If a mahi is photo-worthy, it’s going to have to be gaffed, and when it’s on the deck, it can hurt anyone who gets too close. Capt. Randy Towe showed me how to get a great photo in this situation: throw the mahi into the fishbox for three to four minutes. As the fish starts to die, its coloring will flash through brilliant phases. A few minutes in the box also reduces the danger of holding a large green fish.
Almost anyone who has
