Throw out a tosser

Whether or not you mark your strikes with a GPS, you may also want to toss a buoy rigged with a short line and a baited hook. Legendary skipper George Parker taught me that trick back in the 1960s, and it has accounted for hundreds of good fishing trips since.

Such a rig can add up to multiple mahimahi catches when your trolling strike is a mahimahi, but our baited tosser has also caught wahoo and tuna to our great surprise.

When you hook a mahimahi and bring it to the boat, the school sometimes follows it - but not always. The rest of the school may just go on about its business and forget all about the crazy antics of its weird cousin. Such disinterest is common when the biggest bull strikes first.

For some reason known only to mahimahi, the school frequently leaves a hooked bull if that male is the first fish caught. In any event we've seen as many mahimahi come to the boat without followers as we have seen with them - even when we've spotted a good-sized school in the lures on the strike.

By tossing a baited float, you are placing a bait right where the mahimahi are and not relying on them to follow their buddy. After your first fish is hooked, it's your turn to become the follower.

Go back to the float and check to see if it is hooked to a fish. If so, just keep following the hooked fish and tossing out baited hooks attached to lines on your rods and reels. When all are fed and done, pick up the tosser float and bring in the decoy fish. This is more easily done if the tosser line is just 10 yards or so long. Even a tired decoy has enough energy to stay away from a boat that gets too close.

Jim  Rizzuto,
Kona, Hawaii