Fishing - Dorado!

By Ed Kunze

Called mahi-mahi in Hawaii and restaurants, and named dolphin fish in the gulf, but the Mexican name is the best. In Spanish, dorado means "golden" and is a true representation of this exotic gamefish. Not just golden in the richness of the unparalleled iridescent colors, but also in the richness in the voracity of the strike, the spectacular aerobatics, and tasty white flesh. No amount of money can buy the enchantment that even the most ardent fisherman experiences, when seeing a 45 pound bull dorado, contrasted against the blue water background, as it is comes to the boat.

The dorado is a pelagic species found in all the warm water oceans of the world. They are found anywhere water temperatures vary from 70º to 90º but preference is given to the 78º to 84º range.

A prolific breeder with an excellent growth rate, if we adhere to current regulations, we are fortunate there is little danger of this majestic fish being decimated as many of the billfish are in danger of being. The eggs are laid in the open ocean and the male fertilizes by making a pass over them. Subject to the wind and currents, the skeins drift for about 90 days before becoming 1 inch free-swimming fish. Mortality is high and, much the same as bait fish, they will school together for protection from anything larger than they are (after all, they are a favorite food of the big marlin).

The schooling instinct is strong and they will continue to do so until they have reached weights of 15 pounds or more. Upon reaching maturity, the schools start to break up into singles or mating pairs. The females and males have two distinct head shapes, with the bull's head becoming much more pronounced as he matures.

The species is a little unusual when compared to other gamefish insomuch that it is not the female, but rather the bull dorado which attains the largest size. This is mostly due to the prolific spawning abilities of the female, causing her to use a good portion of her energy to egg production. Thin in body, a sixty pound bull dorado, will be over 5 feet in length and can perform a series of leaps that will easily be higher than he is long, and when back in the water, turn his body sideways to put the test to a skilled angler.

Ask any captain on any sea, and he will tell you the dorado is the most difficult fish there is to gaff. Alongside the boat, the dorado will twist, turn, leap, and create such a frenzy you would swear the water was a hot bed of coals. Twisting in all sorts of directions at once, the thin body presents a difficult angle shot for a gaff, with two swipes and misses by a skilled deckhand not being uncommon. There is a little danger in trying to gaff a dorado also. Many a deckhand and angler have been taken completely by surprise when a 40 or 50 pound bull suddenly leaped into the boat with them, and believe me, the hot coal dance in the water is nothing compared to what happens in the boat.

A trick we often use, is to have an open bottle of cold beer handy when a large dorado is getting near the end of the fight. Once he is in the boat, and hopefully still on the gaff, shove the bottle down his throat and the liquid will immediately stun him. If he leaps in the boat or, as is the most often case, twists off the gaff, it is a little difficult to get the beer bottle down the throat, but not much more difficult than trying to club it to submission. Quite a few of our clients have had a fairly decent laugh as we chased a dorado around the cockpit with a bottle of beer in our hand. Whether it is the alcohol or the ice-cold liquid against the sensitive gills, I am not sure, I only know it works.

Smaller school size fish are one of the most enjoyable fish that swim when taken on a fly rod or light tackle. If a red hot bite gets going, they will take anything that flashes or has glitter, even a bare hook with a little tinsel on it. The most common method of finding schools of dorado is to find floating debris or seaweed. They are a structure-oriented fish, identifying with anything that floats. Once a fish has been hooked, leave him in the water as long as possible. A dorado attacks and feeds on small and elusive baitfish with similar gyrations and movements as he fights when hooked. When chasing bait, they slash, twist and turn every which way. By leaving a hooked fish in the water, it literally draws the other dorado to the boat to check it out.

One good floating pallet or log can produce incredible nonstop action on dorado to 15 pounds, to the extent the angler wears out and will actually have to leave the fish or face utter exhaustion. On the Pacific side of mainland Mexico, we find the dorado at current breaks and under the weed lines caused from debris floating out of the coastal rivers during the rain season. This is not usually the wide open fishing as finding a school under a single kelp patty, but the four or five 20 to 25 pound fish you pick off of each area provides for an incredible day.

The big, mature dorado are not that easy to find. They are usually loners and are picked up while trolling for sailfish, tuna, or marlin. Like the school sized dorado, never pass up an opportunity to troll past any floating debris or vegetation. There is no need to change baits or trolling speed. A large dorado will slam a marlin lure or sailfish bait as readily as the targeted species. Once the reel starts singing, we treat it just like a billfish strike and keep the boat in gear to get all of the slack line out. A couple of good hooksets and hopefully he is on to stay.

Very few fish can compare to the aerobatics of a fighting dorado. The instant he feels the point of a hook, he goes ballistic. The consecutive leaps and flips may take him 40 or 50 yards to alongside and then on up ahead of the boat. For this reason extremely sharp hooks are an absolute necessity. With the leaps keeping slack in the line, and with all the head shaking, it is very difficult to get a decent hookset. A lot of hooks are thrown before an angler even realizes the beautiful 40 pound fish leaping about 20 yards off to the side of the boat, actually was once on the end of his line.

Dorado, coryphaena hipparus, can attain speeds of 35 mph, and grow to the size of the IGFA record of 87 pounds. Being a highly aggressive predator, it prefers to feed on the flying fish found in abundance in tropical waters, and often will leap completely out of the water in the pursuit of its quarry. The coloration of a dorado makes it the most beautiful gamefish in the world. Predominately a cobalt blue, shot with green and golden iridescence. However, the colors fade fast when out of the water.

The tasty white flesh of the dorado is regarded as some of the seven sea's finest, with fresh caught dorado considered to be a featured entrée in posh restaurants all over the world. For the best tasting meat, care must be taken to prepare a dorado for the table. Photos should be taken immediately and like the colors, the flesh is also very delicate. Either get the fish into a cool place and continue with the hot bite, or preferably, fillet the fish within minutes of being in the boat, place the fillets in waterproof plastic bags, and then cover them up with ice.

In Ixtapa / Ziuahtanejo, on the Mexican mainland, the El Niño affects have dissipated as well. Dorado are there all year long but by trolling the weed lines in August and September, 25 to 35 fish per day is common and those boats which have live bait can get 100 fish per day. Out about 6 to 7 miles, the weed line is formed at the contact point where the green water and blue water meet. The 84º blue water side of the current break holds the fish and the angler often gets the added bonus of sailfish, yellowfin tuna, and an occasional marlin.

In January and February, the blue water comes right up to the beach, and the gamefish come with the water. When this occurs it is not uncommon to get 25 to 40 pound dorado in less than 200 feet of water and only a half mile off the beach.

Most of the dorado in the year round fishery of Ixtapa / Zihuatanejo average between 15 and 25 pounds. They are usually taken as an incidental catch while trolling for the bread and butter fish of the area, the sailfish. However, 40 to 50 pound fish are brought to the dock most every day and occasionally a 60 pound bull is brought in. The "golden" one is appropriately named and the future of the fishery looks secure for future generations of anglers. Once an angler has seen the iridescent brilliance of a dorado coming to gaff and experienced the somersault aerobatics of this feisty exotic gamefish, the enchantment will be there forever.

Photo: Jorge Luis Delgado

Ed Kunze is Zihuatanejo's IGFA Representative and a charter fishing boat captain. He lives in Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo year round and can be reached at 554-4876 or edkunze@prodigy.net.mx For more information on Captain Ed and his boats go to www.sportfishing-ixtapa.com or www.zihuatanejo.net/seaandsand.

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