This is for novice, as well as experienced, fishermen. It's designed raise you're fishing skill in all fishing categories. This particular blog focuses on becoming an expert dolphin fisherman, and not the porpoise; I'm talking about mahimahi. To the novice fishermen, this information will be vital to your success in your first dolphin fishing exertion. To experienced fishermen, you may think to yourself, "I've been fishing plenty of times and have caught a plethora of different kinds of fish, why would I need a help teaching me how to catch dolphin." Well, if you fall into that category, you're dead wrong. It doesn't matter if you've never been fishing before in you're life, or you've a 40 year grouper and snapper vet, because dolphin fishing is a whole different ballpark. You can brag all you want about how many bass or trout you've caught, but it will do little good in regards to becoming an expert dolphin fisherman. Even if you've been dolphin fishing before, and you've maybe even snagged a few dolphin here and there, regardless, this blog will benifit you're dolphin fishing skill tremendously.
First let's start off with the equipment. For all you fishermen with light action reels, they aren't going to cut it for dolphin, unless you don't mind catching babies or loosing big dolphin. Nope, you're going to need deep see open reels, and for all you who don't know what that means, I'm talking about the fishing rods with the reel that faces up not down. with these, the bigger the better, although unless you plan on catching a huge dolphin, the smaller ones will work fine. You're going to need to equip you're fishing poles with 40-80 pound test to avoid getting you're line snapped. You're also going to need pliers and a knife.
Another question you might ask yourself is what kind of bait should I use? well, fortunately you have many different options. You're first option is live bait. When fishing with love bait, you want to be in 200-1000 feet of water; In other words, 1-3 miles off shore. You will need anywhere between a 4/0 and 8/0 hook. As far as what kind of bait to use, you can't go wrong with pilchards, goggle-eyes, or any other kind of bait fish. If you're wondering on where to find these "baitfish" There are guys whose jobs' are solely to catch baitfish, and you can't purchase any of the catch at most marinas. And if you want to save a few bucks, you can go out and catch them yourself with a light action reel. Once you have the baitfish, you're going to need to either purchase a live well or place them in a bucket or container of saltwater. When you're all set up out in the ocean and ready to fish, you're going to want to hook the baitfish through wither the lip, nose or tail of the fish, as these are the strongest and met durrable parts of the fish, posing little to no harm to the fish as well as reducing the likelihood of the baitfish getting off the hook. Once you've hooked the baitfish, you're going to want to slowly let out line until you have between 50 and 100 feet of line out, then set the reel to strike. You can do this by switching the knob on the side of the reel. Then you simply put the rod in a rod holder and wait for a strike. 
The other method to dolphin fishing is known as trolling, with this method, you place 2-4 lines out in the water and slowly troll between 1 and 30 miles offshore. If you're going to troll with more than 2 lines, you will need to purchase outriggers. Outriggers reduce the likelihood of you're lines getting tangles while trolling. As far as what baits to use for trolling, you have a couple options. You can either use ballyhoo or an artificial lure. If you take a trip to you're local fishing store they will hook you up with the best lures or baits to troll with. When trolling, you need to keep the boat at between 7 and 10 knots; this is the optimal speed to troll for dolphin at. Another thing you have to be aware of is that dolphins frequently travel in school, or packs. That means when you catch one many more are likely to follow. In that case, you should always have bait ready to chum the water with as well as light action reels with hair hooks ready to throw a piece of bait on and drop in the water. Make sure if you do get into a school of dolphin, you always keep one in the water on a hook, as it greatly reduces the chance of the dolphin leaving if one is still there.
Taking all this into consideration, you're officially ready to start dolphin fishing. good luck and keep me updated on you're results.
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