Porpoise caught on a live sardine

ccordell

This is not a fish story. I caught a full grown old man porpoise slow trolling a live sardine while in Stuart last week. We saw him near the spread and then I hooked up on something that fought really weird kinda like a nurse shark. Then we saw him come up to the surface and sure enough he was hooked. He never really made a run of any kind just kinda hung out near the boat. We were able to get most of the leader up before we cut it off and sent him on his way.

We think it was really old as its dorsal was all chewed off, who knows but a true story.

fsu11

sounds like a sea snake story.....

Cast_N_Blast

We were just talking about this the other day while out fishing. I've never heard of one being hooked and said it has to happen every now and then. There are so many in the river right now and can easily see them hit a mullet. Pretty crazy you landed him, any pix?

LouD

Cast&Blast wrote: »

We were just talking about this the other day while out fishing. I've never heard of one being hooked and said it has to happen every now and then. There are so many in the river right now and can easily see them hit a mullet. Pretty crazy you landed him, any pix?

Several years ago while chum fishing for tarpon using a floating dead trout I hooked 2 propoises within 2 hours. Stripped my reels before I could even cut them off.

mplspug

I've been meaning to ask for a long time if people ever hook porpoise or are they too smart. I guess I got my answer. I do know they will steal a hooked fish, but this is the first time I've heard of one eating bait.

Redaction

About 9-years ago we chartered the Capt. Ellis out of Panama City for a 2.5 day bottom fishing trip (great trip see picture). We were fishing in 145' -160' of water (we decided against paying extra for electric reels)....anyway on several occasions on the trip we (myself included) hooked a smaller "Florida Snapper" is what they called them. We would be reeling them off the bottom up to the boat and out of no where they would get slammed and you'd be pinned to gunnel. I originally thought I was fighting a giant grouper (they had caught some big blacks earlier that month). The mate started laughing...he said a porpoise had the snapper. I'm like no way, if its not a grouper its a shark. While I was still fighting it he said "the porpoise will let it go and when you get it to the boat there won't be any teeth marks in it"... sure enough no teeth marks, it was scaled. LOL...they put up a hell of a fight though!

I also wondered how they avoided the hook every time.

ccordell

Cast&Blast wrote: »

We were just talking about this the other day while out fishing. I've never heard of one being hooked and said it has to happen every now and then. There are so many in the river right now and can easily see them hit a mullet. Pretty crazy you landed him, any pix?

He really never ran on us kinda just hung out in front of the boat. I have a 40yrd top shot of 50lb leader and got as much of that back as I could but I didn't want to horse him next to the boat for fear he would haul tail and take a 100 yards of mono before I could cut it. We wanted to get him boat side to try and remove the hook or the bulk of the leader but after the second attempt and him going deep twice we made the choice to cut it the next time we were able to get a good amount of leader back.

I wish I was able to get pics cause it otherwise seems like a tall tail but at risk of cutting off a beautiful creature with a ton of mono to get wrapped up in we did our best on the release and hope he is swimming wild and free today.

Sea Snake

I had a kingfish cut in half, a long time ago....and in the same time frame of getting cut in half by a cuda...this 700 pound spotted porpoise grabbed the half remaining hooked up and proceeded to dump my reel.....by the time I realized what was happening, I grabbed the rod to stop it from getting spooled.....then with a wrap or two left the stupid dolphin spit it out....then he laughed at me the whole time I loaded the 4 or 500 yards back onto my reel.....

Not only do they know where the hooks are, they know how much line you have too.....


Just sayin'.....

jimmy06

I've had them snatch trout off my hook all the time.

Pangaman

On our way to the sandbar last weekend, there were pods of dolphins by the drydock. We stopped to let the kids watch them. One of the dolphin came up to breath and hit the bow of the boat and took off and splashed everyone on the bow. First time I had one do that. Normally they are pretty good about sensing a boat above them. I guess since we were just drifting maybe they could not sense the bow wave of the boat.

jbsrq

Just a heads up the mammal everyone is referring to is likely a dolphin, not a porpoise. Very common misconception but they are actually two separate animals.

Sea Snake

jbsrq wrote: »

Just a heads up the mammal everyone is referring to is likely a dolphin, not a porpoise. Very common misconception but they are actually two separate animals.

They are only a porpoise, if you catch them on porpoise.....:cool:

just sayin'......

jbsrq

Sea Snake wrote: »

They are only a porpoise, if you catch them on porpoise.....:cool:

just sayin'......

Well done, I actually laughed at my desk at this.

Sea Snake

jbsrq wrote: »

Well done, I actually laughed at my desk at this.

Thanks.....I'll be here all week....

...try the veal....:cool:

BottomBumpin

LOL :rotflmao

7950

fsu11 wrote: »

sounds like a sea snake story.....

:rotflmao

Gary S

While bully netting in key largo had a dolphin swim in the light ahead of me. Stayed in the light and ate every fish I spooked.