July 25, 2026

Alec and Gates from Cleveland, Half a Pallet and a Limit of Mahi

Alec and Gates with the day's mahi laid out on the dock

Alec brought his son Gates down from Cleveland, and Gates had never been offshore before.

I told him the same thing I tell everybody making their first mahi run. This is hunting more than it is catching. You do not pull up to a spot and start reeling. You cover water, you read what the ocean shows you, and you take the shot when it comes. Gates was on board with that from the start, which makes the whole day easier.

The setup

Saturday was the good one. A weak pressure setup sat over the Keys and gave us light and variable wind most of the day. Hawk Channel was 1 to 2 feet dropping to about a foot. The Straits ran around 2 feet, easing to 1 to 2. East to southeast, 2 feet at 4 seconds.

Vaca Key was 89.6 degrees at daybreak, which is hot water even for July. The Gulf Stream edge was 6 miles southeast of Alligator and 2 miles southeast of Molasses.

Small water and a close edge. No excuses.

Working out deep

We headed out and started picking at schoolies in 800 feet. A handful of fish, nothing wide open, but enough to keep the rods bent and show Gates what the drill looks like.

Gates with one of the schoolies from the deep water

Kept pushing and worked all the way out to 1200 feet. Picked up a few more out there. Still not the number I was after, but the day was building the right way.

The pallet

Trolling back in toward 800 feet is when we found it. Half a pallet floating in a weedline, and it was loaded.

Half a pallet floating in the weedline in 800 feet

That is the whole reason you keep your eyes up out here. A piece of junk floating in the right water holds bait, bait holds mahi, and a good weedline with structure in it will stack fish that no amount of running around will find for you. There were a ton of fish under that thing.

We got into them and finished the job. Limit of mahi, and Gates got to see exactly why the hunting part matters.

Mission success

First offshore trip, a limit in the box, and a kid from Cleveland who now understands what a weedline is worth. Alec could not have scripted it better.