What's Biting FL
First Coast

Mahi-Mahi (Dolphinfish) in First Coast

Mahi-Mahi (Dolphinfish)
Coryphaena hippurus · Photo: Hugues Evano (IFREMER, Délégation océan Indien (DOI), Département Ressources Bio, CC BY 4.0

Troll ballyhoo and lures along weedlines, color changes and floating debris in blue water. Spring on the Atlantic side is world class.

Next three days

DayBiteWhy
Sun, Sep 135New Moon feeding boost. Light wind. Storms possible, fish early and watch the sky. Strong tide swing 4.6 ft
Mon, Sep 145Light wind. Strong tide swing 4.5 ft
Tue, Sep 154Breezy 20 mph. Storms possible, fish early and watch the sky. Strong tide swing 4.3 ft

Seasonal pattern

Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec

Editorial baseline for Florida. Green months are prime, yellow fair, red slow. Preferred water temperature 72–86°F.

Regulations that apply here

Applies to: state waters

Species / zoneSeasonSizeBagNotes
Dolphinfish/Mahi-Mahi
Atlantic State Waters
open now
Open year-round
20" fork length5 fish per person, or 30 fish per vessel, whichever is less.hook and line, spearing Captain and crew are prohibited from retaining a bag limit For-hire recreational bag limit is 5 fish per person. Vessel limit is limited to the number of customers fishing multiplied by bag limit.

Source: FWC, extracted 2026-09-12. Review flags: The page lists separate bag limits for 'Private Recreational' and 'For-hire Recreational' in Atlantic State Waters. The JSON schema supports one bag_per_person and one bag_per_vessel per rule entry. The private limits (5/30) were used for the main fields, and the for-hire specific vessel calculation was moved to notes. If strict separation is required, this would need two entries for Atlantic State Waters, but the schema implies one rule per species per zone.

See all Mahi-Mahi (Dolphinfish) rules statewide.