Offshore Fly Fishing Gear

At Andros South we have a lot of fun fishing offshore for dorado (a.k.a. mahi mahi a.k.a. dolphin fish), wahoo, tuna and more.  Even better, when we’re targeting dorado, we catch an awful lot of fish on flies.

Gearing up for offshore fishing requires some beefy fly fishing equipment.  Here’s a quick primer on the gear you should bring along if you’re planning to fly fish offshore.

Rods

That 10 weight that you brought along for ‘cudas on the flats represents the light end of the range when targeting dorado.  Bring it along when you’re headed offshore– it’s a great option for fishing floating lines and smaller flies.

The big guns – rods in the 11- to 14-weight range – are excellent out here.  They provide plenty of versatility and enable you to throw the giant flies and heavy lines that dorado sometimes like offshore.  When you hook a bigger fish – in the 20 to 50 pound range – the extra fighting and lifting power of the bigger rods make things a whole lot more fun for everyone.

Reels

Pelagic fish like dorado also require the big guns in the reel department.  Big arbors, bombproof drags and big backing capacity are a must.  Bigger dorado can take a whole lot of line really quickly, and any sub-standard reel is probably going to come apart.

Reels like the Sage 6012, Ross Momentum 8, and Tibor Gulfstream and Pacific are at home in the blue water.

Lines

It’s a great idea to have rods rigged with a wide range of lines – floating, intermediate, moderate sink and mega-sink are all applicable out here.  In general, when working a group of dorado offshore, we’re able to start with floating lines and poppers, crease flies, or lightly weighted flies, then move to intermediate and moderate sink rate lines, and pick off a few more few with very heavy sinking lines like the Rio Leviathan.