Species 07. Coryphaena hippurus
Dorado (mahi mahi) fishing in the Canary Islands
The most spectacular fish in these waters to look at, and one of the easiest to find if you know what to look for: anything floating on the surface.
Overview
Called mahi-mahi in most of the world, common dolphinfish in the books, and dorado or llampuga here. It lives against floating structure: a pallet, a buoy, a drifting log. Small fish and squid shelter underneath, and where they are, dorado are. Finding them is largely a matter of finding floating objects.
Most of our catches come in summer, on the same offshore days we run for blue marlin and wahoo. In winter they move closer inshore, particularly off Fuerteventura, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria, where they give excellent spinning on light tackle.
The dorado is unmistakable, a blunt forehead, a dorsal fin running almost the whole back, and colours that flare green and gold when the fish is excited and fade within minutes of death.
It grows extraordinarily fast and lives briefly, which is part of why it is a comparatively sustainable fish to keep.
It associates obsessively with floating objects: weed lines, drifting timber, anything that casts shade.
Where
Where to look
On the surface, near anything that floats. A single drifting plank can hold a dozen fish beneath it, and a weed line can hold far more.
This makes dorado the species where simply keeping your eyes open pays more than any electronics on board.
Best islands for this species
How we fish it
How we fish it
Approach quietly, cast to the edge of the object rather than at it, and keep one hooked fish in the water: the school will stay with it, and that turns one fish into several.
Light tackle throughout. A dorado on a heavy rod is a waste of a good fish.
A marlin day that turns into a dorado day
This is the species that hijacks a plan, in the best way. You leave for blue marlin or wahoo, you come across a floating pallet with fifty dorado under it, and the day becomes something else entirely.
When we find an active concentration the strikes come one after another, and a 20 lb outfit turns a mid-sized fish into a serious fight: the jumps, the direction changes, the acceleration. It is the most fun you can have on light tackle out here.
And there is a practical side: on a marlin day, small dorado can serve as dead bait for bait & switch. Different species, same ecosystem, one strategy.
You do not need experience for any of this. The crew walks beginners through it step by step, and helps experienced anglers refine technique, tackle choice and how the lure or bait is presented, which on light tackle is most of the difference.
Fishing Intelligence
Conditions we look for
Warm surface water and anything that concentrates it: current lines, weed lines and debris. This is the one species where the surface tells you almost everything.
Questions
About dorado
Is it a good fish for someone new?
The best one here. It is willing, it fights beautifully on light gear and it does not require the physical effort of a tuna.
Do you keep them?
Within sensible limits, yes. Dorado grow fast and are among the most sustainable fish we catch.
We don't wait for the fish. We follow them.
Book a dorado day
Send us your dates and the species you are after. We will tell you honestly what the ocean is likely to be doing.