Many people see flying fish and assume them to be some alien life form, other a bird. Well, I am here to assure you that flying fish are indeed, as the name implies, fish. But can they be caught like normal fish? Read on to find out!
Flying Fish are one of the most underused baits by fisherman. The reason is most anglers don’t know much about them or the way they can be caught and kept to use as bait. First of all, Kingfish, Mahi Mahi, Wahoo, Marlin, Swordfish and Tuna love to eat flying fish. You can catch them on hook and line, but it proves to be more difficult than the second method listed below.
If you want to hook and line them Flying Fish will feed on a variety of foods, including planktons and small crustaceans. They also like most tiny bait fish. Very tiny Glass minnows also known as Bay or Striped Anchovies are okay to use. A sabiki rig is a better way that some anglers try to catch flying fish without having them jump in your boat and hit you in the head, as you will see below. But hook and lining them is very difficult. If you are going to use a single hook method, a real tiny hook such as a #10 or #12 will work. Tip it with a very small bait.
This method may take you hours to get just a handful. I would not deploy a light when hooking and lining Flying Fish. The main reason is they will be partial to jumping at the light instead of concentrating on eating your bait.
Many anglers take a small dinghy and fill it with few inches of water, then place a light on the dinghy so it is illuminated. The flying fish are attracted to the light and then jump into the small dinghy landing in the few inches of water at the bottom of the dinghy. Light is the Flying Fish’s weakness — they cannot resist jumping towards it! Another way at night is using a shower curtain and lights. You lay out a shower curtain on an angle in your boat and place a light behind it, illuminating the shower curtain. The flying fish jump towards the light, get caught in the shower curtain and proceed to slide down the curtain onto the deck of the boat.
Many times the anglers in the boat are getting struck in the head by the numerous flying fish. Wear a helmet! Another way is to illuminate the side of your boat and with long-handled nets and catch the Flying Fish as they are jumping and flying in big schools at the side of your boat.
All credit for this awesome article goes to The Online Fisherman. https://www.theonlinefisherman.com/ask-a-captain/is-there-a-way-to-catch-flying-fish-on-hook-and-line
