BY ANDREW MACK
Long Beach – We set out aboard the Toronado from Pierpoint Landing this past Saturday evening. We knew the dorado were around just about everywhere, so that is what we went out searching for. I brought my bow fishing setup with me just in case if the opportunity presented itself for a shot on these free-swimming mahi — I wanted to be one of the first anglers to take one this way.
Sure enough, the dorado action was wide open, and when I say wide open, we had boat limits — 360 fish — in three and a half hours of fishing. So after I had almost a limit of fish, I put the rod in the rack and grabbed my bow setup. I walked up to the bow of the boat where no one was really at and waited for my opportunity.
A few fish swam by and then a few more, but they were too far down in the column to be in legitimate range. One came up in the zone and I sent an arrow flying… miss. Another swam by and and I fired and missed that one also. These fish were a little deep for the arrow to stick, but if I made a perfect shot I felt it would happen.
Then I spotted one dodo closer to the surface and waited for it to come in range. I pulled back on my bow and sent the arrow flying. Bam! It connected through the spine and came out of the side. The fish took off and the line ripped through my hand, but I definitely was not letting this one go.
With rope burn and all, fighting it back and forth, I pulled it over the rail. Finally, I had landed my first ever dorado with bow fishing gear and possibly one of the first ever in California waters. This fish weighed 12.32 pounds on my scale!
Thanks again to the Toronado and crew that helped make this happen.
Note: I was shooting a PSE stinger 70-pound with an Ams Lava Crux arrow and Ams bow fishing retriever.
