mahimahi >>> dorado >>> dolphin fish >>> (coryphaena hippurus)
a pelagic open ocean fish, mahimahi means "strong - strong" in hawaiian refering to its great swimming strength... it is one of the most beautiful fish in the ocean because of its electric green-blue and golden yellow colorations... schools of mahimahi are often found around large floating objects at sea or fish aggregation devices (FAD bouys)... it is normally caught on hook and line while trolling... it is a sought after fish at the fishmarket, and can be found on most local restaurant menus...

the story... uncle tony and i launched from neal's house in koko marina and headed out to check the water... the visibility was very bad on the inside so we decided to try bottom fishing instead... after drifting for about 45 minutes and catching a few opelus and moanas, we ended up outside of black point... standing on the front deck, i noticed three purple streaks heading straight for the boat... mahimahis!!! i frantically tried to set up an opelu on one of the poles, meanwhile, the mahis' were swimming right alongside the boat... then uncle tony told me, "why not jump in and shoot him?!", of course!!! what had i been thinking?!! i jumped into the bluewater with only my gun, float and swim shorts... at first, i didn't see them, but then out of the deep blue three of them appeared right in front of me... i lined up on the closest one and shot, hitting him right behind the gills... after a short fight we boated the mahi and iced it down... thanks to the "awesome boatman" tony, i had fresh mahi fillets and my first mahi!!!