You'll be in for a long fight if a dolphin rolls and shovels for the depths with that deep forehead.

From the fly bridge, we saw flashes of neon firing off in the ocean’s deep blue blanket. Dol-phin were streaking toward the boat. These ravenous dogs had obvi-ously spotted, and quite possibly picked up the scent of our teaser ballyhoo.

“Here they come,” I warned Islamor-ada fly fisher Sandy Moret, who was poised at the stern ready to pull the trigger to cast a streamer at the right moment. “They’re all small schoolies, though,” I added. Just the same, Moret flicked the rod forward and the fly flew from his fingers. One quick backcast then the shoot and the fly sank like a wounded baitfish, at once attracting the pack. Moret barely moved the fly and a dolphin was on. Fly line ripped through the water, cutting a sharp roostertail and the bright schoolie went ballistic, gyrating like mad.

Moret grinned as the scrappy fish broke left then sprinted to the right. Capt. Charlie Scoble kept watch for a bigger bull or cow that can show up during moments like these. He scanned the depths beneath an adjacent weedline as mate Jim Hendrix stood by with handfuls of glass minnows, a spinning rod and a tempting teaser—a hookless ballyhoo.

“We often see big fish chasing schoolies,” said Scoble. “The more commotion you create while playing with a school, the better the chance that mom and dad will come by to investigate.”

However, veteran bluewater fly fishers will tell you that if you’re serious about big dolphin on fly, it’s best to pass up the surefire peanut dolphin bite and start looking for signs of big fish.

“The birds will tell you the story 9 times out of 10,” Scoble said. “Look for a small group of low-flying birds moving to the southwest. The current off Islamorada runs northeast. The larger fish like to feed into the current when the prevailing east-southeast winds blow. So the fish are swimming to the southwest. The birds track them.”

Most of the birds are terns, noddies and shearwaters looking for flyingfish pushed to the surface by the larger dolphin. If the flyingfish are showering beneath such a squadron of birds, you’ve probably struck paydirt.

Scoble climbed the tower of his boat and searched the depths. If he were piloting a smaller center-console open fisherman, he might drag teasers and hope for the best, running from spot to spot. But with the height advantage afforded by the tower on his boat, How ’Bout It, he can find the fish much more easily, spotting birds at a greater distance, and reading their body language to determine whether they’re on big dolphin or not. He also spots weedlines and rips that small boaters may not see.

If Scoble spots sizeable fish in the water, he aligns the boat with their track. His mate, Jim, will prepare to cast and quickly retrieve a bridled ballyhoo to tease the fish on Scoble’s order. Other anglers on board may be asked to hook up a smaller cow or cows, which will normally keep the bull close. Before fellow Islamorada angler 16-year-old Nick Stanczyk caught his 511⁄2-pound bull on a 9-weight rod, anglers aboard the Catch 22 had to hook every cow that accompanied the bull before the bull would eat. And those cows averaged 25 to 35 pounds.

“The big bull didn’t want to bite,” said Richard Stanczyk, Nick’s father and owner of Bud N’ Mary’s Marina. “Then, when the hooked cows regurgitated what they had been eating, it served to chum him up. It really turned the bull on.” Five and a half hours, 15 soundings and lots of sore muscles later, Nick had his fish boatside. The bull established a new Florida record, but was 2 pounds shy of a world record for 16-pound tippet.

Dolphin begin prowIing Keys water in earnest by April, but May through July seem to be better months for numbers of big fish, and they hang around through September. That’s not to say that October through March is a wash. In fact, winter months turn up big fish each year for those who put in their time.