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Mahi-Mahi
OpenCoryphaena hippurus
The NC rulebook, translated for the Banks.
The Short Version
North Carolina puts no size floor on Mahi-Mahi; measure nothing, but count everything. The daily creel is 10 per person per day, and the fishery is open through the whole calendar year.
Keep Size
No minimum
Any size is legal to keep
Run the tape from the snout to the far edge of the tail pressed flat together — a pinched tail adds the half inch that decides a citation.
Daily Creel
10 per person per day
What one angler may take per day
Counts are per person unless the rule says "per boat," and they aggregate across everywhere you fished that day — sound, surf, and ocean all land in the same tally.
Season Window
Year-round
When harvest is legal
Open through the year unless an emergency closure posts.
Where It Stands
Open
Harvest is legal; emergency in-season shutdowns are rare but do happen — glance at the DMF proclamations page anyway.
Dolphin on the Gulf Stream Edge
Oregon Inlet is the mahi capital of North Carolina. From June through August the Gulf Stream pushes weed lines and sargassum onto the shelf edge inside 20 fathoms, and the charter fleet out of Oregon Inlet and Pirate's Cove loads up on bailers with a smoker bull mixed in. Run the weed line and pitch a ballyhoo strip or a bucktail jig to the shadows under the mats.
This is the trip that makes OBX fishing famous — book a full day out of Oregon Inlet and you will see why. The state creel of 10 per angler is generous and rarely limiting; the real constraint is cooler space.
The Fine Print
- •No size limit on recreational dolphin (mahi).
- •Ten fish per person per day under the state aggregate.
- •Look for sargassum weed lines and floating debris in blue water off Oregon Inlet and Hatteras Inlet.
- •Federal water has no recreational creel on dolphin, but the 10-fish NC limit applies as soon as you are back inside.