Instant bookingAxopar 37 cabin with AC and 600 hpFree cancellation up to 1 day beforeFrom €1,700
FishingmaltaFree cancellation up to 5 days beforeFrom €380
John Dory live near the bottom over sand, mud and rough ground in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. They are poor swimmers. Instead they drift up to a small fish head-on, almost invisible from the front, and shoot out a long folding jaw to swallow it. So they take a live or freshly dead baitfish fished slowly near the bottom far more readily than a fast lure. The French call it saint-pierre, and the firm white fillets are prized.
Nobody in Malta sails out just for a Dory. It is a bonus on bottom fishing and drifting days, and two of our boats list it.
Adele II is an Axopar 37 with a cabin, double air conditioning and 600 hp, leaving Floriana at 08:00 on a private twelve hour day for up to 11. Her licence covers 12 nautical miles, and the speed means more of the day drifting live baits and jigs and less of it travelling. A long day among the dentex, grouper and bream is the likeliest way to meet a Dory.
Fishingmalta works from Ta' Xbiex with shared trips at 07:00 for five hours and 12:00 for four. Skippers Chris and Daryl bottom fish the reefs and ledges for table fish, with dead bait aboard and live bait caught on the day when they can get it.
If a Dory comes up, ask the crew to bleed it and ice it at once. Our guide to keeping fish on a Malta charter covers what you can take home.
Questions and answers
Short answers to what people ask before they book. Anything else, ask the captain in chat.
Can you target John Dory on a Malta fishing trip?
Not reliably. John Dory are caught as a bonus while bottom fishing or drifting small live or dead baitfish over sand and rough ground. Adele II's full day from Floriana and Fishingmalta's reef trips from Ta' Xbiex both fish that way, so a Dory is possible but never promised.
Which Malta boat gives the most time over the bottom for John Dory?
Adele II, the Axopar 37 from Floriana, runs a private twelve hour day from 08:00 with drifting and live baiting among its methods. Fishingmalta's shared trips from Ta' Xbiex last four or five hours, which leaves less time over the ground.