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Virginia's pelagic fishermen primarily target tuna and dolphin.
Late in the summer, world-class billfish action draws a lot of
attention. Throughout it all, the wahoo is a very welcome bycatch.
Wahoo arrive in our waters late in the spring and they will be
caught all summer long. It is during the fall season when the
wahoo bite really turns on. October and the first half of November
is our prime time to target wahoo.
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While most of our wahoo are caught on baits meant for tuna
and dolphin, there are some things we can do to increase
our catches of these toothy and very tasty critters.
Wahoo are very fast and they have very sharp teeth.
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They will come in fast on their prey and slash off its motor
(its tail). Then it will turn and eat what is left.
Because of their speed and teeth, the classic way to fish for
wahoo is to fast-troll lures rigged on wire leaders. Any plug
that will run at eight or more knots can be used to catch wahoo.
Spoons, like the 3 ½ Drone, trolled behind a planer have
caught many wahoo. Lures like the Ilander are wahoo favorites.
You can pull a total wahoo spread or you can just add some of
these to your tuna spread. In that case, your trolling speed will
be determined by your slowest swimming bait.
Wahoo can be found anywhere. They do tend to congregate around
structure. You will find them over wrecks, around towers, and
like dolphin, they will be around lobsterpot balls, floating lumber,
and around weed lines. Look for them a bit more shallow than you
would target billfish.
A lot of our wahoo are found in 20 to 50 fathoms of water. During
the fall, temperature charts are especially useful. Hard temperature
changes inside the 100-fathom curve will hold wahoo (plus tuna
and dolphin). The Fingers on out to the Norfolk Canyon is good
wahoo territory. My best catches have been in the area of the
Cigar.
Find some fishy water, put out a spread of your wahoo baits on
wire, troll faster than you are used to and you will catch wahoo.
We do it a bit different on my boat, the Healthy Grin.
The first thing that we do wrong is that I do not use wire leaders.
This is due to trips of trolling mixed spreads for tuna and wahoo.
The wahoo baits would be on wire and the tuna baits would be rigged
with monofilament leaders. Almost all of our wahoo bites would
be on the monofilament.
Even thick monofilament would get more bites than the wire. I
just get more bites on the mono so that is what I use. You would
expect that we lose a lot of baits but we don't. It happens but
it is a rare occurrence. We won the state in 2007 with a 96-pound
wahoo that was caught on a lure John Bishop (Bishop Fishing Supply)
gave me to try. Multiple wahoo, tuna, and marlin later, we are
still pulling that thing on every trip.
I guess I need to let John know that his bait is working pretty
well. After writing this, I'm sure the next wahoo is going to
bite it off. That is OK. I will take the occasional bite-off in
exchange for more bites. Now having said this, I am probably the
only idiot out there targeting wahoo without wire so take it for
what it is worth.
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This wahoo went for green and gold. |
I think that our lack of bite-offs has to do with the baits we
use and how a wahoo attacks its prey. I will pull a swimming plug
sometimes but my most common wahoo bait is a large ballyhoo, rigged
on a large hook, behind something like an Ilander, on 300-pound
mono. Sometimes, we will rig the ballyhoo with double hooks but
most often, it is a single, large hook. Wahoo attack the back
of the bait so they usually find the hook before they find the
leader.
Our typical spread when specifically fishing for wahoo, will
consists of a planer pulled on a downrigger. The bait will be
fed out a 100 feet or so behind the boat. A #64 rubber band will
be attached to a snap, run twice around the fishing line and back
to the snap. The snap is then attached to the downrigger cable.
The reel on the fishing rod is put in free spool and water pressure
pulls the snap down to the planer then the reel is put in gear.
When a wahoo (or tuna) bites the bait, the rubber band breaks
and you are just attached to the wahoo. This bait will be a black/red
or black/purple Ilander large ballyhoo combination. On the other
corner of the boat is the same set up except we will have a spoon
behind the planer. Again, just a mono leader tied directly to
the spoon (in this case about 130 pound test).
The rigger baits are all large ballyhoo/Ilander combination
baits of various colors. Dark colors are the typical wahoo colors
but we have caught them on all colors. Try different ones until
you find the favorite for that day. The shotgun position can be
another Ilander or something like a Green Machine.
The next thing that I do wrong is that I troll too slowly. I
will troll faster than when I am targeting billfish but it is
slower than classic wahoo speeds. We will average between 6 and
7 knots. The surface baits look good, the wahoo seem to like it,
and we are not trying to cover a lot of ground. On days when we
catch multiple 'hoos, we are working a ledge, weed line, rip or
something that is holding the fish. Our day is spent making little
circles in a productive area.
Watch your surface baits. If you see a swirl behind a bait and
it looks like the fish missed it, it probably did not. Your ballyhoo
now does not have a tail. The wahoo has turned back to finish
its now helpless prey. A short, quick drop-back will often result
in a hook up.
Many wahoo are lost just short of the gaff. Most wahoo will make
an initial blazing run and then come fairly easily to the boat.
Bigger fish will have more of an attitude and take a bit longer.
You do not want to lift the fish's head to gaff it. The angler
needs to bring the fish to the boat, nice and steady.
We use wind-on leaders so the gaff man does not touch the leader
at all. The captain watches the fish and is ready to speed the
boat up a bit if needed. We do not want the fish to get ahead
of the angler. The gaff man calmly reaches the gaff over the fish
and pulls the gaff back connecting with the fish right behind
the head. Bring the fish into the boat and place it directly into
the fish box. Stay away from those teeth! A little time on ice
calms the fish down quickly. I am not a big fan of Billy bats.
The bat seems to be more dangerous than the fish.
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