Wahoo

[stacyacton]

Ok, I have spent quite a bit of time trolling this forum as well as other advice from seasoned fishermen of the area such as the famed DR Ralph- all very good stuff.

My question is trolling for wahoo. I have come across two schools of thought:

1. Fast & deep- 15 knots or so and deep. Ilanders pink & black rigged with trolling weights.

2. Slow & on top- 6-8 knots, mixed spread of artificial ballyhoo & islanders with bird and/or squid teasers.

Anyone care to comment?

Thanks,

Stacy

[SamFamAustin]

Me ... vary 6-10 knots and try running one pole medium deep off the stern corner ... a diving head will work too. 15 sounds a little too strong. Some use bait but many of us just pull hardware and plastic. I have had luck on the not-so-big marlin lures in the yellow, red, pink, orange colors, lotsa yellow. I don't know why, but blue/white colors haven't been lucky for me lately. Be sure to have at least one jet-head that leaves a nice trail of bubble smoke ... nice!

[Sapelo Son]

The faster method will be better for wahoo but some think will restrict your catch to just them......Also, it's hard to get the higher speed with deeper depth. We use'um both: fast troll with heavy wieghted bullet heads on horse-hoos when moving from one area to another or being wahoo-specific. If we think we might be passin up some other specie, we slow down to 8-9 kts and use #1 and #2 planers or down-riggers to get way down, with a mixed bag of tricks.........
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll239/timharris2008/90Wahoo.jpg

This 90+lb fat mama fell for a large blue/white islander ahead of a horse-hoo behind a #2 planer.

[dogfish]

If you see me, do the exact opposite. I have never caught one or seen one alive. I will be there in November of 2009 so I hope to change my luck then.

Good Luck!

[stacyacton]

The faster method will be better for wahoo but some think will restrict your catch to just them......Also, it's hard to get the higher speed with deeper depth. We use'um both: fast troll with heavy wieghted bullet heads on horse-hoos when moving from one area to another or being wahoo-specific. If we think we might be passin up some other specie, we slow down to 8-9 kts and use #1 and #2 planers or down-riggers to get way down, with a mixed bag of tricks.........
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll239/timharris2008/90Wahoo.jpg

This 90+lb fat mama fell for a large blue/white islander ahead of a horse-hoo behind a #2 planer.


Dude, That is a nice fish!!!!!!!!!

Please excuse my ignorance but what is a "horse-hoo"?

Thanks,

Stacy

[Sapelo Son]

A very large ballyhoo.......typically 12-14" rigged with large hooks and heavy wire and some type of heavy trolling lure ahead of it such as a C&H Wahoo Whacker or a large Islander.....

[stacyacton]

A very large ballyhoo.......typically 12-14" rigged with large hooks and heavy wire and some type of heavy trolling lure ahead of it such as a C&H Wahoo Whacker or a large Islander.....


Ok, thats kinda what I thought. Do you use frozen ballyhoo or artificial?

Thanks for the advice.

Stacy

[Rock Steady]

We use both, or nothing at all...when trolling slower we use horse ballyhoo...faster, a strip bait or artificial strip and fastest, just the artifcial with no bait at all.

rs

[SamFamAustin]

There is also a fish called the Atlantic Needlefish that looks almost exactly like a large Florida Ballyhoo. The only way to tell is some coloration (greenish white) and beak (an under-bite). I can vouch that the Needlefish makes excellent bait. Nobody uses blue runners?

[BahamaAngie]

Okay, I'm all confused, what kind of fish is it???

[stacyacton]

Ok, I have been rigging stuff all morning and am going to try these two combos:

Fast Troll (wahoo specific) , around 15-17 knots: Three 50's on the flat with braid, drag at around 50%. 15' shock leader of 400# mono; followed by a 1# trolling weight with 2' of wire (to prevent bit offs) then the lure. Going to try two big bullet head Ilanders, one blue/white, one purple/pink and a black/pink wahoo whacker- all rigged on 3' of wire with 10/0 hooks at 180.

Slow troll: Big artificial ballyhoo behind a concave head skirted lure rigged with wire and 9/0 hooks. Figure I can put a couple of these in the spread with a mixed bag to attract other species.

So tell me what you think.

Thanks all

Stacy

[DrRalph]

We've had the good fortune to pick up two 75# hoos while trolling primarily for sails and dolphin at about 6 kts. Both hit big lures trolled way back on a center rigger, 15' 400# mono leader behind a Boone Bird. We've used this over the years as a sort of teaser; Bunny calls it the "fish raiser" because this rig seems to bring them up, then they attack the spread.

The one we caught New Year's Eve 1990 in 6-8' seas off Daytona took about 550 yards of 50# off a Tiagra like it was nothing, we were just beginning to see bare spool when it stopped. The angler though it had broken off, and reeled in all but about 50 yards when the thing ran again, took maybe 250, finally gave up, and was DOA at boatside. Looked like a submarine:eek:.

[SamFamAustin]

That's some right sporty fishing in waves 6 to 8 feet tall, DrRalph! You must have been airborne half the time ... unless it was a sweet rolling ocean swell.

And like you, my most common hook-up was simply a nice steady troll, nothing fast or deep. The bird seems to attract them but I have never caught a fish on a lure trailing a Boone bird. A nice troll of 6-9 knots seems perfect for me. Nice catch on a planer, Sapelo!

Like Sapelo says, many folks only fast troll when traveling from one hotspot to another. For that we use huge trolling weights and [only two] old rods and reels with the drag set all the way to maximum, past "strike." This only keeps the bait about 1-3 feet deep in the water. If a giant fish hits trolling so fast and under such stress, the whole thing could go kaflooie. You have to hammer down the drag to keep the line from slipping.

You can get away with fishing at 15-17 knots by using cedar or feather plugs and bait with no weights, called skip fishing. The bait will be airborne half the time but at least you have something out there.

Now those are just opinions for a 52 year-old newbie dummy jerk, me, so take it with a grain of salt. :eek:
-sammie

[BiteThisToo]

If I told ya, Craig would never run my boat for me again ....but here ya go .... black and red islander ....wire line ....cigar lead and zzzzziiiiiiiiiinnnngggggg

[BahamaAngie]

Wow! That is great.....some good eating coming!

[SamFamAustin]

Maybe I don't have the art of cooking wahoo on the BBQ down perfect, but I found it to be rather bland and dry unless it was still rare on the inside. I only got lucky a few times with that burnt/raw balance.

But as sashimi and cerviche, that stuff rocks! Sashimi is raw of course, eaten nekkid with maybe some designer soy and wasabi on the side. Cerviche includes any mixture of fruits and vegetables usually "cooked" in citrus such as lemon, limes, or sours.

OK now I am hungry ...
sammie