Larry Brown Notes
Wahoo Fishing Fast and Furious
A Complete Guide to Wahoo Fishing Techniques
Larry Brown
June 14, 2005
The wahoo were everywhere, slashing at baits, bombs and jigs. Free swimmers could be seen in the cobalt blue, sun filtered water casually swallowing chum, and when enticed by a hooked bait they became their typical crazed wahoo selves. Wahoo jumping ten feet out of the water 10 feet from the boat gets your heart racing. Your adrenaline is pumping even before you’re bit, and chaos reigns on the deck as anglers are racing back and forth, zigging and zagging, over and under lines and fellow anglers trying but failing to keep up with wahoo rooster tailing through the water at 60 mph. We dream about this type of wahoo fishing. We pray for it. And for the lucky few, we experienced it – up close and personal.
You can expect this scene on a 8 to 10 day Fall trip on one of the luxury sportfishing vessels out of San Diego. Once you experience it you will become addicted and want to take trips every year. As in any other endeavor, practice and experience is the best teacher, but the ideas I’ve gathered for you below will give you a good head start. Wahoo fishing is fast and furious and you better have your game plan ready.
Wahoo (Acanthocybium solanderi) is the perfect apex predator of the sea. Streamlined, faster than a speeding bullet, fearless, absolutely beautiful and the best eating fish in the ocean. This article should help all anglers targeting wahoo improve their chances of success.
Tackle
Serious wahoo fishing demands more specific gear than any other type of big game fishing I do. Wahoo will trash any gear that is not built specifically to handle their blistering, high speed runs, and you will lose fish if you can’t keep pace with their erratic turns, always maintaining maximum pressure and always turning the handle. More on this later.
For jigs and bombs you need rod and reel combos with which you can cast a mile, retrieve at break neck speed and once hooked keep maximum pressure on the fish. High speed reels with super cranking power and a long stiff graphite rod are musts for jigs and bombs. My favorite reels are the Avet JX and HX because their 2 speed (6/3:1) feature allows you a very fast retrieve in high gear and excellent cranking and torque when you down shift to low gear. Beware of other high speed reels that give you the retrieve speed to get bit but no torque – you can’t turn the handle without pumping the rod, which is a no no with wahoo.
By high speed I mean a reel which will retrieve 40 inches or more of line per crank. Small spool diameter reels may be high speed, but don’t pull a jig through the water at 40 inches per turn simply because they’re too small. Depending on spool size high speeds of 5:1 and 6:1 usually get the job done. The reel should be super smooth, to reduce fatigue because throwing jigs and bombs all day and pulling them through the water as fast as you can possibly crank, and of course fighting a bunch of mean wahoo is incredibly hard work. Other brand reels will obvious work, but my two favorites above are perfect.
My favorite wahoo jig rods are the Phenix PHD 760X2H model, which is 7' 6" rated 40 - 100 pound line. You want a stuff rod that has plenty of back bone and power to muscle against a wahoo. The Calstar Graphiters 700M and 700H are also great rods for wahoo. All these rods are long enough to cast your jigs and bombs a mile, strong enough to put super pressure on the fish, fast enough to preclude any line slack when the wahoo shakes, bobs and weaves and light enough to use all day long.
For trolling and bait fishing the gear is much simpler. For trolling I use the boat gear, but would have total confidence with any of my tuna trolling outfits. Bait fishing requires a beefy 7’ rod and any strong high speed reel, with a smooth, strong drag system. The high speed is not important for bait retrieval, but is still useful to assure the wahoo doesn’t spit the hook which it will do if there is any nano second of slack line.
Terminal Gear
The number of pre-wired hooks, bombs and jigs you need will depend on your personal game plan, ie, will you use mostly bait or mostly bombs and jigs. You can assemble all of these right on the boat during the day and a half passage to the fishing grounds and receive expert instruction from the crew and fellow passengers, or you can begin before the trip. Most long range boats will also sell you everything you need to assemble your terminal gear, but this is basically what you’ll want to have.
For bait, 2 to 3 dozen wire leaders of assorted weight and size hooks. Wire leaders should be about 15 inches long, so cut your wire about 18 inches. I’d do most of them in size 2/0, 3/0 and 4/0 hooks for sardines and a few 5/0 and 6/0 for mackerel, and about a 50/50 mix of
45 # and 60# test wire, with a few 90# for good measure. The large number is not just to account for the large number of cut offs and casualties associated with wahoo fishing, but one wire is usually only good for one strike (win or lose), and you often need to weed out a hundred or more dorado from a kelp paddy before the wahoo, which are schooling below the dorado, begin to bite.
Most anglers use the multi strand wire and crimps but if you can master the haywire twist, I think single strand wire is more deadly just because it’s thinner. Anyway, for the multi strand I always double crimp both ends and run the tag end back through the second crimp a third time and bury it inside that crimp. It’s stronger and will not poke you or the deck hand with the sharp, lose tag end. I also use a small black swivel, not a welded ring on the end for the mono connection. The swivels are cheaper than the rings and may help the bait swim a tad better. Using black swivels will minimize the wahoo biting at the swivel and inadvertently slicing through your mono. Check your rings and swivels for any rough edges and discard any that have them.
Casting bombs and jigs are my favorite technique for wahoo. Nothing is more exhilarating than to have a wahoo stop your jig dead in the water during a mach 4 retrieve, gyrate wildly attempting to spit the hook and then perform a blistering run either straight away from the boat or from stern to bow and back again all in less than 10 seconds. Nothing like it in the world!
The conventional wisdom is anything shiny will do. Wrong! I have seen wahoo prefer dark jigs, black jigs, yellow with red stripes and orange jigs. I would definitely have a good selection of these and shiny chrome and chrome and blue jigs too.
Wahoo attack their prey from the side. They will often grab the jig like a dog holding a bone. High density, low profile (skinny) jigs are better for three reasons: they give the wahoo less surface area to bite down on and hold onto like a bone; they have less water resistance, meaning they will be faster and easier on your body; and the wahoo’s ultra sharp teeth will not be able to penetrate the material, and if he does grab it from the side, your constant pressure and hard drag will cause him to slide down to your waiting hook. Wahoo are so tenacious I have seen them come to gaff, holding on to the body of the lure without ever being hooked. By hard, high density I mean chrome or brass bodied jigs – try to avoid the softer lead bodied jigs that a wahoo can actually sink his teeth in.
Among the best jigs are the Raider 125, in gold and silver and the Sea Striker. I once saw Wahoo Slayer Jess Nevarez nail 6 hoos in a row using a Tady 9 in the fire tiger pattern. He also swears by the Tady A1's and likes the hot pink and black in both Tady models. The Catchy Striker 33 is also a killer. The new HT heavy jigs are also great. Have a variety of reflective tape to apply to these jigs. Navarez suggests hot pink, purple and red are the best colors of reflective tape, cut in 2 inch strips and applied to the back of the jig. But only put a thin strip of tape on your jigs as the wahoo can actually grip the tape and not slide down to the hook.
You can wire your jigs with 60# multi strand wire, but I suggest going straight mono. You’ll get more strikes and catch more wahoo, but you will lose more jigs. If you decide to wire your jigs use two crimps on each end and pass the tag end into the second crimp, just as in building wires for bait. Always use single hooks. If you have treble hook jigs you want to use, replace the treble hook with a large Siwash 10/0 hook or even better the stronger Mustad 7691S hooks. And always, always, always assure your hooks are razor sharp.
You can buy wahoo bombs over the counter or you can make your own. Catchy, Braid, Burns all make bombs that work. Go for the smaller sizes, as they offer less water resistance and therefore are easier (aka faster) to pull through the water. Speed is what gets bit. You can also make your own bombs very easily, and home made bombs are fun to make and just as effective as store bought. Buy a couple of packs of 60# multi strand wire, adequate matching size crimps (4 per bomb (or jig), 3 dozen 3 and 4 ounce sliding sinkers, assorted color mylar glue-on skirts, small black swivels and 3 dozen 10/0 Siwash or Mustad 7691S hooks, black electrical tape, shiny glitter and finger nail polish. Get a variety of glitter, like red, gold, silver and green and match it to your mylar. Be creative and have fun.
Dress all your sliding sinkers first. Se up an assembly line. Wrap the self sticking mylar skirts around the sliding sinker, covering only the last 40% of the body of the sinker with the body of the skirt. Wrap the body of the mylar skirt onto the sliding sinker with the electrical tape very tightly and carefully to make sure the tape is half on the skirt and half on the sinker. Pour some glitter into a small dish. Brush the sinker and electrical tape with finger nail polish, roll the wet sinker in the disk of glitter, and set aside to dry. Then put a final coat of polish on the sinker to hold the sparkles and set aside to dry again.
Assemble the wired bombs as follows:
1. Cut wire 18 inches long.
2. Thread wire through the beautifully dressed sliding sinker
3. Double crimp your hook. You want the curve of your hook to be at the end of the skirt, and you can use beads to make the adjustment.
4. Slide on an oversized crimp and tighten it about half way on the wire to “stop” the
sinker or bomb from reaching the mono connection. This can also be done by using a plastic bead infront of a regular sized crimp.
5. Double crimp a swivel for your mono connection.
6. Make sure your hooks are super sharp before each use and keep checking.
I suggest using 30# and 40# test line for your bait rigs and 40# and 50# for your bombs and jigs, and set the drags at 40% rather than the standard 25-33%.
Game Plan
OK, we now have the right gear and the terminal tackle. Developing a game plan is critical. You need to have a personal strategy to optimize your tackle and maximize your chances to land the greatest number of wahoo. Decide this before you get on the boat. Don’t wait until the first jig strike and the ensuing frenzy and chaos. Be honest with yourself. Do you love fishing bait? Do you love casting jigs? If you can’t cast worth beans, now is NOT the time to learn. Practice at home, at the pond, at the park but not when the wahoo are biting! Don’t even think about bombs and jigs unless you are very proficient at casting and have the correct gear as outlined above. Don’t waste this very precious and limited time and opportunity.
It is critical to allocate your tackle resources efficiently. If you are going to specialize on throwing bombs and jigs have three set ups pre-rigged with bombs and jigs. Have just one or 2 set up for bait. If you are not throwing jigs, have at least 4 set ups rigged for bait.
Assuming there are wahoo rampaging in the water, you will lose a lot of terminal gear due to;
1. Spit outs
2. Chew offs – even with wire leaders!
3. Cut or saw offs
4. Landing a damn dorado or tuna and getting a curly cue wire (one wire is good for one fish of any species!)
5. Landing a wahoo – Yea team!!!!!!
Regardless of the above reason, you want to immediately get back in the water with another bait or bomb, which is why multiple set ups is absolutely critical. Also if you are casting bombs and jigs you don’t want to take the time to re-tie just to switch to another color or pattern if yours is being ignored while something else is being consistently slammed. Having duplicate set ups is so crucial it is worth renting the appropriate gear if you are new to wahoo fishing and have not yet acquired sufficient back ups in your personal arsenal.
Even if you plan to focus on throwing bombs and jigs, a couple of bait rigs are necessary to use when first arriving at a kelp paddy holding dorado. At this time throwing iron is extremely dangerous as dorado often jump out of the water and shake the hook, sending the jig flying back into the eyes and heads of the anglers. Captains will limit you to bait until the dorado get weeded out and the wahoo begin to show. But here’s a trick. Keep one bait rod set up with a
4 – 6 ounce sliding sinker on it to get below the dorado if you slide up to a kelp paddy where the captain is metering wahoo and dorado. I have scored many wahoo using this method to get the sardine quicky below the ravenous dorado to wear the wahoo are lying in wait. Again, it is critical to have multiple set ups and to focus and specialize on the method you have pre determined to be your strategy or game plan.
Technique – Trolling
There is very little to say here. Look at what has been getting bit and use it. The boat rigs work fine and they catch more fish than most passengers’ new pretty feathers and plugs. Just observe what is working best and copy it. At normal wahoo trolling speed, the jigs should be kept very, very, very short – in the prop wash – more down than out. If using a maurader type of plug, reel it in until it just stays in the water and swims. If one more crank makes it skip out of the water you were in the right place.
Set the drags a bit tighter than normal and stay close to your rod. When your jig gets hit, set the hook hard twice, get out of the safety clips asap, and wind, wind, wind in high speed. Don’t pump the rod and don’t give any slack line as the wahoo will spit the hook. It may not even be on the hook, as it might have grabbed the plug from the side and refused to let go. Any slack and he’ll just open his mouth, laugh and swim away.
If you are not bit, immediately put your reel in free spool for 50 feet, engage the gear and reel in as fast as you can. If you get bit on the retrieve DO NOT set the hook. Keep reeling. When the wahoo begins to peel off line, you can give it a couple fast, hard hook sets, but try to keep cranking all of the time.
Lastly, if you get bit on the troll or not, please wind in your line and put your trolling rig away in the boat rod holders or in your assigned rod spot and make sure the hooks are buried in the rod handle and well away from your fellow anglers’ and crews’ thighs.
Technique – Bait
Just like nearly every other big game fish, pin the liveliest sardine or mackerel on your ultra sharp hook on your pre-rigged wire leaders, gently cast your bait and let it swim freely with your reel in free spool. Forget about long soaks – if not bit within two minutes change your bait and try again. The bite will come in one of two ways. You may feel just a slight smack, where the wahoo has missiled through, sliced your bait perfectly in half, and swam off with the tale. Resist any urge to strike or reel in any slack line. Fifty percent of the time the wahoo will do a sharp u-turn and inhale the other half – right, the one with the hook in it! It may even be one of your wahoo’s buddy’s that sees a free tale and gulps it down. You really don’t care, and as soon as line starts screaming off your reel, point the rod toward the running fish, put the reel in gear, and let the drag of the reel set the hook. Only after the wahoo has taken off 50 feet of line under tight drag should you swing on the fish. Do it hard and do it twice. And be ready to sprint to the left or right at warp speed to follow your wahoo and drive defensively!
I like to set the drag very tight on wahoo. Rather than 25- 33% which is the standard for most other game fish, I like 40%. I do this when bait fishing or using bombs or jigs. Wahoo have incredibly hard jaws and you need to drive the hook in deeply and quickly. The tight drag will also help avoid any slack line and resulting spit outs.
Only a few outcomes are possible and you need to do the exact same thing in each case. You kill the wahoo, it spits out the bait (or jig), it chews through the line, you get cut or sawed off. In each case your leader will probably be shot. Don’t waste time to re-tie! Grab another rod and do it again. That’s why it is critical to have several back up rigs ready to go. You can re-tie between stops. It is absolutely critical to have all gear re-tied and ready to go before the next trolling jig stop or arrival at the next kelp paddy.
If you arrive at a promising kelp paddy with a bunch of dorado on it remember to try my heavy sliding sinker trick. Nose hook a sardine, drop it over the rail and let it sink as rapidly as possible – don’t cast. Hopefully, it will get past the dorado and you will nail one of the deeper wahoo while your buddies are weeding out the dodos.
Technique – Bombs and Jigs
Casting jigs and bombs is my personal favorite method for fishing wahoo, and I think it is also the most productive when you are specifically targeting wahoo. The right gear and the ability to make a long cast are critical. If you can’t cast proficiently, stick to bait – or better yet learn to cast well and practice at home.
We discussed the optimum tackle earlier. Now let’s discuss technique. As soon as there is a trolling strike or as soon as your captain gives the OK, give your jig or bomb a long cast. If you are drifting cast with the wind in your back. The bait anglers will be on the other side (wind in their face) and the wind will give you a longer cast and reduce the chance of backlashes. Let it sink for 10 to 20 honest seconds. Vary the sink until you nail the zone. Sometimes they are deeper and a 30 - 40 second drop is required. If you are bit on the sink engage your gears and immediately wind like hell with the rod pointed straight at the fish. Do not set the hook. Just wind tight and keep winding. If and when the wahoo starts a blistering run should you set the hook hard and twice, but still keep cranking. Wind, wind, wind!!!!!!
Getting bit on the sink may only happen one in ten casts. Normally, after your 10, 15 or 20 seconds, you will point your rod straight out and begin reeling. Vary your retrieve between fast and as fast as you can possibly turn the handle. Again, when you are bit keep the rod pointed at the fish and keep winding. All the crew will be yelling wind, wind wind. You may think “I’m trying but the damn handle isn’t turning” – forget it, just wind, as badly as it may hurt.
Two good things may happen. It will either just be a tug of war with you winding and with the wahoo violently shaking and resisting, but if you keep winding you will tug him to the boat. Or, the wahoo will turn and make a blistering run straight out, if you are lucky, or from stern to bow and back again. If he starts to peel line off your reel, you can then, and only then, give him two hard hook sets, as you are winding and running up the side of the boat in desperate pursuit.
You should never pump the rod. Never! Keep any bend in the rod at a minimum, no more than 30% angle to the water. If you fatigue and have to pump, short stroke between 20 and 30%, taking one crank or less of the handle at a time. All of this technique is to keep constant pressure on the fish and allow zero slack line.
Line test is more important on bombs and jigs than bait. Fifty pound line is ideal, 40# line is the minimum. Line stretch is the biggest issue here. Remember, wahoo grab their prey from the side. With bait, they’ll slice it in half and either inhale the half with the hook or the half without the hook, and if you are lucky your wahoo or another competitor will come back and eat the good half. With a bomb or a jig, they’ll do the same thing but will not be able to slice it in half. They’ll just chomp down and hold on. Your job is to put on maximum pressure so he’ll slide down the jig and get impaled by a nice sharp hook. He may even surrender to the gaff, open his mouth and let the jig fall out, never having even been hooked. This is why tight drags, stiff rods, sharp hooks, heavier line, high speed/high torque reels, no rod bend, no premature hook set, no pumping, high density/low profile jigs are all important components of successful wahoo fishing techniques.
Bombs will always be wired, but you can decide to live on the edge with jigs. I think you’ll get more strikes and catch more wahoo without wire, but you will obviously lose more too.
Drive Defensively
If you have teen kids you always tell them to drive defensively to avoid accidents before they happen. The same is true while wahoo fishing. When you are on a fish stay extremely alert to where your fish is, where he’s going, and who is on your left and right. Be calm, be Zen, breathe through your nose – because everything around you is chaos. Communicate calmly and clearly as you are coming down the rail, whether you are in race mode or following a tamed fish. Tell your fellow anglers, by name if possible, if you need to go over or under their lines. Likewise, when you are not on a fish be acutely aware of your fellow anglers who are, and be ready to help avoid a tangle or cut off by letting them over or under your line. Assume that every time you lose a fish it’s your fault, not the other guys, because if you were driving more defensively the accident could have been avoided.
Be Alert - Listen to and Read the Signs
Sometimes you’ll be anchored up fishing for tuna at Alijos Rocks, the Ridge or one of the other spots where wahoo are known to roam. Everyone has been catching tuna, and no wahoo have been in the mix. Then you or another angler gets “hoo’d.” Listen to anybody saying. “I just got hoo’d.” The tell tale sign is a razor sharp, knife like cut through the monofilament line. If someone else says it, try to confirm it by looking at the sliced mono or asking a deck hand – anglers invariably ask a deckhand for confirmation. Immediately, grab your wired bait rig or your pre-rigged jig stick and target the wahoo. Chances are good that you will be the one who gets that gift wahoo.
Always be aware of what your fellow anglers are using and what is working and not working.
Sometimes everything is working, but at other times if another angler scores twice during the same time you’ve been cold, the color or shape of jig, the sink count or the speed of his retrieve may be what is turning these fish on at that moment.
Safety
Safety is a major issue when wahoo fishing.
1. Always where boots.
2. Always listen to your deck hands when they are bringing a gaffed fish over the rail.
3. Always yell “casting or low bridge” before casting your bomb or jig.
4. Always keep your head turned backwards and your eyes on the jig as you are launching your bomb or jig.
5. Always stow your trolling rods and all other rods in your designated spots, with the hooks correctly hidden in back of the reel, and second trolling hook buried in the hypalon rod handle.
6. Always stop your retrieve when your bomb or jig is 15 feet from the boat, let it sink and slowly retrieve it the rest of the way, to avoid a wahoo missiling out of the water into the boat with his open mouth slicing off somebody’s arm.
7. Never use jigs when there are dorado mixed with the wahoo.
8. Never use your fingers to test just how sharp wahoo teeth are.
Wahoo fishing is the most exciting part of the long range trips out of San Diego. I hope this
has helped reinforce and improve some of your wahoo knowledge and skills. If you have never
caught or targeted wahoo, do yourself the favor of a lifetime.