By: Capt. Bruce Andersen
Of all the different fish we catch offshore of the Florida Keys one of the most exciting and fun to catch is the wahoo. There are several different ways to fish for wahoo. High speed trolling with heavy tackle is probably the most popular and one of the most effective ways. Vertical Jigging can be effective, especially in certain situations where the fish are around large pieces of debris offshore in the summertime. My favorite way to catch wahoo is in the wintertime on live bait with spinning tackle.
Like any type of fishing there are pros and cons to certain techniques. When high speed trolling, you’ll have some bycatch, but most of the time you’ll avoid other species. It’s harder to specifically single out wahoo when live bait fishing. You’ll usually wind up catching a mix of species including sailfish, kingfish, and blackfin tuna when targeting the wahoo on live bait. One of the pros is that catching all of those species is fun and when you get the wahoo bites on the live bait there’s really nothing else like it.
Catching a wahoo any way is fun, but when you hook a large wahoo with a 20-pound spinning rod you’ll see it do things that just don’t happen with the other methods. They’ll often nearly spool you on their first run while thrashing on top, taking you all the way to the end of your line and then turning around to come back at you so fast that many people get tricked into thinking they’ve lost the fish. Keep winding because most of the time he’s racing right back at you and your line will come cutting through the water going in another direction in just a few seconds. Once a wahoo has taken a few runs, they’ll usually settle down and go deep like a tuna. You’ll want to work on them nice and easy at this point to bring him to the gaff.
Every day is different and the wahoo action seems to come in streaks especially through the winter months. Conditions and moon phase play a big part in when they’ll be biting. Some of the things to look for are blue water and a good northeast current. The days where the gulf stream comes in very close to the reef edge are often the best. The periods around the full and new moon in the winter months can also be hot.
My favorite live baits for wahoo include speedoes, cigar minnows, and pilchards, but I’ve caught them on ballyhoo, goggle eyes, and blue runners as well. Most of the time I’ll fish these baits on a 20- or 30-pound spinning setup with a 15-foot 40 pound fluorocarbon leader with a short trace of about 18 inches of #4 to #7 wire tied to a #2 to 1/0 treble hook depending on what bait I’m using.
So far, this winter seems to be standing out as one of our better wahoo seasons of the last several years. Hopefully the bite will keep going strong and I’ll see you out there!
— www.captaineasycharters.com
You can reach Captain Bruce Andersen at Capt. Easy Charters,
MM 85, call 305.360.2120 or email at: captbrucekey@comcast.net