I have treasured my visits to The Bahamas since the early 90s, and my last visit was nothing less than spectacular. This last adventure was over the Christmas and New Years holiday to catch a wahoo or two for the freezer. The winter months seem to attract the larger wahoos to the area.
Off the dock at the âcrack of noon,â my good friend Craig Cephas led us to the big ones. My Bahamian-crafted 27-foot Albury center console is equipped with bent-butt rods and Tiagra 80 Wide reels with 100-pound-test stainless wire. Our best results have come using large ballyhoo, double-rigged with Islander lures, black and red or black and purple. Many of my peers believe in high-speed trolling, but not me. Iâm a rebel and so is Craig for that matter; 6.5 to 7 knots does the trick, and we work the drop off from 150 out to 600 feet.
South winds at Grand usually cause the trolling bite to turn off. Luckily we had east-northeast winds about 10 to 15 knots with a light chop⌠just right. We ran out through Mermaid Cutâa shallow water challengeâthrough the reef and out to 150 feet. Our standard operating procedure is to pull the two wire lines as well as a shotgun on a Tiagra 50 Wide with a cedar plug or bare ballyhoo.
The large cedar plug got the call today. It did not take long for a monster wahoo to pile on and spool about one-third of the wire with an above average drag set. We knew we had a nice one as I straddled the gunwale and Craig took the wheel. After about 20 minutes of wahoo give and take, we had him close enough to the boat to wire him, a chore I always leave to Craig. As some know, Craig was Billy Blackâs First Mate on the Duchess of Walkerâs Cay fame. He always runs my cockpit and lands the big ones.
Wiring any large fish takes experience. As the 70-plus-pound wahoo came up next to the boat, Craig got him on the first sweep of the gaffâa head shot. It still took both of us to get the fish in the boat.
Lines out again five minutes later, and the line was screaming again. It was a smaller wahoo, but it was just as large in fight.
As we got back to the dock, the ritual began as Bahamians gathered to see the fish and hear the story. Everyone knew what was on the menu for the eveningâwahoo, of course, with a side of fist-sized stone crab claws. Dinner at Ronâs Hot Spot is just another pleasure Grand Cay has to offer.
My next trip to Grand Cay will have to wait until late April. Hopefully the keyboard will then create a story of the yellowfin tuna bite, maybe a stray wahoo or dolphin galore.
By Joe Edge
PHOTO
Craig Cephas with one of our Christmas-New Year wahoo