Long Island Offshore Fishing Report and Forecast: February 2014

Guests from North Carolina fishing with Capt. Luke Maillis, Reel Addictive Charters, on Long Island were greeted with some nice wahoo on their second day of a fishing trip to Diana Bank. PHOTO CREDIT: Reel Addictive Charters.
Guests from North Carolina fishing with Capt. Luke Maillis, Reel Addictive Charters, on Long Island were greeted with some nice wahoo on their second day of a fishing trip to Diana Bank. PHOTO CREDIT: Reel Addictive Charters.

It is February already and the wahoo fishing is still going strong. As the month goes on, we usually see yellowfin tuna starting to make their way past Simms Bar. We like to stick with high speed trolling if we are going for wahoo, usually between 12 to 18 knots, but sometimes we will slow down to 8 knots and put some baits in the water to catch more of a larger variety of fish. Our typical rigs are Islander/ballyhoos with double hook rigs or split tail blue runners, and ladyfish with Islander lures and double 10/0 size hooks. Pull these when you want to pull in the fish! It can also be fun to give the trolling a rest and drop some vertical jigs down on the drop-off for a variety of species like kingfish, tuna, jacks, and even wahoo. This technique provides lots of fun for the sportfisher in search of a good fight on medium to large spinner reels. The word of advice is to either drop down with 75 to 100 gram jigs or drink a couple Redbulls and drop down the heavy 200 gram jigs! Either way can provide lots of fun and a good workout on the water. We have had days where we land five to six wahoo within an hour of jigging at the drop-offs. Fishing in the Bahamas is a world class experience any time of year, but with the near perfect temperatures and abundance of fish February can be one of the most amazing times of year to go.