Wahoo are one of my favorite fish to catch in blue water. They’re fast, they’re mean, they get pretty darn big and they’re really good to eat, so there’s not a lot not to like about wahoo. July and August are two of the best months to target wahoo in the East Region because the bonito, one of their favorite foods, are schooled
up in big numbers. There’s also a lot of juvenile blackfin tuna in the area. As we move into September and October, the fall mullet run takes place, so there are large mullet added to the mix.
We also see a lot of wahoo feeding right at first light several days before and after the new and full moons. That bite will last from dawn until about 8 a.m., so a lot of anglers head out the inlet in the dark, troll until the sun gets up, and then run back in and go to work with a wahoo or two in the fish box.
The wahoo in my region average 20 to 40 pounds, with fish over 60 pounds common. Knowing that, you’ll want to put out big baits that will draw these fish into your spread. Wahoo are super aggressive and fast and powerful as a Chevy truck, so I like to target them with 30 or 50 pound tackle. Anything lighter and you’re going to be chasing your fish down the highway for quite some time, and the longer the fish is hooked and fighting the better it’s chance to get away.
Wahoo are toothy fish, so you’ll want to use a wire leader—I like a #7 or #8 single strand wire for fishing wahoo, anything lighter and a big fish will bite through it. If you’re pulling lures you can get away with 150 to 300 pound monofilament, but wahoo aren’t known for being leader shy, so you might as well use the wire and decrease the chance a big fish will cut you off.
The key any time you’re wahoo fishing is to get your baits below the surface, whether that’s by using a downrigger, planer, trolling lead or wire line. Getting your baits just four or five feet below the surface will make a big difference, and getting them down 20 to 40 feet will greatly improve the number of bites.
Wahoo typically hang out around structure, whether that’s a weedline, floating debris, reef or wreck. All these structures hold the baitfish that wahoo feed upon, so the wahoo stick around these areas because of the abundance of food.
Natural baits work great for wahoo. Rigged horse ballyhoo or swimming mullet should be double-hooked with #7 to #9 hooks. A lot of time it pays to add some color and weight to the offering, so weighed skirts like the Ilander Lure in red and black, blue and pink or black and purple can be placed in front of the ballyhoo or mullet to make the offering even larger with a lot more color to it.
Because wahoo are one of the fastest fish in the ocean, a lot of anglers like to high-speed troll for them using lures like a
Yo-Zuri Bonito, Zuker or Wahoo Whacker trolled at 9 to 14 knots. High speed trolling allows the anglers to cover more water, and thus put their lures in front of more fish over a shorter period of time.
You can also slow troll with live baits like a juvenile bonito, live blue runner, goggle-eye or mullet. These baits should be deployed with a double-hook stinger rig and slow trolled around likely wahoo areas.
One of the best ways to target wahoo is to load up with threadfins, pilchards or Spanish sardines, and run offshore to a weedline, rip, edge or color change in anywhere from 180 to 400 feet of water, shut down and drift while chumming. You can chum with live or dead baits, placing a hooked similar-sized bait as what you’re chumming with behind the boat.
When you’re drifting, your boat becomes a large floating object that will often hold baitfish, so it’s attractive to the inquisitive wahoo. When they encounter the chum, wahoo will regularly swim right up to the boat and can be sight cast with a live or dead bait.
When hooked, wahoo will make a long, fast initial run, then circle back towards the boat. They are known for shaking their heads a lot during the fight and at the end, so it’s important to keep a tight line on the wahoo at all times or they may shake the hook free. There’s a lot of anglers who have hooked wahoo and reeled them to the boat, only to see the fish shake the lure or hook out before the fish is gaffed because of slack in the line.