Targeting Wahoo in the Northeast

[Moonzy1]

Originally Posted by Dino

fish where the tuna life is only trolling much faster, 12-14 kts with heavy wahoo lures and cable leaders. the thing is u can be missing great tuna fishing doing that .. u might pick up a mako though

And this is the reason i believe we don't see them more.
we are chasing tuna and cannot bear the thought of speed trolling over schools of tuna to specifically target these fish.

The fact that almost every Wahoo that you guys are showing me, are considered trophies in the south, is telling me they are there and not being targeted. we are catching the errant hoo's and the larger more aggressive ones which by the way are usually caught under strange circumstances according to my southern friends too….caught an 85 lber on a cut cigar fish while deep dropping. the avg 25 lb hoo they catch are almost always on troll.

[Flukemeister1]

Caught this one at the Chicken Canyon two years ago. We had gotten away from the other boats and saw a BIG swirl and then saw the bait. We trolled over at about 8-9 knots and it hit a large squid daisy chain with a Ballyhoo under the skirt. Luckily it was hooked in the corner of the mouth as we did not have wire. Fish was real fat and 60 inches long. It pegged a 50 pound spring scale. First purchase back at the dock was 100 pound spring scale.

[Flukemeister1]

Had to resize picture.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Another nice Hoo!!

[Pauls1976]

When conditions are right, I think they are more common than most think. I think a lot of bite offs are blamed on sharks and bluefish when you don't see the fish. If we get the conditions this year, I plan to spend some time with a
More dedicated wahoo spread.

I know last year during the MRMTC Offshore Open, the boat (non sponsor I believe) that won the category. Left in less than ideal conditions, got to middle grounds, slowed up and targeted wahoo on the way out. They caught two and won the category before they reached the canyon.

Three years ago in the same tournament, I watched the biggest wahoo I ever saw make 3 swipes at our inside rigger. Finally getting it he bit off, below the crimp. We got to keep our lure but missed out on a fish of a lifetime.