Wahoo fishing HI

[c-note]

Guys,

Question here. I was thinking of trailering down to HI and fishing south for Wahoo. I see the charters out of Okrakoke(sp lazy) are getting intot hem very well. How far down out and deep do you need to be to get into these critters thick?

[captdavdavis01]

Fairly shallow actually, 15 to 80 fathoms. Find a break or structure. Fish the planer in the shallows, we usually bring it in over 80fathoms. When we are strickty fishing for them, we put the hispeed stuff in the water around 90ft and slow down to 15-18 kts., working our way out to the change. I have caught them in 50ft playing with bailers in September.

Keep a pair of dinks ready to go, wahoo water is usually sailfish water this time of year.

[coomes]

I just got home today from hatteras, they slaughtered the wahoo yesterday from just inshore of the Rockpile to just off of it. We started on the first break and worked out to the Rockpile, should of run straight there since the bite slacked off by late morning. I left my boat there so I can head back down when the weather slacks off. I was there for 16 days and only 2 days were fishable, actually most days were small craft advisory. I would fish the Rockpile area or a little south to the 000's. Most wahoo will be caught outside the break from 25-40 fathoms and make sure you pull a planer and a shotgun down the middle, we had 7 wahoo bites yesterday and 5 of them came on those 2 lines. Keep a ear on the radio and the charters will let you know where they are catching ie, the 090 in 40 fathoms will tell you on the 090 loran line in 40 fthoms which will give you there exact location just make sure to have your plotter set up with TDs or a Loran paper chart handy. Good luck

Pat

[Baldzilla 2.0]

had an invite on a Charter out of HI today last minute and wahoo were there. We caught 9 nice ones and had a few lost. They are there! Good luck

[FishinMagician_IV]

We fished on the Bi-Op-Sea out of PC yesterday and caught 9. Rough as could be though!
http://www.fishpiratescove.com/fishing_report/

[c-note]

Any certain lure or color pattern? Did you get a lot on the planer or any other position?

[FishinMagician_IV]

Planer & spoon for 8 of the 9 as I remember.

[c-note]

Was the spoon on a trolling weight? How big?

[captdavdavis01]

Let me start with hooks. For single strand, you need needle eyes, my gripe is that they are pretty light gauge wire. I snip the tip (1/16" to 1/8") off the hook and shapen it with a flat file at home. It should look like a dart when you are done. Wahoo have a very bony mouth, the long point on stock, out of the box hook is weak by design. You can make it better, it takes about 2 minutes. When you have it shaped right, color it with black sharpies or some vasiline to keep the rust away. Before you put the worm on the hook, hit it once again with your file, just to keep it razor like.

I like a heavy (1/2 or 3/4oz.) pink or purple/ black/ dark green seawitch on 8ft of #8 single strand wire for ballys. The planer get either a 3.5 drone(silver with gold prism paper) or a dark colored sailure. Some guys like to pull a maurader or rapala, but they have alot of hook points, and increase the danger factor with every one of them.

For the faster presntation, a Islander, black w/ orange/purple or black and purple. I usually put a orange or chartruse skirt(for contrast) under it. Im looking for a 12 to 14" profile, rigged on 6ft of 270 multistrand cable- use thimbles at th hook and at the swivel. For leader we use 30ft of 300, it get replaced at least every trip, if not every 2-3 fish, when it turns white, its time for a new piece.(you need the 300 leader as a shock absorber for the strike). This can be fish without weight upto about 10-12 knots before it starts skipping and tumbling, as you go faster you need lead to keep it from tumbling and getting fouled, I keep weights from 24oz to 48oz. If you are using regular inline leads, besure to add some wire to it. Wahoo love weights. Down south where ther are alot more wahoo around, guys will use a 2 part wire leader, the bait and hook on one section, say 2 ft then a swivel, then another section on wire about 5ft. It just gives you some more protection from cut offs. Ive had it happen once where the hooked wahoo got cut off by another hitting the islander as it slid up the leader the the mono section.

Bent butt rods are great in this application, but I use mainly straights, regardless, be sure the rod is tied to the boat. Set your drag at the lightest drag you can manage without the rig creeping out. I like atleast a 50w, a 70 or 80 is better(more drag surface).

When you get bit, slow down, but dont stop. The strike at 10 knots puts a huge hole in the fishes head, you stop the fish surges forward and its over with, hes gone. We try to leave the other rig out so a soon as the fish is gaffed, we speed back up. These are schooling fish, find one, you can usually find a few. Keep drilling the area for 15-20 mins.

Even on the ballyhoo bites, one you get to the leader, dont let it go, that 1 second of slack and the fish is gone. HANG ON! They come to the boat with their mouth wide open. Keep 1 engine in gear, it seems to calm them down some, I guess the lack of water flow over their gills makes them freak out.

If its a bit bumpy and we have to slow down(I fish a 23 center), I will drop the hispeed stuff over at 90 feet and keep working deeper.

[High Line]

Some great stuff in this thread for sure! A couple questions for you guys...

For your spoons down deep, do you run single-strand wire in front of them? if so, how much? I've always wrestled with that and gone both ways. Do you feel wire hurts your chances w/ tuna when it's on the planer?

Also, you mention needle-eye hooks with single-strand wire. I would love to know the reasoning behind this. I've been thinking about it and can't figure out why it'd make a difference...i'm probably just slow.

Great thread...lot's of good information in here! Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Ed