Early Gulf Wahoo.

[Tidetime]

I have to say I am pretty proud of this fish.  This was the first time I have ever attempted to target wahoo.  I made the chin-weighted ballyhoo rigs out of Malin, prepped and rigged the ballyhoo (thanks youtube) and made the run to what I hoped was a good area.  We ran 40 miles out of Panama City Beach, in a 23 CC.  Seas were a bit rough in early hours but smoothed out to 1-2 and made for nice easy run to deep water.  Left the marina at 5 am and headed south to a beautiful sunrise.



We had stretch 30s on the inside and 2 islanders/ballyhoos on the outside.  We didn't see a single flying fish on the way out and the recent string of cold weather had me a bit worried we had made this run for nothing.  Finally around 9:30am the outside reel starts singing.  About 10-15min later and a near miss with the gaff we had this little 30lber in the box.



We trolled aournd for a few more hours and had a couple more knock downs but no fish. So we heading in to hit some live bottom spots inside state waters and landed a nice 15lb grouper.

[Norcal Pescador]

First ever wahoo? Very nice!!

[Tidetime]

First ever!!   

[alantani]

never caught a wahoo before.  we are headed down to alijos on a 7 day trip out of san diego. that will be my first chance. 

[kamuwela]

in hawaii we call wahoo  ono. in hawaii ono mean's  tastes great, kinda like when you say mmmmmmmmmmm. congrats

[Pescachaser]

Going down to Baja on the 31st.  I am going to target Wahoo for one full day.  The last time I did this I got 7 hook-ups and no fish were brought to the boat.  They are some tough fish.  Congratulations Tidetime:  Dominick

[Bryan Young]

Hey Alan, next time you are in Hawaii, hitch a ride with Kamu out of Waianae.  He will take you 2-3 miles off shore at the first drop off and troll for ono.  You will love the fight.  Man those fish are fast runners.  I got my first and second there.  Man, where are those pictures???  I think my first was 28 pounds and the second was smaller at 24ish pounds... and were they ono.

[kamuwela]

right before ahi season is perfect. my best day was six. of the six the largest was 48 pounds. the best part we were trolling and four of five poles get hit. we stop the boat and grab the pole's, as we were fighting our fish the last pole takes off. that ono grabed the lure while it was sinking. thats why the other name we call them are dog's. go in their yard and theyll come out with a vengance. must be a fun fight on light gear. my 130's stop them instantly, hard hitting fish tho. anytime alan late may to mid june is peak.

[broadway]

Nice job TT... I did some Wahoo fishing in the bahamas last year and missed 2 Wahoo    I plan on doing it again... those reels screamed FUNNNNNN!
May you fill your cooler next time... keep up the good work
Dom

[Pescachaser]

Going down to Baja on the 31st.  I am going to target Wahoo for one full day.  The last time I did this I got 7 hook-ups and no fish were brought to the boat.  They are some tough fish.  Congratulations Tidetime:  Dominick

Well we targeted Wahoo one day but got no hits in the first 3 hours of trolling Wahoo lures.  The captain said that there were some Wahoo around but they were spotty.  So we switched over to Marlin lures and within the first 15 minutes had a striped Marlin on.  Brought it to the boat, performed CPR on it and waved bye-bye.  See pictures and report in the fish photo section of this site.  Dominick