Wahoo trolling setup assistance

[handi2]

Lee, for the most part in Florida the Wahoo are not plentiful enough to cast to. Most are taken on the troll or occasionally on live bait while fishing for other species. Sometimes you can find a floating pallet or something similar that may have a bunch of small ones under it that you can toss a jig to, but that is an exception.

Same here in the FL Panhandle. I have some Wahoo bombs but sold them. All of the ones we catch are trolling. Now Venice is different if you are throwing bombs around the oil rigs.

I've caught more Wahoo on a blue/white Islander Ballyhoo combination in a common trolling spread. Sometimes we will high speed troll while running to another area and have caught a few that way. For high speed you need a 50 size reel so it can handle the increased drag used to pull the big heavy high speed lures. The Wahoo in this area can get big..!!

[Keta]

They were between the rigs in the rips, the one above on top of the Midnight Lump.

[handi2]

Has to be some wahoo fishing experience in here. I am looking to utilize my current gear and somehow put together a setup that I can troll at 10-15 kts pulling either rigged lure or x-rap 30. I know this requires stout setups. I have read for days about it all and ideally I would go out and grab a Tiagra 30 and slap it on a nice bent rod butt trolling rod and be all set. Issue is conjuring up $800+. So I have been thinking I can possibly get away with utilizing what I already have. Looking for opinions on which reel and the spooling of said reel. Rods I have its the reels I am not sure of.

This is what I have:

Penn 113HN
Penn 6/0
Release Reel SG

Was thinking the Penn 6/0. Has significant capacity and I am slapping in a new HT-100 set into it. Thoughts?

Out of these reels use the one with the highest line capacity. Our trolling reels have 40lb on the 30W's and 60lb on the 50W's. All mono.

If you are going to pull at those speeds and those type lures it will be a good strain on the drag system just to keep the lures from pulling drag while trolling. If you use a lighter true trolling lure it will be much less. I've had very good luck with the Braid type lures and many people here have caught plenty with the lures you mentioned.

[Patudo]

High speed trolling is not a viable strategy with your gear unless you go way down in lure size.  The best approach with your gear may be trolling plugs, Xraps, Halcos and so on, at around 6 to 7 knots, as quick as you can go without the lures swimming out of the water.  I've seen large rigged baits like bonita and rainbow runner be very effecive but these need rigging skills the majority of weekend fishemen don't have.  8 to 10 inch jet heads, black hole Ilanders and so on also work at around an 8 knot trolling speed.  If you have specific smaller areas such as a wreck or reef etc, slow trolling or drifting with large live baits, large hard tails, blue runners or small bonita (basically kingfish style with larger baits and hooks) can be very good.  High speed trolling isn't the only way to catch wahoo but the slower you go the more exact you need to be in terms of knowing where the fish are. All your reels should be fine for trolling plugs and livebaits, the smaller reels can be spooled with power pro or other spectra. Be prepared to get after the fish if a big one does take you down to a third of the spool.  



This was a good catch on CD14s on spinning rods, some years ago now but the approach still works. The reel is an 8500SS spooled with 25 lb mono.  You might need to go to bigger plugs like CD18s (which require heavier line) if trash fish like bonita keep climbing on smaller plugs.  

[Tightlines667]

I have used alot of different methods to target wahoo over the years, but personally my favorite is to fish 2 single hooked, weighted Sea Witch or Islander/squid skirt combos rigged with Balleyhoo baits on flat lines, and stagger 2 unweighted seawitch balleyhoo combos on downriggers.  I don't like the erratic action and relatively poor hookup ratios of plugs, or the tangles and messes that result from an overcomplicated (greater then 4 line) spread.  Wahoo respond to natural looking or live bait trolled slow, and erratic flashy or 'ugly' fast baits.  Getting em down under the surface a bit helps alot.  But sometimes covering alot of ground at high speed is the order of the day.  Although you may only hook into a single fish trolling, mark the spot and cover the area throughly after a knockdown...there are usually more then one in a given area.  In HI most use large jetheads with triple skirts in ugly colors coupled with double hooked rigs rigged on multistrand cable, trolled fast on the surface along the 40fa ledges.  A little rougher water and stronger current often produces more bites.  I tend to favor the finesse approach rather then the run em n gun em one.

[Newell Nut]

We had a lady catch one bottom fishing on the party boat last year that surprised everybody. Never heard of catching one on the bottom before but strange things can happen.

[otghoyt]

12 weight fly rod with blanco plumas.  Dodos too.  Olds cool!!!