Fishy Tales: September 2012

Armed with sharp teeth and a sleek torpedo shaped body, the Wahoo is one of the fastest swimming fish in the ocean. It's reported to attain blistering speeds of up to 60MPH. It's also one of the best tasting on the dinner table. Wahoos are usually caught trolling at high speed. Fishing for Wahoo requires the use of wire leaders as its sharp teeth can slice through regular fishing lines like a hot knife thru butter. Many years ago, I had my fist encounter with this speedster when I was stationed in Guam. I was just getting into offshore fishing at that time. One one of my trips I brought my son along with me on a full day offshore trip. We trolled around to one of the offshore buoys and experienced one of the hottest Wahoo bite I've ever experienced in my life. We caught so much Wahoos that we sold some to the fish coop at the dock which pretty much paid for the charter.

My son and his first Wahoo. I think he was about 10 years old when this pic was taken offshore in Guam waters. Having his pic taken with a rock star looking boat captain, priceless!

Last year, on our trip to Cabo, I was fortunate enough to fish during the start of Wahoo season. This time we slow trolled live cabalitos with wire leaders. When our trolled cabalito got hit, we had no idea what fish took it. It was also tuna, sailfish, dorado, and roosterfish season. When I initially started to fight the fish, I was waiting for the usual initial runs. At first, it was moving, but not really taking much line. I was thinking maybe it was just a small jack or bonito. Then in an instant the fish changed its mind and started on a long drag screaming run. It's game on! Scream Stella scream!

When we finally got the fish on deck, I was amazed how big this fish was. Truly this is the biggest Wahoo I've fought and landed so far. The boat captain even said he wished we were in a Wahoo fishing tournament; the fish would surely be a contender.

I took advantage of the long labor day weekend and decided to hop on one of the sportfshing boats out of San Diego. I was lucky that there was one slot open on the Senor Tuna/Southern California Surf Fishing 2.5 day labor day weekend trip. There are a total of 26 anglers on this trip. This year's fishing season has been phenomenal. Due to the very warm weather the water temp has been ideal. Overnight and day trips out of San Diego have been encountering big numbers of Bluefin tuna, Yellowtails, and Dorados. Yellowfin tuna have also start showing up. A few days before this trip, there was a hurricane in the vicinity of Baja Mexico. I was afraid that this weather disturbance might affect the water temps and conditions. I anticipated it's probably going to be a bit rough, and fish might be scattered. The plan for this trip is to troll and look for floating kelp paddies that might be holding fish. We decided to go about 140 miles out where there's a favorable temp break, and where fish might be holding.

Rod and Reels

I decided to bring four setups for this trip. Three popping/casting rods (Ocean Revolution PE-5, Zenaq Fokeeto Trevally, and the Okuma Makaira popping rod), and one short jigging rod (Van Staal 500gm jigging rod) which I intended to use for trolling. For reels, I brought along 2 Stella 20000FA, a Stella 8000PG, and the Saltiga Dogfight. I dedicated to use the Ocean Revolution/Stella 8000PG combo mostly for flylining live bait. Although, during a hot dorado bite, I tied the Flitz on, and also used it to cast 150gm Sea falcon jig for tuna. The rest of the popping combos I used for casting jigs.

Preps

I tied 20lb, 30lb, and 40lb mono leaders via PR knot to my three popping/casting setups. The trolling combo had 100lb mono leader also tied via PR knot. I have 80lb Daiwa Boat Braid loaded on the two Stella 20000 FA, 80lb JB Hollow on the Dogfight, and 60lb Tuff-Line Indicator braid on the Stella 8000PG. For trolling, I used a red head with white body cedar plug, and a feather jig in mexican flag colors. Also in prep for this trip, I made flies out of the Owner 1/0 and 2/0 treble hooks that I'm going to use on my jigs and lure. I brought along, among others, a couple of Sea Falcon jigs, P-line Laser Minnow, and a Tacklehouse Flitz lure. These are the ones that I really intended to use and hopefully catch fish on. Well, they all worked well and caught fish. Fact is I caught more fish with these artificials than on live bait! This is the only trip ever when I was able to use all combos I brought along, and caught fish. I believe making flies out of the treble hooks made the action of the jig/lure more enticing to the fish. Pic below from top to bottom: Tacklehouse Flitz, Sea Falcon jigs, and the P-line Laser Sardine jig. The P-line's paint job didn't hold up well as you can see in the pic.

Day One

As we expected, it was rough on the night of our departure and the first day of fishing. It got so rough that even anglers wearing the seasickness patch still got sick. The whole day was spent on trolling while looking for floating kelp paddies. It's hard to spot paddies on rough waters. Although we ran across some paddies, most were not holding fish. We also didn't reach the temp break until the afternoon. The norm for the day was to stop on a jig strike, and slide some live sardines hoping that there's a school of fish following our trolled jigs. On the trolling rotations on the first day, I was fortunate to hook a nice Yellowfin Tuna and a Dorado. In order to troll with a spinning setup, I used the spin strap to connect the boat's trolling straps. Below is a video I took of the trolling action. You can see the anglers waiting for a jig strike so they can flyline some sardines on the slide.

Day Two
On the second day, the water was much calmer, and everyone was anticipating some payback. We were not disappointed. We started encountering schools of tuna that would hang around. We also encountered a big school of dorados. This is the first time I've seen so many flopping dorados on deck. Lots of rat Yellowtails also joined the mix. Some videos I took on the 2nd day.

Video of my YFT hookups using the Ocean Revolution rod flylining live sardines. On this video, after two hookups, I switched to the Makaira popping rod and casted the P-line Laser Minnow which also slammed a YFT.

Video of the Dorado hot bite. I tied on the Tacklehouse Flitz and got some! Took me some time to remove the treble hooks off the fish.

Sea Falcon Jig strike! Kinda hit a traffic jam and some sword fighting while hooked to a fish! LOL!

The Sea Falcon jig proved to be real deadly. On this video, the jig immediately got hit on the drop. Unfortunately the fish got off. But on my third cast it was game on! I was using the 250gm Sea Falcon jig tied to the Zenaq Fokeeto Trevally and Saltiga Dogfight combo. The YFT didn't stand a chance!

Overall, this was a very successful and memorable offshore fishing trip. Meeting, getting to know, and fishing with a group of awesome anglers is always a privilege. I've learned alot from this trip, and made new friends as well.