Big Game Trolling for Wahoo
Although wahoo are one of the more sought after sportfish from North Carolina to Florida, they can be found up well to the north off the midatlantic and Massachusetts when the sea temperature heads towards 80o. When wahoo join in on the party on the tuna and marlin grounds, they can wreak havoc on your spread by effortlessly cutting through your leaders with their razor sharp teeth. While you may get lucky every once in awhile using straight up monofilament or fluorocarbon leaders, there are a few precautions and techniques you can build into your offshore tackle arsenal to try and put a monster hoo in the boat on the next trip out.
Wahoo tend to stick together in packs rather than on their own, and gravitate towards structure that holds bait such as lumps, wrecks, and drop-offs. High speed trolling all the way up to 20kts can best take advantage of this, which allows you to cover more ground than your traditional trolling speed when targeting tuna, dolphin, and marlin. This allows you to work an entire area quickly, and the speed will not deter a wary hoo from savagely striking your spread.
When it comes to high speed trolling reels, your best bet will be a 50W reel like the Shimano Tiagra 50WLRSA or Talica 50II, Penn International 50VISW, or Avet EXW 50/2. While a smaller reel like a 30W may do the job as well, the drag found on a 50W reel will prove to be a much better option over time and will save you from getting spooled by a monster over 100lbs.
Once you have your rod and reel picked out, you will want to load the reels with solid or hollow core braid, with hollow core being preferred since you can splice in a short topshot of monofilament without the use of any knots. 100lb, 130lb, and 200lb hollow core are most common, with 100lb mono topshots ideal for providing some extra stretch when a fish piles on a lure at speed. If using dedicated wahoo trolling setups, it would be wise to use hi vis hollow core, enabling your crew to easily gauge how far back your spread is. At the end of your monofilament topshot, it is best to attach a heavy duty 200-300lb ball bearing snap swivel via a crimp or offshore loop knot to the loop formed by a Bimini Twist.
Now you will need to come up with shock leaders that will provide some stretch when a wahoo takes a run at speed. Premade options from Fathom Offshore will work fine, however they are extremely easy to make. All you will need will be 25ft of 400lb monofilament leader and appropriate crimps, two ball bearing snap swivels, and chafe gear for both ends. Simply crimp the snap swivels to each end with chafe gear inside the loops and you are good to go. Best to make up a bunch of these and make sure to rinse them extremely well with freshwater after each use to help combat corrosion and potential breakoffs on your next trip. Trolling weights will also be necessary to add to your tackle arsenal, ranging from 16oz up to 48oz usually the norm. These will attach to your snap swivel coming off of your main line on one end and to your shock leader on the other.
If specifically targeting wahoo on the troll, you are best off using either AFW 49 strand stainless cable or single strand wire for leader, which is also known as piano wire. Cable is easy to use since you are able to use crimps to terminate your connections, however it tends to damper the action of your bait and lure presentations. If using single strand wire, you will need to learn the haywire twist to make your loop connections to hooks and swivels.\
Single strand is usually best for trolling Yo Zuri Bonitas, Braid Marauders, Trailblazer Trolling Lures, Ilander/Octopus trolling skirt combos, lipped diving plugs, and rigged ballyhoo. For lures like Black Bart’s Wahoo Candy and San Sal Candy, and other trolling style plugs geared towards high speed wahoo fishing, cable with single or double stainless steel hooksets is the norm.
Not sure you want to get into rigging up high speed wahoo trolling lures, well you are in luck as both Black Bart and Fathom Offshore have comprised specific wahoo trolling packs so all you have to do is attach the weights, shock leader, and lures to your snap swivels off your mainline and let them rip!