The pleasure (and pain) of fishing for wahoo

Along the Great Barrier Reef, wahoo – and not to mention Spanish mackerel and barracuda – can exact a terrible toll on hard-won and painstakingly rigged dead baits, snipping them neatly off behind the head.

With the trend towards head-rigged circle hooks for marlin, few get caught. This somewhat displeases deckies.

Wahoo can’t resist a skirted lure or hard-body minnow, though, and away from the GBR they are regarded as a fun bit of bycatch.

They’re especially good value on light tackle, being a clean fighter that doesn’t have a lot of petrol in the tank.

Similar to mahi mahi, they help fill in the boredom of waiting for a marlin bite, even if it’s at the cost of a few lure skirts along the way.

Some years they turn up, some years they don’t, but summertime is when you can expect wahoo to show.

There’s no rhyme or reason to their numbers or size, and over the years some monsters measuring more than 25kg have been caught at places like Bermagui, which is approaching the southernmost extent of their range.

Generally speaking though, fish range in size from 10-20kg.

Wahoo love speed, so high-speed trolling with a weighted bullet head well behind the wake is one way of finding them. That first light bite window is prime time.

Skirted lure hook rigs with cable wire between the hooks (or even ahead of a single hook) stand a better chance of surviving a wahoo encounter.

The same can’t be said for the skirts though, but hey, it’s good for the tackle industry!

Similar to mahis, wahoo will aggregate around floating logs and fish attraction devices (FADs).

Sometimes they’re loners, other times it can be a veritable wolfpack. They’ll also float up to drifting boats on occasions, content to check out what’s going on, yet showing little interest in lures or baits.

Those small, fine teeth are razor sharp, and working in conjunction with their powerful jaws can snip through monofilament and even light wire with ease.

Consequently, every wahoo must be put to sleep with a fish bat before being held up for pics or processed for the table. Even when dead, that wicked dentistry remains a risk and can do terrible damage to human flesh, so be extra careful.

Wahoo are understandably fond of rigged dead baits like swimming mullet and skipping garfish, and live baits like skipjack and slimy mackerel are also effective.

Live baits will need a stinger hook rigged on wire down near the tail, otherwise you might spend a lot of time trolling around with just a head remaining.

If fishing in known wahoo territory, a heavy chrome jig (rigged on wire, of course) free-spooled into the wake when the trolling rods load up can produce an extra hookup.

The assist hook will need to be rigged on some tooth-proof wire.

Excellent eating at any size, wahoo are easy to fillet and skin. The meat will dry out if over-cooked though, but steaks, fillets — take your choice.

Steaks on the barbie brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with lemon pepper are particularly toothsome.

Interestingly, all wahoos will have two or more Hirudinella ventricosa parasites, fleshy-looking worms, in their belly region. Completely harmless to humans, they look pretty revolting but don’t affect the flesh at all.

Fortunately, wahoo don’t have the ciguatera health risks associated with similar-size Spanish mackerel, perhaps because they are more of a bluewater predator and not a coral reef resident.