That's My Story

BETTER HOO’ING – Publshed August 2004 – Western Outdoor News

You hopefully heard about it or saw it here in WON. A few weeks ago a 184-pound wahoo was taken off Cabo that is a pending world record. If you saw the photo, it’s pretty hard to call that a “skinny.” That would be like calling a Sequoia redwood a sapling.

Here in La Paz, we’re having a banner wahoo season ourselves so let me throw in my own two-cents about how I fin- tune my own wahoo fishing since I get asked about it quite often. In fact, several of us were sitting around the other day, including my amigo, Sheldon Bergman of Ojai, who’s been wahooing all over the world. Put a couple of wahoo people together and you get all kinds of opinions.

Wahoo, not normally being schoolie-type fish, are gotten on the troll so that means rigging up to drag stuff through the water. I get away with 40 pound outfits quite well on short sticks, since most wahoo are going to be in the 20-50 pound class. I guess I could even go lighter but a smarter angler would say I’m crazy because around Baja you never know what will bite and I could easily be outclassed with a 40 pound rig. But let’s assume we’re only chasing Mr. Hoo.

Lure? I have a battle scarred Marauder-type lure that is missing an eye. It is criss-crossed with teeth marks and half the paint is missing as are various chunks of the body. From the left-over paint, you could tell it was once an orange/yellow “Tony-the-Tiger” pattern. I love this rig. I will never ever let you borrow it! I also have two extremely heavy chrome jet-heads. I bought one in Hawaii where they have turned lure heads into an art form, especially heavy chrome heads. The other deep runner was made for me by Jorge, the old-battlehorse chef on the “Red Rooster” out of San Diego who is a wahoo magician. Both of these have dark purple skirts with flashes of orange and hot pink (Goblin colors). I won’t let you borrow these either (sorry) and they catch fish. Someday, I will lose these and it will be like losing a best friend. I guard these like I’d guard my little sister on her first date. My captains, who catch lots of wahoo themselves hate them.

They prefer Rapala-type crank baits. Crank baits being “lipped” baits made by a number of great manufacturers that dive when trolled. They work too. Very well. A lot of cruiser guys won’t run them as they can be dangerous and a nuisance when you’re trolling a number of lines, especially if they don’t track correctly, but they work great on pangas. There are two problems with these types of lures. First, you want to change out those treble hooks. From experience, we’ve found that your hook-up-to-catch ratio is diminished with treble hooks. They sometimes don’t bury themselves very deep into that hard wahoo mouth. Second, wahoo are like snakes. They twist and turn when they are fighting and can torque that lure right off and it’s “seeeee-yaaaaa!” Instead I prefer putting on a single Siwash style hook. Don’t make it too big because if it’s too big it will affect the swimming ability of the lure as the hooks will act like mal-adjusted rudders. The single hooks bury deeper plus often the second or third hook will swing around and plant itself in the fish’s noggin or jaw for an almost inescapable hookset. (Don’t lie. You weren’t going to release that wahoo anyway, were you?)

Ever heard the term, “once bitten twice shy?” The problem with the metal-lipped lures, like the Rapala, is that while they work like gems, once hit, they often never run true again no matter what they say on the box about adjusting them. That’s what makes them difficult to troll from a cruiser. It’s like having the proverbial “loose cannon” on a ship. If you have your spread of lures behind the boat and one wayward Rapala decides to run to starboard instead of straight….holy mackerel what a mess it can create! It’s almost as if you need a degree from MIT to make them go straight so I almost always have to toss them away or give them away to someone who has the time to figure it out. I”d love a Rapala rep to come out with me one day and show me what I’m doing wrong. Hence, just as a matter of economics, much as I love my Rapalas, I often find myself using the plastic-lipped Yo-Zuri style instead.

Lastly, a word on how to troll these things. I know there’s a world of controversy here too. Working boats out’ve San Diego, I had always been taught to literally “run ‘em in the wash” up close to the boat. Down here in Mexico, every one of the captains and crews tends to want to run them back the the length of a football field. Me? Old Brooks from Doorknob lures taught me something years ago that has served me well. I run my darker colors up close and in the wash where they make a silhouette in all that white water. I run my brighter colors and patterns out around the 4th or 5th wave just beyond the last of the foam, especially in the brighter Baja sunlight where the sunshine bounces off those chrome heads, chrome lips, shiny paint patterns and lights up those bright colors.

Then, I just wait for that sweet sound of a smoking clicker…hopefully followed by the sweet smell later that evening of ‘hoo sizzling on the barbecue with lots of lime, garlic, tortillas and long-necks on ice.

That’s my story…
Jonathan