That's My Story

When talking about the “holy grail” of fish in the Southern Baja waters, many anglers would probably say, it’s the marlin. After all, these bad boys are pretty much the “poster children” for any magazine, newspaper, or advertising picture ever used related to Baja. Their images and logos are pretty much on everything from bumper stickers to t-shirts.

Why not? They’re big. They look good. The blonde in the bikini holding the rod next to the hanging fish makes for a good Kodak moment. Yada.Yada. Yada…yawn…

Talk to the salty boys, however, and mention the word “wahoo” and their eyes glaze over as if you had mentioned the fabled city of El Dorado to a Spanish conquistador or the existence of Big Foot to a Canadian lumberjack or Moby Dick to Captain Ahab. Many seek but few actually find!

“Aye, laddie, they do indeed exist. I’ve been chasing ‘em for years and many is the time my rod took a mighty bend only to suddenly go limp and I reel in a severed line. Many are the trolling lures I have with serrated teeth marks across their flanks! And one day, I shall have my wahoo!”

You can almost hear him willing to offer 20 gold pieces for just one solid hook-up let alone putting one in the boat. Surely a fish to make grown men weep and their wives shake their heads over all the fuss for a fish that looks like a big mackerel with teeth.

However, unless you’ve fought these speedsters that can reach 70 mph bursts or seen the skull full of teeth that can cut through 100 pound leader or tasted the delicious meat, it won’t make sense.

But looking at the some of the fish scores around the Baja lately, especially, the southern Baja, it looks like larger numbers of the fish respectfully called “Mr.Hoo” are moving up and in.

Wahoo are a bit like cats. Show them a fuzzy ball and they won’t give a hoot. Roll the ball across their faces and they pounce. Wahoo are like that. They attack their prey so trolling is often one of the primary ways to locate these fish.

Three of the most popular lures are the Rapala-type lipped lures; the Marauder-type swimming lures; and the heavy chrome jet head skirts.
If I’m using the lipped lures, the larger the better. I’m talking the CD-18 sizes or larger. Smaller than that and you run the risk of the wahoo getting his entire mouth around the lure and cutting you off or the hooks not sinking in deep enough into the hard mouth.

If you can, switch out the treble hooks for single Siwash hooks. Treble hooks sometimes don’t penetrate as deeply and when the fish torques and spins during a fight, it can sometimes torque itself right off to freedom. On the other hand, a single hook buries deep and often the second hook swings back and penetrates the wahoo from a different angle insuring a more solid hookup.

With the Marauder-type trolling lures, again, the single hooks are preferable. However, instead of the largest lures, I prefer the medium size. To me (and I’m sure I’ll get arguments on this), the medium ones have the greater tendency to imbed both hooks into the fish during the battle. The larger lures will only sink one hook into the mouth. The smaller size…well…I am told wahoo have notoriously bad eyesight so I like the largest lure I can get away with.

With the skirted jet heads, the bigger, heavier and nastier the better. I still have my first one made for me almost 20 years ago by Jorge, the long-time chef on the long range boat Red Rooster III. The thing must weigh about a pound and consists of a big chrome jet-head; a garish plastic “goblin skirt” (orange and black), and a tandem of 8/0 stainless steel hooks that mean business. I’ve since made many of my own and these are deadly good.

Color-wise, I like all my lures either as dark as possible or almost as tastelessly bright as possible. . Purple and black (Ninja) is a killer. But, the wahoo like the other end of the spectrum as well. Fluorescent orange gets hit and my orange with black striped (Tony the Tiger) Marauder has been hit so many times, there’s not much left of the paint and both eyes are missing. The chartreuse-colored Rapala called “fire tiger” is also a killer. I’ve never seen a live baitfish out there that’s bright orange or chartreuse so I have no idea wassup with those colors, but believe me, they work!

If I’m running a pattern behind the boat, I prefer the darker ones trolled close up near or in the prop wash creating a silhouette to a trailing wahoo. With my lighter colored lures, I tend to keep them further back in the clearer water running deep.

Keep the leaders short when rigging up. I prefer dark swivels to shiny chrome swivels. My leaders are no more than 18 inches long. I’ve seen tests showing that swivels moving through the water cavitate and shimmy just like a smaller baitfish and wahoo are known to hit the moving swivel instead of the lure. See-yaa…there goes your expensive 30 dollar lure! Shorter leaders keep the fish focused on your lure. Darker swivels look less like a swimming sardine being chased by your lure!

Wire leaders? That’s a 10 page discussion, I’ll save for another column! I say yes!

That’s my story. If you ever want to reach me, my e-mail is riplipboy@aol.com.