THE WILD WAHOO

Wahoo have always been one of my favourite species of fish to catch. In most areas they aren’t all that common, and off the Gold Coast where I live they turn up in erratic numbers each year. Some seasons we see plenty, but more generally we catch maybe half a dozen as by-catch when chasing billfish with lures. There are specific ways to target wahoo at certain times of the year and the following article will explain some of those methods in detail. The attraction of wahoo is a mixture of speed and beauty. They are an amazing fish to hook, look magnificent in the water and are excellent eating.

I’ve been fortunate to do a lot of fishing in very remote places over many years. Fishing places like Cato and Wreck Reef in the mid-1980s introduced me to wahoo. I’d caught a couple fishing off the Gold Coast and South West Rocks prior to these trips which fuelled my hunger to catch as many as possible. In the early days a lot of commercial anglers referred to wahoo as “Bastard Mackerel” as the silver sheen of scales often stained the fillets, making them unmarketable. When I first went to Cato Island aboard