Wahoo can be caught year-round off South Florida, but the full moon in August is the absolute best time to catch one of the big, speedy, tasty gamefish.
The wahoo fishing is so good around the full moon, which is Aug. 15, that you don’t even need a powerboat to catch one.
“To me, August is the prime time to get those monster wahoo,” said Joe Hector, who fishes out of a kayak and also runs kayak fishing tournaments out of Pompano Beach. His ExtremeKayakFishing.com tournament two years ago in August produced eight wahoo, including a 71.9-pounder and two others over 50 pounds.
No one knows why wahoo are so abundant in South Florida around August’s full moon, and those who catch them don’t really care. The hard-fighting fish take off when they’re hooked, typically running out several hundred yards of line. Once an angler gets a wahoo close to the boat or kayak, the fish often take off again.
Anglers also love wahoo because they are delicious. Their firm, white flesh is great grilled or seared. The daily bag limit is two wahoo per angler.
Given their choice, most captains and anglers would fish for wahoo before and after the August full moon.
“I’ve caught them all the way out from a week before the full moon to a week, a week and a half after the full moon,” said Hector, whose personal-best wahoo was a 65-pounder.
Capt. Skip Dana, of Deerfield Beach, who runs charters on his center console Pop-A-Top out of Pompano Beach, prefers to fish “three to four days before a full moon and then a few days after. The day of the full moon is usually slower, with the best bite at mid-day.”
Many wahoo anglers troll lures or dead baits or a combination of both using planers, which are metal plates that help get the lures and baits 30 to 40 feet below the surface. But Dana said live baits are especially effective around the full moon in August as well as in September.
“You get more bites live-bait fishing than any time of year. I’d rather catch one on live bait than 10 trolling a lure on a planer,” said Dana, who starts fishing in the morning by putting up two fishing kites, each with three lines. The kites get the baits away from the boat and suspend them at or just below the surface. He also puts out two flat lines with live baits that can swim wherever they want, along with two lines with sinkers to get those baits down deeper.
“Once the sun is up, I’ll start slow-trolling for them. I’ll go out to 200, 300, 400 feet and put out goggle-eyes, blue runners, speedos, little bullet bonitos. All you’re doing is bumping the motors in and out of gear to keep the lines tight as you move.
“I’ll put a flat line 200 yards back, and one 50 or 60 yards back. I’ll put a downrigger bait on each side of the boat and stagger them. I’ll start at 75 and 125 feet down, and if I get a bite on the deeper one, I’ll go to 125 and 200 feet.”
Dana fishes Penn Fathom high-speed reels spooled with 20-pound Momoi Orange Crush monofilament line on 7-foot medium-action 20-pound rods. He uses a 15-foot 30-pound Momoi fluorocarbon leader. To prevent cut-offs from sharp-toothed wahoo, he adds a three-foot piece of 30-pound Knot 2 Kinky nickel-titanium leader wire attached to the fluorocarbon with an 80-pound Spro swivel. The other end of the leader is tied to a 6/0 VMC hook attached by a short piece of No. 6 wire to a 4/0 VMC stinger hook.
Hector, who uses spinning outfits with 30-pound monofilament, a 50-pound leader and a 6- or 7-inch piece of 30- or 40-pound wire, also prefers live bait for wahoo. Before heading to the beach to launch his kayak, he buys five goggle-eyes and three pilchards from a bait shop. He keeps them in a 5-gallon bucket with a battery-powered aerator. Once he catches a wahoo, he heads back to shore, which is why he doesn’t need a lot of bait.
“When I’m targeting wahoo, my trips are short and sweet,” he said. “I’ll put out my first gog on the way out in 80 feet, then set up a drift. I fish a pilchard on top with a gog below. If you put out two gogs together, you’re going to end up with a tangled mess.
“Believe it or not, I’ve caught more wahoo on a big pilchard than on gogs. Some of my best catches have been on a 6-inch pilchard.”
That ties in with something Capt. Cory Burlew said about why he trolls smaller lures than most captains.
Burlew, whose GoddessCharters.com fishes out of Deerfield Beach, likes to troll dark-colored lures for big wahoo, such as black-and-red, blue-and-black and black-and-purple. Instead of fishing 12-inch lures, his lures are 8 to 10 inches long to better match what wahoo eat. “Sometimes the smaller ones seem to catch more fish and bigger fish because wahoo feed on flying fish and small tuna,” Burlew said. “I feel like the big ones are lazy. They’d rather eat a small bait. It’s like walking by a buffet, are you going to pick up a French fry or a baked potato?”