Looking for wahoo
 

Friday I went with Fred looking for wahoo and tuna. There was fog forecasted the day before but the day started out beautiful.

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The last report of yellowfin came from Elf but the sea conditions would not allow his boat to make it out there. We would be happy to just get some blackfin under these conditions and we still were looking for some wahoo. Once we made it out to our targeted rig I set out 3 Russelure deep divers. We marked some fish on one corner and we get a triple hookup. The 3 guys grabbed the poles and I orchestrated the line crossing dance. Unfortunately our triple hookup, which we managed to land all 3, turned out to be 3 Jack Crevalle.

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That corner was thick with them I avoided that corner and trolled the other sides and marked a bit but no takers. I moved out to another set of rigs and once again set out 3 Russelures. We get a strike and it is game on then a second and the third one goes off also. Same setup. They fight and I try to keep things straight. This I think is one of my better pictures of the year.

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Although we got some good shots we ended up tossing these 3 back also.

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Seeing this was not working and we were not marking anything like the tuna we saw last time we were here we changed tactics. Once back in state waters we targeted red snapper. Our first one in the boat was a beauty.

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We fished it for another 20 minutes or so but we could not even get a sniff from there. I made a decision to move to another rig and see what was happening. This move was a bit better.

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It was still a slow pick until we moved over a few feet then we started loosing bait and breaking off some good ones. Fred had some strong circle hooks but they were wire thin. This skinny hook was cutting out of the fishes mouths. I changed to bigger, thicker hooks and things changed. There were a couple of other tackle changes I made that I think helped us but we still had to work for our fish. The current was running so hard we had to use 16 ounces or better to get into the zone. We lost several fish in the rig but did manage a limit of red snapper for the fish box.

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Not a skunk day but still looking for Wahoo.

Life is Good!

Fishing is not a matter of life or death. It's more important than that.

CAPT HOOP -- OUR FREEDOM

Nice Fish HOOP!

looks like they came home with some really nice snapper at least! Plus I know their backs are hurting after those jacks lol

Headed out of Venice Saturday around 8. First stop was at the lump to try and catch some chum bait. Pulled for wahoo also. No luck except for 1 Bonito. Headed west and we're able to boat some nice yellows and a bunch of black fin who added in catch the yellows.
Very surprised to hear no one had been catching wahoo. Had one buddy of mine on a rig said that he saw a school of them circling the Plat form but who really knows good luck fishing the up coming weeks hopefully be back out there in January and February.

Wahoo generally lay suspended in an area in a school. The ones he saw circling the rig were most likely Jack Crevalle. They have been thick in the areas the wahoo will soon be invading.