AlMOSTAWAHOO!!!

[Custom Canvas]

11-08-2009
High Speed Wahoo "De-Gaffer"

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[Kahi]

What I offer here is just my humble opinions...

The angler should have backed off the drag as soon the gaff shot was made. would have saved you the fish

Not sure if the boat was still in gear, but that is by far the most important thing when fishing high speed rigs for wahoo. The weight of the high speed lures (not the inline weight) combined with the wahoo's tendency for serious head shaking makes keeping the boat in gear a must.

Also...I have fished for wahoo via High Speed for a few years.. It is a very diff fish then the one's caught by normal trolling or live baiting. These fish have exerted a tremendous amount of energy and are basically spent...as they chased down a bait at 20knts...got dragged by a boat for a few clips and are being battled on 50# gear needed to drag baits at 20kts... They just don't need to be gaffed....just drag them in...and immediately in a swift motion into a frozen salt slush cooler/coffin...switch out your lure at the leader and go back over the spot..

I found this great article a while back from Ron Schattman...a great hi-speed wahoo. This article is on a website from one of our sf.com members, and great high-speed lure maker, Wahooking.

...http://www.wahooking.com/articles.html


Thanks for posting a really cool video.

Kahi
Miami, FL

[Foul Hook'd]

Zack, @$#% happens, I prefer to drag them over the side and use the gaff in'em to pin them to the floor until we can get hands on them. Phil who fishes with us is a mad man when it comes to hoos, they hit the floor and he's on them, hook out, bear hug and a kiss, in the box! I agree with kahi, back off the drag so if they do get back over you can try it again. You'll getem next time!

Foul Hook'd

[calebw]

1. Back of the drag a little when the gaff man has the leader in hand
2. Gaff man, take it easy there is no rush. Pick him up smoothly over the side, and if you think he is to big the pick his head slightly out of the water and pin it to the side of the boat and get another person to plant another gaff in him

[Baywolf]

Don't think Zack was referring to high speed trolling but high speed release. I agree with the guys about reel man backing off the drag, take your time let him settle before you lift him over. What I saw, I never let the gaffman go fwd of the reel man, let him bring the fish to you. When you gaff over the line all kinds of bad things can happen. When you swing him in DON'T LET HIM TOUCH THE COVERING BOARDS, up over and in in one fell swoop. like mentioned, if you can't do it wait for another gaff before you lift him.

Just my humble opinion.

[mythosbeer]

Thats too bad Zack. I lost my first tuna just like that. Guy on the gaff got him in the softer skin on the stomach and the gaff pulled when he came out of the water. I learned my lesson to back off the drag when the leader man is going to work. Would have made my first tuna taste much better than no tuna at all

Were you guys north or south on that trip?

[Captain Fred Archer]

Good stuff, Baywolf! Especially that "don't gaff in front of the line" advice. That can and does lead to disaster on any species of fish, but as wild as 'hoo's can get when stuck, it can even get worse with them. Yet I see it much of the time in picts and videos. Hey, it's "gaffing 101" in my book (literally), as is the angler backing off on the drag when the leaderman has the leader (and keeping slack line off of both him and anything else). And no doubt about it, staying cool is an important part of the end game, as is paying close attention to toothy critters like wahoo once you deck them.

"The slide" ends all that stuff up there, of course.

Here's one from the Wahoo Troller's Bible...sleeping beauty...no flopping around, no blood, damned little slime...just the way I like them! And maybe better yet, no holes in da meat!

[Baywolf]

Hey Fred, the slide works great if you got a flip top gunnel with a door. When you got to haul em up and over is there an alternative. I've heard the Mexican mates carry a spray bottle of cheap Tequilla spray it in the mouth and BAM knocked out. Can't see any Carolina mates using this tactic.

[Nauti Natured]

Hey Fred, the slide works great if you got a flip top gunnel with a door. When you got to haul em up and over is there an alternative. I've heard the Mexican mates carry a spray bottle of cheap Tequilla spray it in the mouth and BAM knocked out. Can't see any Carolina mates using this tactic.

Nope .... Carolina mates use strictly moonshine

[Captain Fred Archer]

The spray bottle thing really does work, but I don't know about wahoo because we discovered it after we started sliding our 'hoos. Never saw a reason to try it on 'hoo after that.

It isn't common practice in Cabo, but it sure was with us. We solved any and all dorado problems, and like wahoos, you know those damned things, especially the real big ones that we had a lot of, can really be a handful both at gaff and once in the boat. They and wahoo were the most common causes of crew getting one of a set of double hooks in them and that was far more common than you might think, what with a hundred to two hundred charterboats out fishing during the peak season - a long one.

And it's like I said about wahoo bites. I had one new crew get three fingers lopped off by one once and I personally had to stop the bleeding, pick up the twitching digits, bag and ice them, then, the worst part, leave a wide open wahoo bite to run the dumbass victim back to the hospital. You don't want to see a forty-to-seventy pound dorado, or any size one for that matter, with a 12/0 hook buried in a friend or crewmember or worse yet, a client's thigh with the fish ripping and tearing it deeper and deeper and ripping more and more flesh until you can get it under control somehow.

Billy clubs don't work too well when there's a big, mad bull or major 'hoo dawg only an inch or two away from it and its victim, with the fish shaking and jumping all over the place, with the human doing the same thing, ya know?

I write about this kind of thing and how to avoid it in every one of my books. And I don't care if some hardass cockpit cowboy with more macho than brains thinks I'm a wuss because of it, either. As far as I'm concerned too many writers and others who give out fishing advice skip over important safety advice. Not me! I give it out freely and in detail, including some pictures of the awful consequences of being careless or uninformed.

We used the spray bottles on any and all bigger dorados. It knocked them silly. It gives you time to take pictures and carefully box them, but that only lasts for roughly 45 seconds. When they come out of it they better be in the box because they will NOT be happy and apparently suffer from extreme hangovers !

Be careful out there!

Captain CandyAss