Fast Trolling for Wahoo,

[seapower]

Hey guy's how about a basic run down for fast trolling for wahoo. I'm looking at pulling 3 line's. How far back do you normally set your rig's, trolling speed? What size trolling weight's, how long are your leader's? Any standard favorite bait's? Thank's for the input. Frank

[rarhomes]

Frank,

I know what has worked for me. It's gonna be a little bit different than what Wahoo King does, but it also IMO is a little easier and I hate trolling weights.

I pull 4 (I like black and purple) BB San Sal candies with a double 9/0 hook rig and a Billy Bait strip hooked and zip tied, on a 15' 250# mono leader with a 24" trace of 480# 49 strand (Bright). Connect the two with a good ball bearing swivel (double crimps on the 49 strand). NO WEIGHT. Run them all out of gunnel rod holders. Longs are long maybe 200'/250', shorts are long maybe 150'/200'. I run mine at 10 to 14 knots. I like to see pop, dive, pop, dive (make come to life). It can be a lot of fun but get your wallet out because your gonna burn some fuel.

Good luck.

Capt Rick

[clt_capt]

I have had moderate success running a couple of ballyhood Wahoo Express off of my planer rods - no weight.

They will run fine up to about 17kts. I actually prefer to slow down a bit - 12 kts or so, pull 2 ballyhood and a cedar plug...

I haven't run this setup out of Morehead - but when I was out of Southport, We'd put lines in about 10 miles beyond the tower and run to the break...

[seapower]

I'm thinking about doing it for the same reason you seemed to have done it. Set em' out away's off the beach and tow them to the break. Did I understand you right ,that you put a ballyhoo onto those rig's? I noticed the spinner on the hook's. I was thinking about using a "Billy Bait" I've got rigged, but remember someone saying that you didn't want any "smoke", make sense to you?
Have you tried to or do you pull a swimming bait, like a Braid Bait, Stetch 30,etc.. for any of our regular 3 fish (tuna, dolphin, wahoo)? Been thinking about mixing thing's up abit this year. Last year when I fished against the grain with something unusual,I made out well. I did alot of thing's different than the usual when I comm. fished for king's and sometimes it made a difference. Frank

[clt_capt]

Frank,
The name of the lure in the pic is Ballyhood Wahoo Express - The head is solid stainless and weighs about 14 oz. No bait - straight hook with spinner. They are a lot heavier than a billy bait - you would probably need an inline weight with a billy...

At 12 kts they run down a bit and a cedar plug on top gives good action.

I haven't run the braid lures much - got scared by a crazy mahi - too many swinging hooks...

[rarhomes]

None of lures mentioned need bait, the Wahoo express is a great lure but it is very heavy. Once a fish is hooked DO NOT stop the boat or the lure will fall out of his mouth. As with all high speed catches keep the boat moving, open the transom door and slid em in. If you stop and fight the fish he will usually win.

Capt Rick