too bumpy for me

[weekender]

Went out Saturday but conditions were a little more than forecast. Wasn't bad going out with the NE at our back, but about 30 miles out got purdy sloppy. By the time we put lines in I couldn't stand in the pit without holding on and the spray was like a well aimed salt shower. We were targeting wahoo and my homemade lure got crushed within a few minutes getting wet. Kay jumped on the rod and she made do with a cooler for a seat. She got the hoo to the boat in short order but he didn't like to looks of it and made a strong second run. Back to the boat again this time into the box. It was her first wahoo, hopefully one of many more to come. Rather than risk another fall and possible injury to my leg, we decided to point it towards the hill and troll back in. No more strikes but there will be another day hopefully.

[WAHOONBOX]

GREAT JOB KAY......WHERE'S THE PIC OF THE LURE?

[SeaBiscuit]

Congrats Kay on your first wahoo, Nice fish!
Greg, I believe this is your second fish on the homemade lure in only two tries, correct?
Let's see the goods and describe any special rigging if needed to run this thing fast.

Thanks,
SeaBiscuit

[clt_capt]

Nice fish - congrats Kay. Definitely sounds like you might have a hot lure.

[Ponce]

Congrats on the Hoo, it was a little bumpy on Sat.

[weekender]

I came home because of the wind forecast, and deer season opens Saturday. I am setting here typing and peeping out the window at 2 bucks and several doe. The lure is back at the beach but I'll do the best I can to decribe it:

OK, on the first try, maybe this one was a weehoo but it was my first and sure eat good.



first take a C&H purple and black wahoo feather:



then add a 9 1/2" Boone silver and blue squid skirt:



the rigging I learned from Wahooking's site, THANKS to Ron for a great site and sharing mucho how to.

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

I took some 480# cable, about 3 feet, and made my double hook rig using heat shrink to make it stiff. I don't have the hook numbers handy but I used 10/0 tuna hooks. The back hook tip is positioned so that the point of the hook is even with the end of the squid skirt to prevent tangles per Ron's suggestion. To do this, I used some tribeads for spacing. I also used the same tribeads to space the squid skirt head back well into the feathers of the C&H. I added a 3oz egg sinker inside the head of the squid skirt. In short, you have two lures hooked together almost end to end. I used 12' of 300# leader hooked to a 32oz trolling sinker. We pulled the concocktion 15 knots. We had a three line spread and this lure was the closest to the boat about 120 ft back. I looks funny, but has produced two wahoo strikes in less than 2 hours fishing time. The first day, we went high speed for an hour and a half with two strikes, then four hours with meat and no strikes, not even a sniff on the meat so it wasn't a stellar day to begin with. I can't wait to pull this thing when they are chewing heavy. Ya don't get any greener than me on wahoo fishing but if I can answer a question about this lure/rig, fire away.

[jtocean]

Great job on the Hoo. The rig you described sounds killer. It's a good feeling killing fish on your own lures.

[SeaBiscuit]

Thanks for the description of the lure Greg. A couple of questions:
1. Do you pull these lures on 50's or 80's?
2. Shock leader size & length?
3. Do you hand line the shock leader to the boat?

Thanks again,
SeaBiscuit

PS no 20 + wahoo is a weehoo!

[Nauti Natured]

PS no 20 + wahoo is a weehoo!

Agreed! Thats no Weehoo!

[weekender]

my leader was 12' of 200# although 300-400# is recommended on Ron's site, I just didn't have anything that heavy. He also recommends 80s which I didn't have, so eveything was slightly downsized from the optimum. It was hand lined once we got the weight in reach. I guess one could get creative with the weight attachment and have a wind on like the Box does his famous planer rig. We pulled them on 50s with mono, however I would have preferred braid but didn't have it. Not sure how good the drag was on these reels, but it took most of the drag on the WWB to keep it from creeping, but it worked.