When the wahoo bite fired up off Virginia Beach last fall, I knew Capt. Kenny Koci was my go-to. While most areas get a short shot at ’hoos, Hatteras anglers can target the fish year-round. If anyone was going to get on ’em, Koci was my trump card. “Fishing’s been good,” he told me.
Each fall, as the warm water moves south, wahoo and tuna ride the edge of the continental shelf. Anglers fishing the canyons and nearshore humps and hills encounter wahoo all summer, but in early fall, the fish are on the move and on the feed.
I met Koci at Fisherman’s Wharf Marina hours before dawn. The plan was to target tuna early, then turn to wahoo fishing, and later rig up for swordfishing that night. Before the sun was up, mate Derek Nelson had baits in the water and a half-dozen yellowfin in the box. “They’ve really been biting early,” he explained as the sun came up and the fishing slowed.
That’s when Koci ordered us to make the switch. Nelson brought in the monofilament leaders and switched over to his cheater rig. That’s a 20-foot leader of 150-pound mono with a foot-long shot of No. 9 stainless wire connected with an Albright knot. Nelson uses the rig whenever he’s targeting wahoo with a chance of tuna. “Tuna won’t usually hit a full wire leader,” he says, “but adding just a short piece of wire is enough to keep the wahoo from biting through the leader.”
He runs the wire leader through a Sea Witch skirt or Ilander lure, employing all the famous wahoo colors, especially black-and-red and purple. “They like pink too,” he says.
To the Sea Witch, he added a ¾-ounce egg sinker and left the tag on the haywire twist to serve as a pin. For wahoo, Nelson prefers a 7/0 recurve hook. “I think the fish stay hooked when the point bends slightly toward the shank,” he explained. Obsessive about using sticky-sharp hooks, he tested each on his thumbnail before sending it out.
Nelson sweetens the skirts with medium or select ballyhoo, which he brines overnight in a slurry of ice, salt and water to make the baits tougher and brighter. Nelson prefers monel wire to then lash the ballyhoo to the hook. “A rubber band is fine for tuna, but wahoo slash the bait, and I’ve had them come back for the head.”
His rule of thumb for setting the spread is bigger baits run closest to the boat. “I want to draw the fish’s attention away from the teaser,” he says. He starts with Sea Witches on the long riggers, then Ilander lures on the short position, and he’ll mix up smaller Ilanders or a naked ballyhoo on the long and short shotgun.
The left flat line is a bigger Ilander lure, and the right corner holds his planer rod. “I get most of my bites on the planer,” he admits. Something about a Sea Witch or Ilander swimming 30 to 40 feet under the boat drives wahoo crazy. “I like to use a 4½ Drone spoon too,” he says.
He uses the same cheater rig, but attaches the wire to 100 feet of 130-pound monofilament. A few feet from the end of the leader, he adds a planer with a bridle. His planer rod is spooled with 200-pound braided line that cuts through the water better than monofilament. When the angler brings the line to the boat, Nelson reaches over and removes the planer so the angler can continue to work the fish to the boat.
As I expected, Nelson’s wahoo arsenal was tight. Koci worked the boat along the edge of the 100-fathom drop at 7 knots, trolling as shallow as 20 fathoms before turning out to the deep.
We caught fish everywhere. The key was fishing structure. By the end of the day, we had a limit of big wahoo in the box. Jackpot!
Back home in Hatteras, Nelson and the rest of the island's anglers rely on wahoo for their bread and butter. The fish are available year-round, but the best bite is through the summer and into the fall. As the seasons change, wahoo fishing heats up. Last October, I joined captains Andy Piland and Tim Hagerich on Good Times out of Hatteras Harbor Marina.
As Piland weaved the boat out of the inlet, Hagerich pulled miles of wire out of the cabin. “It wasn’t that long ago we used fishing wire for everything,” he laughed. “I’m glad those days are over.”
For toothy wahoo, old tricks die hard. Hagerich admits that wire offers a lot of advantages over monofilament.
Besides completely stopping wahoo from slicing through the leader, Hagerich told me that his lures track straighter and swim better behind a 30-foot section of No. 9 wire. “It also keeps the lure a little deeper below the surface,” he says.
Hagerich prefers piano wire to stainless steel. “We go through so much of it, it’s better to get a whole spool.” He replaces the whole leader after every fish. “As soon as I wrap it around my hand or it gets a kink, it’s done.” At the end of each day, he starts all over again with a fresh leader on every rod.
Yeah, he’s good at twisting up a haywire twist. He showed me, saying, “Be sure both legs of the wire are coming off at the same angle so you’re twisting both, not wrapping one piece around the other.” One end of the wire is twisted into a loop and clipped to a snap swivel tied to the main line. The other end of the leader is threaded through a Sea Witch, Ilander lure or chugger skirt and attached to a 7/0 hook. “I use the Owner Jobu hooks that are treated to be corrosion-resistant.” This allows him to go all day without sharpening the hooks. “Wahoo have a bony mouth. The hook has to be super-sharp,” he stresses.
According to Hagerich, when fishing for wahoo, speed is the most important factor. They’ll troll as fast as 9 knots and get more bites than slower boats. “If you miss a bite,” he adds, “give it some juice and the fish will come back.” He expects to get multiple hits, so he’ll speed up after he has one fish on. “A lot of the time, we’ll get a bite on the planer first, then the short rigger and long riggers,” he says.
They look for fish over rock piles and wrecks inside 100 fathoms. “Wahoo like it shallow,” he points out, and many bites come as shallow as 20 fathoms. “We’ve had days when we limited out by doing circles around one wreck.”
By late fall, wahoo fishing is off the hook out of Hatteras. "I've fished all over the world and never seen anything like wahoo fishing here," Hagerich boasts. Not only do the fish grow more numerous as the seas cool, but they also seem to grow bigger. "By the end of the fall, we'll catch fish over 50 pounds all day."
Start with 100 feet of 150-pound monofilament. Two feet from the swivel that connects the leader to the main line, crimp two 3-inch loops about a foot apart. Crimp a 4-inch piece of 300-pound-test to the front and another piece to the back of a No. 6 planer. Crimp a 150-pound-test snap swivel to the end of each piece of 300-pound-test. Clip the planer to the loops in the main line.
1.) Front tether is longer to enable planing 2.) Snaps allow planer removal prior to winding in leader 3.) Removable planer makes battling the fish easier
Depth: Wahoo prefer shallow water from 20 to 50 fathoms. Look for hills, rock piles and wrecks.
Flow: Fish away from the full and new moon to avoid swift current.
Temperature: Action heats up as water temperatures drop into the low 70s.
What: Big wahoo
Where: Hatteras, North Carolina, and Virginia Beach, Virginia
When: June through October
Who: Wahoo offer great excitement, but require some know-how. These pros can get you on fish.
Capt. Andy Piland
Good Times
252-216-9273
Good Times website
Capt. Kenny Koci
Wasabi
252-293-6799
Wasabi website
Capt. Russ Kostinas
Top Notch
757-681-8068
Top Notch website
Capt. Joe DelCampo
Captain Cheryl
757-639-8363
Captain Cheryl website
Lightweight and active, the Ilander Sailure entices finicky strikers.
Rigged alone or with a ballyhoo, the wahoo find the action of the Sea Witch especially appealing.
The Ilander Sea Star runs well at faster trolling speeds.
For variety, substitute a No. 41⁄2 Drone spoon on a planer for a Sea Witch or Ilander.
Rods: 50- and 80-pound-class conventional stand-up
Reels: Two-speed 50- and 80-class, matched to rods
Line: 80-pound braid, 200-pound braid on planer rod, 150- to 200-pound mono leader and No. 9 wire
Lures: Sea Witch, Ilander Sailure and Sea Star Jr., No. 41⁄2 Drone spoon
