Big autumn wahoo offshore

THE TWEED Leon McClymont

Going to focus a bit on wahoo this month, as April should be one of the best times of year to be targeting big wahoo offshore Gold Coast, Tweed and Byron. I’m going to go through a few things such as water colour, techniques, and areas that should help you get connected to this speedsters of the blue.

The first thing you want to find is good water and the colour is critical for this species: they are a pelagic that loves the electric blue/ purple water. If you have found good water like this then you’re in with a good chance of encountering wahoo. Once finding this water it is up to you on how you would like to target them. Here are a few techniques that you can try.

Fast trolling hardbody lures or hex heads. Are one of the most popular ways to target them as its effective and quite easy. You can even run both of them together. With this method or you can use a range of speeds, it really depends on the conditions and your spread. Some hardbody lures won’t troll over 8-10 knots, but generally the faster the better for wahoo. Depending on how big your vessel is will determine how many lures you can run in your spread. Most boats will only run two rods out whilst trolling, as your average vessel is around 4.8-5.2m. A deep diving lure on the short corner and a shallow diving lure a little further back on the other corner is the most common. Running a hex head right out the back in the middle in shotgun position is also another a great option and doesn’t overcrowd the spread, or vice-versa you can run two hex heads and one hardbody. Keep your hardbody lure in short if you’re running two hex heads to avoid tangles.

Trolling over and around pinnacles, drop offs, bait balls, FADs or pressure points where the current may be slamming into reefs are the areas you want to focus your time. Keep passing these areas, especially if you’re marking fish. Their natural instincts to chase down a baitfish will kick in and they will fall for these fast trolled lures most of the time. If they aren’t eating lures or trolling isn’t your thing then slow trolling or drifting livies, such as slimey mackerel in these areas will also produce wahoo. Stepping it up a level and using big size livies like little frigate/Atlantic tuna, bonito or Mac tuna are the best live bait you can get for a big wahoo.

Skip baiting also is a great way to catch wahoo. Skipping garfish or whichever bait you may wish to use, really the options are endless. Long slander baits are generally the most favourable baits chosen for this method as they will swim/skip better. Some will even use small mackerel or smaller wahoo up to 90cm for a bait for a bigger wahoo, this also is a great method for big marlin and is frequently used in the big gamefish arena for big black marlin off the continental shelf of Cairns.

If casting lures is your thing then you really have to find the good water first. With trolling you can cover a lot of ground and eventually discover where the fish are by doing so, but with casting lures you’re nearly motionless drifting in the ocean with the currents. So finding good water, or even better finding fish on the sonar, then casting into the zone is much better, you want to feel confident with every cast. If you have found good water, bait ball, birds working, a FAD then there is a possibility of one turning on your popper or stick bait and you’re connected to one of the fastest fish in the ocean.

There are still plenty of mackerel roaming around, as the better water has made a lot of difference this season. If you have found yourself fishing the greener water they will hang and feed in this water but will tend to be much deeper so running a downrigger will really increase your chances.

Good reports of mulloway have been coming in on the inshore reefs as well. The little flush of fresh and the annual mullet run has the mulloway fired up and on the chew. I’ve been seeing plenty of snapper, pearlies and trag jew also being caught in 50-80m. Most the fish have been taken on baits with the some taken on slow pitching jigs 120-200g range.

April is a good month to get out the shelf for a spot of deep dropping. Bar cod, nannygai, flametail, and rosey jobfish are some of the tasty ingredients you may encounter, the current should be minimal this time of year.

The river got a good little flush with some of the recent rains plenty of good whiting and flathead getting caught in the shallows up Chinderah and Cobaki.

There are still good reports of mangrove jack with a lot of anglers putting their time into that species, so the reports have been coming in thick and fast. Fishing artificial structure, such at bridge pylons and jetties have been the most productive but still plenty are being pulled from the natural snags that they also frequent.

Good luck and get on out there and catch ya’ self a feed.