venice wahoo questions

[chuck1123]

I fish out of venice like many of the captains on this forum, and I absolutely love wahoo fishing. I live about 350 miles away so i dont get to go as much as I'd like to, i usually make about 25 trips a year. I have ran 3 trips so far this year and have caught 8 wahoo total with the last trip getting skunked. The last trip was on a full moon and I was told by a local captain that the wahoo stack up on the full moon, I totally have faith in the captain and am not calling him a liar or anything, it was just a tough day. I was just wondering if any of the captains on this site could give any tips on what they do on tough days when the fish dont want to bite. I know the captains have bad days too, just wondering if anyone would like to share how they fill thier fishboxes on a consistent basis. I usually troll a three to four line spread consisting of marauders and stretch 30's , i dont like the stretch 30's because they dont last long but still pull them because they catch fish.

[Fifty Line]

We do well when things slow down by fishing the down current side of the rigs, slow trolling two large blue runners about 50 feet and 100 feet down on the downriggers....trick is to clip one of their tale fins, which makes em easy pickens...

Originally Posted by chuck1123

I fish out of venice like many of the captains on this forum, and I absolutely love wahoo fishing. I live about 350 miles away so i dont get to go as much as I'd like to, i usually make about 25 trips a year. I have ran 3 trips so far this year and have caught 8 wahoo total with the last trip getting skunked. The last trip was on a full moon and I was told by a local captain that the wahoo stack up on the full moon, I totally have faith in the captain and am not calling him a liar or anything, it was just a tough day. I was just wondering if any of the captains on this site could give any tips on what they do on tough days when the fish dont want to bite. I know the captains have bad days too, just wondering if anyone would like to share how they fill thier fishboxes on a consistent basis. I usually troll a three to four line spread consisting of marauders and stretch 30's , i dont like the stretch 30's because they dont last long but still pull them because they catch fish.

[fishxtreme]

The stretch 30's are probably the most productive wahoo lure over there. Pink would be my first choice, purple would be my second. How deep are you getting them down? Sometimes the wahoo go deeper and won't come up for a trolled bait. They normally roam 30 to 60 ft below the surface. These lures will pull up to 10kts, depending whether your moving with current or against it, maybe just increase your trolling speed to get them deeper. Another thing , replace your tail hook with an 8 0 J hook and you'll improve your hook up to boat ratio.

I've had good luck in the past with the heavy chrome jet head lures pulled behind a trolling ( heavy streamlined ) weight.

They maybe starting to scatter out, if bait is getting scarce. If you mark bait visually or on your bottom machine above 80 ft from the suface, your probably in as good a spot as any.