At first glance, wahoo resemble a torpedo. Their fusiform body tapers in the front and the rear giving the animal one of the most streamlined shapes you'll find below the ocean's surface. And with a powerful forked tail producing some serious horsepower, wahoo rank as one of the fastest fish in the ocean. It's no surprise that this aggressive predator will hit a wide range of lures and baits, but their habits and traits keep anglers guessing and the scientific community scratching their collective heads.

Wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri) most resemble the mackerel family of fish, but many characteristics make the species unique. Although similar in shape, wahoo possess nearly three times as many vertebrae as most mackerels. The jaw of the wahoo, one of the animal's defining traits, is pointed and has more teeth than a mackerel. And these razor-sharp choppers deserve respect —they can slice clean through some of the toughest baits, leaving a perfectly severed carcass. They can also hack through human skin like it's tissue paper. (I once took a photo of a man holding up a 40-pound dead wahoo by the tail. He lost his grip and dropped the open-mouthed fish on his foot. The dead fish cut the top of his foot to the bone and came within centimeters of severing some major tendons.) Even more unusual, the wahoo's jaw sports a hinged upper portion that allows it to open much wider than that of other fish.

Another interesting difference between wahoo and other predatory fish such as tunas, sharks and billfish is that the latter contain several species within the same family, each one carrying a unique stamp that distinguishes it from its cousins. Wahoo did not evolve this way, and only one species is recognized worldwide.
 "The wahoo is most closely related to king mackerels and tuna, but it's not a big mackerel — it's a wahoo," says John "Dr. 'Hoo" Baldwin, a professor from Florida Atlantic University, who is currently conducting a study to determine whether wahoo exist in local populations or in one large population. "There was a time when researchers actually thought wahoo were more closely related to billfish but the wahoo really has more similarities to tuna — body shape, speed — and it's more pelagic than kingfish, which stay closer to shore."

Fast and Furious
When it comes to catching prey, the wahoo uses a lethal combination of speed and scissorlike teeth.

Wahoo make their living from sheer speed. Its dorsal fin folds down into a groove for less drag, and the tail section of the animal is highly specialized for bursts of high speed. 

The narrow rear end of the fish allows the tail to swing widely without exposing much surface area. A number of small finlets run from the tail to the second dorsal fin, breaking up water flow and reducing turbulence and drag. A caudal keel, which juts out from either side of the portion just in front of the tail, further reduces turbulence and helps the fish maneuver with sports-car handling. 

The wahoo relies on the tail portion of its body for all its propulsion. By moving just the posterior half of the body, the fish prevents side-to-side sway in the front, a movement that creates drag and would slow the animal down. The tail itself is tall and thin, known as a high-aspect-ratio tail. This type of tail, similar to those of billfish and tunas, provides maximum forward thrust, pushing wahoo at speeds rumored to reach 50 or 60 mph.

Although wahoo can hit high speeds and their first runs often peel off a tremendous amount of line, the fish tend to give up, lacking the stamina of billfish. "Wahoo are slender, and although they possess features that can get them out of the hole quickly, they may lack the sheer muscle mass to allow them to put up a good, long fight," Baldwin says. "Wahoo are built for speed, not endurance. The analogy would be that wahoo are like cheetahs with an extreme burst of speed as they chase down their prey. They are not in it for the long haul and afterward need a nap. Marlin and tuna are more like lions and tigers — not as quick but able to recover more quickly and have more endurance."

You don't often hear The Old Man and the Sea-type stories of anglers fighting wahoo for five or six hours. But few game fishermen can resist the chance to go mano a mano with the cheetah of the sea.

An Oceanic Nomad
Technically, wahoo are classified as a circumglobal, epipelagic species, meaning that they thrive in the top 200 meters of tropical and subtropical waters around the world. Larger wahoo tend to travel in small packs of less than six fish, while smaller fish often school up. But this is not a steadfast rule. In the Atlantic, it is believed that the species spawns in the summer, as many fish caught during this time of year contain roe. 

"Wahoo are batch or serial spawners," says Dr. Jim Franks of the Center for Fisheries Research and Development at the University of Southern Mississippi. "They don't release all their eggs at once; they release them sporadically throughout the season. It's a better strategy for survival."

How the males and females find one another, however, remains a mystery. "The male must fertilize the eggs quickly, or the eggs will die," Franks says. "They have to find each other somehow. Some sort of event must trigger the female to drop her eggs. What that event is we do not know." Some of the science used to manage wahoo today is badly outdated. A 1969 study collected wahoo larvae in the Straits of Florida and the Straits of Yucatán off Cuba, and surmised that wahoo spawn in this area. Dr. Bill Hogarth, now the director of NOAA Fisheries, conducted a wahoo study in the 1970s and concluded that wahoo lay between 560,000 and 45 million eggs, depending on the size of the fish. Little else had been documented up until the last decade, but ongoing studies hope to shed new light.

Donate a Wahoo The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is encouraging Florida anglers to donate wahoo carcasses rather than toss them overboard. The donations will help scientists with their age/growth studies. Researchers remove the otolith, or inner ear bone, from the carcass. The small bone grows rings as the wahoo ages, almost like an oak tree. By studying these rings, scientists can learn how fast the fish grows and reaches maturity.  In Florida, drop off your carcass at Finest Kind Marina in Stuart, Fishing Headquarters in Jupiter, Lott Bros. in North Palm Beach, the Snook Nook in Jensen Beach or White's Tackle Shop in Fort Pierce. For more information, contact the FWC at 727-896-8626 or go to www.floridamarine.org. The Wahoo Research Project at Florida Atlantic University is also seeking help from recreational anglers. Dr. John Baldwin and his crew would like to tag several fish with satellite archival tags and need anglers willing to release their catch. The WRP has collected over 1,800 tissue samples from fish in over 20 localities throughout the world. The group hopes to conclude its genetic population assessment this year and currently has a full Web site with information on their findings. For more information, visit www.wahooproject.org or call 954-236-1151.

Kristin Maki, a biologist working on an age/growth study for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, says wahoo grow extremely fast during the first few years of life. "A wahoo can reach 20 to 30 pounds in its first year, and the fish is ready to reproduce by year two," she says. This fast growth rate helps sustain wahoo populations, which appear healthy along the U.S. coastline.

As other fisheries such as tuna and swordfish decline, however, many fear that new commercial pressures will shift to wahoo, dolphin and other tasty pelagics. For this reason, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council developed the Dolphin/Wahoo Fishery Management Plan, and the secretary of commerce approved it in December 2003. This plan set catch limits for commercial and recreational anglers along the Atlantic Coast and established a framework for long-term management. The current Atlantic recreational limit is two wahoo per person (no minimum size). The plan also set the commercial trip limit at 500 pounds. Additionally, it made selling recreationally caught wahoo illegal.

A Frequent Flyer?
Migration patterns or whether wahoo migrate at all remains a mystery. To get a sense of where fish migrate, scientists need information from tagging studies. Most such studies insert small plastic tags called spaghetti tags into a fish, and record the date and location of the catch and the fish's approximate weight and size before releasing it. Each tag has a telephone number or address that the person who catches the fish can use to contact the tagging agency. When the tagged fish is recaptured, scientists ask the person who caught it several questions and record how many days the fish was at large, how far the fish swam and how much weight it put on. Unfortunately, wahoo and tagging studies don't mix.

 "Wahoo are some of the best-tasting fish in the ocean, which makes a traditional tagging program tough because no one really releases them," Baldwin says. "There's typically a low rate of return with tagging studies anyway — less than 2 percent — so we'd have to tag thousands of fish. A few tagging studies have tagged wahoo, but I've only seen a dozen or so tags come back, and most of those fish were caught 30 days later in the same location."

A couple of successful studies, however, did show that wahoo can and will hit the road. "I heard of a wahoo tagged in the Pacific in Hawaii. The fish was 17 pounds when it was tagged, and in seven months it traveled over 1,100 miles and doubled in size," Baldwin says.

Although their exact movements may not be known, wahoo commonly appear around bait-holding structures such as rips, atolls and underwater banks, in water 68 to 77 degrees. The fish thrive along islands such as Bermuda, Hawaii and the Bahamas, but they also travel along major currents such as the Gulf Stream and the Humboldt Current.

Wahoo Captains Bermuda Capt. Allen DeSilva 441-295-0835 www.fishbermuda.com Capt. Russell Young 441-234-1832 www.sportfishbermuda.com Hawaii Capt. Tad Luckey 800-474-4606 www.luckeystrike.com Capt. Jeff Fay 808-325-3449 www.humdinger-online.com Mexico Capt. Sam Talbert SammyTalb@aol.com

"I will say that wahoo probably don't engage in true migration by the strictest definition," Baldwin says. "That definition, among other things, requires that the migrating animal ignore food sources along its migration route. More likely, wahoo engage in extended foraging. As such, they probably don't follow geographic markers such as depth contours, unless these geographic markers also happen to hold prey." Baldwin hopes to use satellite tags to learn more about wahoo movements. These tags record water temperature, depth and location information every minute for up to 90 days. At that point, the tag pops off the fish, floats to the surface and sends the information to a satellite system. "Essentially, you get an e-mail from your fish about where he's been for the last 90 days and what he's been doing," Baldwin says. "Satellite tags are really the way to go. There's a lot more bang for the buck — the amount of data is incredible."

Global Tactics
Wahoo catches often occur while trolling for another species. Yellowfin, marlin, sailfish and dolphin all dine on similar baits and will jump on a line at any given time. The wahoo fishery in the Bahamas, however, doesn't see much bycatch if you maintain a speed of over 12 knots. 

"Larger wahoo tend to be territorial," says angler Duane Gossett, who has won the Bahamas Wahoo Championship series twice in the past five years. "You find big fish in certain spots that are not over a large area, maybe a quarter-mile to a mile long. I think it's the current bringing in a steady supply of bait to these areas because the spots don't jump at you off the chart."

Gossett runs five lines: two wire with 48 ounces of lead, two mono with 32 ounces of lead and a shotgun set 175 yards back. He prefers to run between 15 and 16 knots, depending on sea conditions. At this speed you won't catch much bycatch other than the occasional kingfish when making a turn or running in too shallow along an edge.
"We typically fish in 150 to 400 feet of water. Red and black have been our most productive colors, but we always run an oddball. Fluorescent green works well sometimes," Gossett says.  The offshore banks of Bermuda hold some of the Atlantic's best wahoo action. The spring and fall wahoo fishery perfectly augments Bermuda's blue marlin season, which peaks in the summer. Here captains such as Allen DeSilva on the DeMako run five lines — two in the outriggers, two down deep on downriggers and one shotgun way down the center off the bridge. "We have five good months of wahoo in Bermuda," DeSilva says. "April, May, September, October and November are the best. When the weather is hot and calm, the wahoo really don't want to play. The best days are rough. When you can hardly stand up in the cockpit, you may get 20 or 30." Bermuda-based Capt. Russell Young of the Sea Wolfe says he finds most of the action on the edge of the drop.	Bahamas Wahoo Championship  This tournament series stands alone in the big-game community as perhaps the only event in the Atlantic to target wahoo specifically. With three or four legs each year, the Bahamas Wahoo Championship attracts a group of anglers who aren't afraid to stare down the winter cold fronts that make wahoo fishing in this part of the world a bit squirrely.  "Wahoo fishing in the Bahamas is a wintertime, windy and blustery fishery," says tournament director Raul Miranda. "The fish seem to bite better when it's ugly and disagreeable out. These anglers have a certain swagger, but they often get the hell kicked out of them. That's what separates wahoo fishermen from the rest."  For the past eight years, Miranda and his team helped put the Bahamas wahoo scene on the map while promoting conservation and wahoo research. "When we first started the tournament, it was a catch-as-many-as-you-can event," Miranda says. "We would stuff four or five fish in burlap sacks and weigh them. It wasn't competitive — the fastest and biggest boats always seemed to have an advantage. It wasn't very good for the fish conservationwise, either."  Miranda worked with Jack Holmes, founder of the Southern Kingfish Association, and came up with a new format. Each boat weighs in its two heaviest fish of the day (20-pound minimum), and the boat with the five largest fish at the end of the tournament wins. You'll also find marine biologists at each BWC event, taking tissue samples and other information for age/growth studies and genetic profiling. They also answer questions for curious anglers. The end result attracts a competitive bunch that seems to find large wahoo no matter on which small Bahamian island the event takes place.  "It's unreal to me to see so many wahoo in one place and so many over 50 pounds," says Kristin Maki, a biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission who has attended BWC events to take samples. "You don't see that quality of fish on a regular basis in Florida." The final leg of the 2004-05 BWC takes place at Port Lucaya in Freeport on Grand Bahama Island February 2-5. For more information, visit www.bahamaswahoo.com or call 305-234-7386.

"It is so steep here that the 40-fathom line works well for most species," Young says. "Slack tides are not good and neither is too much current. Also, a change in the current direction will sometimes turn the bite off — or start it." 

For the past 30 years, Capt. Tad Luckey has been fishing out of Maui and fine-tuning his wahoo tactics. He says summer is best for catching fish with lures, but he prefers to use scad mackerel trolled slowly. He fishes two baits on the surface and one down deep on a downrigger.  "A wahoo is a totally different fish when hooked on a live bait, compared to a lure," he says. "They look like a fat rat on a water ski and can give you three or four great runs and even jump like a small marlin when given the chance on light gear."

In Kona, most skippers focus on the big blue marlin just offshore, but the ono make a nice addition to the catch. Starting in April, Capt. Jeff Fay on the Humdinger trolls at 8 or 9 knots along the 40-fathom edge, which the locals call "ono shelf." 

"The majority of the ono are caught on lures, mostly jet heads or lead-heads," Fay says. "I generally run five lures in the spread." 

The wahoo action in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, can also produce some large specimens with year-round action. However, finding a good bite can be tough at times. "Wahoo fishing in Cabo is rarely predictable," says Capt. Sam Talbert, who runs the 65-foot Hatteras Sneak Attack. "We don't have any set season, but they can be caught any month of the year. Most guys here would rather catch a big wahoo than a striped marlin."

Talbert likes Marauders trolled at 8 knots for wahoo, but he says most of his wahoo catches come when targeting other species. "Most bites are just incidental bites while trolling for marlin and dorados. The best fishing I ever found in Cabo was off a kelp paddy that drifted all the way down from California. It was loaded with big dorados and wahoo."

When full grown, wahoo can weigh up to 200 pounds. The current all-tackle world record stands at 158 pounds 8 ounces, caught by Keith Winter in Loreto, Mexico. Another big 'hoo taken south of the border in 2002 measured 89 inches long and supposedly weighed 202 pounds, but the IGFA did not accept the catch as a world record because of several uncertainties. 

The 200-pounders are out there — the trick is finding them and getting a speedster that big to the boat.