Wahoo are a warm-water wanderer, not a target you plan a Northeast trip around, but in warm years they turn up along the canyon edges and pick off a trolled bait, and the strike is unforgettable. Few fish in the sea accelerate like a wahoo; the first run is a blur.
How to identify them
Wahoo are long, slim and unmistakable: an elongated body with a long, beak-like snout, tiger-like blue vertical bars along the sides, and a mouth of razor teeth. They look like a barracuda's meaner offshore cousin. Those teeth are the whole reason wahoo rigs use wire.
Where and when
For us wahoo are an occasional, warm-year visitor to the offshore canyons and temperature breaks in late summer and fall, mixed in with the tuna. They are never a sure thing this far north, which makes catching one all the sweeter.
Tip Wahoo often eat a fast-moving bait. If you are marking or raising them, a high-speed trolled lure on a wire trace, run well back or off a planer, is the classic way to get bit without getting bitten off.
How to catch them
The two keys are speed and wire. Wahoo are frequently taken on high-speed trolling lures and on standard tuna spreads, always with a section of wire leader to survive those teeth. When one eats, the reel dumps line fast, keep the drag and the boat working and enjoy the show.
Eating
Wahoo is superb, firm, white, clean and mild, arguably the best-eating fish that swims the canyons. Ice it well and it is a treat on the grill.