Well, seeing all these wahoo reports have been killing me!
I've been snipped off by them last year and with all the local reports I wanted to try to get one in our local waters before this crazy season ends. After seeing Mr. Thomas (Tombo808) get one, I gave him a text if he needed a guy for Monday.
He said they wouldn't be going Monday but Sunday was a go and one of their guys bailed on them so... I met him at the docks at 5:00 AM Sunday morning. (thank you PAPA!!! Also a HUGE thanks to Mr. Thomas for giving me the chance to go!) As we got to the 28' Boston Whaler,
we met Mr. Rodney and Mr. Bob at the slip. We skipped bait as we'd going wahoo or bust and if Everingham Bros even had bait, it'd be 2-4" chovie. We hauled @zz in that boat down to the south 9 making a left near to border and troll up the line where Mr. Thomas got his hoo Friday. The whole fleet was out trolling the 9 and here we were trolling inside the 3 mile line
. Conditions were prime with an Overcast greylight and amazing sunrise (of course we were all antsy and only Mr. Thomas took a pic). On our first pass we saw many paddies and some bird life. Back in the spread we had out a the Mean Green Joe marlin jig that caught Friday's hoo, a Purple and black Marlin jig, Purple&Black marauder, orange marauder, and a orange&red marlin jig. As we came almost in front of Point Loma we crashing into a small paddy destroying it. The marauder and another rod picked up some kelp so Mr. Thomas and I wound them in as Mr. Rodney was eating his gourmet yogurt in the cabin and Mr. Bob kept us going looking ahead to not hit anything. Suddenly the Lucky Mean Green Joe starts to scream! We all think dang bull kelp as the 10 year old mono has the rubbing sound of a yellow Kelping you. Them as we stop it keeps going! Faster and Faster! Buzzing off line back to the border! Mr. Thomas asks, "Nicky is that a fish?" as I was standing next to the rod when it happened so I took 10 Hard winds on it and as I put my hands of the blank the bull kelp violently shook. I didn't want to take the rod as I didn't want to lose whatever powerful fish ate the foot long jig, but Mr. Thomas insisted I did. As I wound like a maniac on the fish Mr. Rodney casually walks out of the cabin and says "are we hooked up?" Mr. Thomas-"ummm I think so"
"holy crap why didn't you guys tell me we were on!!!" HAHA! As I wound the heavy fish in I just prayed on every next heavy headshake it wouldn't pop off. Eventually it drew close and we saw some tail kicks in the dark prop wash behind the boat. We still couldn't see the fish in the dark, greylight water. Then we saw a teeny flash. Mr. Rodney says was that a Bonito?
LOL Then The color comes and the long, skinny, barred flash came. We all watched in awe as this magnificent fish thrashed in our home waters. Finally I get it to gaff and it keeps swimming just outside gaff distance. I step back and tell Mr. Thomas "MEATSHOT IT!!!" haha and on comes the weird mackerel 2.5 miles outside of Point Loma on our GPS. WAAAHOOOOOOO! (Sorry if it's a bit pic heavy)
Oh my.
Yewwww!
SO stoked with this fish! Just seeing one in our local waters is just insane!
Afterwards we all wondered later why we didn't box the area but the boat that saw us came in trolled and within minutes after us caught a wahoo in the same zone. We trolled and trolled for another slam on the marauder which sent it flying (a;so in the same zone) but that was it for the day.
The wahoo that hit this may have not taken a ton of paint off but on both sides looked like if someone took a screwdiver and beat the lure. The teeth marks were DEEP!!!
We called it a day a bit early to clean the boat, get Mr. Rodney home early for his work function, and anyways our morning window was over. We traveled 88 miles trolled 4 laps up and down and worked the whole 9 mile bank.
Got to cleaning at home and my 1/4 of the Wahoo was 2 of these chunks! That's a 9" blade and 15" knife in overall length.
I can't thank Mr. Thomas enough for giving me the opportunity to fish offshore with him this year and my dad for driving me at weird times as well as drive him nuts!
Thanks for reading!
Nicky
