SPECIES GUIDE

Wahoo Fishing Guide

The ultimate sports fish. The feeling you get is literally in the name.

Fast, tough, and fiercely aggressive, few fish can match the thrill of hooking one. That’s why anglers love targeting them. Wahoos can be elusive and unpredictable, but when you connect, there’s no mistaking them. They strike trolled lures, topwater baits, and jigs with ferocious energy, fight relentlessly, and taste incredible - what more could you want? 

Wahoo are found in tropical and sub-tropical waters along the west coast of Australia from Perth upwards, the Northern Territory, down the Queensland coast and down to New South Wales.

Timing is key. Wahoo prefer warmer waters and specific currents, making February through May the ideal season. Keep an eye out for water temperatures around 24°C, the sweet spot for finding these speed demons on your next fishing trip.

5 Must-Have Lures for Wahoo

 

Expert Wahoo Tips

Here are 5 tips to help improve your wahoo fishing:

  1. Wahoo have notoriously sharp teeth. Apart from being ultra careful when handling them, you need to take this into consideration when rigging. We use a wire trace when trolling. The Halco Single Strand Wire trace is perfect for this. The trace comes in multiple lengths and breaking strains to suit what you prefer.
  2. Still talking teeth. When casting topwater lures, it can pay to use a small single-strand wire trace on your stick baits and poppers. We make a stub trace that is perfect for this. It is small enough not to affect the action of your lure, but long enough to keep those teeth away from your vulnerable mono leader.
  3. Clean water is one variable that we always consider when wahoo fishing. If you’re in dirty, green, weedy water, it never bodes well. You want that purple/blue electric-looking water that gets us all up and about.
  4. The magic number is 24 degrees. Wahoo are a warm water fish, so if that temp isn’t up in the 23+ area, you could be wasting your time. If you find a patch of warmer water, work that area.
  5. Find the bait, find the fish. Often steep drop offs or structure hold baitfish. These are the areas you want to be working. If I could paint my perfect wahoo picture, it would be warm, electric blue, clean water with bait holding on a deep drop off in about 35m of water. Bingo.