119lb Wahoo
When I was a kid I heard about people shooting Wahoo and Tuna and I could never fathom how it could even be possible.
When fishing, I can only remember hooking them and the line peeling off the reel faster than anything we ever hooked. In every magazine all you hear is how fast they are and these blistering runs so how could it be possible to ever chase one down and put a spear into it!?!?
I think I shot my first one when I was about 17 yrs old or so and I was super stoked. We were in the Florida Keys in the summer for lobster season fishing for dolphin and I jumped in on a weedline. A school of Hoo’s came by and I was so excited I could barely contain myself and steadied for a shot on the closest one.
As the spear hit him and he took line on the reel faster than I could believe!
I was so pumped when I got him in my hands I knew that I was hooked on hunting these for the rest of my life and shooting grouper would never be the same again.
That first “WAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!” scream when I hit the surface is still one of the most rewarding sounds in our sport and it never gets old.
My first wahoo weighed 4 lbs and had I not been so excited I’m sure that my family would have used it to troll for dolphin seeing as it was just a shade bigger than the ballyhoo and mullet we were using anyways.
Cut to a dozen years later.
GR Tarr and I have been on the hunt for a 100lb Wahoo for a number of years and have been carefully studying where, when, and how of Monster Wahoo.
One of my goals for last year was to shoot a 100lb Hoo and I concentrated my efforts on being in the right place at the right time and waiting for the right fish.
Every time I’ve seen a fish that was even close to 100 lbs I’ve had my hands full with another fish, sharks eating another fish, or its been laying on the dock and someone else has killed it.
We landed 80 lbers and 90 lbers and dozens in the 50-60 lb class but couldn’t break that fabled 100 lb barrier. Craig Clasen, Brandon Wahlers, Bill Delabar, and our other buddies all smashed good ones but the right one wasn’t there yet.
When it finally came together was one of those days that should never have happened.
The electronics on the boat were screwed up. The fog was so thick we almost ran aground multiple times. The water was dirty and nasty and there weren’t that many fish around.
When we finally found the school of fish, the boat fishing near us hooked up a 500 lb Mako Shark and broke it off so we knew that somewhere in that murky water was something hungry for anything unsuspecting swimming in that murky water…. Not cool. Not comforting but the sight of 60-80 lb fish swimming all over was better than any liquid courage I’ve ever had and both Bill and Chad had secured 65 and 75 lb fish within the first half hour.
Breaking through the murky layer at 30 feet it takes you a few seconds for your eyes to adjust to the clear dark water below. When they do the sight of two, five or fifty wahoo is insane and I don’t have to tell you the strength it takes to be patient enough to wait for that one big fish to start teasing them in from the back of the school.
After 5 dives and no big fish I dropped into the murk to find a group of 60-70 lbers directly below. Dropping right at their backs to 50 feet they were past the chance for a good shot. Angling towards them the lead fish turned stiffly and the rest followed presenting a shot with my custom Riffe (Wahoo Whacker) 150 cm Eurogun.
The fish sped off with the ice pick tip clearly visible in the dark water as he flashed into the depths.
A few nervous minutes later I worked him up not being able to see 4 inches in the dirty surface water and lifted him into the boat to join another pair of Chad and Bill’s in the 60-80lb class!!! What a day!
Trying to relax on the surface, I found that closing my eyes gave me a few extra seconds of clarity when I broke through the murk. My eyes were relaxed but getting your heart rate down with no reference point, no visibility, not able to see any fish from the surface, and knowing there were toothy critters about was unnerving to say the least.
Leave the surface,
Five long hard kicks
Open my eyes
Murk Murk Murk
Clear Water and there are 50 Wahoo from 50-100 lbs all around me.
The only way to describe it is to picture one of the old World War two movies with the dog fights and the planes flying all over coming from every angle, above, below, and at different speeds. Pure overload of the senses and a Spearfishermans dream. Nearly within arms reach is a quad of 70 lb fish. To my right and 20 feet out is a stud that must be 90+, Coming down out of the murk is 10 fish that look like torpedos dropped from planes falling from the clouds above. Everywhere I turned were fish and I knew that this was the dive where I was going to have the one chance to land that one fish that we had all been searching for.
And there he was.
At the edge of visibility, huge shoulders, mouth slightly agape, staying way out. Between us were more than half a dozen fish that any other day would be the fish of the year and were much easier to take. He was at the back of the school, not interested…..
Turning, eyes locked on him, I changed my posture and the reaction of the fish around was instantaneous. Half of the school seemed magnetized and started zipping in and out around me doing their best to be as close as possible without actually being on top of me. The Big fish came in steadily and at the magic moment a 90+lb fish came to his side and paralleled him effectively blocking my shot! Milliseconds felt like minutes and at the last possible moment I pulled the trigger at 18 feet shooting over the top of the 90 lb one hitting the monster just behind the pectoral fin.
The one
Hitting the surface I yelled to Chad that I had just shot “the ONE!!!!”
With a 100 ft bungey and Riffe 2 Atmosphere float he ran hard but never took the buoy below the surface we gave chase and loaded a backup gun and feared for both the fish and our own legs while I worked him up from the depths. When he was 50 feet down I made a dive to check him out and found the shot secure.
Working the shooting line closer I had my hands on the shaft and still couldn’t see the fish the water was so dirty. Seeing the massive shape appear I pounced on him and wrapped my arms and legs around him screaming with excitement at the monstrosity now in front of me.
In the boat the fish on the deck was literally twice the size of the 65lb one we had just landed so we knew that it was a potential world record and by far the biggest any of us had ever seen.
A half hour later the remaining buoys in the water take off and disappear below the surface and its a full 3 minutes before they surface 300 yards away and Bill works a 95 lb fish to complete our cooler(s) for our 9th Wahoo of the day over 60 lbs.
Back at the dock we are bouncing around ideas on the size and are blown away when the official scale reads 118.4-119 lbs.
Just a few lbs shy of the world Record but by far the biggest Wahoo I’ve ever landed. After a little research, there have only been about 12 fish landed over 100 lbs that anyone has bothered to talk about. The “ONE” is still out there. We are going to find him. It is only a matter of time. There is more than one place in the world so expect some hard core trips in the coming years and some serious striped speedsters being landed.
[caption id="attachment_482" align="aligncenter" width="550" caption="32lb Blackfin Tuna shot with the pole spear. NEW WORLD RECORD!!! Super stoked. even more so because it was with a pole spear and I had the video camera in the other hand. I\'ll put it up on here asap so you stop calling BS on it. (For good measure I shot a 24 and 27 lb on video too. Not a bad day!)"]
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