Wahoo fishing guide.

Where the Wahoo bite is on right now

Hero spots in our coverage where Wahoo is in season for May. Click through for the live forecast.

Best bait

• Rigged dead garfish or ballyhoo on a wire-rigged gang
• Whole fresh squid
• Live yakka on a wire trace
• Strip baits of fresh tuna or mahi
• Skipjack tuna belly strips

Best lures

• High-speed trolling lures (Halco Laser Pro 190, Williamson Speed Pro Deep) at 9–14 knots — the wahoo method
• Bullet head skirts in red/black or purple/black 6–9"
• Spoons trolled with wire line for deep presentation
• Yo-Zuri Bonita and Braid Marauder for medium-speed trolling
• Vertical jigs (200–400 g) over deep underwater pinnacles

Technique

High-speed trolling at 9–14 knots with single-strand wire trace is the productive method for wahoo — they ambush from below at high speed, and lures pulled too slow get ignored. Run lures off planers or with weighted bullet heads to get them down 5–10 m. Wire is non-negotiable: their razor teeth slice 200 lb mono instantly. Strikes are violent and you'll often miss several before connecting; the strike-to-hookup ratio is genuinely poor.

Tide windows that matter

Tide is irrelevant offshore. Wahoo work current edges, pinnacles, and temperature breaks. They're often caught as by-catch by marlin trollers and as targeted catch by high-speed trolling.

Moon & solunar

Wahoo are weakly but consistently full-moon-linked — the three or four days either side of a full moon (especially in winter Florida and tropical Pacific) produce statistically more wahoo than dark phases. The "wahoo moon" is a real thing among Bahamas and Florida Keys guides.

Regulations

AU federal HMS: no size limit, bag of 5 most states. US Atlantic: 2 per person per day (federal). US Pacific / Hawaii: no federal limit. Verify AFMA / NOAA HMS / state DLNR Hawaii rules. Wahoo are excellent eating, do not freeze well as fillets — best on the day.