The first leg of the Bahamas Wahoo Championship was pulled off without a weather hitch, which was nice, considering that all three legs are held during autumn and winter, to capitalize on these big fish migrating through The Bahamas. As director Raul Miranda says, “If you’re going to have a rough tournament day with 8-foot chop, it might as well be the first day. The second day had 2-foot seas, and the third day was flat. That’s the day everyone remembers.” That was also the day when 1,174 pounds of wahoo hit the docks the last evening, compared to a 1,256-pound total for the previous two days.

Sunny Port Lucaya Marina.

Here at Port Lucaya on Grand Bahama Island, we were at the last viable, close-to-Florida deepwater port with a good marina, fuel, easy airport and a fine choice of restaurants, following a tough hurricane season. (Lucaya is far more affordable and family-friendly than we would have believed, but that is another story).

Interestingly, though many wahoo hit the docks, overall action wasn’t fabulous. The top three boats all failed to weigh their two allowed fish on each of the three days. The winner was the vessel Scatterbrain/Double Trouble, that didn’t catch a fish the first day in those choppy seas, but fished like champions the last two days, and even landed the biggest fish, a 64-pounder, to put them on top. A rare center console in this game of big boats, who came out on top after nine days of trolling last year ( Rebekka Lynn from Orlando) also had a grim first day. But then they kicked butt later with a triple knockdown, landing all three wahoo only moments apart. Fish were flopping all over the deck, with the biggest weighing an even 50 pounds. The crew had to settle for fifth place in this leg, however. Second place actually went to Weekly Sails, whose total after two days was miles ahead of the pack, but they folded on the last day. Third place went to Black Gold.

A hard luck trophy should have gone to the 70-foot, billfish charterboat Captain Video of Fort Lauderdale. Captain Paul Poirier welcomed this reporter aboard. Video was in first place after day one, but then struck out with a hungry camera on board. The following day they again weighed two fish—this time without the media. If they had caught only two 30-pounders with me, they would have been near first place, along with action photos in this very article...

Fishing tactics at this wahoo shootout were almost standardized, with wire lines on almost every boat. One crew did have some awesome strikes on Yo-Zuri diving plugs, but they were experimenting with the plug’s hooks, and lost all four fish on day two. Changing their hooks back, they plugged two wahoo on the last day.

Almost everyone else in this 31-boat tournament favored plastics, both on top with billfish tackle, and wire lines down deeper. No downriggers were observed. The most efficient way to land wahoo is to fast-troll at least 12 knots and more, winching the fish in with a bent-butt rod left in the gunnel, keeping the boat in forward gear. Wahoo often travel in small packs, and the trick is hooking up with a double or tripleheader. That doesn’t happen often with the boat dead in the water with a hooked fish. Some boats remain in forward gear while a deckhand leaders the wahoo through the transom door, without a gaff.

With nine days of fishing in the three legs of this tournament ending in February, and some hefty cash totals in the boat pools, the crews were tight-lipped about their techniques. (The middle leg at Chub Cay runs from Jan. 12-15, with the third leg returning to Port Lucaya Feb. 2-5).