The school of chum baits kept swimming back and forth from the engine to the pair of hooked baits 10 yards off the stern, like a continuously flowing bait school that can’t find a comfort zone. Back and forth, and back again.

Occasionally, a sardine would panic, and the entire school would rush back to the boat, seeking sanctuary alongside the engine’s lower unit. Every few minutes, I’d gather a net full of sardines from the well, then squeeze them one at a time and toss it over the side to dance madly on the surface.

I’d just dipped some more baits, when the entire school rushed the engine and one of the flatline baits got nailed. It was almost surreal to see a wahoo over 50 pounds motionless behind the boat with a foot of steel dangling out of its mouth. Before anyone could grab the rod, the hungry ’hoo ate the other hooked bait as well.

Despite the dual sets of hooks, the fish remained fat, dumb and happy directly behind the boat as it waited for any other baits to clear the engine. When Paul Ellig struck the fish, it went ballistic, carving a surface wake for 50 yards before reversing direction and ripping past the boat.

“Wahoo!” yelled Paul. “Grab the other rod!”

Before anyone could get near the second rod, the line broke off on the engine, so it was going to be up to Paul to land the fish.

“He’s going to spool me,” was the last thing Paul said before we heard the loud snap.

“You didn’t thumb the spool, did you?” we asked.

“No, it just broke,” came the reply as Paul bit his thumb to ease the pain of the blister that was coming up.

We retied the lines and deployed two more baits, and had just tossed over the first net full of chum when a wahoo of similar size flashed wildly as it ate one of the hooked baits and doubled the rod. This time, the fish was landed, and to everyone’s surprise, it had a pair of leaders in its mouth. The same wahoo that had a face full of hooks came back for another shot at the baits, which was proof enough that these fish are suckers for live chumming.

From Palm Beach to Sebastian Inlet, and sometimes beyond, wahoo gather along reefs in August and September to take advantage of the migrating bait schools driven offshore by changing weather. Hurricane swells and coldwater upwellings from prolonged periods of west winds push schools of pilchards, threadfins, sardines and mullet away from shore where they’re an easy target for a variety of gamefish. While dolphin, kingfish and bonito are the most prevalent predators, wahoo are abundant enough to target, and the right techniques can produce multiple catches.

Structure and depth are the two keys needed to produce wahoo, with the optimum depth in the 120- to 240-foot range. Long reef lines with large peaks and valleys create the current edges wahoo utilize as feeding stations. Currents pushing water to the surface bring the bait off the bottom and away from the structure where the wahoo can consistently catch an easy meal.

The best reeflines for anchoring off the Palm Beaches run in less than 100 feet of water, while off Jupiter the good wahoo zone is normally in 80 to 142 feet. The Eight Mile Reef off Stuart, where the water drops quickly from 108 to 150 feet of water, and the famed Steeples area off Sebastian, have been known to produce trophy wahoo every fall. When fishing off Fort Pierce, be sure to make note of the Oculina Bank, which stretches from Fort Pierce north to Sebastian, and where anchoring is prohibited to protect the rare Oculina coral that forms on the reef.

As a rule, I prefer to anchor when chumming wahoo, but drift fishing is very effective, particularly on light-wind days or when the wind and current are moving against each other, allowing the boat to remain in position along the reefline. It’s fine if the boat drifts, as long as its course keeps it above the structure.

At these depths you’ll typically find strong current, so anchoring usually requires extra scope to keep the boat in place. At least 300 feet of anchor rode is standard, and I know two captains out of Jupiter who use a pair of 200-foot lines tied together with 12 feet of anchor chain. With that much line and weight, it’s essential to have an anchor ball on board to help bring up the line when it’s time to get under way.

Once the anchor is set, deploy baits immediately, just in case there’s a fish or two around and curious about the boat. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thrown the first chum baits overboard and had a wahoo or big dolphin chase the baits away from the boat, disappear and not return. Get the hooked baits out first, then worry about the chum, so that anything that feeds will find the business end of a line.

Wahoo aren’t picky about their forage. Just about anything from a blue runner to a scaled sardine will work. During the fall mullet run, finger mullet school along the beaches and in the Intracoastal in huge numbers that are easy to catch with a small cast net. Finger mullet are excellent baits that hold up well in the livewell, but they do tend to attract sharks, so plan to break off a few blacktip or Atlantic sharpnose sharks if you use these baits.