Cloud Nine’s catch on the third day included the biggest wahoo of the event, a 77-pounder and vaulted the team into third for the tournament.

The second leg of the 14th Annual Bahamas Wahoo Championship commenced February 7 for three days of fishing out of the beautiful marina at Chub Cay resort, less than an hour’s plane ride from Fort Lauderdale. It was the fourth consecutive year that Chub Cay hosted the Wahoo Championship, and the location, the hospitality, the fishing and the resort facilities proved outstanding once again. Sixteen boats entered the tournament, and for most making the crossing from Florida on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, the conditions were rough as a high pressure system dominated the region.

Rick Redeker, Captain of the Svengali, a perennial wahoo tournament heavyweight, came in late Wednesday and called the conditions "sporting. Winds are head-on the whole way,” he said. “It is, as people say, laying down out there though. It's laying down small trees and buildings."

According to Tournament Director Raul Miranda, in the week preceding the competition, a number of 70- and 80-pound wahoo were caught nearby Chub, which overlooks the famous Tongue of the Ocean deep water, but "we're looking for those hundred pounders here."

In the three days, competitors enjoyed calm seas, and the fishing picked up each day as a cold front approached from the north. The sixteen boats ranged within the 65-mile limit around Chub Cay and brought back good numbers of wahoo, but no hundred-pounders. Tournament rules allowed competitors to weigh their two heaviest fish each day.

All boats were high speed trolling, up to 20 knots, with two wire lines allowed by tournament rules. As one captain said, "If someone's not high speed trolling, they're throwing their money away."

The beautiful marina at Chub Cay before most of the big boats came in before the Wahoo Championship on Wednesday, last week.

Many teams headed to the well-known Hole in the Wall. All tournament long, seas were filled with life in the waters near Chub Cay, and numerous dolphin, yellowfin and blue marlin were spotted by competitors. On the final day, Captain Dave Cilk and his crew on the Reel Lax watched a free-swimming blue marlin consume a dolphin right beside their boat at Hole in the Wall.

At the end of the first day, the top three teams were Fishin A-Loan with 96 pounds (two fish), Savanna Lynn, 76 pounds (two fish), Svengali, 69 pounds (two fish).

The target species at bay in the chill box of Showpiece out of Fort Lauderdale, on the first day of competition.

Second day saw Business Stinks with 92 pounds (two fish), Zephryos with 89 pounds (two fish), and Marlin with 79 pounds (two fish).

Third day leaders were Cloud Nine with 134 pounds (two fish), Savanna Lynn, with 99 pounds (two fish), and Reel Lax, with two fish for 92 pounds.

Showpiece heads for home port of Fort Lauderdale at the tournament’s end Saturday night, well in advance of the incoming front the next a.m.

True to the pattern for wahoo, fishing picked up on the final day as the cold front moved closer, and the numbers of fish in the sixties and seventies jumped up across the field.

Final results, Total of 5 fish: Fishin A-Loan with 180 pounds, Savanna Lynn with 175 pounds and Cloud Nine with 161 pounds. Cloud Nine also caught the tournament’s heaviest wahoo, 77 pounds.

Among a number of great stories to come out of the Chub Cay tournament, including the beauty of the island and the good fishing nearby, another is the hot streak that Capt. Billy Thomas and his Savanna Lynn team are currently enjoying this wahoo season. After winning the first leg of the Bahamas Wahoo Championship in early December, Thomas did it again in mid-January with a 1st place at the 2nd leg of the Wahoo Challenge at West End, Bahamas. He and his team kept it going at the Chub Cay leg of the Wahoo Championship.

The final leg of the Bahamas Wahoo Championship will be held at Port Lucaya, Grand Bahama Island, February 27 – March 1. Contact Tournament Director Raul Miranda for details; rvmiranda@hotmail.com; (305) 234-7386.

Sportfishers return to Chub’s marina after a day out by the Bahamas Banks, Andros and the Hole in the Wall, among other favorite wahoo hunting grounds.