(left) Roy Graham, fishing with Captain Juan Cook out of La Bocana in Baja looking a bit worked by a fine wahoo in the 60-pound range.
(right) Bonnie May Malody, near Halfway House between San Diego and Ensenada, 1950s.

Dock Totals 10/15 – 10/21: 2427 anglers aboard 115 half-day to 3-day trips out of San Diego landings over the past week caught 2104 bluefin tuna (up to 267 pounds), 22 bonito, 219 calico bass, 1010 dorado, 1 lingcod, 92 lobster (248 released), 90 perch, 193 rock crab, 2500 rockfish, 1 rock sole, 75 sand bass, 315 sculpin, 49 sheephead, 72 skipjack tuna, 11 spider crab, 220 whitefish, 932 yellowfin tuna, and 141 yellowtail.

Saltwater: The past week began with fine weather and great fishing for the fleet, and though the angler count continues to drop, the catch per angler for tunas has gone up. Bluefin tuna are still the headline act, along with a steady pick on yellowfin, with a few skipjack tossed in. Most of the fish are coming from the San Clemente Island area out to the Cortez Bank, with a few boats still working south and nearer the coast off the Corner. Yellowtail have still been mostly sluggish, though a decent bite did develop off the Coronado Islands toward the end of the week. With strong winds and churning seas at the end of the week canceling offshore trips for Sunday-Monday, we’ll just have to wait and see if the fish will still be biting when the fleet returns to the grounds after the blow.

Hurricane Norma dumped buckets of rain on the southernmost areas off Baja Sur over the weekend, inundating towns around the Cape from Todos Santos, Cabo San Lucas, and into the Sea of Cortez to north of La Paz. Though the heavy rain was not a surprise, wind speeds were higher than expected, and early reports are of substantial damage from flooding and blown out marinas. As Norma made her way up from the tropics, the large cyclic storm pulled winds down the coast of Southern California and the entire Baja Peninsula, spoiling the plans of anglers throughout.

As of this writing, while Norma makes a right turn and heads into mainland Mexico north of Mazatlán, hopes are that folks prepared well, and any losses will be limited to property. This is the time of year when many people go south for camping and fishing off the Baja coast — with hurricane season ending, the weather cooling, the water still warm and inviting, and excellent fishing. Many campers set up along arroyos where they empty into the sea, and I would expect that, in this day and age, most knew to seek higher ground before the storm hit with heavy flooding. Prior to the internet age, flash floods from late season storms have caught campers and locals unaware.

The days preceding the hurricane’s arrival featured excellent fishing for inshore and offshore along both coasts of Baja Sur, with reports of yellowtail from the beach in Bahia Asunción on the Pacific side, and great tuna, dorado, and wahoo fishing further south from off La Bocana and around the tip up into the Sea of Cortez. Captain Juan Cook is working out of La Bocana for the month of October and has been doing an excellent job of putting clients on trophy fish. As is often the case, the wahoo bite, especially, turned on for them some 18 to 20 miles out, and the speedy fish did not disappoint — though they can be tough to keep on the line once hooked. Capable of reaching speeds in bursts of up to 60 miles per hour, equipped with razor sharp teeth, and often line-shy, wahoo are a challenge for even the most seasoned of anglers.

From start to finish, there is a fine balance between getting bit and trying not to lose a wahoo. Catches commonly range from 30 to 50 pounds, with some reaching 70 pounds or so. The usual method is trolling at higher-than-tuna speeds of 10 to 12 knots with Marauders, Rapalas, or other hard lures that offer a swimming action. The fact that wahoo can be line shy makes fishing them with live bait impractical, due to those razor-sharp teeth. They tend to inhale what they bite, and deep hooksets without a wire leader will most always result in being cut off. And getting bit by a line-shy fish on wire is tough. So, to have a better chance, we often fish 30-pound test to get bit, and troll longer lures with forward hooks removed to keep the teeth further back from the line once hooked.

With wahoo, a one-to-three landed-to-hooked ratio is good. Wahoo do not fight as hard as some tuna, but their runs can be long, fast, and sustained in the beginning, with the line singing like a howling wind. They will tire fairly quickly, but then the next issue will be their thrashing up out of the water once near the boat, tossing their head from side to side in an attempt to escape. Usually, there is a pensive feeling when fighting wahoo, followed by a sigh of relief oncei it's gaffed. I used to think this might be the reason for the species' name, as we would often holler it once the fish was on the boat: "Wahoo!" And their Polynesian name, "ono," describes the feeling they often leave you with as they escape, as in "Oh no, we lost another one."

My grandmother, Bonnie May Malody, was an avid angler, often making trips with my grandfather down the coast into Baja to fish in the 1950s and '60s. She was also a well-published poet and contributing freelance editor for Reader’s Digest, and as my caregiver when my folks worked, she encouraged both my love of writing and fishing. Years ago, after my first forays into the wahoo grounds as an adult, I wrote this poem about the speedy and tooth-laden fish.

Wahoo!

“Oh no!” They shouted,  

and truly meant it 

as the rod doubled over

toward the fish that bent it.

The reel protested

in a high-pitched whine,

as the speeding torpedo

depleted insufficient line.

While the mate stared, rapt,

wide-eyed in wonder,

hoping the fish wouldn’t come up

but would rather stay under,

it seemed to be saying,

at fifty miles an hour,

going away ever faster,

and with even greater power:

“Hi there, nice folks! I was simply passing through.

I didn’t expect the snack, which was so very kind of you!

Pleased to make your acquaintance, I’m Mister Wahoo,

and I’ll be long, long, gone... in just a second or two!”

They’re out there, so go get ‘em!