WAHOO RIGGING TECHNIQUES AND PMS…

Wahoo and PMS…read on Everyone knows Wahoo are not the easiest fish to catch in the ocean.  They can be extremely finicky at times.  Beyond that, without wire the chances are low of landing the fish.  Then, to top it all off they swim fast, have such hard mouths, razor sharp teeth and just always seem to be angry. If a Wahoo was a female human, I would compare them metaphorically to the beautiful rich model type during a premenstrual cycle and just having found out her husband had cheated.  Picture her storming down the hallway, and that’s the kind of fish we are dealing with.  Unpredictable, angry, and vicious. Ok Ok, that is probably not politically correct and I hope no one is offended, but in the interest of humor…who cares.  And honestly, it is at least a little close. So, how do you rig appropriately for the predators?  After many many years fishing for these spectacular fish I have found that stainless steel stranded cable about 150-300 lbs is just right.  Certainly there is the allure of just twisting haywire one wire to your lure, no crimping, etc.  But in my opinion this should only be used when you failed as a fisherman to properly prepare.  Not that this ads credability to my content here but I also always have some with me because I fail to prepare or just dont have the extra 30 seconds to crimp.  But the point is, it just doesn’t work as well.  Stick with stranded wire, stainless is best for many reasons, and you will end up with more fish over the long run. On a Desperado Series Lure, its best to use about 6 ft leader with a good solid crimp on your stranded cable.  One key here, and why I do not like singlstranded twist wire, is that the weight (diameter) of the leader should be sized right for the lure.  Too heavy a leader on too small a lure is bad, it wont run right or appear obvious to the passing predator.  Too light on too heavy a lure is ok for hooking the fish, but more likely to lose that big expensive Lure, so its best to size right there as well. Also, there is a spectrum of underkill to overkill.  I prefer to error on the side of overkill, but lets not be ridiculous.  The image below would be an overkill in most cases for fishing wahoo.  The big double crimps, I don’t know.  If that fish on the other end is worth 100K plus – go for it.  I use one crimp, but I do it right.  I also always protect my connection, but a simple sheath will do the trick as this end is almost always linked buy a swivel anyway.  It is never advisable to tie to the wire end in any circumstances short of you ran out of swivels, which would be pretty bad. So if that is an overkill what does an underkill look like.  (see below) Looks like someone crimped it wrong, there is no tail at all, no protection on the cable.  This is a poor job bound to cost a fish and a lure.  Take the time, do it right, but don’t waste time or money on the overkill. As a side note, never use aluminum crimps on stainless wire, they can react and deteriorate over time.  Always user copper crimps when crimping stainless. In conclusion, lets just revisit the main points and look forward to many in detail videos soon on how exactly this all works and the best way to rig with a swivel on the wire for a quick no hassle color change if nothing is striking. 1)  Always rig with stranded stainless wire 2)  Use only 1 crimp but make sure you do it right (2 doesnt hurt, but wastes time) 3)  Always protect your connections with leader sheaths of some sort 4)  Dont use aluminum crimps on stainless, keep those for mono 5)  Always have plenty of leaders ready to go – dont rig on the boat, thats time to have fun 6)  Carry leaders organized and in high quality Lure Bags separate from your Lures 7)  After crimping – take the extra 30 seconds to test your crimp and put a hundred pound pull on it, make sure there was no hiccup Have Fun!