March 2016 Volume 17 • Issue 189 | Page 48

hold true in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The calmer the better for a successful day catching tuna and wahoo. night before and when it is finally time to head out the excitement is overwhelming. This is what its all about! BIG mistakes: Tackle Preparation Using too lite of tackle. This time of the year the fish are big so break out the heavy stuff. The water is usually not very clean so heavier line is ok to use. Fog can be a big issue during the winter months due to constant warming and cooling. If your not familiar with your radar or how to run radar, stay at the dock. Once again and it can’t be stressed enough is to avoid days with a windy forecast or try to beat the weather. The first thing that you want to do before a day of Wahoo fishing is get the tackle ready. On a good day of wahoo fishing they can literally clean you out of all the tackle you have to catch wahoo. If your using lures then you need to have at least 3 or more of what you believe to be the most preferred color, or have had good results in your area. In our area the color is Pink, anything pink seems to be preferred most days. Joe Yee also have very good results. The surface baits usually work better during the summer months but always have at least 2 or 3 Islanders (blue/white) in your bag ready to go. They work great on a downrigger or rigged with bally-hoo. Once you've got the lures your going to use, your now going to have to rig them so that you get the most strikes and the least amount of break-offs. You can buy a lot of this stuff prerigged, but you need to be able to rig yourself because you will need to change some things once your offshore. I rig all of my diving lures with wire. I almost always use Malin stainless steel wire in the 80lb., 93lb., and 108lb. class. However, they will change on you and some years some of the better colors have been blue/silver, black/silver, purple, orange/black, green/red and just plain old white. Some of the fish patterns that work well are Mullet, Mackerel, and Bonita patterns. The diving plug brands that I like to u