90 Pound Wahoo Off Boynton!
I went kayak fishing with Ryan, an intern from work who is from Iowa who wanted to see what kayak fishing was all about. He has never been fishing in the Atlantic Ocean before and had never even been in a kayak before. We were in 110 feet off Boynton Beach when I set up his live bait rig with a live goggle eye and dropped it in the water. I am holding the rod explaining how a conventional reel works for only a few seconds when the drag starts to pull. Then it starts to scream. I hand the rod to Ryan who then spends the next 30 minutes getting dragged out to 320 feet. He tells me his hands are going numb. I'm screaming instructions at him. Finally I take over and work the fish up to the surface to see the biggest wahoo I've ever seen. The fish is dead tired by this point but I'm still worried that he will thrash when I gaff him and I lose it or flip my kayak. I sink the gaff and the fish doesn't react. We paddle back to the beach for a photo shoot. Pretty amazing fish for anyone, let alone your first fish in the Atlantic and first time in a kayak.
CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO
CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO
Replies
Greg,
2017 Cape Horn 24OS
Just updated the original post with the picture of the scale.
IG jack.bbi
Agreed John, I was so scared to lose the catch boatside that I didn't get great footage, the camera was smudged, and I didn't get any good pictures holding the fish. I was so scared that it was going to thrash about and cause me to lose it that I wanted to put it in the fish bag ASAP. I have some raw footage that I can go through. I have one more clip of the fish at boatside that I will post. It was actually a 40 year old Penn Senator 3/0 with 20 year old line on it! I bought it a year ago from one of my patients who is 90 years old and too old to keep fishing so he sold me a bunch of gear. The night before we fished, I remembered my other Avet was in the shop so I was scrambling to find some gear for Ryan to use. I found that old Senator and was like, "what the hell, this will work." I was only expecting rat kings and maybe some bonita. Did not expect to hook a monster, let alone that old gear to hold up! The reel is all rusted and the drag plate was like 200 degrees when I touched it after the fight.
That is what dreams are made of!
Congrats!
You have now attained forever hero status in your friend's mind!
What a catch and congratulations!
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That's awesome!!!!! Fat fish. Was there a big bait in the stomach? My biggest was 84# and it had about a 2# wrasse of some sort half way digested. Goes to show that they feed through the entire water column.
Really cool catch, man! On that old tackle is cool, too! I bet being in a kayak helps a LOT on that front. Talk about a smooth drag! Big power boat is about like pier fishing and you must have a great drag. In that kayak, a surge from fish will move the boat; granted, not a lot, but that is shock absorption and is effectively the same thing as line coming off the reel.
Hat is off to you and I bet your intern will be buying a kayak soon!
There was actually nothing else in its belly but my gog, I was definitely interested in what else it ate. Huge egg sac though