Finally, some angling excitement after a hiatus!

The event of the week, month and probably this season was Sunday’s Wahoo Tournament. The brainchild of Keith Hodgkins, this tournament has soared in popularity from its humble beginnings just a couple of years ago.

With only one species eligible and this being the best time of the year for trophy versions of the fish, last week’s event proved highly competitive in idyllic conditions.

Of the boats entered, 23 craft attended the weigh-in, with 17 — ten amateur boats and seven professional — landing fish. Altogether, 65 fish were weighed for a total landed weight of nearly 2,077 pounds of prime wahoo.

The prizes and awards for this tournament utilise a rather different format. Instead of recognising individual line classes, the entries are divided into light tackle and heavy tackle and primarily boat catches instead of those of single anglers.

The winning light-tackle boat was captain Russell Young’s Sea Wolfe (32.2pts on 30lb test) with Ocean Mile and Balancing Act making up the places.

The heavy-tackle category was won by Unwind, followed by Escape and Paradise One. Unwind also had the very good fortune to have Edward Carreiro aboard. He caught a very worthy 107.4lb wahoo to take the coveted cash prize in the tournament Calcutta.

Captain Andrew Dias’s Triple Play was the top commercial boat in the tournament scoring 208lbs from five fish and the top amateur boat was Blue Moon (five fish weighing 158.6lb). There were also a number of other awards included the Baits award, which was for boating at least five fish. There were six winning boats in this category.

The fish were caught on a mixture of live-bait and straight-trolling methods. Many of the live baits used were ocean robins, although a few boats were fortunate enough to catch mackerel small enough to be used.

That Bermuda produces some quality wahoo, especially in the autumn, is well known. Fish over 50lb are not uncommon and larger specimens ranging between 80lb and 90lb are also fairly normal occurrences. It is only when they reach three figures that things get really interesting.

Most commercial fishermen or longtime anglers here will be able to relate a tale or two, maybe a bit embellished, about wahoo that they have caught over 100lb. While by no means commonplace, there are a few caught here pretty much every year.

For the most part, these larger fish are usually caught on the heavier classes of tackle, although there is no real reason why a skilled angler could not boat such a fish on one of the lighter classes of tackle.

Of the nine line-class Bermuda wahoo records, two are also longstanding world records; two are held by fish weighing more than 100lb and another two belong to fish within a few pounds of the three-digit mark.

For anyone interested in trying, the 2lb, 4lb, and 8lb test classes for Bermuda wahoo records are vacant, as are some of the fly tippet classes.

The wahoo is a species found in all the oceans of the world. Over the past half-century or so, world records have migrated through several oceans, with the Bahamas having had a spell on top, as have the Caribbean islands.

Florida has been fairly consistent from the Atlantic while the Pacific has Australia, Fiji, Tonga and, more recently, Mexico figuring prominently. In the past, holders have come from the Indian Ocean from places such as Mauritius.

It seems these large fish have a top end of about 200lb and, except for some photos from the very early days of fishing in the Pacific Islands and other exotic locales, there seems to be no real evidence of a verified catch bettering that mark.

As with most fishing, there are a lot of stories but little hard evidence. Supporting the argument that the fish can attain that size comes from the record book. The all-tackle world record is now starting to push that “magical” mark with the present holder a 184lb fish from the Pacific side of Mexico.

Somewhere out there, there may be a monster wahoo cruising the depths, happily avoiding baited lines knowing that its razor teeth give it a good chance should it happen on a mid-ocean longline equipped with monofilament leaders.

There are obviously some hefty wahoo out there at the moment and the fact that this is one species that endures through the winter offers anglers a worthy late to off-season challenge.

What makes things a bit more difficult is finding the weather to go out looking for the quarry. Although the tropical season is still with us, it will be the repetitive passage of cold fronts that will determine whether or not there will be any Tight Lines!!!