Fish weighs 116.2 pounds and is 79 inches long
Capt. Will Wall with Pelagic Charters in Venice has helped land a total of four 100-pound wahoo, but none were bigger than the fish he came across this weekend off the mouth of Southwest Pass.
At about noon Sunday, Texas angler Edgar Artecona reeled in a 116.2-pounder on a trip with Wall, and pending biologist identification and completion of paperwork for the Louisiana Outdoor Writers Association, it would be the new No. 4-ranked wahoo in the state if certified.
“That fish had the length to be something silly,” Wall said, nothing that it measured 79 inches with a 31 ½-inch girth. “I imagine if he would have been caught right prior to the full moon coming up in February, there’s no telling what that fish would have weighed.
“He was long enough and had the length to support a much, much larger frame, but he didn’t have anything in his belly.”
The fish was caught in about 250 feet of water with a Rapala X-Rap lure on a Shimano Tiagra 50-wide reel and a custom JPR rod.
Now through about March is prime time for wahoo out of Venice, and Wall said his charter on Sunday caught nine others up to 70 pounds.
“Everything starts basically seven or eight days before the full moon in January,” he said. “It’s going to run like that until March.
“You can fully expect a true hundred pound fish any time you go.”
Wall said the big wahoo made a run, but Artecona landed him in about 20 minutes.
“The fish took about 400 yards of line at about 15 pounds of drag,” he said. “Prior to that I was completely spooled on a Torsa 40, and that’s when I switched to the 50-wides.
“There’s a point in time when you have to put the little stuff up and go to the bigger gear. I learned that the hard way yesterday, but I’m quite pleased at the outcome.
“We’re super, super excited by it.”
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