{"id":32480,"date":"2013-03-06T07:44:55","date_gmt":"2013-03-06T12:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=32480"},"modified":"2013-03-14T09:59:57","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T13:59:57","slug":"bahamas-angler-lands-monster-wahoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/03\/bahamas-angler-lands-monster-wahoo","title":{"rendered":"Bahamas Angler Lands Monster Wahoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It was a crowded boat for angler Petie Lowe and captain Ricky Sands in late February; their first fish of the day was a wahoo that they caught trolling off of Hope Town in the Abacos.\u00a0 The massive fish dwarfed the 27\u2019 Sea Pro center console, Sweet Escape, and had the fight and strength of a blue marlin.\u00a0 Sands, who has fished the Abacos for nearly two decades, and Lowe, a retired professional lobster diver, were thrilled with the catch, which weighed in at 112 pounds and nearly six feet long with a 31\u201d girth.<\/p>\n

After leaving the dock at 7am, Sands guided Sweet Escape to the fishing grounds off Abaco in 2-4 foot seas and with winds blowing at about 15-20 knots out of the southeast.\u00a0 Most of the wind was blocked by the island as Lowe and Sands ran a 5 line spread and trolled through disorganized seaweed.\u00a0 Sands spotted a patch of seaweed about 50 yards in diameter with a bit of a rip on it.\u00a0 He cleared the lines and trolled the seaweed, and was immediately rewarded by a violent hit.\u00a0 With an explosion of white water, the fish took the bait and ran 400 yards, nearly emptying Lowe\u2019s line.\u00a0 The reel screamed for nearly a minute as the fish tore off, and Lowe proceeded to fight for 30 minutes as it dove and ran.\u00a0 After a second long run of 100-150 yards, Sands got the fish on the leader, and realized just how large he was.\u00a0 At that point the fish had another burst of energy, and dived under the boat.\u00a0 After hurriedly taking the rod from the fighting belt and switching sides, Lowe and Sands got him on the leader again.\u00a0 The wahoo then swam straight at the motors, and Sands quickly stuck him with the gaff.\u00a0 Once they secured the monster, it was mayhem as they brought the angry fish into the boat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis wahoo was a unique fight, very erratic with impressive speed and strength,\u201d said Sands.\u00a0 \u201cNormally big wahoo stay down deep, but after he hit this guy ran straight out, nearly dumping the 50 wide reel.\u00a0 During the fight the angle of the line changed frequently as he dove and rose, so you may have thought he was a small marlin.\u00a0 Once we had him on the leader, he was about 40 feet down and the water was so clear you could see him.\u00a0 He was a beautiful fish, and shot towards the surface before swimming in circles as we pulled him in.\u00a0 During the fight he charged the surface and dove repeatedly.\u00a0 It was impressive how fast and strong he was, and how much fight he had in him.\u00a0 Petie did a great job of bringing him in as it was not a short or easy fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sands, who runs Ricky Sands Charters out of Guana Cay, caught a similar wahoo ten years ago aboard his uncle\u2019s boat, Backbreaker.\u00a0 While such catches aren\u2019t rare in the Bahamas, it was rare for this area.\u00a0 \u201cThe larger fish run in the heart of winter,\u201d said Sands.\u00a0 \u201cThe quantity goes down but the quality goes up.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Fish On!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ricky Sands and Petie Lowe were thrilled with their catch, which weighed in at 112 pounds and nearly six feet long with a 31\u201d girth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[39,1298,1297],"class_list":["post-32480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-fishing","tag-hope-town","tag-wahoo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}