I’ve got good news and bad news on the fishing front

I don’t know about y’all, but whenever someone says, “I have good news and bad news, which do you want to hear first?” I almost always go for the bad news first because I would rather end up on a high note.

That said, odds are you will be targeting redfish or maybe king mackerel more than you ever have because one fish you won’t be able to catch is cobia.

You heard me right. The feds have closed cobia fishing for the entire year, both inshore and offshore from Florida on up to New England and all places in between. I’ll give you a second to let that sink in.

No cobia. Nada. Finito.

I am not at all surprised by this decision, but I am simply the messenger so don’t come and shoot me. I’ll freely admit that for years I have been vocal about being “nicer” to these great fish, but when I received the news of the closure, I, too, was taken aback.

From what I have learned, recreational anglers from Florida on up to around the North Carolina state line exceeded the acceptable catch quota by by 250 percent. I think the straw that broke the camel’s back was from there on up the coast, where the recreational and commercial catch exceeded more than double the allowable number of cobia.

Now that what’s done is done, I may as well throw in that to me, at least, the limit of two cobia per person per day was insane. Maybe two per boat, but two per person — especially considering how popular they had become — I knew they wouldn’t be able to stand that kind of pressure.

Luckily, they breed more than once a year and grow extremely fast, so it shouldn’t take long for their numbers to rebound and maybe then with a reasonable catch limit we’ll have cobia for the generations to come.

Now for the good news. If you keep up with my columns at all, you know of my love affair with a fish called a wahoo. I realize to many of you that doesn’t mean squat because either you have never fished for one or maybe you have never seen one or care to see one.

No matter the case, indulge me for a moment because I am jacked up and raring to get out to the blue water they call home.

A short time ago, I talked about the tournament that goes by the name the South Carolina Wahoo Series. This year, there are 100 boats in the mix, a number I haven’t seen in any fishing tournament around here in years. If I remember correctly, that is over twice the number of boats that entered last year.

Taking a detour of sorts, I remember fishing tournaments where the winner won by weight with either a king mackerel or a cobia. Nobody fished for cobia, which is typically heavier than any king mackerel, and it wasn’t until fishermen discovered better techniques for consistently catching cobia that they became the fish to target in those tournaments.

After those discoveries were made, cobia fishing became extremely popular and techniques became even more refined, which no doubt had a lot to do with this year’s closure.

Well, the same thing is beginning to happen with wahoo. I would venture to guess that wahoo fishing has grown in popularity by leaps and bounds over the past decade all because techniques for catching wahoo, and only wahoo, have been discovered — making them the target species for fishermen from the Caribbean on up the eastern seaboard.

Having fished the Gulf Stream since I was 6 years old, I have always put some lure out in hopes of catching a wahoo. Probably the most productive was a big silver spoon down deep.

Wahoo are capable of reaching 60 mph, so when a wahoo hits you know it. First, the line blisters off the reel in a blur and then as you reel it in, the rod tip bounces like crazy as the wahoo violently shakes its head trying to dislodge the hook. Think of a pit bull and a stuffed toy.

I don’t know who discovered “high speed” trolling for wahoo, but it was this discovery that changed the game. Using heavy lures with a short piece of 400-pound test wire cable, along with long 300-pound test monofilament leaders to act as a shock absorber and heavy trolling weights trolled at a blazing 15-20 knots, big wahoo have no trouble at all chasing the lure down.

The bite is violent but, more importantly, it’s exciting, it’s addictive and you sure as heck can cover a lot of ground that no doubt increases your chances of finding a hungry ’hoo.

So there you have it, the good news and the bad. In the wahoo tournament participants can fish any two days they want between Feb. 3 and April 16, so I expect the Gulf Stream will be a tad crowded this year.

As for you cobia fishermen, I would suggest king mackerel. Catching a big king is as close to catching a wahoo as you can get and you’ll burn a lot less fuel.

This story was originally published January 28, 2017 at 7:22 PM with the headline "I’ve got good news and bad news on the fishing front."