Another morning at DP landing and I have wahoo on my mind….again. Even the slight prospect of catching a wahoo keeps me coming every weekend with my Marauder jigs. Water temperature dictates my plans and the 267 bank appears to be the spot (70 degrees). However, my dang bait bilge won’t turn on! A nice PBer offered bait should I be at the Box Canyon…. The Box Canyon it is!

Without live bait to babysit, I bolt south at 45 mph making it to the grounds in less than ½ hour even with 2 to 3 foot chop. With marauders out, I began to troll at various speeds and depths, 6 to 14 knots 20 to 30 feet deep, respectfully. Wahoos have been caught at the Box and a lot of PBs have the same idea today. The VHF is extremely quiet and I’m not seeing any bent rods on boats around me. After an hour or so, I trolled further south for temp breaks and birds. I came across a lone paddy with a gull and decided to throw an iron and bounce it off the bottom, 275 to 300 ft. My sonar metered rocky bottom with a small ledge. Immediately, I’m hooked up and bag a nice rockfish keeper. I hear on the VHF a boater asking about regs ling cod. On my next yoyo, I’m hooked…with a heavy head shake. I thought to myself, “maybe a ling?”, and at about 175 ft, my line rips out drag and my trini screams...BIG YELLOW!!!

There’s something about hooking a big yellow on the iron vs bait. It seriously pisses them off, like a big German Brown taking a dry fly. Needless to say, this bruiser turned on and fought like a champ. It took about ½ hour to gaff and land this bad boy…heck, it wouldn’t even fit in the chest. After a few more drifts, it was marauder and rapala time. The wahoo remained elusive so I head back before the winds kick up. The yellow weighed in at 28 lbs. It was caught on a blue/white taddy on 40 lb line, Trinidad 30 and my Calstar grafighter 20-40 stick. You can’t always get what you want, but a Toad Yellow will always make up for it!