Angler lands biggest wahoo catch in SA waters

DURBAN North angler, Jason Jearey, set off on his paddle ski on Monday, hoping to catch one of the yellowfin tuna that uMhlanga’s waters offer at this time of year. However, unbeknownst to the angler, he was about to nab the catch of his life.

Jearey’s 28-minute tussle landed him a wahoo fish, weighing in at a hefty 42.67kg and measuring almost 1.8m in length. What’s more, the former Crawford College La Lucia pupil may have broken a SA record, at least unofficially. The world angling record for a wahoo, is 70.53kg, and according to Rudy Van Der Elst’s ‘A Guide to the Common Sea Fishes of Southern Africa’, the SA angling record is 36kg.

“I have to belong to an official angling club for the record to count,” the 23-year-old said. The fish is almost certainly the biggest wahoo ever landed from a kayak.

Jason and a few of his mates had headed for the Fontao Wreck, two kilometres off the coast of uMhlanga, and had rigged up live bait on a light fluorocarbon hook snoot.

“There was a slight south-easter wind, which is famous for not producing any bites. The sea was fairly calm, and we were out there for about an hour and a half when my reel started screaming. I initially thought it was a barracuda and, with the line I was using, I felt for sure the fish would bite through the line. As the fish got closer to the surface I saw stripes through the water, and I thought it must be striped marlin.

“I battled for almost a half hour, I was determined not to let it go. When it finally breached the surface I realized it was a massive wahoo. I battled to get the fish on the paddle ski, but eventually I managed to get him to shore where we weighed him. I was super stoked, it’s definitely a catch of a lifetime. I put the photos up on Facebook and the story has been shared all over the world,” he said.

Though he has only been paddle ski fishing for the past six years, Jearey said this catch has spurred him on to try and land a sailfish and a yellowfin tuna.