They Dropped Anchor Right On Top of Us and I Almost Cut Their Line {The Waterman Games Pt 7}

Fall in South Florida. The blistering heat finally begins to give way to a cooler breeze and to clearer skies. There is a crispness in the air.

Similar to birds, butterflies, New Yorkers, and other migratory species, wahoo show up when the weather is mild. We’re here for the Wahoo.

Even though a few wahoo can be found here year-long, the big schools of this migratory fish make their way down to Florida waters in the cooler months.

They are one of the fastest fish in the ocean and can travel over a thousand miles in pursuit of their food. They prefer temperatures between 72 and 80 degrees. But even so, their erratic migration patterns mystify the fishing community. In other words: they’re hard to pin down.

Local wisdom and personal trials have been my greatest teachers with this fish so far. On any given spot, they can seem like they are everywhere one day and then completely disappear within a moment's notice.

So now with 2 months left in the Florida Spearfishing Tournament… it was time to hunt for the second hardest fish of the game: the illusive wahoo.

We booked a place in the keys near Islamorada. First day we got out super early. Our friends Lauren and Jose came down to dive with us.

It was a beautiful morning. I was driving the boat, and Christine, Lauren and Jose were the first ones to dive.

Being the captain, I let everyone else get in the water first so I can see the direction of the drift and ensure we are perfectly in line with where I am marking fish on the sonar.

They look down and there are wahoo everywhere - which is a rare sight to see… and one that is sure to get the heart racing… and the blood pumping with adrenaline.

Three people dive down to shoot a wahoo. Lauren shoots the first fish and has it on the line as it takes off out of sight.

She’s swimming after the fish with her shooting line in hand.

Jose dives down on another fish, shoots and misses the wahoo.

Like a ballerina, Christine quietly dives down, getting into position to place a shot in the wahoo and fires.

The fish takes off with her float, and she is in pursuit.

Now both Lauren and Christine have a ‘hoo on the line… or so it appeared.

Lauren’s wahoo eventually, and unfortunately, rips off.

And just as fast as the chaos started… it stopped.

With all of the hype, we started drifting away from the other two divers, and I needed to get back to them.

The day was still young, and we were hopeful that we’d come across more ‘hoos before the afternoon hit.

We dove all day without seeing another wahoo, and that’s one of the reasons why wahoo are the second hardest fish in the tournament, and in general.

But I was proud of my girl for landing the only fish of the day. At least we were eatin’ good tonight.

We cleaned the wahoo and made dinner with Christine’s fresh catch.

At one point, with Lauren and Jose in the water, we come across a very unique situation.

Another boat drives up and drops anchor right on top of us and their anchor line was tangled up around ours.

I thought it was rather rude and inconsiderate.

Lauren and Jose swim up and can see that clearly they had wrapped their anchor line around ours.

Just in case you’re wondering, this is Judah in high-irritation mode. Scheming to cut these poor guys’ anchor line so we could just get on with our day.

You know, as annoyed as I was, I’ll admit that these guys were being pretty cooperative with us.

I let everyone else get in the water first once again.

I dropped down a jig and pulled up a mackerel while everyone was in the water.

I was hanging out with Christine and Molly and it looked like they wanted some girl time, so I jumped at the opportunity to get in the water.

Jose shoots a kingfish and it gets sharked.

Great. I hope I don’t shoot a wahoo and have the same experience.

I dropped a throw flasher, and a big wahoo swims up. It was a long shot, but I aimed high and fired hitting the wahoo perfectly.

The fish bee-lined down into the murky depths towards the sharks, dragging the float line down with it.

Tom drops down and keeps an eye on the fish in case any sharks were to show up.

I secured my fish for the day, and for the tournament.

Jose shoots a wahoo as well. I guess he figured out how to aim today.

Our 2-day wahoo excursion ended up a great success with 3 nice fish to feed everyone, and a good bit left over to give to our families which is what its really about.

And at this point, Christine was still holding firm in first place for the women’s division.

That’s three wahoo in 2 days… not bad.

And even though the others missed out this time, they were instrumental in helping the rest of us secure our fish.

Today wasn’t just a good day… it was an important one for me. The longer the fish, the more points you earn. By nature, wahoo are long fish and so adding those 52 inches gave me a jump from sixth place in the tournament all the way up to first.