Wahoo Charter - Key West (Castronova)

[castronova]

Hello All,

Decided after many many years of taking people out to learn how to shoot wahoo I am going to start chartering specifically for wahoo this winter. I will be specializing in bluewater although sometimes we can't control the conditions so it could mean a move onto the reef occasionally.

I am keeping the dates limited around full and new moons. The trips will leave around 6:30 AM and I will run them from November to February, possibly March if they are still around.

My goal is to attract those divers who want to put in what it takes to find and land wahoo.

The vessel, "Bar Stroll", is a 28 Contender with twin 200 Suzuki's I've owned since 2014.

The website is up (http://wahoospearfishing.com). You can check the calendar and see available dates and put down a deposit. If there are dates you would like that are not available please get in contact with me and we can discuss.

I personally shot over 20 last season just going on weekends here and there, 2 over 70 lbs and 2 over 70 lbs the year prior. I have seen bigger fish and know of fish landed over 90 lbs. The fish over a season avg. 35 - 60 lbs but sometimes the schools are all 45 - 70lbs, it can be an awesome experience. Last season they were in large schools from November through March. On many days we saw hundreds of fish with schools of fish as far as you can see on each drift. If they are here, we will find them.

I will have some limited gear to lend and gun(s) to rent. I can also guide and take photos for additional cost.

I would assume most people on here have seen my thread but if you haven't it's in the FL section and you can see my personal reports from years gone by.

Please visit the site and contact me or comment on here for answers to any questions you may have.

Thank you,

JP

[Trace]

This looks Great JP! Looking forward to getting out your way some day.
Good luck with the charter business.
Trace

[Behslayer]

Congrats JPC. Great way to justify to the Wife that you need to spend more time out looking for Wahoo. Well played. Seriously though, wish you the best and I'll share this around.

[Bill McIntyre]

Sounds good JP.

Are you quitting your day job?

[castronova]

Congrats JPC. Great way to justify to the Wife that you need to spend more time out looking for Wahoo. Well played. Seriously though, wish you the best and I'll share this around.

I hope she don't pick up on that as quickly as you did Thank you for the well wishes.
Also, I the new magnetic knife is sweet and so are the flashers. I've been making them for a couple seasons, they work so good for wahoo it's almost unfair. Your tape is better than what I use though. Thanks again.

This looks Great JP! Looking forward to getting out your way some day.
Good luck with the charter business.
Trace

Thank you. Please let me know if you do.

Sounds good JP.

Are you quitting your day job?

Thanks. No way, this is just a way to pay for the boat and make some extra money. Plus, I think I will really enjoy it. I've put a lot of people on these fish over the years. I get a lot of vacation time at work plus the holidays during the season and weekends I can pretty much pick up all the trips I'll want to do without a problem.

[dam]

As they say, if you're good at something, never do it for free. Good luck JP and hoping it doesn't turn stressful for you.

[castronova]

As they say, if you're good at something, never do it for free. Good luck JP and hoping it doesn't turn stressful for you.

Thank you Dam. I hope so too. The good thing about this is... I absolutely do not have to do it.

[John Hughes]

good luck JP. Are you up and running right now? One of my issues tends to be that my off times don't tend to match up with good wahoo times out here on the West coast. I typically take December off so that could work with your season.

How far are you guys typically running to get into them?

[castronova]

John, I’ll start running charters in November. That’s when the fish show up in big numbers which runs through February and sometimes March. December is a really good time.

We are usually about 22 miles or closer.

[John Hughes]

John, I’ll start running charters in November. That’s when the fish show up in big numbers which runs through February and sometimes March. December is a really good time.

We are usually about 22 miles or closer.

22 miles sounds nice. I'm getting a little old for the 80-100 mile beatings out of the gulf which is one of the options I was looking at.

Nice talking to you today JP, thanks for the info. Let's see if I can swing something this year!

[castronova]

The wahoo are here and in pretty good numbers already. Just a little early but I'm not complaining. I know of 8 shot yesterday and 3 caught yesterday and the day before. I'm going to jump in this afternoon myself but this weekend it will blow hard. The next good days will be Oct. 25-28 and Nov. 8-11. Lets see if keeping a streak of at least one 70+ pound fish per season is possible.

I'm actually excited as today I'm going to break out the new Alemanni and see how that does if I see them. What a work of art these things are.

[castronova]

I believed the reports but had to see with my own eyes. Left the dock at 4pm-ish, in the water around 5:15pm. Shot 2 by sunset. The wahoo are here as is 95' visibility. It's going to be a good season.

I shot this one with my new Alemanni 120 Hybrid. Hybrid being it has one traditional roller where the band goes around the muzzle and the other roller is line only with a band battery completely underneath. The gun has a lot going on and takes some getting used to but now that I've got it figured out it seems to be incredibly accurate and of course there is no recoil. 2 shots, 2 wahoos. Can't complain with that.

[dam]

Hot damn, let the good times roll! Is there a reason you said 95' of vis? Was the bottom at 95ft? Got your 70lb-er for the season yet? Hurry up already.

[castronova]

I only got about half of my 70#er

The reef edge rolls off from 90 to about 105. You could see most the roll off just not the sand clearly so thats why I said 95. This fish looked so freaking insane coming in with that vis. Gosh there is nothing more amazing.

This is the second time this has happened to me, first with this gun, but I'm not used to this Alemanni at all. I watched the video of where they told me to put the slip tip to hold it but it was with a different set up so I was having trouble getting it to stay put. We were making our way back to redrift and marked a whole school of wahoo on the sounder. I threw baits and jumped in, the driver threw some more chunks. This guy strolls in heading for the chum, I dive down and on my way realize the slip tip had fell off entirely.

I had to level off and put the slip tip on while this wahoo was now 10 ' away. I didn't have time secure it, lol. So I put the tip on and out stretched the gun while holding the spectra from the tip then extended and shot in one motion hoping it didn't fall off.

The rest is history.

[Trace]

I Love Wahoo Season, I get to live vicariously through Your posts here in So Cal! Great stuff, One Day...
Trace

[castronova]

Thanks Trace. I love wahoo season too!!!

It's been pretty slow the past couple of weeks. The full moon was blown out and in between that moon and the 2 new moons I've had charters who wanted to try but we got skunked. There are so many things that need to come together. We have a reverse current that should be turned around by the gulf stream moving in by the weekend. At least I hope. Theyll be back, just a matter of time.