Key West Wahoo Fishing
These fish live all over the world in tropical and subtropical seas. They love the waters of the Caribbean as well as the Florida coast. Wahoo are colorful fish; their backs are a brilliant blue with silver on its sides featuring striking vertical azure bars.
Many anglers prize this fish above all others. That is because the size and strength of this animal make for a tough fight and its tasty meat makes for a wonderful treat at the end of a long day of fishing.
Wahoo can grow as large as eight feet, weighing 150 pounds, but lengths of three and a half to five and a half feet are much more common. Their enormous mouths are lined with many razor-sharp, serrated teeth giving it a fierce appearance.
Their sleek bodies and large muscles allow the wahoo to reach speeds of 60 miles per hour in the water, making them some of the fastest fish in the sea. They live short lives, rarely living for longer than five or six years.
These fish live solitary lives, preferring to live and hunt alone. However, they can sometimes congregate in small groups of two or three individuals. Large numbers are seldom aside from the mating season where large schools come together.
Wahoo reach sexual maturity at the tender age of one year. At this age, males are just under three feet long while females are just over three feet. They reproduce several times each spawning season to make up for their short lives.
This species feeds on squid as well as a variety of schooling fishes including porcupine fish, round herring, butterfish and frigate mackerel. Juveniles are susceptible to predation from a number of species which share their environment.
However, only the largest open ocean creatures prey on adult wahoo, including billfish and sharks.