Intro
These two species can be treated as one, as they behave in a very similar fashion and indeed are often mis-identified. The Malays refer to the wahoo as tengiri jantan, (i.e., male tengiri). They are different species, however. Once you have caught a few they are impossible to confuse. Both are superb light tackle gamefish which are relatively easy to catch.

The chief identifying feature between the mackerel and the wahoo are their colours and the shape of their jaws. The wahoo is also known by the Malays as tengiri burong (i.e., bird mackerel). Their jaws are shaped like a bird’s beak, very sharp and pointed. The mackerel’s jaws are shorter and less pointed, but the best way to identify the species is by their colour patterns. Both are striped, but the wahoo has broad tiger stripes right across its body, whereas the mackerel has grey-bluish, thin bars over its flanks- the famous ‘narrow bars’. Wahoo are also more highly coloured. When fresh out of the water they are glowing royal blue with blue-purple stripes. Mackerel are more plain, with a blue, grey or green back and bluish-purple bars, but the beautiful luminous silver sheen of a fresh mackerel is something to behold. Mackerel reach about 120lb and wahoo about 170lb, but in Southeast Asian waters the unofficial records are something like 70lb for both fish.

The major difference between the two fish is location. You are most unlikely to ever hook a wahoo in Malaysian waters. An experienced guide at Pulau Aur told me that he had only ever heard of one being caught in the last five years. Phuket in Thailand, and West Java offer the best chance of catching wahoo in Southeast Asian waters. Mackerel, however, are commonly found in Malaysia. Because of intense commercial fishing few Malaysian mackerel exceed 20lbs any more, but if you fish at Pulau Aur, Dayang, Pemanggil or Tioman you have a good chance of catching fish from 7lb to about 18lb.

Method
Mackerel and wahoo are fished for in exactly the same way. They are sub-surface hunters which hang at some depth and shoot up to attack prey with tremendous speed. Heavy lures that run deep like tuna feathers or heavy jetheads are the best skirted lures for this work, if you have a quick enough boat. Troll them long. Mackerel and wahoo don’t often take them short. Bibless minnows are good too, if you have a fast enough boat. If you are stuck with a slower boat, use Rapala Magnums or other diving plugs. They can be fished closer to the boat than skirted lures. Replace all standard hooks on Rapalas.

Regardless of lure type, get them running deep. Clip the line to the rod with a rubber band or use a flat-line clip. For mackerel and wahoo (and tuna) you do not want the lure on the surface all the time, but coming up only rarely and running below the surface as much as possible. With plugs, you want them to dive as deep as possible. A friend of mine enlarges the lip of his diving plugs by soldering on more metal. These plugs dive deeper and generally get hit first.

Plug size is hotly debated. If there are many large baits around like bonito or little tuna, use large plugs (14-20cm). These are the best sizes for wahoo, which generally feed on these fish. Otherwise, smaller plugs (9-13cm) will do well, especially in local waters where the predominant bait species are slimy mackerel (kembong) or scad (selar). If you are restricted to one lure colour, red/white is the best for both fish, but it’s best to give the fish a choice. Pure white is good, and so are mackerel colours.

If you are trolling, once you get a strike, keep trolling. Most mackerel and wahoo travel in schools. The fastest and boldest fish hits usually the deepest lure and if you keep the boat in gear for 10 more seconds, you can sometimes get a hookup on every lure. Of course, don’t try this on light tackle, but on 20 or 30, most school fish will never come close to spooling you.

Live-baiting is an excellent way to catch all game fish, but mackerel and wahoo can be very difficult to take on live baits. They hit the bait at top speed and often miss the hooks. Large baits get their back section sheared clean off, small baits are either engulfed or clipped off behind the gills. This can be a nuisance when you are live-baiting for marlin. Even ‘stinger’ hooks sometimes don’t do the trick. Drifting a gang-hooked dead bait behind the boat helps, but if you have patience, they will circle back and take the head, much like a shark.

Dead baits are rarely used in this region but a gang-hooked garfish or pickhandle barracuda is excellent for mackerel and wahoo. Like most fish, morning and evening are the best times to get them, although they will strike most hours.

Big Fish Method
Live bait fishing takes bigger mackerel than trolling, but the two biggest mackerel I’ve ever taken, or seen caught, including a 50-pounder, were both taken on the troll. If you are targeting big mackerel use a big bait: live tuna or something like that. Live barracuda is also excellent. Of course, you must have big fish in the vicinity in order to target them, or else be willing to wait. Big mackerel are very wary fish and difficult to take. Medium-sized school fish will cripple big baits but you know when a big fish hits. Small fish take the meat off and leave the backbone, but big fish have the jaw power to slice clean through the backbone of a 10-pound bonito or a 8-pound rainbow runner as neatly as though chopped by a parang.

Trolling large dead baits can take some big mackerel and wahoo as well as other large gamefish, such as marlin. Large lures also account for some good fish and take the best wahoo. Both fish can kill surprisingly large prey because of their deadly teeth, so don’t be afraid to use large plugs like the Rapala CD-14 and CD-18 if you see or catch many bonito or little tuna, as the big fish will definitely be preying on tuna. If you are lucky you can see them skyrocketing high out of the water as they strike- a wonderful sight.

Tackle Choice/Fighting Tricks
20-30lb gear is the best all-round choice for local waters, and works perfectly for mackerel and wahoo, especially when you are live-baiting in the hope of bigger fish like marlin. Large swimming plugs like Rapala CD-18s need at least 30lb tackle to troll properly. But most average fish burn out too quickly on 20 and 30. Use it only when the fish are good-sized (30lb plus), or when you are expecting stronger fish like marlin or yellowfin tuna. Short strokers are no good for mackerel, they will give you heart problems when the fish zoom about left and right near the transom at the last stages of the fight, avoiding the gaff. Use a long rod, 6ft plus, to gain more control.

12lb gear will make even school fish fight like demons. The speed with which these fish take off on their first run is incredible, and on light tackle they are a real test of skill. You need lots of line- at least 500 yards and a cool head to land a good fish on 12lb line. Use a longer rod for light tackle fishing- a 7ft plug rod rated for 12-16lb class is a brilliant light-line weapon. As the average local mackerel is only 5-15lb, light gear is well worth the trouble. Not many people would choose 12lb for wahoo but it can certainly be done. Mackerel and wahoo on light gear are an excellent fish to learn how to catch marlin.

Reels must have an exceptionally smooth drag and lots of line capacity. Drag must be set light, at 20% or 25% of line strength. On the strike, the fish will take line with tremendous speed and a big fish can easily make off with 250 yards or more on light gear. They are not too difficult to lift, but will take off repeatedly on light gear, requiring fast reflexes to deal with. Often they will circle and create a loop of slack line. Mackerel and wahoo almost never throw hooks so don’t give up, quickly take up the slack and resume the fight. They are also quite difficult to deal with close to the boat as they zip left and right. Long rods are very useful when fighting fish off the high transoms of most Malaysian fishing boats.

Hot Spots
The Malaysian islands (Besar, Aur, Dayang, Tioman) regularly produce mackerel trolling and live-baiting. Mackerel are the most common predator fish taken in Peninsular Malaysia. 40-pound fish have been taken, which is probably the largest size you are likely to get, but most of these fish are relatively small. Good sport on light tackle though.

Indonesia offers a better class of fish. 50-pound wahoo and mackerel are taken every year and the average size in West Java is something like 10-30lbs. The trouble with fishing in Indonesia is not catching the fish, but getting cheated, unless you fish with expensive charter operations. Most fish are caught trolling. Live-baiting is very seldom practised, except by innovative anglers like Carita’s Rob Barraclough. Closer to home, the school mackerel around Batam and Bintan are the same size as the Malaysian fish.

Phuket has some very big fish, but they are equally hard to catch. The average size is about 8-20lb. In season, most captains will try for sailfish instead.

Miscellaneous
Mackerel and wahoo are excellent eating. By far the best way to cook them is barbequing, although they can be fried. If you are going to release them, switch your treble hooks to a rear-mounted single or double hook. That will catch the majority of fish, but make it much safer to release. Gaffing is the traditional means of landing these fish, but if you want to release them, this is obviously inadvisable. You can either grab them by the tail or swing them inboard by grabbing the leader. Gloves are essential.

Mackerel and wahoo are extremely dangerous. Fish to be killed should be kept on the gaff for control and quickly clubbed to death with a fish bat. If you let them get off the gaff they can create havoc in the cockpit by sliding around with open jaws. A large gaff is not necessary for these fish. Small gaffs damage much less meat and will not pull out if properly placed. They are not easy to release, but if caught on single hooks can be handled by grabbing the throat and tail tightly. Remove the hook quickly and throw the fish overboard like a javelin.