Some fish you catch. Some fish you chase for a decade. For Adam Baker, the Southern California angler behind Fluent Fishing, the wahoo was the second kind. This fall he finally got one on the deck, about twelve years after he first saw them.
This is that story, mostly in his words.
2014: a school of lit-up wahoo
It started in 2014, when Adam and his brother Ben borrowed a friend's little panga to run offshore and hop kelp paddies. They were sitting on a kelp when Ben went to the back of the boat to pee.
Adam was fishing the bow. In his telling, all he heard was Ben stammering, "wa, wah, wahoo." He looked down, and a school of lit-up wahoo was swimming circles around the boat.
"We were both blown away," he wrote. "I became slightly obsessed with this fish."
Slightly is generous. Adam says that wahoo sighting is part of the reason he bought his first boat the next spring. From then on, the fish was his white whale.
2015: close calls
The next year brought chances, and the kind of misses that make it worse. There were bite-offs, which is what a wahoo's teeth do to most leaders. There were opportunities that did not quite come together. At one point Adam and his buddy were chasing one around a kelp on the 14 Mile Bank with a spear.
His first boat did not help. In Adam's words, it had terrible range, and he "just didn't know enough back then." Then the wahoo dried up, and the window seemed to close.
The years in between
Wahoo are a warm-water fish, and Southern California only sees them in the years when warm water pushes up from the south. After that run, they stopped showing in any number.
"Each passing year it seemed more and more like a lost cause," Adam wrote. He kept fishing, kept running his channel, and kept the wahoo on the list.
He did catch his first wahoo in those years, in Mexico. It still was not the fish he was after. He wanted one in Southern California.
2026: burning fuel
This year the warm water came back, and so did the reports. As soon as Adam heard of the first couple of wahoo caught, he started trolling every chance he got.
That meant passing up a lot of easy fishing. The paddies this season have been holding dorado and yellowfin, the kind of fish most people would happily spend the whole day on, and he had to idle right past them. "It's been hard ignoring all the kelps knowing they're probably holding dorado and those tuna," he said, "but I had to stay focused."
He had a couple of bites. He had some mako cameos, which on a wahoo hunt is a bit like the wrong person answering the door. He did not have a wahoo.
The strike mission
Then his friend CJ messaged that he was in town. They planned what Adam calls a strike mission, and they got bit early in the day.
The fish came to the boat, and CJ put the gaff in it. At almost the same moment, the bait came out of the wahoo's mouth. Seconds later and there would be no story. Adam is clear about how close it was: "There's no way I would've landed it solo."
He posted the photo with a simple caption: "Southern California Wahoo on the skiff! It only took about 12 years for the stars to align, but it finally happened."
The comments filled up fast. One angler who has chased SoCal wahoo himself wrote that the first one is "the hardest to earn and the sweetest victory." His spear partner from 2015 admitted he was jealous, but said it was well deserved. Adam's reply was short: "Learned a little in that decade I think. Hopefully they stick around a little longer."
Why a fish like this matters
Southern California fishing is mostly a game of patterns. Yellowtail on the kelp in summer, bluefin offshore in the fall, calico when the water warms. A wahoo does not fit the pattern. It shows up when the ocean decides to send it, and it can disappear for years.
That is what makes a fish like this one special. It is twelve years of paying attention, a boat bought partly because of one sighting, and a lot of fuel burned past fish that would have been easier to catch. It is also a reminder that the best day on the water usually needs a good friend with a gaff.
If you are out on the warm-water paddies this season, our posts on reading a kelp paddy and when dorado show up cover what else might be under them.
Follow Fluent Fishing
Adam posts his trips, catch-and-cooks and fish stories on YouTube at @fluentfishing, and on Instagram at @fluent_fishing. His recent videos have been chasing the yellowtail and dorado this warm year has brought. Go give him a follow.
Got a story worth telling?
Caught a fish you chased for years, pour your own baits, build your own gear, or run a shop or boat the local fleet should know about? We feature Southern California anglers and makers here on the Logbook. Send us your story with a photo or two, and we will be in touch.
