Wahoo fishing: the fish Hemingway rated above all others

October 4, 2026

Asked which fish tasted best, Ernest Hemingway reportedly did not hesitate: the wahoo was the best eating fish, the fastest runner and the hardest fighter in the ocean. That is what Japanese Wikipedia says, citing the book *Fishing the World* by Steen Ulnits (2011). And it mentions one more find: there is a souvenir photo in which Gregorio Fuentes, the captain of Hemingway’s fishing boat, presents a wahoo of 85 pounds (38.5 kg). This article is about the wahoo, *Acanthocybium solandri* — German Wahoo, Spanish peto, French thazard-bâtard or thazard noir, Italian acantocibio, Portuguese cavala-da-índia, in Hawaii ono, Japanese カマスサワラ (kamasusawara).

A tuna relative that looks like a barracuda

The wahoo belongs to the family of mackerels and tunas (Scombridae), but with its slender torpedo shape it looks more like a barracuda (German Wikipedia). Only the small finlets between the last fins and the tail give away its kinship. According to French, Portuguese and Dutch Wikipedia, it is the only species in its genus. FishBase derives the name *Acanthocybium* from Greek: akantha, the thorn, and kybion, a word for a tuna. The species epithet *solandri* honours the Swede Daniel Solander (1733–1782), a pupil of Linnaeus (FishBase), who according to Norwegian Wikipedia took part in Captain Cook’s first expedition. Georges Cuvier described the species in 1832 as *Cybium solandri* (Dutch Wikipedia) — and, according to Norwegian Wikipedia, from a drawing and description by Solander, not from a fish in hand.

How to recognise it

The body is elongated and oval in cross-section (FishBase), only slightly compressed laterally. The snout is about as long as the rest of the head, the mouth large and set with strong, triangular, compressed and finely serrated teeth; the rear part of the upper jaw is completely hidden under the bone in front of the eye (FishBase). Gill rakers are absent altogether — for Japanese Wikipedia the reason why it cannot filter plankton and only eats prey of a certain size. The first dorsal fin is long and low, with 23 to 27 spines, the second short, with 12 to 16 soft rays; the anal fin has 12 to 14 soft rays and no spines (FishBase). Behind them sit 8 to 9 finlets above and 9 finlets below (German Wikipedia). The body bears small scales, but not the corselet of scales behind the head that many tunas have. According to German Wikipedia, the lateral line bends abruptly towards the middle of the body below the middle of the first dorsal fin, and according to Norwegian Wikipedia the narrow caudal peduncle bears a strong longitudinal keel with two smaller keels beside it.

The colour: the back shimmers blue-green, the flanks are silvery with 24 to 30 cobalt-blue vertical bars reaching below the lateral line (FishBase); according to German Wikipedia, some are doubled or Y-shaped. What happens to the bars after death is something the sources disagree on: English Wikipedia writes that the colours fade quickly, German Wikipedia that the bars turn black, Japanese Wikipedia that they become darker. According to Arabic Wikipedia, what distinguishes it from the Atlantic king mackerel is a fold of skin that covers the lower jaw when the mouth is closed.

Size: FishBase gives 250 cm total length as the maximum and 170 cm (fork length) as common; the heaviest published weight is 83 kg. According to FishBase, it reaches sexual maturity at around 99 cm (85 to 105 cm). The French record, according to French Wikipedia, stands at 38 kg, caught off Guadeloupe. Russian Wikipedia gives the average weight as 10 to 20 kg.

Where it lives and what it eats

Distribution: according to FishBase, in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, including the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, between 59° North and 48° South. German Wikipedia names the waters off La Palma as an example; in Japan, according to Japanese Wikipedia, it is common above all around the Izu and Ogasawara Islands, Okinawa and Amami. According to English Wikipedia, genetic studies show two weakly separated stocks in the Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific, between which there is probably a lot of exchange.
Depth: a fish of the surface — FishBase gives 0 to 20 metres, usually 0 to 12. It lives pelagic and oceanic, that is, in open water (FishBase). Russian Wikipedia finds it mostly not far offshore, on reefs and over the continental shelf, less often in the open ocean.
Diet: fish and squid (FishBase). A study in the western and central Pacific found, according to English Wikipedia, 84.64% fish, 14.26% cephalopods and 1.1% crustaceans in the stomachs. As prey, German and Norwegian Wikipedia name herring-like fishes, flying fishes, lanternfishes, small jacks and porcupinefishes, Norwegian Wikipedia also other mackerel-like fishes. According to Finnish Wikipedia, its huge mouth lets it swallow surprisingly large prey. FishBase puts it at trophic level 4.3.
How it hunts: According to Russian Wikipedia, unlike a marlin, which runs its prey down from behind, it attacks from below, at enormous speed, often misses and then strikes again. Before the attack it swims calmly beside or below a school of baitfish, holds still or turns away and waits until the prey is far enough away.
Lodgers: According to English Wikipedia, most wahoo carry a fluke in their stomach, the giant stomach fluke *Hirudinella ventricosa*, which apparently does the fish no harm. Japanese Wikipedia adds: it does not infect humans, so it is no problem in the kitchen.

Spawning over months

The eggs drift in open water, and so do the larvae (FishBase). According to FishBase, the spawning season seems to extend over a long period: fish in different stages of maturity are often caught at the same time. Swedish Wikipedia writes that in some places it can span the whole year, in the western central Atlantic, by contrast, May to August. According to Swedish Wikipedia, it reaches sexual maturity at one to two years — French Wikipedia says two to four. Fecundity figures are also far apart: FishBase reckons with 6 million eggs, Swedish Wikipedia with around 60 million a year, French Wikipedia with about one million a year. And age: FishBase gives over 4 years, Swedish Wikipedia at least 5 to 6, French Wikipedia up to 10. According to English Wikipedia, females are more common than males, with ratios from 1:0.9 (Puerto Rico) to 3.5:1 (North Carolina). It grows fast — a study from the Coral Sea (Zischke and colleagues, 2013) says so in its very title.

How it is caught — and what you should know

FishBase lists it as an important game fish in some areas. According to Italian, English and Japanese Wikipedia, it is caught mainly by trolling, in Japan also with the spear. In the Gulf of Mexico, according to English Wikipedia, it is caught most successfully in winter with live bait around oil and gas platforms in deep water. Spanish Wikipedia praises its fight on light and medium tackle and above all the speed of its first run.

Russian Wikipedia is the most detailed: it bites on almost anything — mullet, cut bait, squid, artificial lures —, but most effectively on wobblers or jerkbaits running 1.5 to 3 metres deep, and on heavy spoons up to 80 grams that can be cast or trolled. It bends normal treble hooks; the Wikipedia recommends reinforced saltwater trebles and plastic instead of wooden lures. And above all: without a wire leader you should not even set out — its teeth bite through strong nylon. It bites most often there in September and March; for which area, the article does not say. Arabic Wikipedia also warns that its teeth cut lines when the actual target is tuna or marlin.

⚠️ What follows is an inference from its biology, not a sourced statement: a fish that hunts in the top 12 to 20 metres, attacks from below at speed and bites through nylon is a fish for fast-trolled lures near the surface, for drop-offs and reefs over deep water — and for a wire leader. In Europe, the realistic waters are where the sources place it: the Canary Islands (La Palma, where it is called peto), the Azores (according to Portuguese Wikipedia serra-da-índia) — the Mediterranean, see below, is disputed.

Two warnings. FishBase, Dutch and Portuguese Wikipedia record cases of ciguatera poisoning after eating it — a toxin from tropical reef algae that accumulates in predatory fish and is not destroyed by cooking. And the teeth: according to English Wikipedia razor-sharp — when unhooking, keep your distance and use pliers. The flesh is considered white, firm and of very good quality (FishBase, English Wikipedia); in Japan, according to Japanese Wikipedia, it is prized in spring and autumn, as sashimi, deep-fried, marinated in miso, and between Hachijō and the Ogasawara Islands for traditional island sushi.

And the stock? The IUCN classifies it as “Least Concern” — not threatened (FishBase: assessed on 1 March 2022). According to English Wikipedia, the species is not considered overfished overall, and because it does not form dense schools, it is less exposed to industrial fishing than tunas; it is, however, regularly caught as bycatch on longlines and in purse seines around drifting objects. For the Atlantic, there has been a dedicated management plan for dolphinfish and wahoo since 2003 (English Wikipedia). FishBase rates its vulnerability to fishing as “moderate to high” (46 out of 100), its resilience as medium (doubling in 1.4 to 4.4 years) — and its vulnerability to climate change as “very high” (76 out of 100). Minimum sizes, bag limits and closed seasons are set by each country — check them locally.

Five contradictions, left open

How big? FishBase: at most 250 cm, as do French, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Russian and Japanese Wikipedia. German and Norwegian Wikipedia: at most around 210 cm. English and Spanish Wikipedia: up to 2.77 m. Italian Wikipedia: 2 m at over 60 kg. Almost all agree only on the weight: 83 kg.
How fast? FishBase gives no figure. Swedish Wikipedia: 75 km/h in short bursts. Norwegian and Russian Wikipedia: 77 km/h. Finnish Wikipedia: 80 km/h. Arabic Wikipedia: 60 miles per hour, i.e. 97 km/h. Where the figures come from, none of these versions says.
In the Mediterranean — yes or hardly? FishBase, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, French and Japanese Wikipedia explicitly include the Mediterranean in its range. Italian Wikipedia disagrees: there it is extremely rare, with very few records, including from Italian waters, and it always keeps far from the coasts. French Wikipedia writes that it ventures as far as England in summer — Russian and Spanish Wikipedia, by contrast, often find it not far offshore.
Loner or school? FishBase: often solitary or in small, loose groups, no dense schools. English and Arabic Wikipedia: alone or in twos or threes — but under favourable conditions in schools of 100 or more (Spanish Wikipedia tags exactly this sentence “citation needed”). French Wikipedia: groups of 2 to 6. Finnish Wikipedia: schools of a few dozen. Russian Wikipedia: a loner, does not form schools.
Commercial food fish or game fish? Dutch Wikipedia: considerable commercial importance, little pursued by anglers. Norwegian Wikipedia exactly the opposite: no commercial fishery, but sought after by sport anglers. Swedish Wikipedia: as a fish without schooling behaviour, it has traditionally been mainly a target of sport fishing. FishBase lists it as commercial and as a game fish; Portuguese Wikipedia cites around 3,000 tonnes of catches recorded by the FAO.

Six names that lead to the wrong fish

“Kingfish” and “king mackerel”. The English GBIF name list also gives “Kingfish” and “Pacific king-fish” for the wahoo, the Russian one “Korolevskaya makrel” (king mackerel). The Atlantic king mackerel, however, is a different fish; Arabic Wikipedia names the difference as the fold of skin over the lower jaw that only the wahoo has.
“Barracuda” and “Pike Mackerel”. These names are in the GBIF list too. According to Norwegian Wikipedia, the barracuda (a separate group in this series) has larger scales and teeth and a broader tail fin without keels; Arabic Wikipedia names its dagger-like teeth and the conspicuous scales.
カマスサワラ — the name with two fish. The Japanese name combines kamasu (barracuda) and sawara (Spanish mackerel). In Nagasaki, according to Japanese Wikipedia, it was called オオカマス (ookamasu, “great barracuda”); the ichthyologist Kamakichi Kishinoue considered this inappropriate and gave it its present name. According to Japanese Wikipedia, it differs from the true sawara (genus *Scomberomorus*) in its missing gill rakers, its long, pointed head and its almost rectangular first dorsal fin.
“Peto”, “sierra”, “serra”. In Spanish it is called peto, sierra golfina or guatapaná (Spanish Wikipedia), on Cape Verde serra, in the Azores serra-da-índia (Portuguese Wikipedia). GBIF also lists “Sierra” and “Carite tiburón”. Spanish Wikipedia explicitly compares it with the caballa real and the caballa española — close relatives that can be confused with it. And “cavala” simply means mackerel in Portuguese.
“Kolyuchaya pelamida” and “thon banane”. Russian Wikipedia also calls it колючая пеламида — “thorny pelamid”, i.e. thorny bonito; French Wikipedia knows “thon banane”, the banana tuna. Neither bonito nor tuna: the wahoo is the only member of its genus. The true bonito is covered by a separate group in this series.
Ono, hoo, oahu. In Hawaii it is called ono (English Wikipedia), in the USA sometimes simply hoo; Russian Wikipedia also lists “оаху”. And the GBIF list contains entries such as the Danish “Vurracina” or the Greek “Ακανθορίκι”, which appear in no other source — such names should be taken with caution.

That leaves the question every article in this series starts with: when. Depth, diet and hunting style are covered above, and they are fixed. What changes every day is everything else — and that is exactly where it is decided whether a day on the water is worth it. That is what StrikeAhead calculates: it takes the conditions on your water and tells you when the trip is worth it. And because you don’t look for an offshore fish from the shore, StrikeAhead Pathfinder tells you who to go out with: curated guides and skippers, personally vetted before listing — licence and insurance —, with verified catches instead of promo photos, no paid ranking and, for you as an angler, no booking fee.

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