Your cart is empty
Start shopping to add items to your cart
Wahoo
OpenAcanthocybium solandri
The NC rulebook, translated for the Banks.
The Short Version
North Carolina puts no size floor on Wahoo; measure nothing, but count everything. The daily creel is 2 per person per day, and the fishery is open through the whole calendar year.
Keep Size
No minimum
Any size is legal to keep
Run the tape from the snout to the far edge of the tail pressed flat together — a pinched tail adds the half inch that decides a citation.
Daily Creel
2 per person per day
What one angler may take per day
Counts are per person unless the rule says "per boat," and they aggregate across everywhere you fished that day — sound, surf, and ocean all land in the same tally.
Season Window
Year-round
When harvest is legal
Open through the year unless an emergency closure posts.
Where It Stands
Open
Harvest is legal; emergency in-season shutdowns are rare but do happen — glance at the DMF proclamations page anyway.
Wahoo on the Shelf Edge
Hatteras Inlet boats have a deserved wahoo reputation: the shelf edge off Hatteras holds them through the shoulder seasons when the blue water pushes in, and high-speed trolling wired ballyhoo or dark islanders is how the fleet connects. They are the fastest fish in the OBX spread and the best eating to come over a Hatteras dock.
Two fish per person fills a box fast — most crews ice the first two and start tagging the rest.
The Fine Print
- •No size limit for recreational harvest.
- •Two fish per person per day in the aggregate.
- •Wahoo run the shelf edge off Hatteras Inlet in spring and fall; high-speed trolling is the local method.
- •Rig with cable or heavy singlestrand — wahoo scissors through fluoro like thread.