The first wahoo I ever heard on the end of the line - and that bears some explaining - was at Coral Bay only a few years back. I'd seen a few beforehand, over the years, but always ones caught in somebody else's boat. This one was hooked by Kevin Hatten just out from North Passage, trolling from my dinghy.

The first run was, well, quick. Line ripping off a reel that fast makes a beautiful noise, as does a clicker that's doing all the right things to self-destruct. But we didn't know it was a wahoo at that stage.

The big hint came when it was a little way off the port stern quarter, and then a few seconds later it was about the same distance off the starboard stern quarter. The difference between there and there was maybe 50 metres. It got there in an incomprehensively short time, and the slack line trailing behind it - there was never any prospect of keeping a tight line during this - made a sound like ripping paper, as it carved across the surface. Exactly like ripping paper. Kevin and I were dumbstruck.

It was a Wednesday morning. I remember that because Tuesday night was half-price night at the Coral Bay pub, and as a result our third crew member was keeping the participation level to an absolute minimum, curled up on the floor of the boat. But the sound of nylon line parting water so quickly it sounded like ripping paper was enough to extract the plaintive cry, "What the f#$* was that?!!". It was a memorable moment.

This time last year off Perth, wahoo were thick. In an extraordinary year when conditions were not that obviously different from others, wahoo invaded the area between Rottnest's West End and the FADs, bringing a rare opportunity to anglers launching from Hillarys and Fremantle. Wahoo in Perth waters.

Prior to 1999, most autumns passed with only one or two or three wahoo caught west of Rottnest. Many years none were caught. Then last year, the catch rate escalated to one or two or three per boat per day. And most of those anglers weren't even trying.

Damien Cestrilli described one memorable FAD day as reminiscent of the Rowley Shoals on a good day, with wahoo greyhounding across the surface and down on to their lures. Pretty wild metro fishing.

We hope it will happen again this year. Nobody knows what really brought the fish - El Nino, the Leeuwin Current, baitfish - it's guesswork. There are no rules that don't have exceptions anyway.

Catching wahoo consistently, I've learnt since that paper-ripping day only a few years ago, entails some proven techniques. There are lots of exceptions here too, but worldwide, wahoo specialists and competition winners have found there are ways to increase your chances. If you're going to give it a serious try, try these techniques.

Wahoo like sub-surface lures. Lots of them get caught on surface pushers, but only because that's what people are trolling in the water they're in. You can do better. Rather than a square- or cup-faced skirted pusher lure, try a bullet-shaped head that will run faster and hit the surface less often. The heavier the better. Forget scoops and jet holes. The more metal the better.

Use two hooks rigged with heavy 49-strand wire in between. On a skirted lure, the tail hook should be hanging out of the back of the lure - the eye just in the skirt - and the front hook as far forward as the lure allows. Realistically, that will land the front hook about the middle of the lure. If you're trolling too slowly (most people will do this almost all the time), wahoo can be stunningly accurate with their strikes, and they will hit the middle of the lure, hooking up on the front hook. If you're trolling fast enough, they'll take the lure from behind, and hook up on the tail hook.

These lures are the best for searching, where you need to cover the maximum amount of water to locate a school. Wahoo always travel in schools, so where you catch one there will be more.

Wire trace is smart, and high speed lures run best on flexible wire. The most flexible stainless wire is 49-strand, and 135 - 175lb is the right kind of size. Use heavier (600 - 800lb) between the hooks, for stiffness there, and durability.

You cannot troll too fast for the fish, but the lures may still hit the surface too often. More weight is the answer. Using 200g fat barrel sinkers a couple of metres in front of the lure - up to six of them - pushes the lure down and keeps it sub-surface. The sinkers have to be on the wire, because wahoo will hit the sinkers often enough too. Use crimps front and rear to keep the sinkers positioned. Some experts even scuff up the sinkers to make them flashier and more attractive to the fish, relying on the lure to draw its share of strikes.

Why not use a downrigger or a planer to push the lure down? They're for another time, but not for searching. Top speed with one of these tools is about seven knots, and a more realistic speed is about four knots. For searching, you'll cover a heap more water at 14 or 15 or 16 knots, and wahoo just love speed. Trolling at 14 knots or faster is uncommon, but when you're out looking for wahoo, it is simply the most effective. You'll catch a lot more fish.

Once the fish have been located, mark it on the GPS. If you have a sounder that cost more than your home stereo, you might get a bottom reading that could tell you something too. Most times you will be in water deeper than the average sounder will tell you about. Wahoo like deep, warm water, upwellings, bottom structure, current lines and bait schools.

It's once you've found the fish as above, that you can come back to a more sedate 10 knots trolling speed, and use more regular lures like Halco Laser Pro 190DDs and XDDs, Rapala CD18 Magnums, Rapala X-Rap Magnum 30s and Classic Bluewater F18 minnows. These are all 18cm-ish deep diving lures that will still handle a fair turn of speed. A lot of other minnows won't.

You'll increase your chances again by clipping any of these lures, or a rigged garfish, to a downrigger and letting a 4.5kg lead bomb push them down a little further. If you're downrigging you're gaining on the depth side and losing on the speed side. Depth will win out, provided you're already in the right area. Don't be surprised if, when trolling a mix of lures off downriggers and lures straight off the rod tips at five knots, every wahoo you catch comes off the downrigger lines. They make a world of difference.

Wire trace is still smart, and the cheap #11 pre-straightened mono wire works fine on lures if it's perfectly straight; but you can save yourself some grief and lure-tuning by just using 175lb 49-strand, which is far more flexible and forgiving. Half a metre will do on bibbed minnows; repeat for emphasis, wahoo are accurate.

Lure colour doesn't matter, except on the days that it does, so you need to have a couple of everything. For the high-speed lures, mylar or nylon fibre skirts are going to last through more fish than the common plastic skirts. Wahoo have an unusual scissor-action jaw that is more effective at cutting things than any other fish I've seen. Nothing actually lasts very long.

With a school found through some high-speed searching, and marked on the GPS, dropping back the speed and trolling a grid pattern around that spot should continue to turn up fish. If it doesn't, get the high-speed gear out again and arc things up. I hope you're not too fussed about catching them on light tackle; 24kg gear makes dragging this stuff around much easier.

The 'hoo can be fussy enough to only want to attack things travelling in one direction; I've heard of people who have found them around FADs and only been able to raise strikes when travelling southeast - northeast, with the lures ignored on the northeast - southeast return trips. Keep a plotter trail going on the GPS and pop in an event marker on every strike.

Off Perth, most wahoo were found in between 60 and 200m of water depth last Autumn. They probably weren't just off Perth, but maybe nobody fished for them off Two Rocks, Ledge Point, Lancelin and so on. It's a bit of a shame, because they are as fine an eating fish as anybody could ask for, and you get a lot of fillet weight off them for the size of the fish. We could do with knowing more about where they are.

Wahoo aren't just a deep water version of a spanish mackerel. They're a very special creature that will test your tackle and techniques far more than a spaniard, and reward you with a beautiful catch that tastes as flash as it looks. For a warm water fish, they're very cool.