Whopping wahoo earns Hayden city councilman kudos in Mexico
Courtesy photos Local fishing guides in Cabo, Mexico view a boatload of fish, including a 75-pound wahoo that Hayden City Councilman Matt Roetter caught last month while on vacation. The local paper designated Roetter its “Fish Killer of the Week.”
Courtesy Kokanee salmon Matt Roetter caught in late March while ice-fishing at Hayden Lake.
Matt Roetter poses with a pair of wahoo he hooked while vacationing in Mexico. The larger fish weighed 75 pounds.
In Cabo, they call him “fish killer.”
Hayden City Councilman Matt Roetter earned the moniker last month when he wowed the locals with his fish-hunting skills while vacationing in Mexico.
Writers at the Gringo Gazette — an English-only newspaper serving Northern Baja and Southern Baja — featured Roetter earlier this month as their “Fish Killer of the Week.”
“I caught a 75-pound and a 25-pound wahoo, plus an array of other fish,” Roetter said. “The wahoo is known as the fastest fish in the ocean and can travel over 60 mph. It is commonly known as ‘the cheetah of the ocean’ due to its tremendous speed.”
To boat the 75-pounder, Roetter and his guide had to chase the fish with a 22-foot panga boat. Pangas are open, outboard-powered boats fishing boats commonly used in Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
The Gringo Gazette story noted Roetter hooked all the fish in one morning, after drifting for tuna and catching mainly bottom fish.
Roetter caught the wahoo near Punta Gorda, about a half-mile from shore.
“The wahoo were in small groups of two to seven fish,” wrote the Gringo Gazette, noting wahoo can be seen on the surface because their dorsal fins will rise above the water.
“Once hooked, the wahoo take off like a rocket.”
The folks at the Gringo Gazette were less impressed with Roetter’s earlier haul of kokanee closer to home.
“But the real kicker is Matt … was ice fishing in Idaho that same week, cutting through 8 inches of ice to get to these little bitty salmon. He swears they are considered decent size for Idaho. Maybe it’s just their potatoes that are big.”