Archives for 2020

Holoholo: Matt is selling his Hookum Flies!

June 12, 2020 By Scott 3 Comments

Holoholo writer Matthew, soon to enter the 9th grade, has dialed in his fly patterns after putting in a lot of field work.

Matthew: Over the past few months, I started tying flies, got better, and eventually started selling them after extensive testing. Many of the tests were successful, thanks to testers. Thanks to everyone who tested flies out and decided which flies were the best.

Based on the test results, we will be releasing the four colors that have been working best, which are the Vanilla Ice (white with flash), Halalu (dark green top, yellow stripe, white bottom), Golden Blaze (gold, black, red), and the Oama (olive top, yellow stripe, white bottom). All flies are tied with premium 2/0 gamakatsu hooks. Currently, they will be sold on my IG page @hookum_flies and in the HNF Store. They will currently be sold for $8.99 USD.

However, if you’d like to request a custom order, please contact Scott, who will contact me. There are also many other colors that I make that are also proven, and if there is enough demand, we can bring those in too. Here are the pictures of the four flies we will be selling for now:

Many Papio have been caught on the flies, as well as Kaku and an Awa Awa, which was caught by Dino in the last post on the Oama fly. Here are some pictures of fish that have been caught on the flies in the past month:

Note that I have not caught all of those fish, but some are mine.

A question I get often is, “What time do I use the flies at?” and the answer is that the flies will work at any time as long as there are fish around, but there are times for certain colors that have been proven to do good. The Golden Blaze seems to be a killer in low light conditions, at dawn and dusk, but it can do good at any time of day. The Vanilla Ice seems to do best in high light conditions, AKA midday, where the massive amount of flash can be refracted off the most due to the sun shining. The Oama seems to do best all day, and there is no time it will work better than not. The Halalu also seems to be the same case, but the test subjects bit a little bit after dawn.

Another question I have gotten asked is, “How do I store the flies and is there anything I should know about caring for them?” and the answer is that since they are Gamakatsu hooks they should last for years, so if you rinse the fly with fresh water and dry it before storing, it should last. A general rule is to never store somewhere moist, as that may cause eventual rust. However, the Gamakatsu hooks are exceptionally good, and have a hard time rusting.

Another question I have got before is,”What setup do you recommend for using your flies?” The answer is that you can use whatever you want. Some people use egg lead setups, same as a grub, but so far all the fish caught have been on bubble floats. For the bubble rig you’ll need a large size bubble, a barrel swivel, monofilament line for leader (I use 30), and the fly. You’ll need to feed your mainline through the bubble and tie it to the barrel swivel, then tie anywhere from 4-7 feet of mono to the other side of the swivel, it is all preference. I prefer around six feet. You’ll need to fill the bubble up with water to make it go far, by pushing down the skinny-push-button-looking thing and letting it fill up with water. You’ll know it is filling up when you see bubbles rising. How high you fill it depends on your pole. Lighter poles may require less water in the bubble to cast effectively, and heavier poles may need the whole bubble filled up. I fill my bubble up either ¾ of the way or all the way.

Let me know if you want more colors of flies to be brought in, some that I am looking at bringing in are the Hinalea (Hinalea – Blue, Orange, Green, Red, Gold), Akakin (Red, Yellow, White), Big Red (Red, White, Gold), and many more colors, if there is enough demand.

Holoholo: Slow season fishing? Go for the Awa awa!

June 1, 2020 By Scott 10 Comments

Dino’s been fishing most of his life. His father taught him how to fish and he’s been keeping it going ever since. Was a heavy bait caster and is now a heavy whipper. He’s also the adult fishing partner of middle schooler and Holoholo writer Matthew.

Dino: Winds were light and the tide was dropping, so Matt Ikeda, and I headed out to one of our spots that we like to hit up (Matt doesn’t really like this spot, but I think he’s starting to warm up to it lol). Fishing has been a little slow for us lately, but just being outdoors and getting to cast the rods is more than enough to make us happy. The water was pretty calm today, so we ventured out to the point. Bubble + Fly was the name of the game today, and I was using an oama pattern Matt tied for me.

Soon after our initial casts, Matt hooked up to a nice Lai that he kept for a meal and use the skin for his flies. About the 169th cast in, I felt a nice healthy tug on da fly about halfway in. Bango! I’m on! It instantly started jumping and flipping in the air. It made a couple of nice short runs, and was landed shortly after. Eh, it was so nice to hear the reel talk back to me little bit! She’s been giving me silent treatment lately. The awaawa weighed in at 4.5 pounds. A bit refreshing since only baby paps have been caught lately lol.

All in all it was a good day spent being outdoors. Especially during these times. Big Mahalo to Matt Ikeda for netting my fish. Be safe, be healthy, and remember it doesn’t matter if you catch or not. Sure as hell beats working any day.

~ Dino

The Store is low on inventory – working to restock

May 31, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

Fishing is picking up, guys are are refilling their tackle boxes but supply from the gear suppliers has been throttled by the forced shutdowns.

Sufix 832 has become very popular in Hawaii and we’ve sold all our inventory. A bigger order will be placed once the Rapala/Sufix warehouse is restocked.

We’ll also restock the always popular JDM whipping lures.

Thanks for your patience and patronage.

Uku – raw, steam, fry. Simple, super ono recipes here!!

May 25, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

Uku, a shallow water snapper, closely related to opakapaka, is one of the most versatile and delicious fish you could prepare. What limits its popularity with the masses is its unfortunate name (uku more commonly means head lice) and its junkyard dog face. uku is also called green jobfish or gray snapper, which are just slightly more appealing names.

Recently my semi-commercial fishing friend Jon had some uku to sell since the fish auction prices have been down due to all the closed restaurants. Friends and I purchased uku at unheard of pricing and made some incredibly delicious yet simple dishes.

The first thing to do with any fish is to remove the gills and guts to slow down the spread of bacteria. We filleted the fish, wrapped the filets in paper towel and put in the fridge to soften because uku is too firm initially.

Since the uku bones have more blood content than the filets and would spoil first, they were deep fried right away and the head was made into soup. This was the first time I’ve fried fish bones and I was amazed at how good it tasted. I seasoned it like a steak and deep fried it crispy. It smelled fishy while frying but tasted like tender, fried pork chops. The high fat content near the bones made it so juicy.

Uku is pretty firm for the first 2 days so I made a simple poke on the 3rd day with sesame oil, chili flakes, Hawaiian salt and inamona (minced kukui nut). I could have also added limu, shoyu and onions. The poke was had a slightly firm texture and tasted great (non-fishy for me) with the simple ingredients.

Holoholo writer Kelly gave me a simple steam recipe. Wrap the filet in foil, bake in a pan at 400 degrees and check in 15 to 20 mins depending on size of filet. It’s done when a fork smoothly goes through the meat. I poured a simple sauce of shoyu, chopped ginger, sugar, sesame oil and chili flakes and the uku was flaky and clean tasting. Friend and culinary artist Brandon’s steamed uku is much more presentable than mine but was prepared in a similar, simple fashion.

Brandon also salt and peppered the filet, lightly seared for 5 to 10 seconds on each side, then sliced it. He laid the slices on red onion, lettuce, wakame, and sprinkled green onions and tomatoes on top. Finished with a lime ponzu sauce. Looks like fine dining yeah, but can easily be done in your kitchen.

So there you have it. If you make soup with the head, all that’s thrown away are the scales, tail and guts. High yield and so many ways to consume uku! But I gotta say, the fried bones were the best!

Kayak damashi action

May 18, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

On an epic light wind day last week, Frank and Kelly SUP trolled for papio past the break on the east side and I went deeper on the kayak to try for opelu and hungry predators. The water was so glassy inside that the papio bite was tentative for the SUP crew but they scraped up a few 1 to 3lb omilu to take home.

I couldn’t find any opelu and nothing ate the frozen opelu I put down so I tried to salvage the trip by catching good eating fish on the Ahi USA damashi tipped with CHL Minnows and ika strips. Over the reefy transition to sand, baby kaku and nunu came up. Then 8 inch baby opakapaka began to mob the Minnow.

Finally I struck nabeta gold and even brought up a lai. The CHL Minnow outfished the strip of ika and didn’t attract hagi so I stopped using the ika.

On a calm day with minimal current and wave action, it was so peaceful to bounce the damashi on the bottom and feel the electric action of the rod tip.

I shared the nabeta with friends who hadn’t tasted the fish before, and gave the lai to Frank for grinds and lai skin. Good fun fishing in the deep.

-scott

Holoholo: The one that almost got away!

May 13, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

Our fly fishing Holoholo writer Jason shares the details of a how a big, smart fish had him on the ropes and he had to throw in the towel but luck and skill prevailed.

Jason: I managed to coax my friend Dave out for some fishing, so we decided to hit an old spot where we both started fly fishing together years ago. The plan was to hit our usual haunts, starting with bombing one of our favorite channels before moving west to sight fish.
The channel ended up being dead, and an hour went by with only a single grab, which was probably a small papio. With the tide bottoming out, we moved onto a shallower portion of the flat closer to the break to do some sight fishing.

I saw a few as soon as I got out there, and had some decent shots with a couple follows. I hadn’t done a ton of sight fishing with my new 11 ft Trout Spey, and was impressed by how it cast one-handed. About the fourth fish I saw was the perfect setup – a lone fish swimming slowly straight at me from about 40-50 ft away. I made my cast and carefully watched its body language as I slowly stripped the fly in. I fully expected a follow, then a rejection, but instead saw him accelerate towards the fly, and wiggle a bit. This was my chance! I stripped sharply, felt the weight of the fish, and before I knew it he was headed for the horizon, literally.

It felt like a pretty nice fish, and seemed intent on heading for open ocean. Rather than risk breaking the fish off, I clamped down just a bit, but still allowed him to take line. When I finally felt him slow down, I felt exactly what I dreaded – I could no longer feel the fish and instead felt the line stuck in the rocks. I waded out as far as I could in a desperate bid to free it, but I was already pretty close to the break when I hooked him, so things were getting dicey. At one point, I was up to my chest in water getting slammed by waves, so I decided to throw in the towel. I was heart broken, but decided no fish was worth drowning over.

I reluctantly started walking backwards with the drag locked down, just like you do when breaking lead line while ulua fishing. My line was stretching quite a bit, and at some point I realized the line wasn’t stretching at all, but was actually slipping against wherever it was pinned. The line gradually loosened up and I could suddenly feel the fish again – I could not believe my luck. I slowly brought the fish in, while praying that the line, hook and all my knots held together. It would be incredibly anticlimactic for it to suddenly come off now, I thought to myself. Luckily, the fish was so spent from struggling against the pinned down line that it came in without even making a second run. I was ecstatic, mostly because I felt there was no way I should’ve landed it.

Dave ended up getting a mongoose fish and a nunu, and the reports I got from other friends fishing nearby were mixed. One friend had landed one and lost one, but the majority of the others (which include some VERY good sight fisherman) reported not seeing many fish. Hmm… I think I really got lucky today!

Holoholo: Hand-tied flies end the Rubber Hook Curse

May 10, 2020 By Scott 3 Comments

JDM expert and whipping aficionado Thad fills us in on how his last 3 months of fishing has turned around.

Thad: The papio bite at my usual spots had shut down since the start of February, so I tried targeting oio for a while without much success. Other guys I know that were fishing similar spots were landing nice oio regularly so it kept my hopes up every weekend. Its not like I wasn’t hooking up though – I’ve been stricken with the “rubber hook” curse, fighting decent sized fish on most trips only to have them spit the hook before I could land them.

So the weekend before the COVID-19 shutdown, I decided to try the usual spot again, armed with some new flies Matt (IG: hookum_flies) had tied and given to me to test. For someone that just started tying flies a week or two earlier, they were well made and looked sure to fool a fish into biting. The morning proved to be slow again, but I managed to hook what felt like a good sized papio on Matt’s Golden Blaze color. Just as I was bringing the fish to the surface and could see color, the rubber hook curse struck again. Losing fish is just a part of the fishing experience, but I felt a little disappointed that I couldn’t send Matt some pictures of his creation in a fish’s mouth.

Skipped fishing the next two weekends after the COVID-19 shutdown. By the time I felt comfortable enough to get back out there, I had also received some additional flies from Lawaiaflies (IG: lawaiaflies) that I was excited to try. Armed with the new flies on April 26th, I tried my luck again, expecting it to be another slow day but hopeful I could send some fish pictures to some fly makers.

I decided to start with an orange and white fly from Lawaiaflies, appropriately called the Creamsicle. Not long after I started whipping, I got a solid strike and landed a scrappy 12.5” omilu. It felt great finally being able to land something after losing so many to spit hooks. I quickly tagged it with a PIFG tag and released it to fight another day. For the next hour and a half, I continued whipping without any action, switching between flies from different makers.

Walked to another spot I hadn’t fished in a while, to see if anyone was hungry. I tied the Creamsicle back on and immediately foul hooked a small omilu on the top of its head.

A short while later, another small omilu decided to take the same fly. Man, this Creamsicle color was really productive! Just as I was thinking I may need to order more of this color, I got a big blow up on my big Tough Bubble that immediately cut my mainline. I’ve caught several big kaku there so that was the likely culprit.

It was time to start heading back in so I put on another bubble and tied on Matt’s Golden Blaze fly. I tried a slower retrieve this time, working the fly a little deeper in the water column. It worked and I was able to land a very colorful moana. I took some pics for Matt and called it a day. Reports I’ve been hearing from friends and the recent papio bites (albeit small ones) seem to indicate that we may be working our way out of the slow season.

Early Mango Season = Early Fishing Season?

May 8, 2020 By Scott 24 Comments

It is believed that the same environmental factors that affect the timing and the duration of mango season also affect the inshore and nearshore fishing. Amount of rain the previous year, amount of sunlight, temperature, wind patterns etc.

Mango season started earlier than normal and our Hayden tree has way more baby mangoes than previous years. Oama have been sighted in a few spots at least a month earlier than normal, and akule have been abundant this year. Initial indicators seem to point to an earlier start to the inshore and nearshore season, and hopefully an abundant one.

Get out and fish in the sun and humidity where Covid-19 has a hard time surviving!

-scott

Holoholo: Surfboard Fishing Report

May 7, 2020 By Scott 6 Comments

Holoholo writer Kelly cheerfully reports that the fishing just past the reef has picked up recently. Despite the Covid-19 social distancing mandate he’s been able to legally bring home much appreciated kau kau for the ohana. Thanks for the update Kelly!

Kelly: In March and April, the papio bite was still pretty slow. I have been surfboard fishing near the breaks every couple of weeks at a variety of spots, mostly on the South and East shores on lighter wind mornings.

Usual catch has been a couple of 1-2 pound omilus with plenty of bait stealers which I am guessing are baby papio. South side has been having good size barracudas, about 3-4 pounds which I have been keeping for kau kau.

Here is a photo of the spicy kaku poke we made 🙂

There have been some random catches like moana, nunu and rois. The one noteworthy catch was a nice six and a half pound kagami on the east side which hit a frozen oama that had been getting freezer burnt from last summer.

Baby Beast and Mini Feast from the East!

April 22, 2020 By Scott 6 Comments

Surf was booming on the north and west shores and surf on the south side was projected as high as 5ft so we went east to a new spot Erik, our small boat buddy, had recommended. Erik provided all the intel as far as where to launch, where the opelu were, where the nabeta were, and if he were free he would have met us on the water! How many guys would share their secret spots like that?

Frank and I made it out to where the opelu were supposed to be, but it was after 9 in the morning and we couldn’t find a good mark. We paddled over to a deep reef and Frank damashi’d up moana and taape on ika strips while I bottom fished with frozen opelu. I was surprised how few nibbles I was getting so I went all the way out to 200ft and had a hard thump that took the whole fish. I put my second to the last opelu on and dropped again. Thump, thump and a strong run. I was thinking shark but soon there were really hard head shakes. Not as quick as uku head shakes so I assumed it was ulua. The fish took out a lot of line so I buttoned down the Avet SX Raptor 2-speed to stop it, and after struggling to gain line in high gear, I dropped to low gear and man what a difference! The fish didn’t make another sustained run again and it floated so quickly it came up on the opposite side I was expecting and scared me!

I debated keeping the white ulua but had always said I’d release my first kayak caught ulua so I did. Looking at the photos again, it was probably just a bit over 10lbs but at the time I thought it was much bigger because of the bullish fight. Nothing else bit the last opelu in the deep so I went to look for nabeta.

Tipping the damashi with ika strips Frank gave me initially yielded hagi until I moved off the deep reef and onto sand. I dragged the weight instead of bouncing it and could feel fish lightly tugging at the ika and not hooking up. Finally I hooked a yellow nabeta (deepwater gold!). I had to wade through little puffer fish and nunu before I got 2 more nabeta in the deep, then I went a little shallower and started getting reef fish. By then it was time to go in so I turned up the Bixpy motor to contend with the offshore wind, and could sustain a 3.5 mph pace by paddling along with the jet. Without the motor I’d be struggling at 2 mph and be hurting the next day.

Usually I don’t do well the first few times out at a new spot but we were productive because of Erik’s accurate directions. We left a few stones unturned so we need to go back!

Kayak fishing improvements worked!

April 10, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

2 problems have been plaguing me kayaking the deep: 1) It’s been very hard to paddle against the current and stay on the productive spots, and I’ve had a recurring stiff right shoulder. 2) Been hooking more sharks than fish, and they don’t bite through the line like you’d think they would. After trying to raise a shark or two so I can cut it free, I’m spent, especially my left arm that holds the conventional rod.

To solve Problem #1, I’ve put a Bixpy electric motor on my Trident Ultra 4.3’s rudder. I just had to replace my rudder with theirs that held the compact jet motor, and was still able to use my existing rudder controls. The lithium ion battery that powers the motor sits on my fishbag in the rear tankwell and only weighs 7lbs. I can select the 12 forward speeds and 3 reverse speeds from the remote control I wear on my wrist.

Problem #2 was made worse because I’ve been using a high speed, gold Trinidad 14. Awesome smooth reel but the gearing of 6.2:1 doesn’t generate much torque and it’s been hard to turn the handle on heavy sharks. I met Avet rep Ben Frazier at the Fred Hall Show this year (right before they suspended the future shows due to Covid-19), and told him that I was having issues going from freespool to strike drag on my star drag Trinidad, and when I ended up fighting a shark, it was hard to lift and crank with my rig. He recommended the small (17 oz) SX Raptor lever drag reel with a low and high gear and max drag of 26lbs!

Look at the wake the Bixpy is producing!

Well the light wind day came to test both out, and my kayak fishing buddy Frank was able to join me. Very light WSW winds started the day and I cranked the Bixpy up to full speed at 5mph. Not bad since I can’t paddle that fast myself. I ran it on the 3rd or 4th speed while paddling along at a relaxed pace to get to our bait spot, and was easily getting 3.0 to 3.5 mph.

We couldn’t find bait and trolled out to 300ft for nada. I tried bottom fishing out there but the current was ripping near the bottom and my bait never hit solid ground. Soon we realized the west wind and west current had taken us more than a mile downwind. Frank coordinated his pedaling and paddling on his Hobie Revo 13, and made great progress heading back to our safe zone. I gave him a head start and used the Bixpy up to max speed at times, and finally caught him. Frank trolled frozen opelu and I bottom fished a fat opelu chunk after having two smaller frozen opelu pulled off by bait stealers.

Besides a humpback whale showing us his dorsal fin, it was a slow slog until I had my burrito sized chunk taken for about 5 seconds before the hooks pulled out. I dropped the tail half of that chunk down and a shark was on. Going from free spool to strike on the Avet lever drag was very easy and the shark slowed down. When it took line again I inched the lever drag up toward the max but made sure I could still pull off a little line with my hand so it wasn’t so tight the shark could yank me overboard too easily. In high gear I couldn’t gain much line so I dropped down to low gear and was amazed at how easy it was too turn the reel handle. When the shark ran, the drag would slip smoothly while I cranked but otherwise I could just crank and put a little line back on the reel. The shark really did’t run too far, and I put the rod butt down in front of my lap, like I was in a fighting chair and started to lean back and crank.

That was working well but when the shark lunged, I had to make sure the rod tip was parallel with the bow. I ended up getting the shark up in less than 15 mins, which is much faster than I have with other sharks. The low gear definitely helped a lot.

I was worried the shark would pull me over when it came up broadside so I braced my feet on the rails of the yak and kept moving them as the shark came within inches.

Judging from its pudgy shape and high triangular dorsal fin, I think this was a sandbar shark which isn’t supposed to be a man eater. Still it was spooky to have such a heavy animal with sharp teeth so close.

The south west winds started chopping up the water and it was time to head in. The rudder mounted Bixpy popped out of the water a few times as the kayak bow dipped into a small wave, but otherwise the motor, supplemented with my paddling, got me in at 3 mph. I had 2 of the 6 battery levels left after the 5 hrs outing.

I was very pleased with how the Avet SX Raptor and the Bixpy motor performed and look forward to fishing more productively with both.

Columbia shoes and “sandals” that don’t slip in the rain

April 6, 2020 By Scott 4 Comments

With all this social distancing time, I’m catching up with long overdue product reviews. I’ve been wearing the Columbia PFG Fish Flip “sandal” (slippers to us locals), and the Columbia Grixen Oxford shoe for more than a year after catching a good sale.

The Grixen Oxfords look good enough for work and going out, and are waterproof with a grippy sole. Just checked though, and looks like they are discontinued. Shucks, it’s hard to find durable, decent looking shoes that can be used for pretty much all occasions.

The PFG (Performance Fishing Gear) Fish Flip has an anatomically contoured midsole and a grippy rubber sole. The sandals keep their shape, hold your feet in place and are made to wear wet.

Why do I care about grippy footwear? Well a few days before going to the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach, I slipped on a wet vinyl sided cardboard sheet in the rain, wearing rubba slippas. My back foot slid back, like a reverse lunge, and I ripped my middle toe nail completely off! My other toes were sliced up too. My first thought was whether I could still walk around the Show for 5 hrs. Thank God the antibacterial gel prevented infection and the Grixen shoes had extra room up front for band-aids!

I haven’t worn the offending rubba slippas since, and the Fish Flips have keep me planted, even when I swept out our flooded garage. If you don’t mind embroidered fish on the band of your slippers, I highly recommend the Fish Flips. And if you can find a pair of the discontinued Grixen Oxfords, jump on them. Look for sales, the Columbia products are often deeply discounted.

Holoholo: Fishing during the winter months

April 3, 2020 By Scott 10 Comments

Our Middle School Holoholo writer Matthew is social distancing like the rest of us, and took up fly tying! He also wanted to share how tough this Winter has been for him.

These past few months have been great for a lot of people, but they’ve been the worst four months in all the time I’ve been fishing. During December, January, February, and March, I went fishing a total of 39 times, sometimes going two different spots in one day (mostly because winter and spring break fall in those months) and only caught a measly total of 7 notable fish (not counting a bunch of Hinalea, Nunu, and Lizardfish), which were a 2-3 lb Omilu, a 2 lb Omilu, Three good size Moana, and a small Kaku. Not counting as a fish, but I did catch my first ever Samoan Crab on rod and reel. I tried a bunch of spots, deep and shallow, and tried just about every technique from flies, kastmasters, grubs, to dunking but still not much. I had the mentality, “If I keep pounding I’ll eventually get something”, but eventually it seemed like it would not get better, so I’m giving up until summer, or until this coronavirus passes, which I hope it will. On a positive note, pretty much everyone else has been catching a lot of stuff, with more Papio popping up on my Instagram feed. Certain hammahs have been catching like it’s still summer at certain deep spots, or wading.

In the downtime, I decided to pick up fly tying. I’m figuring if I can’t catch fish I might as well stock up for when the fish are actually biting. At first, I had no idea, and the flies looked horrible. I had no idea what to do, and I just used nail polish to get the flies together at the head. I kept trying, got a little better, my UV flashlight and UV resin came in, and I was able to finally add eyes to some flies.

After a lot of refining the design of the flies, I think I am starting to get the hang of it, but I still have a very long way to go to get to the level that other local fly makers are at. Eventually, I want to sell some to pay back the significant amount of money all the fly materials and tools cost. If anyone has any tips for me they would be greatly appreciated, from materials to different designs I could try, everything would help me.

Good luck to all of you guys that are still going fishing now, although it seems like everyone is doing quite fine. Stay safe and healthy during this outbreak and practice social distancing.

Fish bite after the rain too! – PB uku catch, clean and cook

March 25, 2020 By Scott 9 Comments

The lingering Kona Low storm we had last week finally cleared and the winds dropped for a day, so I prepped to kayak fish. Only problem was that all State and City beach parks were closed to enforce social distancing! When it was confirmed that fishermen could transit through the parks, I parked outside, wheeled my kayak through and launched on an empty beach.

The wind was initially light and I paddled my way to the bait spot. Small bait schools passed under me but I could never connect with them. Gave up and went out deeper than I have been, to try to avoid the sharks. This must’ve been the spot because 3 boats kept drifting into my social distancing space. I guess they had no problem accessing the boat launch.

Felt hard taps about 20 secs after dropping down a frozen opelu and I was on with a hard pulling, jerky fish. Tightened the drag and tried to get it up before Sharkey caught wind of what was going on. It pulled hard until about 15 ft from the surface and was pretty worn out at color. Hooked in the corner of the mouth on the rear VMC inline hook. CHEEEHAAAA!!!

Its tail was sticking out of the Promar floating net but luckily was too docile to try to squirm out. Definitely the biggest uku I’ve landed and was stoked to get another since local fresh fish in the market is really hard to come by because of food supply issues.

Missed a fish on the next drop that pulled the bait off. Then had a bait reduced to just the head. Dropped the head back down to catch the culprit and something that felt like a school bus ate it and didn’t want to be lifted off the bottom. I finally broke free of that. My next bait got picked up by a heavy, head shaking fish and I was able to stop it and bring it up a little before it got real heavy and jerky at the 5 min mark and the line cut midway up the 40lb fluoro leader. I think it was some medium sized jack that got sharked.

The east winds picked up at this point and all but one boat headed for safety. I took their advice and paddled in to a deserted beach.

The uku ended up being my personal best at 23 inches and 6.5lbs. Since I didn’t have many pics to put up I decided to video the fish cleaning process, and planned to pull stills of what it had in its stomach. Well, turns out it had a small opelu, a baby tang-shaped fish, and something that looked like a small squid, but they were pretty decomposed looking so I decided not to use the stills. Fishing buddy Kelly reviewed my slowly improving fileting skills and pointed out areas of improvement:

Cut the fins off before scaling, so they wouldn’t get in the way
Scale the fish completely even in the hard to reach spots
Pat dry the fish if rinsed with water
Cut with long strokes to leave a smooth edged filet

I decided to share the compressed 2 min video of the catch and time lapse fish cleaning so others could learn from my mistakes. Shout out to Thad, our JDM fishing tackle purveyor, for providing the super sharp, super strong “SK11” all purpose shears from Japan. I was able to cut through all parts of the fish including the center bone!

The fish was shared with family and friends, consumed raw with citrus finger limes, steamed, baked and fried.

Wasabi kewpie mayo poke with red finger lime

I made a point to emphasize that the fish was only touched by my Coronavirus-free hands through the whole process, unlike a fish you find at the market. 😉

Ledlenser compact and ultra compact lanterns are just so convenient – dunno how we ever lived without them

March 20, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

Gotta admit, I’m not a lighting gearhead and hadn’t heard of the German company Ledlenser before they contacted me, asking if we’d like to test their LED lanterns and headlamps. I Googled the company and found very positive reviews from Europe. Ledlenser recently started distributing in the US and was looking for feedback from American outdoor media. Here’s their USA website. https://www.ledlenserusa.com/

I requested a couple general purpose lanterns and headlamps that could be used outdoors and around the house. The products aren’t listed as being waterproof so I didn’t plan to expose them to salt water, but they do have a 7 yr warranty that covers defects in materials and workmanship. I wasn’t under obligation to provide a public review; they just wanted to know if we thought they would be useful in Hawaii.

ML6 lantern, MH7 headlamp, MH5 headlamp and ML4 lantern

My first impression was “wow, this is waaaay better than the outdated stuff I’ve been using!”. The headlamps and lanterns they sent use rechargeable lithium ion batteries as most of their products do. The headlamps fit better and were more comfortable than any headlamps I’ve used in the past, and the materials used were really top notch. The two lanterns, the only two they currently make, were so small they looked like toys. But the form factor and ergonomics were so well designed we couldn’t stop playing with them.

We’ve been testing the headlamps and lanterns for 3 months now and often use more than one of them each day. This initial review will cover the compact ML6 lantern ($79.95) and sub-compact ML4 lantern ($49.95) which we end up using more often.

I’ll keep the techy stuff to a minimum but here’s what’s relevant. The larger ML6 lantern is 7 inches tall including rubber handle and weighs 10 oz. It has 3 brightness levels. The brightest, at 750 lumens can last for 4 hrs. The lowest, at 20 lumens can last for 70 hrs. The smaller ML4 lantern is less than 4 inches tall and weighs 2.5 oz. It has 3 brightness levels also: 300 lumens will last 2.5 hrs, 5 lumens will last 45 hrs.

We use the little ML4 as a night light in the bathroom, clipping the carabiner to a electrical cord. The lowest setting throws a muted, glare-free light and doesn’t affect our night vision.

I liked it so much I took it on my trip to LA and used it to light my very dark hotel room. We’ve also used it on its brightest setting to light our way around the yard in the dark. It’s truly amazing how much light that little lantern puts out.

The little lantern has a battery indicator that lets me know when it’s running low and I usually charge it after 4 night of use with a charger than magnetically snaps into place.

The bigger ML6 uses a mini USB charger and can charge another device with its standard USB port.

It’s so economical and environmentally healthy to recharge rather than keep buying alkaline batteries, and the small ML4 can also use a standard AA battery in a pinch.

We’ve used the ML6 to inspect the progress of an addition we’re building and to do yard maintenance in the dark. My wife likes to use it in the living room, to read by, pretending she’s camping in a large tent! It doesn’t get hot, and is shatter resistant because the body is plastic and the ends are rubber armored. The light thrown is a nice, even, soft aura.

We’ve hung it from its rubber loop, attached it to metal objects with its magnetic base, and just stood it up on surfaces.

Both lanterns have a long list of features that I’ll cover in a more in-depth review, but the purpose of this feature was to just introduce the company and its products. The lanterns aren’t cheap; do we think they’re worth the price so far? Well, we liked them so much that, with the moderate discount Ledlenser provided, a friend and I bought 6 more ML6s and 4 more ML4s for personal use and as gifts!

Everything wanted to eat before the storm!

March 18, 2020 By Scott 3 Comments

Last week, the wind dropped right before a significant rain storm was expected. The fishing conditions weren’t ideal though. The tide was falling to a negative low, and it was just a few days after the full moon. Usually the slack low tide means sharks and ulua, but I couldn’t pass up the safe kayaking conditions.

The 8am sun was partially blocked by the gray clouds so it looked like dawn. I was hoping the fish thought the same. My first drop of the store bought damashi meant for opelu got hit by something much stronger. The small gold hooks bend easily so I kept the drag a little loose and just wanted to see what hit the tiny fly in 75ft of water. What finally showed was a brightly lit omilu. Proof that omilu do frequent the deep structure areas when there aren’t bait fish to draw them into the shallows.

I kept trying for opelu but the bait balls were small and moved too quickly. There was some type of bait fish on the surface getting hit by birds and dolphins but I couldn’t catch up to them. With no live opelu, I paddled out to 110 ft and lowered a frozen 9 inch opelu down. Before it reached the bottom something yanked at it before running off with the bait. The fish pulled the rod tip under water a few times in a very spastic fashion and fought very jerkily. I’ve fought bigger fish in the last 4 trips with nothing landed so I was cautiously hopeful this was an uku. Was stoked to see one but surprised how small it was compared to hard it pulled. Small oio are the same way. They pull as hard as they can and wear out.

Buoyed by the instant bite I dropped another opelu down and it sat for about 20 secs before something started tasting it. Then the line took off and soon it became apparent the sharks had arrived. I tried to bust if off but it took a long time to do so and the braid parted high up. Next 3 baits were eaten within 30 seconds and were sharks too. The sharks felt like they were smaller than the normal ones but still a pain to bring to the surface.

After losing time and tackle I switched to the Daiwa tungsten jig that hooked ulua before, and had a hit that didn’t stick. My arms were worn out by then from fighting sharks so I went in.

I had dropped the GoPro down once, in the area where I hooked the omilu (about 75ft) and looked at the video at home. At least 3 wahanui and a toau swam up to the camera as it reached the bottom and there were the eerie sounds of whales in the background.

I kept the omilu and the small uku because I hadn’t kept fish for a long time and we wanted safe, Covid-19 free fish to eat. Both fish weighed 2.1 lbs and the omilu had a 5 inch fat red oama in its stomach.

Negative low tide, big moon, yet everything wanted to feed before the storm. I’ve never experienced a bite like that before. I just gotta figure out how to stay away from the sharks.

Holoholo: First fish on the fly gear!

March 16, 2020 By Scott 1 Comment

Accomplished whipper Jeremy recently picked up the fly fishing game. He landed his first fish on fly gear this Saturday, and followed that up with a solid catch on the spinning gear Sunday. He’s making it look easy during the “off season”.

Jeremy: Had a good weekend of fishing.

Saturday morning: Winds were projected to be light, so I decided to bring out the fly gear. I’m still a beginner and I need the lighter winds so I can practice casting. Fly fishing, especially the casting, is the hardest type of fishing I’ve ever done. I still suck at it, but can’t get better unless you practice, so my buddy and I headed out just as the sun was coming up. We split up and started looking for tails. My primary goal was to get in casting time, so I blind casted as I made my way onto the flats. I still haven’t caught anything on the fly gear, so catching any fish would be an added bonus.

I slowly walked and looked for tails and every so often made some casts into “fishy” areas. At around 7:15am, I made a blind cast, slowly stripped in my fly, and about halfway into my retrieve, I felt a small tap. I set the hook and there wasn’t much movement, so I figured it was a really small papio. But after about 5 seconds, I think the o’io finally figured out he was hooked and took off on a blistering run. I stop the initial surge, got him turned, and then he decides to swam almost directly back to me! I tried to crank my reel as fast as I could to keep tension on the line, but it felt like he spit the hook. Just as I’m about to give up hope, I feel tension again on the line. Yes, fish still on! He made a couple more small runs before I finally landed him. Chee!!! My first fish on the fly setup! Took a few pictures and released him back.

No other action for the rest of the session, but I was stoked. Landed my first fish and got to get in some much needed casting practice time.

Sunday morning: Winds were slightly stronger, so brought out the spinning gear. No action in the first hour, but around 8am, I felt a small tap on the line. I set the hook and it felt like I was stuck. I maintained tension and then it took off. Scrapped the fish for around 5 minutes and landed another nice o’io.

No action again for the next hour, then I get another slight tap. Set the hook…Hanapa’a! Small one, but it’s a beautiful 13” omilu.

Awesome weekend for me. Landed some nice fish in this “slow” period. But, one thing I’ve noticed recently is the strikes are really different. I’m not getting any of those hard hitting ones. Almost all my bites in the past couple months were really small taps or felt like dead weight, like I was dragging in seaweed. It’s like the fish don’t really know they’re hooked for the first few seconds. So my tip for the week: set the hook if you think you felt a bite and keep constant pressure for a few seconds, even if it feels like seaweed. It might actually be a good sized fish ?

Fred Hall 2020 – Wrap Up

March 14, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

The Long Beach show ran from March 3rd to March 8th. Nothing was explicitly stated but Shimano had pulled out following the directive from Shimano Corporate in Japan to not put their employees at risk of exposure to the Coronavirus, and other smaller brands pulled out also.

The following week March Madness was canceled and the NBA season was suspended. The Fred Hall San Diego show has been pushed out a month ’til the end of April.

There was a slightly subdued feeling to the Long Beach show but the show did go on. I’m excited to try out a few products I saw but was more stoked to be able to spend time with the sales guys and get a better understanding of how the retail fishing industry works because they were less busy with customers! That and the good Mexican and Italian food I had with friends made it worth the trip.

Holoholo: Another fly fishing oddball slam!

March 13, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

Jason, our fly fishing writer and in-the-water reporter shares another unusual catch during the “winter off-season” . There’s fish to be caught, just might not be your normal target species.

Jason:

My car’s dashboard read 72 degrees on the drive down around 9:30 am. Winds were light and variable. Not ideal conditions for bonefish, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try. I hit my usual spot, and started blind casting.

No more than 30 minutes in, I snagged a suspiciously bonefish-like object which immediately took off running. I was pleasantly surprised. It didn’t feel that big but fought very hard for its size, making 4-5 runs before I finally got it in the net. It was a nice fish, I would guess 4ish maybe 5 lbs.
I was thinking I got pretty lucky, but then I hit another one about an hour later. This one unfortunately spit the hook before I could subdue it. Felt almost like a large papio the way it ran laterally with some head shake, before taking off, but smaller oio often fight like this. Odds are it was smaller rat-sized bone.

The day was rounded out by a mixed bag of random stuff – a nunu, a flounder (my 2nd ever on the fly) and a micro omilu – all hooked on the same fly.

I headed back to the lot at about 12:30, feeling pretty pleased with myself. There is nothing more satisfying than a productive and efficient morning, especially when you weren’t expecting to hook anything.

Fred Hall Show 2020 – Day 2

March 10, 2020 By Scott 2 Comments

Since I quickly breezed past most of the exhibitor booths the day before, I wanted to spend some time with folks I had met at previous shows.

I started with the crew at Promar – Ahi USA who always take care of me at the Show. Owner Ben Hong and do-everything guys Steve and Joaquin filled me in on their new products including the Live Deception Flash Jigs which uses the proven Live Deception body but now incorporates the highly reflective 3D print used on the Assault Diamond jigs. I forgot to take photos of the crew and the jigs but you can see the jigs here. You might want to use these when fishing low visibility conditions.

Owner Jose, guide Carlos and Promar-Ahi USA Do-It-All Joaquin

When Joaquin heard that I was interested in fishing Cedros Island on a kayak, he took me over to his friends at Cedros Island Outdoor Adventures whom he and his dad fished with in the past. Owner Jose is a Marine Biologist who has been taking folks on land and sea tours for years. He and his wife have an 8-room lodge built in 2012 that overlooks the water. They specialize in panga fishing but can take you and a kayak to any spot on the island that’s holding fish. Kayaks are Ocean Kayak Tridents and Jackson Kayaks that you paddle not pedal. My comfort zone. 🙂

What really sets them apart is their Premium Guide Service that flies you from San Diego on their private American plane directly to Cedros Island. With this service you can fish every day of your stay there (see package pricing photo). Pricing includes transportation, lodging, food/drink, fishing, fish cleaning/processing. They even provide free use of Seeker rods to target the trophy calico bass and yellowtail, so you can leave your oversized rods at home. Mexican destination fishing is very affordable when you consider the quality of fishing you’ll get for your US dollar. I much rather sleep in a lodge on land than in a bunk on a multi-day boat!

I appreciated the time Jose and his guide Carlos spent explaining the offerings to me, and if Joaquin endorses them I’m a believer!

I then made it over to my buddy Rick Carr who was working the Johnson Outdoors (Humminbird, Minn Kota, Cannon). As much of an icon he is in the fishing industry, Rick always has time to try to help everyone who stops by. I forgot to snap a pic of him in his booth but he did recommend I check out the new Bioenno Power Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries (LiFePO4) which can take 10 times more charges than a standard sealed lead acid (SLA) battery and and last for 10 years.

The Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery only needs to be rated at half the amp hours of your SLA battery to provide equivalent duration of power. I use a small 9 amp hour SLA for my kayak fish finder. It costs about $22 and weighs more than 5lb. I could get by with a LiFePO4 4.5 amp hour battery weighing one pound! That would cost $65 but last for 10 yrs. Something to consider when I need to replace that little SLA brick. These Bioenno Power batteries are sold at Battery Bills.

I then looked up my Rapala/VMC/Sufix rep, Duke Smith, who has been helping me get the products I’ve been selling in the Store.

Duke was working the Savage Arms gun booth at the show. I wasn’t familiar with the brand and soon realized Savage is a very long standing, well respected American rifle maker. Duke wasn’t repping fishing tackle at the show but took the time to introduce me to the other members of his marketing team who also rep Rapala, and walked me over to meet Ben Frazier, who’s been repping Avet Reels for decades.

I was honored that an industry icon like Ben spent so much time explaining the history, components and functionality of the Avet Reels. My takeaway was that one piece reel frames were machined out of aluminum and anodized for corrosion resistance. The gears and other components were made out of stainless steel. The goal was to make very strong, corrosion resistant reels with strong drags in very small form factors. The reels come in 1-speed, 2-speed, and 3-speed, with various max drags, optional cast controls and many colors and finishes.

I explained to Ben that I kayak fish with a small star drag reel (original Trindad 14) and have been getting rocked by big fish because I fish with very light drag to let the fish eat and run, and by the time I tighten the star drag on a big fish it has built up a head of steam and found something to rub against.

He recommended a 2-speed lever drag SX (the “S” signifies Small) reel in the Raptor line. With a lever drag I’d be able to fish in free spool, and when the fish is hooked and running I can slide the lever drag up to set the hook and visually see exactly how much drag is being applied. There’s a stopper that will prevent me from going past the amount of drag I set it to, but if later in the fight I want to increase the drag, I can push in a button to allow the lever drag to go past that stopper.

The Raptor line has all their bells and whistles. It has double the drag output of the base line and adds a magnetic cast control to remove backlashes. In the lever drag strike setting, there’s a max 17lb, and the full setting max is an astounding 26lb. That will definitely stop the big fish from running to the rocks, or will catapult me out of the kayak seat.

The high gear at 6.3:1 is retrieving 36″ per crank and the low gear at 3.8:1 is retrieving 21″ per crank. I like a high retrieve to reel in my line from the depths but the low gear will definitely help winching heavy sharks. Ben who I believe said he’s past 75 yrs old, has landed big bluefin on this tiny reel that only weighs 17 ounces!

Compared to other brands of similar quality and features, Avet is very reasonably priced. I’m gonna get the SX 2-speed Raptor, which lists for $395, to test on the kayak and if it does what it’s supposed to do, I hope to sell them and other Avets. Stay tuned for that product review.

Fred Hall Show wrap-up coming soon!