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Holoholo: How to make easy but ono Oxtail Soup

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Freddie has taught me a lot about the different Hawaiian fish species, and how they are best eaten. He also makes a killer Oxtail Soup. Here’s the straight forward instructions.

Freddie:

Ingredients:

  • Sam’s Club oxtail in vacuum sealed package
  • 1/4 – 1/2 cup sea salt
  • 5 – 8 pieces dried star anise
  • Knorr chicken base to taste
  • Chinese parsley
  • ginger

Optional sides:

  • won bok or napa cabbage
  • choi sum
  • kai choi or mustard cabbage
  • peanuts
  • shiitake mushrooms
  • kim chee base
  • gochujang sauce

Sam’s Club sells oxtails in a vacuum sealed package. Two packs will feed up to five depending on the people eating! Main ingredients besides the oxtail are: sea salt 1/4-1/2 cup, five to eight pieces dried star anise, Knorr chicken base to taste, Chinese parsley and ginger ( as much as you like ).

If you have a 10 quart pressure cooker, cooking time is around one hour and thirty minutes, until oxtails are tender. If not, a regular pot will do, but cook time will be more than three hours. Fill pot around half way or enough water to cover oxtails. Bring to a hard boil and add salt, star anise, and a piece of crushed ginger. Cook until tender.

Once tender, use the Knorr chicken base to season your broth. You can also add more water at this time as some may have evaporated. Grate remaining ginger, more the merrier. FYI, use a spoon to clean the skin off of the ginger. Chop Chinese parsley.

Other optional sides are: won bok or napa cabbage, choi sum, kai choi or mustard cabbage, peanuts, and shiitake mushrooms.

Always remember to taste as you cook and never add too much salt or seasoning!

Adding kimchi changes the flavor. If you want, can add kimchi base and gochujang sauce for a bit of a kick.

Tried Owner, Gamakatsu, BKK, VMC, Shout and Maruto hooks. Here’s my review.

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Since I’ve been mainly kayak fishing, I have been using small hooks to tie onto sabiki/damashi rigs, hooks for my live bait rigs, and jig assist hooks. I’ve used Owner, Gamakatsu and VMC hooks for a variety of purposes, BKK and Shout mainly as jig assist hooks, and Maruto as gold damashi hooks. Here’s my review of the hooks I have used based on my limited experience with them.

Owner and Gamakatsu

Owner and Gamakatsu are the two best known and respected hook brands in the world. They are made in Japan and are the most expensive brands you can buy domestically. Both are chemically sharpened, and are extremely sharp out of the bag, but if the hook tip gets dinged, it loses it’s sharpness and corrodes.

Owner

Owner hooks tend to be thicker and stronger than Gamakatsu, yet are made to be as thin as possible for the desired strength. If you want a hook that will penetrate the fish’s mouth and won’t bend out, this is the brand for you. I use the Gorilla Live Bait hooks as the front hook of my opelu, and the Flyliner Live Bait hook on my larger sabiki/damashi sets. They haven’t failed yet.

Gamakatsu

In general, Gamakatsu hooks are thinner and sometimes have a shorter shank than Owner hooks. They are more of a finesse hook but are still extremely sharp and strong for their thickness. I primarily use the thin wire Live Bait hooks for my medium sabiki/damashi rigs and they hook fish very effectively and unhook nicely despite being offset.

Like the Owner Flyliner hooks, I’ve never had a hook break or bend while landing a strong fish.

VMC

VMC hooks, made in France, are significantly cheaper than Owner and Gamakatsu. They are also chemically sharpened but aren’t quite as sharp as Owner and Gamakatsu, possibly due to the fact that the hook point isn’t as fine. You can resharpen VMC hooks and they don’t seem to corrode as quickly as Owner and Gamakatsu. VMC hooks often have a heavy duty version and are very strong. I use the Heavy Duty Live Bait hook as the front hook on my bait, and the Inline Single 4X as the trailing hook. I’ve never had either open up but I do need to replace the hooks after a few uses because they eventually get dull.

BKK

BKK hooks are made in China using Japanese materials. They are known to be very sharp, strong and resist corrosion well. I mainly use their assist hooks and they’ve worked so well that we sell them in our Store. I like that the assist cord is pliable enough to allow the hook to fall nicely, yet strong enough to not get cutoff. I have used the assist hooks for many trips and the hooks have not dulled or corroded. I haven’t had as good experiences with Owner and Gamakatsu assist hooks and don’t use those brands anymore.

Shout

Shout assist hooks are made in Japan to exacting standards. I really like how pliable the assist cords are, and the hooks themselves are thin and very sharp, allowing for maximum penetration.

The thin, light hooks are not made for very strong fish, however. This ulua stretched open the Shout assist hook I was using although it didn’t snap.

Maruto

Maruto hooks are made in Japan and the shops here import them. I use the gold MZ style hooks for my light sabiki/damashi rig because it is believed that opelu like the gold flash. The hooks are sharp but break under pressure and rust after one use.

My Recommendations

If you have the budget for Owner and Gamakatsu hooks, use them and you will have peace of mind that they won’t fail you. If you want to save some money and still have sharp, strong hooks, go with VMC. In my opinion you can’t go wrong with BKK. They also make very strong jig head hooks and treble hooks. Shout assists are the best assists I’ve used for catching fish but you have to make sure you have a hook strong enough for the fish you may hook. Maruto gold hooks are inexpensive, disposable hooks that work well when used appropriately.

Cooking: Smoked opelu and pan fried malu (single spot goatfish)

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My neighbor Brian has had his culinary creations featured on this website, and it turns out he has a buddy Ravi who shares his passion for prepping delicious fish dishes. Ravi smoked the recent large opelu I had caught. and they came out awesome.

My sister did a simple pan fry of the malu, highlighting the clean, flaky meat. Here are the simple steps to prepare these two fish. And here’s the report detailing how these fish were caught.

Smoked opelu:

Brine, pat dry, refrigerate for an hour to allow smoke flavoring to adhere better. Smoke at 180 degrees for an hour. Finish with higher heat to brown the outside, if needed. Should come out moist on the inside.

Pan-fried malu:

Salt, garlic powder, dredge in flour. Pan fry. Malu is moist and flaky with a delicate taste. The skin crisped up nicely with a reddish orange color.

Very calm, glassy day yet the small bottom fish bit, unlike the previous trip. Keeper bottom fish didn’t though. Here’s what I think happened.

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Last week I fished a calm day on the Windward side that had chaotic lumpy cross swells and the fishing was extremely slow except for opelu biting all day. This week, the wind and the swells died down, and the water was so clear that divers on jet skis were racing out to check the spots normally undiveable.

I didn’t expect the bottom fish to bite well but they did. The big, desirable keepers were smart enough to stay away, though. Big opelu bit all day again. Here’s the quick recap.

I got out to my first spot and hooked a solo opelu. I lost the school after securing it, so I put it out on a weighted line and went deeper looking for bottom fish. The undesirables bit – big taape, nunu (trumpetfish), hagi, moana so I moved further out. I was able to catch more opelu but the opelu out on the weighted line only got its stomach removed.

On the way to the deep ulua / kahala jigging spot at 200ft I came across some good marks and dropped down. A juvenile uku came up on the damashi so I released it and dropped again, hoping for a much larger version. Something hit the damashi and pulled drag, and after maybe 30 seconds it broke off the 25lb hook line. It didn’t feel like an ulua or kahala so I was intrigued.

I put on a 30lb damashi rig, the heaviest I carry, and dropped again.

A juvenile uku and a juvenile weke nono came up. The right species, just not the right size.

Two large opelu, normally line shy, came up on the 30lb rig with large Completely Hooked Lures Sprats. On the next drop I felt the tail beats of opelu and then the line surged down. I fought what I believe was a shark for less than a minute and the hook line cut, but an opelu came up on the top hook.

I put the live opelu out again on the weighted rig but it didn’t get touched. The bite shut down and all I had in the fish bag were fairly large opelu. I checked my shallow bottom fish spots on the way in, and the small undesirables bit. Nothing good like keeper weke nono, yellow spot papio, moana kali.

At the shallow reef shelf on the way in, I dropped down the damashi as a 4th Quarter – Hail Mary attempt and hooked a malu (single spot goatfish). They don’t get too big, and they have very clean, flaky meat, so this one was added to the fish bag.

Summary: The big opelu bit again, predators weren’t balling them up, and the small bottom fish bit in the calm conditions but the smarter, larger bottom fish didn’t. I’m guessing, since the conditions were so calm, the food chain wasn’t activated. And am also guessing that the cross swells during the previous trip just scattered the bottom fish and didn’t set up feeding lanes.

This separate cooking post details how the opelu were smoked, and how the malu was lightly pan-fried. Both came out winnahs!

Good moon phase, light wind but lumpy cross swells. Opelu bit but pelagics and bottom fish didn’t. Why was that?

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I fished 2 days after the New Moon on the Windward side, which should have been a productive moon phase/tide, and the wind was under 8mph mostly, but there was a weird lumpy rolling East swell and occasional lumps from other directions. With all the surface disturbance, and over cast skies, I would have expected the bite to be phenomenal for bottom fish.

Opelu were at the first stop of the morning, they bit well, and I loaded up with 5. When I dropped the damashi deeper for the good goatfish, there wasn’t much action, which was unusual for the morning. I checked a few more spots before heading deeper to troll the opelu, and they were void too. Nothing hit the live opelu until I dropped it, with a 2.5oz tungsten sliding weight, to the bottom at 150ft.

I hooked something that pulled line initially but came up, which was a good sign. Near that spot was where ulua were wrecking me on the previous trip. Turned out to be a 2lb uku which surprised me because it tried to eat a 10 inch opelu, and punched over its weight class.

Hoping I found the uku honey hole, I dropped another live opelu down and a bigger fish thumped it. The fish pulled line and surged so I was expected a good sized uku, but instead it was a 10lb kahala, probably an almaco/kampachi. I thought about keeping it, but it probably had spaghetti worms and a slight chance of ciguatera so I released it.

Not wanting to battle any more kahala or ulua, I paddled away from the area with another opelu out and ended up over the small opakapaka / weke nono sandy grounds.

I found some but they were too small to keep so I headed back to the shallow bottom fish spots I had checked in the morning.

The bottom fish bite was still extremely slow, with only a few taape, nunu (trumpetfish) and moana hitting. Those are the species that always seem to bite when the better fish don’t. But, big opelu still bit, along with a 1lb kawakawa that came up tail wrapped.

I’m still trying to figure out what caused the fish to have lockjaw, and can only surmise that the larger North swell that rolled through a few days prior moved the food chain out, and the cross swells that day were making things uncomfortable for the fish down there.

Targeted larger fish on the Windward side. Found some that put the hurt on me, and a couple that went home in the fish bag.

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I am grateful for the fish caught out of the Westside on the previous two trips that went to holiday parties, but wanted to catch fish larger than 3lbs. My plan was to use larger soft plastic lures from Completely Hooked Lures, to deter the smaller fish from biting, and drag live opelu around to find a stray mahi mahi or kawakawa. If that failed, I’d drop the 120g tungsten knife jig down in deeper water since I have yet to land a fish on it.

I have been using the Sprat (top lure) and it catches everything including large opelu, but still attracts smaller moana and smaller taape. The Gobie and Grub have thicker profiles so hopefully that are too much of a meal for small fish. That funny little lure on the bottom is a prototype that Landon of Completely Hooked Lures sent over with my order, to try on picky opelu.

I took out a damashi rod rigged for opelu with a CHL Minnow (smaller version of the Sprat) and the prototype little lure on 15lb. I had a second damashi rod rigged with Sprats, Gobies and Grubs for the larger fish, on 25lb.

At the first stop where I normally target moana kali, there were opelu bait balls around and sure enough the lighter damashi rig brought up opelu on both the Minnow and the little lure. The opelu bite was good and by the time I had 6 in my bait tube, there wasn’t anything else good on the bottom. So I headed over to a slightly deeper spot that has held small uku, and big jacks. On the way over, in what I think is a flat hard bottom, was a layer of something right off the bottom. I dropped the larger damashi rig down and a 2lb omilu came up. That was very unusual, finding omilu not on a rocky reef. I released it and caught another omilu right after. Not wanting to be catching hard fighting fish I have to release, I moved on to the uku/ulua spot, but just caught the rubbish fish (trumpetfish and taape) that bite when the conditions are too calm.

So I put a live opelu out with a sliding tungsten bullet weight in front of it, and towed it out a mile. Something took chunks of it behind its head and killed it but was too small to take the hooks. I put another one out and something else took chunks in the stomach area. Odd that those fish didn’t chip away at the entire fish but that was an indication that pelagics weren’t in that specific area.

I reached a spot in 180ft where kahala have hit jigs in the past, and I dropped the mangled opelu down to the bottom. Sure enough something strong grabbed it, and my drag’s strike setting wasn’t strong enough to stop it from rocking me. Assuming there were more kahalas around I dropped down the 120g tungsten knife jig. It took 45 seconds to reach the bottom, and I could barely feel any resistance jigging it back up. On the 4th drop it got hammered and I had the drag set very tight so I wouldn’t get rocked. The fish was so strong and the jig rod’s butt dug into my side. I was huffing and puffing but couldn’t stop to rest because the fish would then turn its head and swim down to rock me. After less than 3 minutes, which felt like 10 mins, a white ulua (GT) surfaced. I had let it depressurize about 20ft below the surface so it was able to swim down fine. Here’s the truncated video of that battle. If you’re interested in purchasing the 120g and 180g tungsten knife jigs, you can find them in the Store here. They’re pricey because they are tungsten, but they won’t tire you out until something big hits it.

I rested up a bit after that jig battle, and motored back to that big fish spot and dropped another chunk of fresh opelu on the bait rod, with the strike setting set higher. Sure enough another fish hit it and I was in for another grueling battle. A slightly bigger ulua came up that I released. Convinced there was nothing else down there but strong fish I didn’t want to fight, I put another live opelu out and headed back to shallower uku spot. Up to this point I just had opelu in my bait tube and nothing in my fish bag.

Finally, I landed a decent sized yellow spot papio after going through moana and big taape.

It took a while to catch a second yellow spot, right after a big opelu was hooked on the big damashi rig, and it was time to head in.

So I struck out with the live bait but the larger damashi lures did seem to attract larger fish, and I was finally able to fish deep enough to catch something on the 120g tungsten knife jig. Pretty good fishing despite very calm conditions and a junk moon phase.

The yellow spot ended up weighing 2lb and 2lb 10oz after being bled, and both were males developing sperm. Maybe all those papio were on the bottom getting ready for a spawn?

My neighbor Brian turned the larger yellow spot papio into something almost too beautiful eat.

Wanted New Year’s fish, Westside shallow bottom provided again!

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I was hoping to catch fish to give for New Year’s. Was too windy anywhere else, and school was still out, making the drive manageable, so Westside was the only viable option. Westside surprisingly provided tasty goats on the previous trip so I was cautiously optimistic.

Friends told me to go deeper forlarger weke nono, and further south for jig action so that was the plan but I stopped at a pretty reliable 170ft spot on the way out and a yellow spot papio, less than 2lb, came up on the damashi rig with Completely Hooked Lures (CHL) soft plastics.

On the next drop I hooked an even stronger papio but this one had brighter blue fins so I released it. I left biting fish to keep going south and deep.

A few spots later, a 1.5lb weke nono hit the CHL Arrow. Then things really slowed for the next hour as I checked the 240ft depth, then kept going south.

I finally stumbled on some nabeta. The first was small, but the small ones are the best eating because their meat is soft, and they deep fry nicely without requiring a lot of oil. The 2nd was a fairly thick one.

Only caught and released another omilu on the south end of this trip, and made my way back. Another 1.5 weke nono was caught, and as I was getting close to the launch I checked that first 170ft spot as the rain and wind picked up. Something that felt like an omilu slammed the damashi rig but I was stoked to see a good sized yellow spot come up.

Though the fish were on the small side, Westside provided again, for 3 different families. What’s interesting is that there aren’t the small, pesky fish that slow me down on the Windward side. Maybe I need to use larger soft plastics on the Windward side to deter those moana, taape, small puffers, lizardfish, etc? And I still need to find the larger weke nono that reside in Westside deeper water.

Needed fish for a post-Xmas party. Westside provides the tasty goats! Catch & Cook with steaming video.

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We were invited to a party the day after Christmas and the host loves to cook and eat fish. The only location and weather window was Westside, 4 days before the party. It was a long shot, since I never caught much on that side, but I had to try.

I’ve never caught opelu there, so I didn’t even plan to drag a live bait. It was gonna strictly be a damashi and jig mission. About an hour in, I finally felt the strong pull of a weke nono on the damashi rod, and up came one about 1.5lb. The school had moved on but about 10 minutes later I brought up a surprise moana kali. I’ve never caught one there before and my host friend wanted something to steam. It wasn’t big, under 2 lbs, but would be big enough for people to taste it’s premium flesh. It tried to jump back in the water, but luckily was still hooked.

At this point I had tied my best effort on the Westside, 2 keepers. But that wasn’t enough for the party so I pressed on. I hit spots I had caught fish before and eventually caught 2 more weke nono. With 3 weke nono, and 1 moana kali in the bag, things were looking pretty good so I hit my Hail Mary spot on the way in, that has produced on the last 4 trips. I think the spot works because it’s overcast and windy by the time I start heading in, and the fish there aren’t as wary.

Sure enough, I felt a good pull but the fish came off. Next drop, the biggest weke nono of the day, by a few ounces, came up. The other two damashi branches and the lead were busted off so I dropped a 100g lead jig down and it got pulled but I suspect the jig was a little big for the smallish weke nono to swallow.

The fish were between 1.5 and 2lb; enough for the party so I cut the largest weke nono up for sashimi for my dad to eat on Christmas Day.

The 3 remaining weke nono made some clean tasting sashimi pieces; firmer than you’d expect goatfish to be. The sashimi was dipped in white shoyu from Japan, and wasabi and was delicious with no fishy aftertaste. The weke nono scraps were happily eaten by my sister’s cats.

The host, Daren made angled slits in the moana kali, to hold ginger slices, then stuffed it with chopped lup cheong, green onion, parsley and sprinkled with salt and pepper. He steamed it on the stove, in his fancy steamer pan shaped to hold fish. After about 15 minutes he checked it and it was done. He topped it off with peanut oil with the flair of an accomplished chef.

I’m so grateful that God provided from a spot I normally don’t catch much. Friends at the party thought the steamed moana kali was the best steamed fish they ever had. The texture was firm, yet melted in your mouth. And Daren’s seasonings erased any hint of fishyness for me. 🙂

Holoholo: My 2025 Yearly Fishing Challenge

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Jeremy (Oahu shore whipper and frequent Holoholo writer) –

I always loved fishing.  I grew up with only using bait, but over time I’ve found my greatest enjoyment came from whipping.  I just liked the challenge of trying to get a fish to eat an artificial lure.  I also liked the fact that there are a bunch of different lures to choose from, so I started to learn all the whipping techniques like egg lead, bubble float, poppers/stickbaits, jigs, and jig heads.  Over many years of trial and error, I became more proficient, but never kept track of all my catches. 

One day, I just had a thought that it would be interesting to see how many different species I could catch in a single year by only whipping.  I started this challenge in 2019 because I thought it was possible to catch ‘19 different fish with only using artificial lures.  I was able to hit that goal, so in 2020 I continued the challenge by trying to catch ‘20 different fish.  I’ve continued this until now, but catching 25 different fish in 2025 has been the toughest so far.  Thankfully, I was able to complete this goal with only 10 days left in the year. 

With the new year quickly approaching, I’m hoping everyone has a successful 2026.  I’ll be trying to hit this years goal of catching ‘26 different fish.  Who else wants to join me in this challenge?  It’ll force you to use all different techniques and make you target specific species.  But really, it’s just a fun way to keep things interesting all year long because now you’ll want to catch everything, even the “rubbish” fish 😂.  Good luck!

Juvenile GT
Moi
Munu
Bridled triggerfish

Halalu
Aweo’weo

1st day of testing the new lead jigs. Wow they work!!!

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The wind was projected to be light for a period of 6 days but I waited for a day with a small N swell and better solar – lunar bite periods. I picked the day before the Full Moon to fish the Windward side and it paid off big time. My plan was to get some fish on the new jigs, and also get a pelagic on live opelu. Kind of a big ask since I rarely get either.

Tungsten on left, lead on right, both 60g

The bite period was supposed to be from 10 to 12:30pm and I was at the first spot at 9:15. It was a shallow 60ft spot that has produced reef fish on the damashi before, so I dropped the 60g Chubby jig painted like a fully lit up oama, hoping the length was small enough for the reef fish, since it was the same length as the 60g tungsten jig that had worked incredibly well in the past.

The Chubby reached the bottom and I jigged it up a few cranks and was shocked when it got slammed.

I was more stunned when I saw two moana kali come up, 1 on each hook! The moana kali ended up weighing 1lb 3oz and 2lb 5oz. You can see the actual strike in this video. I was so excited when they hit, I turned off the camera forgetting it was already on, but luckily I took photos and a short video with my phone after they were landed.

I caught some opelu for bait and dragged em around, and out to 200ft when I saw some some life on the sounder. Dropped the 120g flat sided asymmetric jig painted up like a silver/blue bait fish and got hit immediately. The fish rubbed the jig off on the reef and came unbuttoned, so I dropped again. It got hit after quite a few cranks off the bottom and a smallish kahala (greater amberjack) came up. Man those fish pull hard initially. The video below captures the hookup and landing. I ended up hooking 4 fish and landing 2. Since they weren’t almaco jacks (kampachi) I let them go, not wanting to see their worms.

So far the live opelu, cruising on the surface, didn’t get any attention. I paddled back in to test a 3rd jig.

This one was the 100g Nehu with the curvy spine. It only caught taape, probably because it was a little long for the fish in the 100ft zone.

With the jigging goal accomplished, I focused on using the damashi to catch good eating fish. The bite remained good despite it being so calm, which I attribute to the good solunar effect.

I got busted off on the 20lb damashi set by a heavy fish, and moved up to the 25lb damashi set. Landed two yellow spot papios, which make excellent sashimi, and some big opelu that weren’t line shy. The bite slowed at 2pm and I kept dropping the damashi on the way in but didn’t catch any more keepers.

It was the best action I’ve ever had on the kayak although nothing hit the live opelu besides a small aha that perforated it a bit.

The new lead jigs definitely work when dropped on good marks. They did sustain some bite marks/paint peeling, from all the teeth encountered, but held up pretty well overall.

The jigs are going out to the lure testers. I only had 5 of each of the 10 sizes/colors flown in via air mail, with the rest coming by boat. Almost half of the 50 jigs have been claimed. Please contact me if you’re interested in trying them at the Lure Testing pricing. Mahalo.

All the jigs are described here.

New JDM quality jigs are in. Highly effective, custom painted for Hawaiian waters, and very reasonably priced. 60g to 240g. Testers wanted.

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All jigs have a subtle glow accent

Been trying to procure lures that will catch fish from shore and from boats/kayaks, and be cheap enough where it won’t hurt too much when a fish swims away with it. Lead jigs fit that bill and I had a batch painted in our favorite inshore and offshore colors. Some are designed to cast well and have an erratic retrieve from shore. Others are very compact in shape so they sink as quickly as possible, yet can be made to dance on the retrieve. The jigs look almost too beautiful to fish, but the paint job is very durable so you should be able to admire their looks trip after trip.

We plan to sell these JDM quality jigs at a much lower price than you could find elsewhere. We are in the process of testing/catching fish on the new jigs. Please Contact us if you want to purchase a few at Lure Tester pricing. Check out the 360 degree videos below.

60g Jigs

60g Nehu Wiggle

100g to 120g Jigs

100g Beveled Asymmetric painted like an oama
100g Chubby painted like an oama
120g Beveled Asymmetric in Blue & Silver

190g to 240g Jigs

190g rear weighted Cherry Bomb

Here’s how the first day of jig testing went.

My Pelagic dog luck continues! Short POV video included.

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Previous to my recent shibi and kawakawa catch, I hadn’t caught pelagics (migratory offshore fish) in 2 years. Because of that recent success, I planned to drag live opelu out to the deep at my favorite Windward spot to see if the late Fall pelagics were still around.

It was another too calm day between windy days, and the fish weren’t interested in the damashi. I finally found some happy opelu that jumped on the damashi hooks and took one out past 250ft, weighted down with a 2oz tungsten bullet weight. Nothing bothered it, and the damashi fishing in the deep was nonexistent, so I paddled back in to try to salvage the trip by catching good eating reef fish.

I’m not good at keeping the trolling line out of my rudder mounted motor while damashi fishing, so I reeled the live opelu up and kept it just at the surface a couple feet from the kayak. The damashi fishing in the 100ft range was slow but I did release a 2lb omilu, and stumbled upon a 1.5lb yellow spot papio, which is the 2nd best eating jack after the kagami.

I couldn’t find any more yellow spots, and I was shocked to hear my live bait reel’s clicker go off in a jerky manner. Then I saw a small mahi mahi jumping about 30ft away from me. Because the line’s “belly” took a while to catch up to where the jumping fish was, I wasn’t sure if that was my fish.

The fish jumped 4 times in rapid succession and didn’t look that big, but took line off the reel in spurts. I kept the drag moderately tight so it wouldn’t rip off. He fought over his weight class but came up worn out and docile.

I was stoked to catch a mahi, and carefully bled it, and chilled it on the kayak. Put out another live opelu on the weighted rig, and it was hit by a very strong fish that ran off a lot of line. I was convinced I hooked a nice shibi ahi but ended up with a 30lb ulua that was released. Bought ice on the way home to keep the mahi as cold as possible overnight.

Here’s a short video of the mahi fight as I experienced it in the kayak seat.

Yellow spot papio sashimi. Photo by Brian

My neighbor Brian and his family love yellow spot papio sashimi because it’s so clean but also a little oily tasting. They mopped the plate.

Better looking mahi cuts

The mahi weighed in at just under 7lb and I able to get a little over half of that in fillet yield. These are the nicer, more presentable cuts. The less than perfect ones went to my family. The mild, firm meat was enjoyed raw and pan fried by all.

Pan fried in butter, topped with furikake and ponzu, by Brian

Don’t know how much longer my pelagic lucky streak will last but I am checking the wind forecast a few times a day in hopes there will be another break in the weather.

Sent my Avet SX Raptor in for service. This is what they did and how much it costs from Hawaii to California and back.

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I’ve been using the little powerhouse Avet SX Raptor for 5 years and self serviced it twice. It was fairly easy to do and I didn’t see much corrosion until the reel started to bind recently. When I took it apart I found rust in all the bearings and despite cleaning and oiling the bearings from the outside, the bearings kept spewing rust.

Decided to mail it to Avet in California for cleaning and parts replacement. It cost $14 to ship it via USPS Ground to Chatsworth, CA. The Basic Service for the SX Raptor cost $44 and I included a check for that amount. Avet called me when they received the reel, to ask for my credit card to cover additional costs and shipping. 13 days later, Avet called to ask how I wanted the reel shipped back but since they called at 5:30am (8:30am their time), I missed that call and by the time I called back, they had shipped the reel via USPS Priority for $24.25. I received my reel 3 business days later.

The reel felt brand new, and looked almost brand new also except for a slightly gummy handle ball.

Avet included the corroded bearings and washers to show what they replaced. Man, were they in bad shape.

So with shipping both ways, and the $44 Service with no additional charge for parts, it cost $82.25 to get the reel back fully repaired. I think it was worth it considering this was the first service I paid for in 5 years, but I definitely will clean the reel more frequently to prolong the need for such a major repair.

If you’re interested in ordering an Avet Reel please contact me and I can try to put a bulk order together to minimize the shipping cost. Mahalo!

Caught my first shibi ahi ever, and a kawakawa to boot! Totally unexpected.

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It’s been 2 years since I caught a pelagic (migratory fish like tunas, mahi, ono, etc) and I had kinda given up on trying after so many recent attempts where my live opelu were just dog boned (grabbed in the center and eventually let go) by fish not big enough to swallow the 10 inch bait.

I’ve been perfectly happy using my 3-hook damashi (sabiki) rig and dropping jigs when the sabiki rig was broken off by big fish.

But in last week’s short window of light to moderate south wind on the Windward side, I went back to the area I had recently fished, hoping to get more kagami papio and uku. (Here’s the kagami post, and here’s the uku post from the last 2 trips). The tide was flat and the unusual south wind may have put the fish off their feed. Sonar marks weren’t very good and the big damashi strikes were absent. The only good species I caught was a small yellowspot papio that I considered keeping but was really too small to get much meat out of.

I checked some other spots on the slow return to shore and caught an opelu, by accident. I kept it alive in my footwell but it was beginning to weaken so I put it out with a sliding 2 oz tungsten weight to get it down near the bottom. Eventually an aha (needlefish) left pin pricks all over its body and it was near death as I pulled up to a usually productive opelu spot. I was gonna change out that dying opelu with one I had just caught, but figured the opelu would just get finished by another aha.

The opelu weren’t there and neither were the normally present bottom fish but suddenly my reel started screaming like I’ve only heard once before, when an ono hit on the South Shore. Ono had been caught in the last few days within a few miles, but this strong running fish dove deep and out, and took line in surges. Even though I had never caught a shibi (yellowfin tuna under 100lb), I strongly suspected it was one since friends have caught them there in the early hours in the past.

I had my drag set slightly looser than normal because I didn’t want to lose this fish. It pulled me in a semi circle near some structure and stayed down 50ft until I finally broke it’s spirit. After about a 7 min stressful fight, I could see yellow sickles and fins! Spearing it with my kage gaff was a blooper reel as I kept missing the kill shot and ended up inadvertently bleeding it by the throat.

It looked huge to me as I strained to get it on board. I (over) estimated 25lb, and it was a struggle to safely put it in the fish bag behind me, with so much slippery blood all over the place. I have to learn how to do that without sitting side saddle and putting my feet in the water!

The remaining opelu had died because the water in the footwell was thick with the shibi’s blood. Not expecting any more action, I put that out on the weighted rig and 2 minutes later it went off! This fish felt smaller than the first and I fought it with a higher drag setting. It turned out to be a kawakawa that was foul hooked on its belly!

Since it came up upside down, I just grabbed it by the tail and lifted it into my yak. More blood in the deck! The south wind had gone up over 15mph at this point and I didn’t want to risk flipping over as I tried to make room for this fish in the full fish bag, so I paddled in ’til the wind was calmer before bagging it.

I could not believe my good fortune. After trying for years to catch a shibi, which are known to only be fooled in low light and stealthy rigs, I caught one with a perforated opelu on a weight, then followed that up with a kawakawa hooked in the belly. One theory shared by a passing jet skier with live opelu, is that the water clarity was bad in areas these fish were normally caught, and they moved down to where I was, to be able to see the bait. These were the first fish to test the Phenix Black Diamond Rod and Avet MX Raptor combo, and the combo said “is that all ya got?”.

shibi (top), kawakawa (bottom)

The 18lb 12oz shibi was easier to clean and fillet than the 13lb kawakawa, because the shibi was a little firmer and had more defined sections to quarter. It also had a lot less blood meat to remove. God is good!

shibi
kawakawa

Hot action before Hurricane Kiko: Big fish on new jig, and 5lb Windward uku (green jobfish) finally caught, unexpectedly

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I’ve been wanting to confirm that the new, bite-sized Duo Metal Force 120g 3.5inch jig would attract reef monsters but always ended up mining the depths with my damashi rig. And for 5 yrs I’ve been searching for a legitimate keeper uku (green jobfish) on the Windward side, but the slopey, sandy terrain didn’t hold big ones, it seemed. The calm winds before the arrival of Hurricane Kiko let me check an area that held a lot of promise, and it delivered!

The light wind window fell on the weekend, the day before the Full Moon, and I normally don’t fish weekends but made an exception. The beach was crowded but surprisingly the water wasn’t. The boats must’ve sped off to the buoys to take advantage of the great conditions. It took more than an hr to paddle to first spot, after 9:30am, and the big fish were waiting. The first damashi drop (15lb rig) resulted in a busted rig, and the 2nd rig (20lb rig) got pulled into the rocks. 3rd damashi rig (20lb rig) came up with a lone 2lb omilu, and the other 2 hooks and lead were gone. The Land of the Giants was living up to its billing.

That spot cooled so I moved down the line to the next spot on my GPS. A 1lb uku and an 8 inch weke nono came up on the 20lb rig.

When that cooled, I paddled to the next spot and dropped down the green and gold Duo Metal Force jig, hoping the monsters below would want something a little more substantial. On the second drop, the jig was grabbed by a fish that ran in smooth, powerful spurts and was really hard to lift off the bottom. It felt like a small ulua and I was wondering why I couldn’t gain much line with the high speed, old school Trinidad 14 reel. You can watch this video and see why I struggled getting it to the surface. The intro, showing the jig, was filmed at the start of the trip when the water was still choppy.

Right after landing the big omilu, I snagged the Duo jig on the bottom. That almost never happens but I guess I really was over a productive, rocky area. I put on the green and gold 120g tungsten knife jig and it got pulled on the way down but dropped. Nothing hit it after that.

I had released all the fish so far, so I put on a 25lb damashi rig with CHL Sprat lures and Owner Live Bait hooks to put something in the fish bag. It was 11am and the solunar major bite period was supposed to start and run to 1:30pm.

Something hit right away that pulled line in jerky spasms but was manageable on the medium light Shimano Game Type J rod and Shimano Calcutta 300TE bait casting reel. I was stoked to see a good sized uku behind a small moana reach the surface. It’s been a 5yr mission to land an uku that size on the Windward side, and only caught juveniles and strafed baits in the past.

The uku was hooked from the outside, in its gill plate, and that must’ve allowed me to steer it to the surface, unlike the big omilu that was planing against the water. The very cooperative uku even sprinted into the landing net, as you can see in this video. It was 21 inches from head to fork, and weighed 4lb 12 oz after bleeding. I’m calling it 5 pounds! 🙂

After the ground breaking uku, the bite slowed with small nunu (trumpetfish) and moana, and really cooled down after 12 even though there was a lot of the brown plankton debris on the surface. Nothing else was kept.

These are the CHL Sprats and Minnows I used this day. I use the 1.5 inch Minnow for opelu and go up to the 2.25 inch Sprat to target larger fish.

I’ve tried the Duo Metal Force 120g jig 3 times now. The second time something cut it off the line. This time it caught a fish and then I lost it. So there are currently just 2 left in the Store at Intro Pricing. If they sell out, I’ll order more. The Green and Gold 120g tungsten knife jig was so easy to pull through the water. That will be the go-to jig on the next trip.

Thank you Jesus for such a beautiful, safe, productive day on the water!

Summer Report: Shore to Boat

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Here’s a quick summary of how the summer fishing has been.

Shoreline:

Photo by Jeremy Lee

Oama and halalu came in early and are still around but in fair to average, not great numbers. Papio are being caught off the bait piles, but again, not in great numbers. Whippers have had to work hard to connect with the seasonal predators.

Kayak:

Photo by Grant

Spring was good for shibi (yellowfin tuna under 100lb) but that bite has slowed. Not much kawakawa or mahi have been caught. Opelu have been hard to catch in the Spring and Summer but are beginning to bite better lately. Shallow bottomfish bite has been slow but should pick up in the later Fall.

Boat:

Photo by Erik

May through June, the Ahi bite was on fire, starting on Westside and ending on North East side. Lot of big aku (otaru) and school sized aku were caught during this time frame also. The bite on those big fish has slowed in the summer.

Mid August: Oama still biting good – maybe I was wrong?

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Oama came in very early this year, at the beginning of June. That’s at least a month earlier than normal. I thought the oama season would wane by now but it looks like more waves of oama have come in to some, but not all the regular spots.

There aren’t a lot of oama in these spots, but the ones there are catchable with the right tide, bait and technique. Papio are having a hard time passing up a live or fresh dead oama. The tackle shops are kinda low on the oama poles, hooks, bait buckets etc so you may have to shop around to replenish your gear.

Normally most spots begin to dry up by the end of September so you still have a month to get some oama for bait or to eat.

Windward side kayak: Lots of juvie fish released, jig taken, weke ula and kagami mauled by big fish!

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Hadn’t fished the Windward side since April, and Tropical Storm Henriette was blocking the trade winds for a couple of days this week. I had to wait out the high swell it generated, so I launched late – 10:30am. It took an hour to reach the opelu spot, paddling through the moderate chop. Couldn’t find any opelu and the began fishing the bottom with damashi/sabiki for anything big enough and good enough to eat.

8 inch opakapaka and 10 inch weke nono (weke ula) were released. Then I fought something that steadily pulled drag and stopped. Turned out a weke nono was picked up sideways, mauled and dropped after about a 10 second run. The tooth pattern isn’t of aha (needlefish), barracuda or shark, which would have torn the soft fish. I thought of putting a live bait down but I wanted to keep looking for better fish with the damashi.

At 2:30pm, after 3 hrs of sifting through miscellaneous small fish, I made the decision to paddle a mile south since the wind was still calm. Bigger fish showed up on the fish finder and kawalea (Heller’s barracuda) were coming up on the damashi. I dropped down the Duo Metal Force 120g jig on 40lb fluoro with a teaser and caught a little hawkfish on the jig. 🙂 A kawalea then bit the teaser, and on the next drop the jig and teaser were bitten off instantly! Guess that’s the downside of using a bite-sized heavy jig. It can fit in big fish’s mouth.

Went back to the 20lb damashi rig with Completely Hooked Lures “Sprats” and hooked two 10 inch uku on successive drops. Every drop of the damashi was getting bit but still nothing large enough to keep.

Then I hooked something on the damashi rig that pulled line. Finally a bigger fish hopefully worth keeping. After a 3 minute battle from 100ft down, a shiny papio glimmered below the surface of the water. Could that be the rare kagami papio (African Pompano)? It was!! No wonder it fought so hard, using its flat side as resistance.

They are very thin bodied fish so I don’t consider keeping them until they’re over 7lb and losing their long streamers, but something attacked the fish on the way up and left deep gashes near the anal fin. I decided to keep this delicious fish and kage’d (spear gaff) it to secure it.

What a wild spot, with predators attacking such a large fish! I tried catching more fish but couldn’t find the hot spot again and it was 4:30pm, well past the time I normally paddle in. Sadly, I had to leave the best action I had all day. Even with the wind at my back, it took an 75 minutes to get in.

On land, I examined the kagami papio more closely and it appears that a fish grabbed it near its anal fin and ripped thru the thin skin. The wound was pretty deep and I felt justified in keeping the 4lb kagami.

I got more than a pound and a half of clean, firm fillets off it that will be incredible raw after dry aging for more than 4 days.

It was great to finally find larger, hungry fish and I’ll need another calm day to reach that wild spot again.

I was kayak fishing while the Tsunami was a few hours from reaching Hawaii! Here’s a quick recap of what happened.

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I fished between the New Moon and Full Moon, and the bite was incredibly slow. I went out as deep as 300ft, and covered 5 miles in 6 hrs and barely marked fish on the fish finder. For the 3rd trip in a row, I got a Hail Mary fish as I was heading in, to put in my empty fish bag. A strong pulling yellow spot papio hit the damashi on the same 100ft reef and came up dusky colored like a kahala. When I reached land, a siren sounded and I was informed that a tsunami watch had started. That transitioned to an actual tsunami warning and I left Waianae for town at 4pm and crawled through traffic, with 4 stalled cars, multiple emergency vehicles and 1 accident along with way, reaching home at 6pm. Turns out town started evacuating at 3pm so the town traffic wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

The underwater camera showed that the hagi (trigger fish) and small moana were still around on the bottom, but the desirable predators were absent. Notice how blues and green tints show up well at 170ft but the red of the moano in the center-left looks dark with a white spot. Maybe they felt the initial earthquake reverberations and decided not to come in to feed, instead finding a safe place to ride out the tsunami?

The 2lb yellow spot was still dark colored in death. Maybe it was under duress because of the unusual activity in the ocean? I gave the yellow spot to a friend and he said it was “excellent” as sashimi.

Westside damashi: Bite is improving? Broke off some good fish and got another Hail Mary weke nono to save the day.

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Click to enlarge

Fished the New Moon day, a week before the Russian Tsunami threatened Hawaii, and reached the 100ft spot at about 9am at the bottom of the tide. The Solunar bite was supposed to pick up at noon so I didn’t expect much but it was wide open for small yellow spot papio. Released one, kept the next one when bigger fish busted off the rest of the damashi rig.

Dropped down the compact 120g Duo Metal Force jig with a Completely Hooked Lures (CHL) Sprat teaser on 40lb test. The marauders didn’t hit the jig but other fish like lai (leatherskin queenfish) and nunu (trumpetfish) hit the teaser.

By the time I went back to the 20lb damashi rig, the yellow spot school was gone. This was the best morning bite I’ve experienced in the last 3 trips so my expectations rose but the bite slowed down. The wind flipped to a 10 – 17mph NW direction as it often does by 11am and I pushed out a little deeper to a normally productive spot. Besides hooking and breaking off something good on the 20lb rig, nothing else but moana and taape came up. I moved up to the 25lb damashi rig with only the lone yellow spot papio in my fish bag. The solunar bite time came and went.

At 2pm, things were looking bleak so I stopped off at the 100ft spot on the way in and kind of drifted with the damashi rig on the bottom. I was shocked when something strong pulled line and I kept whispering “please stay on, please stay on“. The hard fighting fish turned out to be a much appreciated weke nono / weke ula that saved the day. The same exact thing had happened the last time I fished this spot. Thank you Jesus! I tried for more but at this point the King Tide was over 2ft and the fish weren’t liking the surge.

Click to enlarge

The stomach contents of the weke nono revealed why it hit the 2.25 inch CHL Sprat lure. It had just eaten two baby lizardfish.

I put down a freshly painted damashi lead to see if that would attract more fish but instead the lead ended up with slices in it. (I forgot to take a photo of the slices before I painted over them.) Maybe a fish broke its teeth trying to bite it?

That makes me think that the fish are hitting the jigs but are too small to swallow the assist hooks.

Looks like I have to go deeper to find larger fish.

Click to enlarge

The yellow spot papio weighed 1lb and the weke nono was 2lb 10oz and 16 inches, which may be my PB. It made very clean sashimi for the family.

With visible plankton in the water and 80 degree temps, I’m hopeful that the fishing will continue to get better through December.