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Bolo headed on the kayak but got an assist for this shore caught big oio!

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The wind and rain forecast was worse at my preferred Windward spot so I tried an area that is normally more forgiving. Forgiving it was not, with 10 – 12mph onshore winds to start that increased to 15mph plus. It was hard to fish, and the target species (uku, opakapaka, weke nono, moana kali) did come up on the damashi but they were all babies. It seems like this area holds recently spawned fish in the Spring that keep biting when the older, smarter fish don’t.

When I was pulling my kayak up the beach I noticed a shore fisherman casting and retrieving his lure at a fast pace. He then started to sift the sand with a long handled net. He was trying to catch sand turtles (mole crabs) for bait but wasn’t able to find them in the blind. I gave him my frozen opelu bait so he could use it on a piece of line and attract the sand turtles to him. We talked story for a bit, then I left him to cleanup, which went quicker since there were no fish to tend to. 🙂

The shore fisherman walked up to me at the parking lot, carrying a still alive big oio! His name is Teddy and he said he was able to catch 2 big sand turtles and since he wasn’t planning to dunk, he put one on his hook he was whipping grubs with a plastic bubble filled with water. He casted out pretty far with a 7ft Roddy Hunter pole, 10lb Ande mono on his Shimano Sedona HG 2500 reel and 12lb JLine fluorocarbon leader.

He put the rod in his rod holder with the drag kind of loose and when he looked up line was peeling out! The big oio almost spooled him yet he was able to avoid all the coral heads in the shallow area he was fishing. Masterclass level of fishing with light gear!

He got his scale from his truck and the fish weighed a bit over 7lbs, which made the accomplishment even more incredible. Teddy called his friend to pick it up and iced the fish down with my unused bag of ice. The friend happily grabbed it to make lomi oio, and Teddy went back to see if there were more oio looking for sand turtles.

Seeing Teddy’s success made the sting of my bolo head less severe. 🙂

Best way to eat moana / moano and not be bothered by the bones

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Moano goatfish, commonly called moana, are fairly easily caught from shore, kayaks and boats in up to 130ft of water. They do have the soft meat shared by kumu, moana kali and munu (Joes) but are not as prized because they are a smaller species with smaller bones, and maybe not as sweet a taste. Commonly fried or steamed, you normally have to carefully pick through the meat to avoid the bones.

I recently caught a big moana that had a lot of meat and larger, easier to avoid bones so I kept it.

Look what I found in its stomach! It still ate a larger CHL soft plastic lure even though it had just swallowed some kind of wrasse. No wonder the fish shaped lures work so well.

My neighbor Brian wanted to fry the moano for his young kids so he filleted the fish, and cut out the pin bones from the fillet. He then dipped the boneless fillets, center bone and pin bone sections in egg yolk, rolled them in flour and deep fried them.

The kids ate the boneless fish sticks and the adults crunched through the deep fried bones. Was ono and a great way to minimize the risk of getting bones stuck in your throat!

Tried a new spot for a new goatfish and struck out. But found juvie opakapaka, weke nono and moana kali and the underwater camera revealed why they were there.

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Went north from my normal Windward launch since a friend said there were plentiful munu goatfish, nicknamed Joes, at the end of the reef. Water quality was excellent in 50ft of water and I could see the bottom, so I think the wary Joes could see me too. Only big moano were caught so I went out to the deep sandy area and stumbled upon juvenile opakapaka. They were about 12 inches, measured head to tail, which is the biggest they seem to get before they migrate out to where adult opakapaka live. 10 inch weke ula/weke nono were mixed in with them, too small to keep, and some fish ganged up and broke my 15lb damashi rig so I dropped the CanFish CamX underwater camera rig down to see what they were doing.

Surprisingly, the fish were spread out but a weke nono would always swim up to the rig, get hooked, and then a paka would bite the 2nd hook. Check out the short video.

I then went to my heavy damashi rig with a 6oz Promar Ahi Live Deception jig as the bottom weight, to handle these bruisers.

The paka’s swim bladder would push out when the fish got to the surface, so I just kept 5 paka (limit for Deep Seven species without a commercial license), released the small weke nono, and left them alone.

I paddled a mile south, with the help of my Bixpy motor, back to my normal grounds but it was slow. Only the taape wanted to eat. So I moved shallower on my way in, hoping to find opelu or a good goatfish.

Sure enough, a nice moana kali hit the top damashi hook of the heavy rig with the jig on the bottom, and got foul hooked on the 2nd hook. That beautiful fish saved the day.

I dropped the underwater camera back down and another moana kali was spotted as well as packs of moano and omilu, so it was confirmed that the rocky reef held a lot of predator fish.

Switching back to the heavy damashi rig with the 6oz jig, a big nunu (trumpetfish) hit the jig itself! Man that fish is slimy. I ended up getting the rig snagged and breaking off everything, DOH!, so I went back to the regular damashi rig with 20lb line.

I landed what looked like a wahanui that had its forehead and mouth spray painted with yellow paint. Maybe it was a male fish that was showing mating colors? Anyone ever see this before?

Something slammed the hooks and a 1.5lb omilu came up on the top hook with the rest of the rig busted off. I’m guessing multiple omilu got hooked.

With only the underwater camera rig still intact, I made the trek in.

After more than 7hrs on the water, this is what I ended up with. It was a beautiful, calm day and I was able to confirm some underwater hot spots, so I went home very happy. Here’s what we did with the fish.

I filleted the juvie opakapaka with a sharp, flexible knife. My wife pan fried it and said it was very good but she did have to pick out the pin bones. She liked ’em enough to want to eat more tonight! Next time, I’ll have to pull those out or cut out those pin bones, without wasting much meat.

The other 3 paka were given to a friend who also fried them, whole. Opakapaka, especially when young, is a clean, non-fishy tasting fish since they are eating plankton and critters they find in the sand.

My neighbor Brian has gotten deep frying the nabeta down to an art form. He actually fried this moments after I gave it to him.

The star of the day’s catch was the moana kali. Brian steamed it Chinese style, pulling the fish out of the oven when it reached a core temp of about 115 – 120 degrees, and then let it rise and balance out on the plate to finish.

Fished the New Moon with damashi and underwater camera and brought home fish to share with neighbors

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The New Moon, light wind and small swell was looking epic last week for the Windward side so I had high hopes of finding some really good fish. Well, there ended up being a strong South wind that chopped up the water and the bite wasn’t as good as previous New Moon days.

But I was able to drop the CanFish CamX camera down on the spots that had yielded fish before, and was surprised at what I saw. I launched at 8:30am and landed at 4pm, my longest trip ever, just to bring home enough fish to share.

The camera rig with just one hook below the camera, spooks the wary fish so I made sure I caught a couple opelu, a good size moano (manybar goatfish) and a 1lb 2oz malu (side spot goatfish) on my regular damashi rig before deploying it. Check out the above and underwater views of the malu in the video at the bottom of this post.

Two juvenile omilu circle the camera rig on slightly raised hard bottom

The fish finder marks were not that pronounced, and the bite was relatively slow, so there weren’t a lot of fish recorded but seeing what kind of bottom was holding fish was very interesting to me. In 100ft to 130ft, it was mostly barren, hard packed sand and the areas that had slightly raised rock and coral were holding fish.

An opelu school was over one of the hard bottom spots and I thought they ignored the camera rig’s lure but it turns out they missed the hook!

On the way in, at 3pm, after the solunar period ended, the bite turned on for more large moana and a nabeta, so I was able to fill the catch bag a bit.

Steamed malu
(top to bottom) Moana, nabeta

My neighbor Brian, who is a great cook and provides really detailed descriptions of how the fish turned out, said the malu had good, tasty meat but had smaller pin bones than the moana kali and did dry out a bit when steamed.

He left the scales on the nabeta and scored the flesh in a diamond pattern to enure that the inner meat cooked crispy. The moana had its pin bones removed and the fillets were fried separately from the body. Both fish were very good deep fried, but of course the nabeta was better.

I gave the two remaining moana to another neighbor and his wife who had never eaten moana before. They pan fried it and found it “very good eating” despite having to avoid the small bones.

opelu poke

Lastly, I removed the fillets from the medium and small opelu for a friend. It made less than a fist sized pile of meat but my friend seasoned with shoyu, Hawaiian salt, minced Hawaiian chili pepper and sesame oil and said it had a good taste with good consistency, and wasn’t fishy at all.

The bottom terrain views of this area confirmed why I’m not catching big uku there. Not enough rocks and structure to hold the food they need. Maybe I have to check the actual coral reef that’s in 50ft of water?

Here’s the above and underwater video of the malu.

Holoholo (Group): What is your favorite goatfish to eat and why?

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The Holoholo writers weighed in. It was very interesting to find how each of the goatfish we have in Hawaii were someone’s favorites, for different reasons.

Kekahi (diver and kayak fisherman. IG: kamakaze_kaster):

Munu on a grub
Munu on the night dunk
Moana kali on the jigpara

I think munu (nicknamed Joe Louis), have the softest meat compared to kumu and moana kali. Kumu and Joes are less commonly hooked than moana kali, but divers can get them at selected spots. I have hooked kumu and joes whipping, dunking and bottom fishing. Even at night.

Merik (shore, boat and throw netter):

Kumu from noaa.gov.

The answer is different from person to person. For me personally, I believe that the best eating goatfish has to be the kūmū. With that being said it’s also one of the most elusive, making it a treat whenever one is cooked, steamed, fried, or sashed at the dinner table. Coming close behind has to be the moano ʻukali, which is slightly more common and pretty much just as good eating.

Taste wise they are pretty similar. Kūmū, to me, just seems a bit softer more tender, with the taste being slightly different. Hard to really describe it. It could also be because I don’t get to each as much kūmū so I enjoy it more when I do.

A much more common goatfish that is also a favorite for myself and many others is the ‘oama, caught using a hand pole and best enjoyed whole and deep fried.

Pono (shore fisher, diver, boat fisher):

‘Oama. I like how they are the easiest to prepare and eat! Perfect for people who aren’t used to eating around bones or don’t like eating fish since they taste like McDonald’s fries. I’d take 2lbs of ‘oama over a 2lb goatfish all day.

But if I had to steam something, or cook something special, kūmū trumps every fish, goat or not.

Lawrence (kayak fisher):

I like moano kali because they are aggressive biters and hit the damashi hard. We sashimi or eat ’em the same way we stuff uhu: all the goods – onion, tomatoes, mushrooms, lupchong, green onion, Portuguese sausage, mayonnaise, garlic salt, pepper. Need a sharp knife to prep the small, soft fish.

My second most commonly caught goat is the weke nono / weke ula.

Scott (kayak fisher):

Since I don’t eat cooked fish much, the weke nono, also called weke ula, is my favorite since the clean, non-fishy, white meat is firm enough to eat as sashimi or poke. The fish itself is so beautiful in shape and coloration. It does tend to dry out when cooked so it’s best to eat raw.

Erik (boat fisher):

I prefer the Moano / Moana Kali.  The reason is based solely on aesthetics. 😆. Even though I can’t tell the difference and really enjoy the taste/texture and flavor of both Moana Kali and Weke Nono equally, if I had to choose, I prefer the Kali.  This I guess, has to do with eating with my eyes first and maybe some to do with how the fish looks coming out of the water.  The bright orange on the upper back.  The ombre purple from waist to tail.  It’s just such a beautiful fish. 

A friend who has been able to try all the goats sums them up for us:

For steaming,  I think Moana Kali is the best, followed by Joe Louis then Kumu. My father likes the Joe best, then Kali and Kumu last. We’ve steamed all 3 together a number of times with the same results.

I don’t cook weke nono / weke ula as it’s way too dry but the ones over 3lb are good for sashimi.  We typically throw back the smaller ones. 

Malu

Malu (side spot goafish) is very similar to weke nono as it’s a relatively dry fish although less dry than the white weke, red weke and weke nono.

Moano / Moana photo by Thad

Small moana, like oama are best deep fried crispy. 

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. I bought a JDM Shimano jig rod, saved money and caught some moana kali on it!

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We are Phenix Rods, and Ocean Legacy dealers but the shipping cost for 1 or 2 rods from either of their warehouses in Texas has become prohibitive. A number of friends have been buying JDM rods online from Japanese stores because of the favorable exchange rate, so I looked at the inventory of eBay Japanese stores and found a JDM version of the two 2015 Shimano Game Type J jig rods I have.

The rod is a 2020 version made with a 2-piece design that I don’t believe we ever saw in the US. The current 2021+ version we have here has a redesigned blank in 1-piece frame. Since the 2020 version is discontinued, and shorter to ship, the Japanese eBay seller ships for free. FREE from Japan, unlike $100 from Texas, effectively on sale because of the strength of the dollar.

I had been trying for years to bring in very good, affordable, domestic rods we don’t have in our tackle shops here but I guess I am giving up. There’s a reason why we don’t have a wide variety of rods here. The stores need to be able to easily sell what they ship here, which means the mainstream Ugly Sticks and Penns.

To sweeten the deal, the eBay seller I was watching notified me that he was running a 10% off sale. That sealed it. I ordered the Game Type J B604 which is between the B603 and B605 I have. The “60” stands for “6 ft 0 inches” and the “4” is the rod strength rating. The heaviest rod in the 6ft length is the “5”, and I wanted the “4” do handle a 6oz weight when I damashi fish, and land bigger fish quickly.

The rod arrived from Japan in 4 days! Free and fast!! And, inside the custom made 4ft 9in rectangular box was a $20 coupon for the next purchase from the eBay store. Gotta love the way the Japanese do business.

The top section of the rod slides into the section with the reel seat and rod butt. Putting the joint there doesn’t weaken the rod because the rod flexes higher up the blank. That design actually saves on blank material since the rod butt doesn’t need to be on a continuous 1-piece blank.

I was able to fish the full moon day this week, and the winds were light but 2 opposing swells and rain squalls really bumped up the water. The solunar bite period was supposed to start at 12 noon but the overcast skies and rain got the fish in a feeding mood and the damashi bite was fierce. I popped off a few drag pulling fish before realizing the B604 has a less forgiving tip than the B603 and I needed to lighten the drag a bit. Then a 2lb moana kali and a moana came up together.

Next a 3lb omilu was manhandled by the new rod and released.

3 live opelu were put out and taken, but eventually spit. Seems like the predators are still not big enough to find the hooks on a whole opelu.

The afternoon bite never really took off. I put some opelu skin on the damashi hook and a 1lb moana kali jumped on. It took a little while to unhook, and I tried to release it but it wasn’t looking too good so I kept it.

On my way in I checked the nabeta spots but looks like they moved to a safer neighborhood to avoid the winter swells.

I have mixed feelings about my new JDM jig rod. I absolutely love it and think it was well worth the price, but feel sad that I’m giving up on selling domestic rods in Hawaii.

My neighbor Brian beautifully prepared the larger moana kali for his family, 2 days after it was caught.

Holoholo: Finally, I caught a shibi!

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Tobias has previously shared his experiences kayak fishing the Windward side of Oahu but had never caught the elusive yellowfin tuna. Until now.

Tobias Tillemans:

A body of water with clouds and sun rays AI-generated content may be incorrect.

We launched in the dark and peddled out into gently rolling black ink with stars above and a yellow moon low in the west, shining through some thin clouds. Light shimmered faintly off the water, no sound other than the rhythmic swishing of the fins under my feet and my breathing. I followed Max of the Oahu Pelagic Pirates who knew these waters very well, but the akule bite was slow, and we each got only 1 or 2 before heading further out into a breaking dawn to find opelu, watched silently by birds perched on marine buoys. As night softened into dawn, I turned off my headlamp and put out a bait before taking some time to watch the light rise on Oahu’s north shore, a thin strip of habitable land below towering green hills, windmills, and cloud banks to the east and the taller and drier red Wai’anae Range to the west. It was more than 9 months since I’d been on the water, and I was particularly thankful, but those 20 minutes before the sun breaks the horizon are always the most arresting.

When I started kayak fishing, I had this mythical idea of the yellowfin tuna. It was the most beautiful fish I’d ever seen, the most delicious, and the proudest catch a kayak fisherman could make. As I got better at catching pelagic fish I got to know many other species and to appreciate all of them for their unique character – the sly and powerful ono, or the colorful, acrobatic mahi – and I learned that there are many proud catches besides the yellowfin. Still, though, every time I hooked up offshore there was the question: is this the one? Might I finally get to lay hands on a shibi? I would look for the distinctive ‘tuna headshakes’ and gauge the speed and power of each run. But it never was, and then, almost a year ago, I moved back to the mainland with my family. This was highly likely to be my only day fishing offshore this year. I am forever indebted to Bill Ho, my neighbor in Hau’ula, who met me over his lunch break to loan me an offshore kayak, rods, and everything else I needed to fish through the short visit I had on the island. His love of fishing out of a kayak has been an inspiration to me from the very beginning.

We managed a few opelu in the hour around sunrise, picking them out of fast-moving schools that passed under us. I dropped the akule deep with a 4oz weight on a rubber band and sent a fresh opelu 150’ back on a single 5/0 hook and 40-pound fluoro before we moved out closer to 200’ of water where I picked up another opelu and sent this one out on the deep line, replacing the akule. Occasionally through the first few hours the wind would build before losing heart and flattening out again. Every 20 minutes or so, cruising schools of bait would show up on the fish finder.

The morning just felt fishy. Every so often my top bait would completely bug out and fight for its life, peeling my feather-trigger drag. In these moments, I’d open the bail and lay the line across my finger, ready in an instant to drop the bait weightless and let the predator eat. But none of us were hooking up. The pink undersides of the clouds faded to peach, then white, and the ocean went from a brooding, purplish blue to its resplendent late-morning aqua. I was beginning to get comfortable with the idea of heading back to the marina refreshed and with an empty fish bag.

All of a sudden, I sensed panic in the bait, and draped the line gently across my pointer finger. Then it got hammered. I let the line scream off the open bail for about 10 seconds then locked it down, feeling out a conservative drag setting to slow the fish without risking breaking it off. I endured a jolting, sporadic initial run, and then a second. I’ve broken off too many fish in the past at this moment, misjudging the drag with several hundred feet of line out on a fish whose spirit is not broken. After the second run the fish settled into a deep clockwise spiral with gradually weakening runs and, though I’d not seen the fish, all this behavior had me hopeful this was the one. I decided I’d be fine getting sharked, or popping off, but I was not going to break this fish off. It took maybe half an hour before I finally saw the shimmering yellow radiating up from the fins of the fish rising in spirals towards me.

I removed my pedals so the fish could harmlessly spin under the boat, then waited for a circle close enough to kage (pole spear). In this situation I think the behavior of the fish will often reveal the presence of sharks, but I kept a close eye on the deep. The fish was within maybe 8 feet when it surprised me with another run, peeling off 50’ of line. Don’t break it off. I I worked the fish back up to the boat and, after several close calls, got a good opportunity for the kage. I heard the threading on the kage rod zipper through the fish’s gill plate, and the fish went stiff. I hoisted it into the boat between my feet.

I know now that where I normally fished was a big part of why I’d never landed this fish before. The windward side seems ecologically more suited to smaller tunas like the kawakawa or aku, while the broad bays of the north, and especially west, shores of Oahu are more suited to shibi. I’d fished those shores many times, but I fished so much by myself, peddling out into the darkness looking for bait and marks. I was lucky to be out this day with Max, an awesome guy and excellent fisherman, and I will be forever grateful to him for getting me onto my first shibi.

The site was down for 3 days

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It wasn’t looking good for a while and I began to think that the site couldn’t be restored. Initially, all the content after March 2023 was missing. I requested that the website hosting company restore the site from backups, but the daily, weekly and monthly backups all brought up errors when they were restored. Finally, I fixed the errors on the Jan 9th monthly restore but almost a month’s data was missing.

I had the hosting company restore the weekly backup of Jan 30, and did some tweaking to get the plugins (additional functions added to the site) to play well. Whew…

This made me realize that the site has been up for 10 years. It started as a way for me to keep my technical skills up, and share some oama / papio catch reports and tips. Along the way, the cost of running a website has gone up significantly because now I need to protect the site from hackers, malware, and pay extra to view usage analytics because the number of daily views passed a threshold. Because of this recent problem with data disappearing, I now have to pay for a premium data backup and restore service I can operate myself. The total cost to run the website safely is close to $1,000 a year. No wonder there aren’t any small time, non-commercial fishing blogs anymore.

The site has been a knowledge base of tips and how-tos, fully supported by Holoholo writers who have filled in the many gaps in my fishing experience. It would be a shame to have this information disappear one day. Maybe I can eventually archive the site to one that becomes static and requires very minimal hosting services?

For now, the proceeds from the licensing of the shark video have helped cover operating costs. Mahalo nui loa for supporting the website over the years.

Reminder: Check the real-time radar map and recent rainfall totals with these links

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Just a reminder, if you want to see the real-time radar map of rain falling over the Hawaiian islands, and/or want to want to see how much rain has recently fallen, check the links below.

Might want to bookmark it so you can find it next time we’re going through a torrential flood.

National Weather Service radar map of Hawaii (pan and zoom to your area of interest)

To confirm how much rain has recently fallen, go to National Weather Service Rainfall Summary page and check the 3hr totals for the areas nearby.

With these tools, you not only see how much rain was falling that instant but also how much rain has fallen recently.

Tried Seaguar, Sufix and Promar Ahi fluorocarbon leader and line. Here’s my review.

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Over the years, I’ve used fluorocarbon as leader for my live bait rigs, and as the material I use to tie damashi/sabiki rigs. I’ve used Seaguar Premier, Seaguar Blue Label, Seaguar Invizx main line and Seaguar Inshore main line. Also used Sufix Invisiline and the new Promar Ahi GT4 leader. There are many other brands of fluorocarbon out there that I haven’t tried but these are my impressions of the fore mentioned.

Fluorocarbon is stiffer, and has less stretch than monofilament, and is less visible to fish because it doesn’t distort light that passes through it, while under water. Line companies sell leader material and castable main line made out of fluorocarbon. Fluorocarbon leader is stiffer, thicker and more abrasion resistant than the castable fluorocarbon main line, and costs more because more material that makes fluorocarbon fluorocarbon is required.

Seaguar

Seaguar makes the best fluorocarbon leader and line we can buy domestically. The parent company is actually Japanese, called Kureha, and the products are made in Japan to exacting standards. With fluorocarbon, thinner diameter is better and that’s what sets Seaguar apart from the rest. The Seaguar fluorocarbon leader and main line is thinner and more supple than the competition, and also more expensive. For the sake of thickness comparison, I’ll use 20lb test specs.

Seaguar Premier leader – 20lb .015 inch diameter, $0.68 per yd (Amazon). This is Seaguar’s 2nd best leader, after their Gold Label. I haven’t tried Gold Label because Premier was excellent and less expensive. It’s thin, supple, has low memory and is strong for its diameter. Very pricey. Good when the fish are line shy.

Seaguar Blue Label leader – 20lb .016 inch diameter. $0.50 per yd (Amazon). This is most commonly used fluorocarbon leader form Seaguar. It’s thicker than Premier and stronger and more abrasion resistant. Less pricey than Premier and recommended for offshore fishing.

Seaguar Inshore line – 20lb .016 inch diameter. $0.17 per yd (Amazon). It’s more supple than the same diameter Blue Label leader, and has less abrasion resistance. It’s quite a bit cheaper than Blue Label because it’s not leader line.

Seaguar Invizix line – 20lb .016 inch diameter. $0.13 per yd (Amazon). This line is meant for use in bait casting reels and fresh water. Even cheaper than Inshore line.

Sufix

Sufix Invisiline Leader – 20lb .017 inch diameter. $0.45 per yd. I’ve used this leader for my live bait leader and my damashi rigs. It’s very stiff and requires care when tying dropper loops but is incredibly abrasion resistant. I was mainly using it because we’re a Sufix dealer but now use the more supple options for damashi rigs.

Promar Ahi

GT4 leader – 20lb .017 inch diameter. $0.41 per yd. Same diameter as Sufix Invisiline but more supple and knots are easier to tie. More similar to Seaguar Inshore in suppleness but may be more abrasion resistant. Just started using it in my damashi rigs and like it for the knot tying ease and lower cost.

My Recommendations

For offshore or shore fishing around rocks, go with fluorocarbon leader and not fluorocarbon line, since you want the utmost abrasion resistance. If you can afford it, go with Seaguar Premier if you need stealth, or Seaguar Blue Label if you want an all-around excellent leader. If you want to save a bit of money, try the new Promar Ahi GT4 leader. If you want a really strong, abrasion resistant leader, go with the Sufix Invisiline.

For lighter applications like whipping inshore, the Seaguar Inshore line is a great, inexpensive option. I’ll keep using it for my damashi rigs until I notice that it breaks off easier than the competition.

Went back to where the shark attacked in 2023, under eerily similar conditions

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I had been avoiding the area the shark rammed my kayak back in May 2023, partly because it was an area I don’t fish, and partly because I didn’t want to relive the experience. I had fished areas around it so it was time to do another check of the area. What made the outing even spookier was that it was flat calm like the shark attack day. I couldn’t find any partners to go with me, so I promised I’d keep my feet in the kayak, and have a Sharkbanz device on my right ankle for the rare times I had to put my feet over the side.

I started off at the opelu spot, a mile from the danger zone, and the school showed up on the fish finder. A fairly big one bit on the first drop and came up scratched up from something that tried to grab it. Oddly enough, that was the biggest opelu I caught all day, and the smaller ones didn’t get grabbed. After 5 were chilling in my footwell I decided not to use them as live bait, and instead dispatched them and put them in the fish bag. I had not had a hookup on live opelu for the last few trips, just bite marks from small predators, so I didn’t want to hassle of trolling a live bait while mining the bottom with the damashi rig.

Talk about a greasy calm, mirror-like surface

Next, I headed a mile north to the shark zone. I kept my eyes on a swivel and no sharks were spotted so I started damashi fishing. Fish bit in the areas with good sonar marks but they were either undesirables (hagi, hawkfish, trumpetfish) or too small (weke nono).

I considered keeping the bigger moano/moana but a lot of my friends aren’t fans of the small bones.

I took a break from the damashi action and dropped the Carolina rig with 2 tungsten weights knocking against each other. It got bit right away but sadly was a slimey nunu (trumpetfish). And look. More than halfway through the trip I realized I forgot to put the Sharkbanz on my right ankle!

I caught another random opelu one the way back to the first opelu spot, but that school had moved on. So it was time to crank up the Bixpy motor and head in through the flat water. I’m trying to figure out if the good bottom fish didn’t bite because the water was1) too calm, 2) the slow Winter season, or 3) the place is junk.

This was all I brought home, but I did get home shark-free. Note the bite marks on the largest opelu. My friend’s wife who loves fresh fish will prepare them like she does saba.

North swell died down a bit but dolphins, whales and sharks tried to prevent me from checking the shallow bottom fish.

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A week ago, the shallow bottom fishing was oddly slow and I suspected that the big north swell was the cause. Here’s how that trip went. To verify that, I started at the same area since the swell had slowed down, and the opelu bite was very good to start off. But the kanpachi, nabeta and juvenile opakapaka were still absent.

I trolled a live opelu out to 220ft and it got bitten but not taken by something not large enough to swallow it whole, it seemed.

Then a small pod of 5ft dolphins started playing in front of my kayak, so I left the area because I didn’t want to hook them. I don’t think they were the ones that mouthed my opelu but maybe they were?

I started heading to an area almost 2 miles south that I’ve only fished a few times that has held big opelu, big aha and ulua. I didn’t want to battle an ulua but hooked something as a lowered a weighted, live opelu down that felt heavy with some head shakes. My Phenix Black Diamond Heavy rod with Avet MX Raptor reel in low gear brought the fish in fairly easily and it turned out to be a mid-sized sandbar shark. Sadly, that was the first large fish I battled with the gear since fishing it for more than a year. It was nice to just grind the shark up.

Two small whales were spouting over the area I was headed to, which was a high spot that attracted bait, and luckily they kept moving south before I reached there.

Another live opelu got killed by an aha so I gave up on live baiting and focused on the damashi. I found the big opelu and they bit eagerly, but since I wasn’t gonna use them for bait I moved on to check the bottom fish.

The high (shallow) side of the drop off yielded small moana, small malu (side spot goatfish), hagi etc so I went past where the drop leveled off and found slightly larger fish on the flat areas. 1lb omilu, 1lb uku and 1lb malu.

The previous malu I kept turned out to be incredible steamed so I kept that but couldn’t find anything else to bring home.

My sister steamed the malu for my dad and said it was tender and flaky “melt in the mouth goodness”! I’ve only caught 2 keeper sized malu ever and they are an uncommon catch but are on the list of great eating bottom fish along with uku, yellowspot papio, kagami, weke nono, moana kali and nabeta.

Oio fishing and damashi fishing after the recent big North swells

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A series of North and North West swells large enough to run the Eddie Aikau contest swept through and were still present when we fished the Windward side of Oahu. Waves were wrapping and breaking on exposed outer reefs but the inshore reefs just had stronger than normal currents swirling. Friends found the oio bite to be good for 4lb to 6lb fish, so I was hopeful that the damashi fishing in my regular spots would be productive.

I had brought a 4-3/8 inch, sinking 2-1/4 ounce Duo Blazin 110 in case I had to stay shallow and whip the reef, so instead, I trolled it on the way out to the damashi spot, averaging 3mph. In 10 mins, a very skinny aha was on. I’m convinced this lure with its tight wobble would be deadly whipped for papio, and trolled for pelagics. I’ll try to test this lure in the future. You can learn more about Duo Blazin here.

Out at 140ft, there were non-breaking N swells rolling through, and chop generated from far off squalls. Not dangerous but not calm by any means. The bottom marks present on the last few trips were absent and all that came up were small opakapaka, yellow barbelled goat fish and tons of lizardfish. The target nabeta and kampachi were mysteriously absent. I managed to scrape up 3 opelu off small schools and gave up to see if the fish on the reef were behaving oddly also.

The fish were clustered in 40 to 50ft but a weird assortment of very small moana, hawkfish (not the po’opa’a) and unusual hinalea were caught. I did get lucky with a 1lb moana kali, but couldn’t find anymore since the “rubbish fish” were mobbing the damashi. The wind changed to a cold, offshore blast so I headed in.

Friends later told me that bottomfish often move deeper when large swells roll through so that could explain why the bottomfishing was so slow, with very small fish caught. But the oio fishing was better than expected for this time of year. Maybe the oio moved in shallow to take advantage of the swirling current stirring up critters?

Malu (side spot goatfish) compared to Moano/Moana (manybar goatfish) steamed

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Malu (Sidespot Goatfish)

Malu are less commonly caught than the ubiquitous moano/moana and I’ve actually only caught them on the Windward side of Oahu but at one time, they were caught all over. They are pink and white, with a black squarish spot in the middle of the body, hence the name side spot goatfish. They have a large head head like a moano, but a slimmer body like a white weke.

Moano have a stockier body than the malu and an 11 inch fork length individual is considered a big one. They have soft, flaky meat. Moano are usually steamed or fried, but have a lot of small bones so you have to be careful picking through the meat.

The 12 inch fork length malu I recently caught was steamed, and when we checked to see if it was cooked through, we found the uncooked flesh to be firm and mostly free of pin bones. When fully, the meat turned white, unlike the opaque meat of the moana. It was less fishy than moana and much easier to eat since there weren’t a lot of free floating bones. The meat melted in your mouth like moana does. Definitely worth keeping if they are large enough to steam.

Yellowspot papio compared to uku prepared sashimi and steamed

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To compare the 1.5 lb yellow spot papio and 2lb uku written up earlier, my neighbor Brian filleted half and steamed the other half. Here’s his brief but detailed comparison of the young fish. Thanks Brian!

Brian:

Yellow spot papio on left, uku on right.

Both fish were great as sashimi. The yellow spot was tender and mild. The uku was firm and had a stronger flavor. The uku was easier to slice since it was a thicker fillet.

Uku on top, yellow spot papio on bottom.

Steamed, the yellow spot papio was more flaky and dense whereas the uku was more moist and light. Texture wise, the uku was preferred but both were very good.

Damashi/sabiki out fished live opelu and jigs but big fish kept breaking off, even with 40lb line! Early Winter shallow bottom report.

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I have been focusing on shallow bottom fishing since I don’t start early enough for productive pelagic fishing. Bottom fishing has less variables since the fish are usually somewhere in the general vicinity but the trick is getting the right ones to bite.

Almost all species of predatorial fish seem to be attracted to small bait imitations moving up and down in unison. Often the morning starts with opelu biting mid-water column, and when that slows, fish near the bottom eagerly hit the damashi rig. Some spots are loaded with taape and small moana. The former I kill and release back to the reef, the latter I release unharmed.

While it’s always fun to feel the bites and bring up fish, unhooking unwanted fish is just time away from catching the desirable fish like uku, yellow spot papio and kagami papio.

This report comprises of the last 2 trips. 1 trip back, a 1.5 lb uku got tail wrapped and hooked multiple times and by the time I unraveled it, it was in bad shape so I had to keep it. While I’ve been trying to get uku here for years, normally I wouldn’t keep one under 2lb.

Then some toau (invasive black tail snapper) started biting, and since their bones are easier to deal with than the small boned taape, I brought them home.

I went out to the 200ft area but could only get a kahala checking out the underwater camera.

On the way in, I checked the nabeta spot with a small piece of aku belly on the bottom damashi hook and something hit harder than a nabeta could and took some drag. I was stunned to see a 2.5lb uku come up, which is still on the small side but the biggest for this greater area that lacks large rocks and caves.

A fat 11 inch moana hit next and joined the catch. All in all, a productive day learning the bottom fish grounds. My neighbor fried the moana and toau fillets tempura-style and said they were amazing. The smaller uku was steamed, and the bigger one was given to a friend who said the sashimi was firm enough and very good despite only being 2.5lb.

CHL Minnows added to store-bought damashi set

The winds dropped again this week and I set out to bottom fish the damashi armed with the 1.5 inch CHL Minnows (the ones with the split fish tail) and some leftover Japanese wormy lures. Since even my 20lb rigs were broken off on the previous trip, I had rigs tied all the way up to 40lb test.

Look at the bait school on the fish finder!

The opelu showed up on the fish finder and bit in the shallows. I filled the bait tube, requiring me to drag the tube around. Although the wind was down there was a strong current running South to North that kept pushing me away from my spots.

I put out a live opelu and landed and released a big kawalea (Heller’s Barracuda). Good eating but like all barracuda, its slime is really stink.

The next opelu was neatly sliced in half but there were small teeth marks also, meaning it probably wasn’t an ono. The following opelu just had small bites taken out so I gave up live baiting and focused on the damashi fishing.

The afternoon bite really turned on, and omilus and bigger jacks kept jumping on the hooks. I released 3 omilu and each of my rigs from 15lb to 40lb eventually get their branch lines cut or light gold hooks broken off by heavy, strong fish. Those brutes didn’t fall for a jig, interestingly enough.

I was feeling a little desperate with nothing but opelu in my fish bag and then I stumbled upon a very small area where a 1.5lb yellow spot came up, followed by a 2lb uku and then a light colored goat fish that turned out to be a large 12 inch malu (side spotted goatfish). Whew, finally got some great eating fish to take home.

It was a lot of work to get these small good eating fish, with so much bycatch (taape, hagi, small moana, lizardfish, etc). I gave the big opelu to a friend at the beach who plans to make lomi opelu out of them, and kept a small one to freeze for bait.

The malu had crabs and some red & white shrimp in its stomach a little bigger than my CHL Minnows, and the yellow spot papio had translucent baby fish just a bit bigger than the minnows. No wonder the small damashi lures were so effective. Maybe really big fish were eating the same small food? I’ll be taking 40lb damashi with longer shanked Gamakatsu hooks next time and hope to see what’s been busting me off!

Here’s a comparison of the yellow spot papio and uku, prepared as sashimi and steamed.

Here’s a comparison of the malu and moana, prepared steamed.

We split up, friend went shallow for oio, I went after opelu. Kayak fishing during a rain storm.

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I had been under the weather and missed a few light wind days. I needed a calm, safe day to ease back into offshore kayak fishing. Guy, who I last fished with more than 1.5 yrs ago, and hadn’t kayaked since, wanted an easy day to make sure his equipment and body still worked. There looked like some rain but light wind on the Windward side on a rare day our schedules aligned so we made the plan that he would stay inshore and troll for papio, and dunk for oio. I would head out to the bait spot and try to catch opelu and other bottom dwellers on the damashi rig.

We drove through heavy rain and ponding water but our destination just had moderate showers. The wind was light as we launched but half a mile out, I began to get hit with increasingly stronger onshore wind and chop, 15mph with higher gusts. It was a slow slog to push through all that, taking much longer than normal. 2 miles from shore, I lost radio contact with Guy probably due to all the showers and mist.

Fish bite well on overcast, rainy days and I had high expectations. I turned on my old GoPro Session 4 I had mounted to the bow of the kayak, to share a view of what it looks like when I’m trying to catch opelu on the damashi rig. Sure enough, the opelu were in the mid-water column and hit all 3 of my hooks. If I could stay on top of the school and drop on them, they’d bite. You’ll be able to see the action on the video below.

The fish like foul weather but me, not so much. I was socked in and couldn’t see land, and the swirling currents kept spinning me around. I had to use my fish finder’s compass to figure out which direction I was drifting. It was so choppy and swirly I almost got sick, and had to do all I could to clear my head.

I really wanted to stay and bottom fish with the damashi but I had live opelu after all, so I put one out with a sliding weight and paddled around the area for a bit. Eventually that line got tangled with my damashi line since I was spinning around so much. When I checked the bait, it had been pulled off. I gave up on live baiting and focused on catching stuff on the bottom. I dropped the camera rig on good marks but didn’t hook anything. Was really hoping to capture some interesting footage.

Occasionally Guy and I were able to hear each other for a garbled sentence or two so we both knew the other was ok. I think my old vhf radio was at fault and probably doesn’t have the range it did when it was new. It sounded like the papio trolling was slow inshore.

I was leaving the bait area at 2pm and ran across some really good marks. So I dropped the damashi down again and a strong fish busted off a branch line but a nice lai (leather jacket) came up. I hate handling lai because its dorsal and anal fins have venom, but figured Guy could eat it and use the skin to make lures, so I snipped the offending spines and kept it.

The next couple of drops yielded opelu so I tried to catch as many as I could (see the video) but eventually other fish like lizardfish and the yellow barbelled goat fish hit the damashi baits. Even nabeta were in the feeding frenzy.

I ended up with 18 opelu for the day, my best so far.

Oio #1
Oio #2

I started to head in and got in radio range of Guy. He said he was anchoring in shallow water and using some freezer burnt tako (octopus strips), and caught a small oio. As I got closer to him he landed an even bigger oio that fought like a white papio, with a lot of head shakes. Nice!!

Guy said the shallow inshore waters were eerily still with steam coming off the surface. Such a contrast from the conditions I experienced. Here’s the video.

Guy’s family wanted raw fish dishes, so he sashimi’d the lai, made lomi out of the oio (2.5lb and 4lb) and made a simple poke (inamona, salt, dried shrimp) out of the opelu.

He’s drying the lai skin to make lures.

Another friend’s wife Mayumi is from Japan and would eat fish everyday if she could. They don’t buy whole, local fish so I wanted to see what she thought of opelu and nabeta.

She deep fried the nabeta enough to eat the skin and scales but not the bones. She said the opelu tasted very similar to the saba (mackerel) she eats in Japan and really appreciated both fish.

I vacuum sealed the smaller opelu and froze them for bait. In hindsight I wish I had caught more since so many people enjoy eating opelu.

Holoholo: 40g beveled flatty tungsten jig slays Los Angeles Harbor fish!

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(top to bottom) 60g tungsten jig – repainted, 40g tungsten jig – repainted, 40g non-tungsten JDM jig, 40g Daiwa TG Bait

My buddy RJ, of the Promar – Ahi USA crew that took care of me when I attended the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach, had recently started testing the new Promar Ikara jigs and was really getting into micro jigging.

I had some knicked up tungsten jigs we sell, that I had touched up with glow paint and nail polish, and a couple other JDM jigs I hadn’t used in a while, so I sent them to RJ to compare with the non-tungsten jigs he was fishing.

He had a successful outing with them and agreed to share how the tungsten jigs worked on the saltwater bass of SoCal. Thanks RJ!

RJ Oropeza:
My background: Hi Scott. Being out on the ocean, with our lines in the water is where I always want to be.  For me, targeting and landing large Calico and Sand Bass is always an option, but when the weather is good, heading offshore is a must.  If it’s not Santa Barbara Island, then Catalina Island is the next best location. Fishing for rockfish when it’s in season, hunting for large yellowtails coming up from the South in the summer, and drifting for Halibut can result in big and memorable catches when offshore. When I am not fishing on the boat, I scratch the itch by surf fishing, and kayak fishing.  I am open and enjoy all forms of saltwater fishing.  I find the ocean to be my mediation zone, and when I am fishing, I am meditating.  

On Saturday, we were able to take the boat out for a couple hours to see if we can catch some keepers inside the Los Angeles Harbor.  We left the dock at 11:15am, the skies were slightly overcast, with light wind blowing.  The outside temperature was 69 degrees, and there was a slight chop.  Our first stop was a spot, near the San Pedro Bay Area, inside the break wall.  It took about 5 minutes to arrive to our desired location, we shut the engines off, and prepared the trolling motor for a slow drift. 

We could see via the fish finder that there were a few fish sitting on the structure, waiting to be caught.  I reached for my Daiwa Harrier rod armed with the 40gram tungsten jig (Blue/White/Silver/Pink) with VMC Techset assists.  To keep things stealthy yet somewhat abrasion resistant, I was using 30lb Seaguar Premier as the fluorocarbon leader. It didn’t take me more than 2 minutes to get my line in the water.  Before I could feel the jig hit the ocean floor, I was already hooked up to what felt like a nice size bass.  I was shocked at how fast it took to catch the first fish of the day. This is always a good sign, when you catch the first fish within 10 minutes of starting out the trip.  I had a feeling the day was going to be fun. 

With the help of the new jig, we managed to put a few more bass on the deck along with a fighting mackeral.  I was able to hook them on the free fall, the retrieve, and on the bounce.  It was clear to me that this tungsten jig was very attractive to the bass in the harbor.  The predators around could not resist the sexy dance that this lure displayed.  The beveled edges create a realistic sharp darting motion,  and the weight allows you to launch the lure far enough to have a long retrieve back, giving the angler plenty of time to dance the jig back to the boat.  The color scheme, with added glow dots, seemed to be very effective. 

On several retrieves, I was able to see fish come near the boat as they chased the jig in hope of a better view.  This jig made what could have been a slow day, turn into a fun and productive one.  Overall I felt that this jig was a must have for any angler interested in slow pitch jigging.  The small and simple design could not be ignored by the fish we were targeting.  Thanks again, for your recommendation, as always I appreciate the wisdom that you share.  You were right, this jig, “slayed the bass in the harbor“.

I look forward to landing more fish in the future, with this sexy piece of tungsten and will give the other jigs their fair shot in the water.

Aloha Scott!  Keep your pole bent, and your line tight. 

Editor: You can find the 40g and 60g tungsten jigs, dressed and undressed, in the Store here.

Dropped the CanFish CamX camera down and was amazed at the diversity of life

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I drove to the Windward spot as early as I hoped to, but a rain squall delayed my launch, and the onshore chop slowed me from getting to the grounds nearly 3 miles out. But the brown boobies greeted me as they always do and made a tight circle. When they do that, I find usually bait in the circle and sure enough an opelu bit on the first drop even though it was close to 9am. Scattered, feeding opelu appeared on the fish finder.

For the next hour opelu bit along with lai, small opakapaka and lizard fish if I dropped too deep. I stuffed 8 opelu in my bait tube, a record for me I think. I weighed one down with a sliding tungsten weight and took it deeper and then onto the shallow ledge but it only got pulled off by a small aha, I’m guessing. I put another opelu on and the same thing happened. Nothing was big enough to swallow the opelu and get properly hooked by one of the 2 hooks.

So I went back out to the bait spot and the bait marks were gone. The only thing that came up were lizardfish. The afternoon solunar bite was supposed to be starting but the fish weren’t cooperating. Since the fish finder wasn’t helping, I attached a 20lb leader 2-hook damashi rig to the CanFish CamX underwater camera, attached that to my heavy jig rod, and dropped it over what looked like small patches of structure. Occasionally I’d hook a small opakakpaka or lizardfish, but the action was really slow.

After dropping a bunch of times on what I hoped were areas of small structure, I went to the sandy area where nabeta have bit in the past and dropped the camera down with some opelu meat. I felt tugs through the stiff rod but the fish were just pulling off the bait. I was really hoping the culprits were caught on camera.

When I got home and looked at what was recorded, I was astounded at how many species were on that small structure I initially dropped on. There were small patches of rubble holding some type of short seaweed. And those spots were packed with fish.

The sandy area I had my bait yanked off did indeed have nabeta. This video captures one coming out from under the sand to grab at the bait. And I didn’t bring up any nabeta so maybe they are always there but I often can’t hook them?

The CanFish CamX may prove invaluable for aiding us in determining if fish are around, even when we aren’t getting bites. My friend Shea on the Big Island has used the discontinued GoFish cam attached to his live bait trolling rig to see how many ono have sniffed his bait and turned away.

If you’re interested in purchasing a CanFish CamX, lemme know. I’ll be putting together an order for friends. Please contact me through the Contact page.

Super thin tungsten “knife jigs”. Had to order some to try since the compact ones were so effective.

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Duo Semi Long 125g 13cm/ 5″ non-tungsten jig on bottom for comparison.

The price of tungsten jigs has been steadily climbing because of various economic factors having to do with the production and import from China. A manufacturer is letting me buy these jigs in relatively small quantities but they are so expensive even at wholesale pricing. The current retail price of the 180g size is over $40!

The thin, long jig is meant to “slide and sweep” back and forth as it falls, unlike the more compact tungsten jig shapes that fall quicker and need to be jigged with the rod tip to look like small crustaceans or bait fish. Knife jigs work well on mid water column fish like pelagics and jacks, but these have been proven to work well skipping over the bottom from shore.

160g jig
Top
Bottom

160g 17cm – 5.6 oz 6-7/8″.

180g jig
Top
Bottom

180g 18cm – 6.3 oz 7-1/8″

I was sent a blue/silver/pink 160g jig and a green/gold 180g jig to inspect. The almost holographic finish was dazzling, and the thin jigs couldn’t be bent. I was convinced and ordered a batch of 120g and 180g jigs to satisfy the shore, kayak and boater’s needs.

Stay tuned to hear how these unique jigs fish.

In this video from GoGoGoFishing Nabu, you can see how a smaller version of the lure looks skipped underwater.