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We battled sharks/ulua on bigger gear and landed the target species – catch and cook

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Look at the discolored 20lb mono on the Sealine SL20. I even found salt clumps that I hadn’t washed away before storing it. Shame on me.

The last time Frank and I ventured out to the deep I ran into a strong fish that manhandled my light gear. This is what went down.  We were advised by my uku sensei to use 60 – 100lb leader and big rods/reels.  So I went into storage and rummaged through the gear I brought back from my party boat days out of San Diego that haven’t been looked at in more than a decade.  Cleaned and lubed a Daiwa Sealine SL20 conventional reel, put on fresh 50lb Sufix 832 and matched it to a Daiwa VIP boat rod.  This was my light setup to cast live anchovies on 20lb test mono back in the 90s before we used fluorocarbon leaders.  I figured it would be strong enough for Frank to land big uku and small ulua.

The red marking on the Trinidad’s side plate says “300yds 30lb Sufix” on clear tape. It isn’t a blemish.

I went into the “museum” to pull out the original gold Shimano Trinidad 14 and 7′ 7″ G Loomis Bucara bait rod I had purchased to catch yellowtail on the kayak in SoCal and never used.  That combo is at least 18 yrs old and the rod and reel are out of production now.  I really didn’t want to scratch the beautiful gold reel but the guys convinced me that the reel was meant to be fished, not to be tucked away in a box on a shelf.  Took off the discolored mono and put on 30lb Sufix to get more capacity. Both the Trinidad 14 and SL 20 are really 20 – 30lb test reels but I put 50lb on the SL20 just in case Frank needed to lock down on a big fish.

My uku sensei recommended VMC tournament 12/0 hooks that looked huge to me but the gap between hook point and shaft wasn’t really that big.  The intention was to hook the bait on, drop down and raise it off the bottom, away from hage, and just leave the rod in the holder until something hooked itself.  The circle hook with the severe turned in hook point was designed to be initially taken deep into the fish’s mouth, and as the fish turned and ran, the hook would slide out to the mouth’s corner, roll into position and hook into the thick cartilage.  Layton, at Charley’s Fishing Supply, suggested we also carry a few 14/0 hooks in case our baits were so big the 12/0 hook point wasn’t fully exposed.  The 14/0 looks a lot larger but the gap really only is an index finger width versus the pinkie width of the 12/0.

Frank and I both started with the 12/0 hook.  He used 50lb mono and I used 60lb fluoro as leader.  I figured we had tipped the scales in our favor.  Boy was I wrong.

We picked a light trade wind day with a rolling swell due to a big east swell wrapping around the island.  Not as glassy as our previous time but still easily fishable.  The Garmin 44cv took me to where we started the last time and we put down 5 inch opelu halves Frank had skillfully brined,  wrapped in newspaper and froze to preserve the integrity of the soft bait.  Not much was biting at the 80ft reef except for an occasional hage that shortened our bait and plucked out the eyes.  We kept our baits off the bottom to lesson the hage attack and set up behind the reef where it suddenly drops down.  Fishing with a light drag and clicker to allow the fish to run with the bait before getting hooked, we had numerous hard pulls that didn’t set. Some took the entire bait.  Others left teeth scrapes halfway up the bait but not at the hook area.

Suddenly Frank got a hard pull and run that almost tipped his SUP over.  The fish ran down and hugged the bottom like my fish did the last time, but Frank stabilized himself and quickly learned how to use the conventional reel.  He constantly had to adjust his seating position since the fish was pulling him forward, and had to reposition the gear strapped to his board.  The drag down fight went on for more than 25 mins and then I saw a large light colored shape at deep color. Looked like a big ulua, but Frank had a better view and he realized he had been battling a 6 ft plus shark!  It was another 5 – 10 mins before he could get the shark close enough to cut the leader and salvage most of his line.

This is just a couple mins of Frank’s physically challenging battle with the shark. Can you imagine sitting on a surfboard with no foot rests to push off of, feet dangling in the water with the ocean bottom 130 ft below, as a shark does its best to unseat you?  Frank did an incredible job getting that shark to leader.  Unfortunately the video of his release, with the shark swimming directly under me, had too many landmarks to use.

That shark didn’t take him too far out from where he had hooked it, but we slowly paddled back inside of the 100ft line. Frank caught his breath, and I dropped my opelu bait down.  More strong pulls and baits stolen.  Maybe our 12/0 hook was too large for most of the fish below us?  Then Frank hooked up with something big again!  This fish took him from the 100 ft depth to the 190 ft depth, which is about 350 yds based on the Navionics chart.  This fish cut his leader about 2.5 ft up from the hook before Frank could see what it was.  At this point, Frank’s arms and lower body were torched from doing big fish isometrics in a seated position on an SUP.

We paddled in to 80 ft, and Frank dropped a bait down, put the rod in the holder and started jigging with a Live Deception jig on his Shimano Stradic 4000 FK XG, which was a whole lot smoother than his old Penn 440SS.  He cast, jigged the lure back at an angle and bam! Hanapa’a! Up came a scrappy 2.5 lb omilu!  With that kau kau fish in his cooler bag he didn’t feel so bad about losing the second fish.  Then his bait rod bent over and he almost went with it.  The fish was running so hard he couldn’t get the rod out of the holder, so he loosened the drag, pulled it out and went back to work.  This fish fought like the second fish and pulled him out before cutting him off at about the same halfway up the leader spot as the second fish.  We’re wondering if the scute of an ulua cut the line so far away from the hook but I guess we won’t know until we land one.  I was wondering why I wasn’t hooking them or anything for that matter.

Out of desperation I dropped my opelu half down, cranked up about 40 ft, and held the rod to feel for bait stealers.  Soon I felt some hard taps, then stronger tugs, then the clicker sang.  After so many missed fish I expected this one to drop the bait but it stayed on and I fought my first fish on the Bucara/Trinidad setup.  It felt awkward compared to my short jig rod and bait casting reel. The rod had a stiff tip and long butt, and I had to think about laying the line as I retrieved.  The fish felt strong, much stronger than a hage so I was hoping it was the target fish.  It was, and the circle hook was securely tucked in the 3lb uku’s mouth.  That was the only fish I caught that day, but I was stoked to get my personal best.

In this video you can see that I wasn’t smart enough to put the rod in the holder and hold the leader with my left hand while netting with my right. I kept trying to use the rod tip to pull the fish close enough but the 6ft leader was too long!

We tried to fish that area harder and I finally got a strong, steady pulling fish. Thankfully it cut the leader within 15 seconds and I didn’t have to do big fish isometrics like Frank did. We were nearly out of bait and drinking water, so we trolled our baits in.  I put on a whole frozen halalu and it got hit hard but the fish had only taken the back half in its mouth and missed the hook in its head.

When we got to the beach we both had trouble standing up. 6.5 hrs seated makes our old bodies stiff!

The uku had a small fish, a red opae and a crab in its stomach; the omilu’s stomach was empty.  Frank gave the omilu to our friend who made my custom transducer rod and mounting plate so streamlined I could pull the large transducer through the water with minimal drag.  That Garmin 44cv fish finder/gps has been critical in putting us on the deep water fish.

Frank put slices of ginger and diced chung choy (pickled turnip) into the cuts on the side of the uku and steamed it.  After it was cooked he took it out and drizzled shoyu, then poured hot peanut oil over the fish, then garnished with green onions, parsley and shiitake mushrooms. He said was “ono” and he’ll be targeting uku next time and getting his workout on land.

We have to fine tune the size of the hooks we’re using to increase our catch rate, and get better with the conventional reels. I did put a small scratch in the Trinidad, probably while transporting the rods after our long day, but I guess it doesn’t hurt too badly.

 

What does the Hawaiian Yellowtail aka Hiramasa taste like?

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This winter, an abundance of “Hawaiian Yellowtail” have been caught in deep water spots from both shore and boats.    Not to be confused with the common kahala (greater amberjack) or the kampachi (almaco amberjack), these true yellowtail look like a smaller version of the Japanese or California yellowtail, and have been known to show up occasionally but not in the numbers seen in the last few months.  Maybe the water has been a little cooler than our normal winters and they found it to their liking?  The local jiggers have been referring to them as “hiramasa” which is the name of one of the two Japanese yellowtails. The other Japanese yellowtail is called hamachi when it is small and farm raised, or buri, when it is larger, and is usually wild caught.  Confusing I know.  But anyway, we were very interested to hear how the Hawaiian Yellowtail tastes.  On social media, I’ve heard people say it made great sashimi but I hadn’t heard a definitive description of the taste.

So Erik, our boat popping and jigging enthusiast, went searching for them and his dad Edwin jigged one up.  Erik passed the fish on to Thad, our JDM product expert and sashimi connoisseur, to properly review.

Erik:
Me and Dad decided to fish during the Super Bowl since my team wasn’t in it (49ers) and Dad has no interest in football.  We did want to catch the end of the game so we decided that we’d stay closer to shore.

We departed from Kahalu’u on our 14’ aluminum Lowe boat with Yamaha 9.9hp tiller around kickoff and headed toward a different spot than our normal jigging area.

My favorite type of fishing is topwater so I decided to start with that since there was a lot of rubbish around.  On my first cast of a 60gram plug I was quickly hit by something that let go almost as fast as it hit.  No drag was pulled but my pole definitely bent and I got excited.  My dad was able to catch the bend at the corner of his eye and quickly dropped his 2 ounce jig to the bottom.  On my 4th or 5th cast I got a chase and saw the electric yellow line of the elusive hiramasa.  I could tell the fish was getting used to seeing the plug and switched to another topwater lure that I’ve hooked mahi on.  The masa seemed to like the faster retrieve so I reeled as fast as I could for 5 revolutions, paused for half a second and continued the pattern.  Bango!  Hit again . . . Pulled drag for less than a second before coming free again.

I noticed my dad was jigging like he would in our kahala area and he thought that it was a kahala so I recommended he speed jig all the way to the surface.  Well, he took my advice and got the masa.  Fight wasn’t too long but the fish certainly gave a strong fight.  From the way I watched him fight and the way he explained the feeling of the fish, Dad and I both agreed that the hiramasa was pound-for-pound a better scrap than kahala.

After we snapped some pics I knew I wanted to get Thad’s input on the taste of the fish so I went home to clean it to give to him the next day. As soon as we got back to land I cleaned it but didn’t find anything in the stomach.

Thad:
I had been seeing recent social media reports of the rare Hawaiian hiramasa coming up in unusual numbers this winter and the number one thought that always crossed my mind – other than how I can catch my own, was how they tasted in comparison to the farmed hamachi that we are all familiar with.  Well, I was extremely lucky to receive one of these rare fish from Erik, who’s dad recently caught his second one on their boat on O‘ahu’s eastside.  I’ll share with you my thoughts on this prized catch.

My favorite way to consume any fresh ocean fish is raw as sashimi.  If it can be eaten that way, that’s how it’s going down. Aside from it being the easiest (and laziest) way to prepare fish, it allows you to really enjoy the unique flavor and texture characteristics of each species, without any sauce or spices to mask its flavor.  I do add a dab of shoyu with wasabi which seems to enhance its flavor.

The fish Erik gave me weighed approximately 3 pounds, already cleaned and scaled, and wrapped with paper towels and additional towels stuffed in it to absorb any blood or water to keep it as fresh as possible.  Man, I need to learn from Erik because when I give away, it’s left uncleaned and double bagged in plastic shopping bags.  The fish still had its yellow stripe and yellow fins but apparently much of its vibrancy was already lost when compared to the picture Erik took of it the day before.

 

 

 

 

I cut the fish into two fillets and sliced one into bite sized morsels to eat right away.  The white meat was slightly pink, much like papio.  I could tell from handling the meat that it was leaner than the farmed hamachi.  I could feel very little fat or oil on my hands.  I dipped the end of the sashimi into the shoyu and did see a small oil sheen form on the surface so there was obviously some fat in the meat.

The texture was definitely like hamachi.  Compared to papio, it was softer than white and omilu but very similar to yellow spot.  The perfect texture for sashimi.  I would say the fattiness of the hiramasa was also similar to yellow spot, although I recently had one from deeper and colder waters that was a little fattier than this hiramasa.  The flavor was distinctly hamachi without its sometimes overpowering oiliness.  I was surprised how great its flavor was, even though it contained less fat than hamachi.

I have to say, I really enjoyed the Hawaiian hiramasa and its unique characteristics.  It was similar yet so different from our other local fish.  It would definitely rank it up there as one of the better eating nearshore fish in our waters.  I hope you all get the chance to hook and sample one while they’re still around.

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scott

Undergunned against the creatures of the deep – catch and cook

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Holy smokers, talk about action!  OK, where do I begin?

Frank and I were able to paddle out on a sheet glass day to fish a spot we were eyeing the couple of months. The conditions were so perfect Frank exclaimed that it was “an ono kind of day” because the last time we had such good conditions he caught an ono on a jig, our first legitimate pelagic.  We both had a grab bag of baits we gathered from our freezers. Oama, halalu, opelu and ika.  We hoped we had our bases covered.

The water was so clear I didn’t need my fish finder to tell me there were schools of fish around.  At 40 ft we were followed by at least 30 aha and Frank kept one after it pulled off his frozen oama one too many times.  In about 60 ft of water we could see 7 inch silver fish passing beneath us.  All this activity raised our expectations even further.

A few kayaks and boats were already at the reef almost 2 miles out but the area was so large we had plenty of room to work the shallow bottom fishing grounds.  We started with frozen oama and my initial baits were surgically removed. Was this the work of aha?  Frank trolled up a wahanui, also called fork tailed snapper or small toothed jobfish, a good eating nearshore snapper rarely found on Oahu anymore.  I went deeper to avoid the aha and made sure my oama made it quickly to the bottom. I set the hook on a fish and was surprised to find out an 8 inch FL moana ate its goatfish cousin. Watching this video, I realized I crank up small fish too quickly because I think they’re hage.

Frank topped my efforts by catching a moana on a jig!

We fished the reef and missed a lot of strikes on the frozen oama.  One fish even cut my oama in half and missed the front and back hooks!  I got tired of this and put on a 6 inch frozen halalu which was much larger than an oama.  I didn’t change the small hooks. I just nose hooked the halalu and stuck the back hook near its dorsal fin, midway down the fish.  Dropped it down to the bottom in 80 ft of water and something hit it hard but missed the hooks again and left the head of the halalu.  While it was fun to have so much action, it was frustrating to miss so many bites.

I followed marks on the fish finder in to the 60ft depth but wasn’t getting anything good when Frank radio’d me saying he was on a floating scum line past the reef and missed a “pole benda” on halalu.  That was good enough to get me out to the deep.  As I paddled towards him the depth quickly dropped from 90 ft to 115 ft.  There weren’t a lot of fish marks on this ledge but I had heard that predators hang out at the drop offs.  I put on the front half of a frozen opelu, more than 4 inches in length and 2 inches in diameter.  The two hooks I was using looked really tiny buried in that chunk of bait.  Since the drift was so slow, I could drop down the bait and fish almost straight up and down.  I felt some heavy taps and then something strong pulled drag!  I lifted the rod, the fish was battling for a few seconds and then came off.  Arrggghh. That was a good fish.  I put on my second to the last piece of opelu, dropped down, and felt the thump again. This time I let the fish eat and it took off on a slow steady run. Then it really pulled line off the reel and it looked like it was running straight down but it was following the contour of the bottom and running to deeper water.  I was using my light Trevala S rod and Calcutta 300 TE level wind reel with only a 25lb fluoro leader and had a feeling this wasn’t gonna end well.

Here’s what the fight looked like after I removed all the landmarks.  Sorry about the waterspot on the lens.  When I frantically turned the camera on I must’ve hit the lens with my hand.

That fish felt bigger than the 30lb ulua I caught on the Big Island on a boat, and was definitely the largest fish I hooked on a kayak.  I had one more piece of opelu and Frank was fishing his halalu bait.  I put on a pre-tied leader of 40lb fluoro with slightly larger hooks and hooked the opelu in the nostril and where the front half ended.  A few seconds after it reached the bottom something pulled hard and missed the tiny hooks again.  The opelu skull with some hanging flesh was left on my front hook. I didn’t have larger hooks and didn’t have anymore opelu so I dropped the skull down. Tap, tap… wait…….pull….hookup.  I waited for the line to burn off the reel but this fish wasn’t as large as the previous eaters of the opelu.

This is what is was.  I gave it the bends by cranking it up too quickly.

After so many missed strikes I was stoked to land that uku. We were out of halalu and opelu baits and a bunch of humpbacked whales started breaching way too close to us so we worked our way to the inside to bounce the sand for nabeta. No nabeta found but Frank and I got a moana each.

Wahanui on the left, smaller cylindrical steaks of aha on the upper right, and the two red pieces of moana on lower right.

Frank fried the moana, wahanui and aha and said the wahanui and aha tasted similar, with mild white meat that needed a bit of sauce for flavor and moisture.  His wife liked those fish but he enjoyed the taste of the moana even more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My wife and I are neophyte fish cookers so we got a lot of advice from friends to properly prepare the uku.  I cleaned it more than 24 hrs after catching it and that was the reason it smelled a little fishy when steaming in a colander in a large pot of water.  I had placed ginger slices in slits I cut into the fish and we determined it was cooked by inserting a chopstick into the thickest parts of the fish and pulling it out clean. The fish was then placed on a dish and we drizzled shoyu, hot peanut oil and topped it off with cilantro.  Ponzu sauce was added to our individual portions.  The fish wasn’t fishy at all and tasted really ono despite the simplicity of the  recipe.  Friends told me later that it’s critical to keep the fish as cold as possible on the kayak and keep it cold at home. Ideally, it should be cleaned immediately to stop the bacterial breakdown which causes the fishy smell and taste.

Frank and I were severely undergunned against the size of the fish that would eat a big chunk of bait in the deep.  We’re over hauling our tackle by using large circle hooks, 60 – 100 lb leader and small-medium sized conventional reels with clickers.  Stay tuned for our next nearshore deep water adventure!

Fishing has been slow so we went torching!

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Friends from SoCal were in town a few weeks ago and I wanted to take them fishing but the nearshore prospects had been so dismal.  I opted to take them torching (reef exploring at night) instead.  The conditions were perfect for that: minus tide shortly after dark with very light winds.  Ben and his wife Zooey had snorkeled in HI but had never explored the night time reef before, so they were super excited.  They happen to own the Promar / Ahi USA company that sells nets, head lamps, gloves and air pumps, as well as the Live Deception jigs and floating landing net mentioned on this site, so torching would be a fun way to test their own gear. I hadn’t torched in a few years and had never gone when the moon was as large as it was.  I was hoping we’d at least see critters moving around in the well lit sky but feared they’d be harder to net than when they’re sleeping under a dark moon.

We didn’t take any spears and didn’t plan on keeping anything besides off season oama but they were hoping to at least see the night tako and white eel they had heard so much about.

When we got to the water Ben immediately spotted a 9 inch weke in an area I had just quickly walked past on earlier trips.  If the fish was sleeping, we would have tried to place the net on top of the fish, but I had a feeling this one was ready to make its escape.  Zooey expertly used a net in each hand and chased the weke into the net with the squared edge.  Impressive for her first attempt ever!

 

Ben spotted a slightly smaller weke shortly after, and netted it before I could video the capture.

I was amazed at their dexterity to net fish under the big moon but this school sized oama was wise enough to slip away.

We were just 30 mins into our expedition and they had already seen more fish than I had ever spotted in the “dead zone”.

Ben is using the Promar 180 lumen headlamp, collapsible net with tangle free mesh, and latex grip gloves.

The moray looked whitish when illuminated, hence the mistaken identity.

I really wanted them to experience the area that normally has the most sea creatures so I explored ahead but turned to see them huddling over something in their net.  They thought Ben had cornered a harmless white eel but were a little shaken when I explained that they had netted a sharp fanged moray eel!

We made it to the section that normally holds a greater variety of fish and Zooey gently netted a moorish idol.

She followed that up by coaxing the odd looking saron or marble shrimp into the net.

Ben gently placed it back near its home.

The Toby puffer is the dark oval thing in the bottom right.

Best of all, Zooey found a cute little Toby puffer to replace the one that had been the mascot of this site.  We saw a small night tako but no white eels and much less critters after the first 2 hours. Ben and Zooey really appreciated the night life they encountered in the shallows, something most Hawaii visitors don’t get a chance to experience.

Except for the largest weke that got spooked and jumped out of the tub on its second night of captivity, the other fish are alive and doing well as pets in my tub at home.  Catching oama by hook during the day is much more efficient than scooping them at night, but it was fun to hunt them that way.

Like his/her predecessor, the new Toby quickly got used to being in captivity and swims to the surface to be fed, spitting water at us.

Best Tackle Shops on Oahu

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The guys who have been sharing their perspective through guest posts have provided this tackle shop review of the shops from Waipahu to Kaneohe.  A team of 5 contributed to this, maximizing coverage and minimizing bias.

Brian’s Fishing Supply – On King near Piikoi. Old school tackle shop space with a lot of tackle crammed in.  Will leave you alone until you ask a question and often Brian and his staff have great advice you never would have thought of.  They specialize in rod building, slide baiting, bait casting and whipping and have the latest products not carried anywhere else.  They also do rod & reel repair and stock the parts most commonly needed.  Prices are comparable to other shops on the island. Make sure you check the No Parking times if you park on King Street.  Small parking lot behind the store but you have to access through a narrow driveway.

Charley’s Fishing Supply – Kakaako.  Charley’s has been around, at other locations, for more than 50 years.  They have a lot of hard to find items like resin float balls, compact water proof tackle boxes, jig replacement hooks, etc. at really good prices.  If you haven’t been to Charley’s lately, you need to check out their updated inventory of local, mainland and Japanese lures.  There’s always a sale on the most popular rods and reels that are priced lower than anyone else on the island and have friendly, knowledgeable sales people. Try to pay in cash when possible.  Designated parking is limited to 3 stalls in the shared strip mall’s outdoor parking lot but there are metered stalls available on the exterior.

Ewa Beach Buy and Sell – Ewa Beach.  Small selection of fishing equipment but well stocked in Campania Lures, Flash Bombs and Hammer Bombs.  Comparable pricing and decent parking.

Hanapa’a Fishing Supply – Kalihi.  There’s also one in the Pearl Ridge Shopping Center.  They specialize in dive equipment (upstairs) and sell nets and netting that you can’t get anywhere else. They stock the basic dunking and whipping tackle. Comparable pricing, limited but usually sufficient parking if you go during off hours.

Hobietat – Kaimuki.  Combination radio control cars / model rockets / fishing tackle store.  Friendly staff, and the owner, Butch, is a very knowledgeable troller and diver.  Moderate selection with expert advice.  Street parking out front.

J & E Fishing Supply – Kalihi.  A throwback to the old mom & pop store where tackle was laid out in card board boxes and the front door was a roll up corrugated gate.   In this shop, the owners are a mother and daughter.  They have a large inventory of hooks and lead, whipping lures, trolling skirts and a surprising number of lower end rods in the back room.  J & E stocks more JDM lures than any where else on the island.  Very reasonable pricing.  Decent parking.

J Hara Store – Kaimuki.  This is the Oahu branch of their flagship Big Island store.  Located on the bottom floor, East side, of the complex on Waialae Avenue with Long’s and Times.  Store is larger than you would expect; half of it is hunting gear.  They stock the basic fishing and diving gear plus a lot of whipping lures and have great, unadvertised prices on Penn reels and carry the low to mid line of Daiwa reels.  Comparable pricing with regular advertised specials.  Check their freezer by the front door for fresh, frozen tako and other baits.  Parking is shared by a lot of businesses so can get busy during peak hours.

Kaya’s – Chinatown.  Talk about old school, Kaya’s looks like it did back in the day.  It’s a very small,  cramped shop but Raine is very friendly and helpful and the prices are very reasonable. They are known to have the best prices on lead but also sell hooks, swivels, hand nets, crabnets, poles, reels, floaters, tabis, slide gaffs, sand spikes, head lamps, rod building threads, knives, line, lures, etc.  You may have to pay for parking but if you buy enough lead you can offset that expense!

Maui Sporting Goods – Kapahulu.  This is really a dive shop but they have a limited selection of fishing equipment and are the only shop on the island that sells Major Craft Jigpara jigs.  Parking is challenging in this area.

McCully Bicycle and Sporting Goods – Moilili area. Despite their name, they have quite an inventory of standard and higher end fishing tackle and gear (whipping, plugging, slidebaiting, trolling, and diving) . Great prices on terminal tackle and basic goods like tabis and air pumps, but they rarely have sales.  Ample parking on Young St behind the store.

Nankos – Kaneohe. Tackle section on the small side but they also sell beer, ice, snacks, and cigarettes. They specialize in rod, reel and diving equipment repair.  Very knowledgeable friendly customer service but you have to ask for help otherwise they will leave you to wander. Easy parking in shared lot.

POP – Pier 38 near Nicos.  Large, clean air conditioned store, back half comprises of boating gear.  Good selection of basic fishing gear, whipping lures, deep drop jigs and trolling skirts. Comparable prices. Helpful staff and lots of parking in surrounding lots.

Roy’s Fishing Supply – Aiea/Hekaha.  Roy’s is the island’s Shimano Authorized Warranty Center.  They have a very impressive stock of off shore, shore casting, whipping, dive and rod building tackle/gear.  On the pricier side compared to the above shops, but they should have what you’re looking for.  When you’re in need of help, go up to the counter and ask.  Ample parking.

Waipahu Bicycle (Buster’s) – Waipahu.  Small selection of fishing tackle but a lot of shore casting expertise.  You have to ask for help to be assisted.

West Marine – On Nimitz Hwy near the piers.  Focused on boating related equipment but also has SUPs, kayaks and fishing tackle for sale.  Prices are MSRP unless there is a seasonal sale.  Great place to buy marine electronics, epirb, etc.  Knowledgeable staff and convenient parking.

 

 

 

Nearshore fishing has been very slow!

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The winter cold water doldrums are in full effect now.  Our group has tried wade fishing, SUP oama trolling and deep water kayak fishing the last few weeks with very little to show for it.  My fish finder was reading 73 degrees on the surface in the mid-morning.  Average water temp in July is 80 degrees so the nearshore predators must have gone somewhere warm to wait out the winter cold snap.

On our last kayak/SUP trip, the fish finder marked clouds of bait at 100 ft but my 2 hook damashi with one ika strip only caught hage at the very bottom.  Frank trolled a fresh dead oama from 10 to 80 ft and nothing bit. That has never happened before at this spot.

 

 

 

 

 

I kept bouncing the damashi with ika on one of the two hooks as I worked my way back to land.  An occasional hage would hit the ika and leave the unbaited fly alone.  Then I hooked something in 20ft of water that fought a little differently. I was surprised to bring up a small weke nono in such shallow water.  Had it been larger I would have kept it for poke.  In the second photo you can see that it has a predator’s mouth like the obake weke, much larger than the common white weke.

Since the fishing has been unproductive, the guys want to surf and gather bait until the bite picks up again.  I won’t bore you with the surf trip reports but if you’re interested, I could do some brief bait gathering updates.  Anyone interested in that?

Guest Post: Tie your own halalu flies!

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This post is from my fishing buddy Thad, who not only taught us how to catch halalu this past year, but also catches the bait we use to catch oama, and finds great deals on Japanese Domestic Model (JDM) lures so we can get the best stuff at reasonable prices.  Here’s how we did on that inaugural halalu training trip. Frank caught on quickly and I’ve since decided to avoid further halalu frustration.  Search for “halalu” in the search box on this site to see how we did on Trip 2 and Trip 3.

Aloha Hawai‘i Nearshore Fishers!  A reader of Scott’s blog had asked for tips on how to make the flies that were mentioned in his first halalū article so I was asked if I’d be willing to write a simple “how-to.”  Hopefully my first guest blog is coherent enough for readers to understand as I can tend to ramble on with my thoughts.

So this past season, Scott, Frank, Erik and I gave halalū fishing a try – my first time going after these juvenile akule in over 12 years.  Me and a buddy of mine used to frequent the usual west side spots every weekend for akule many years ago, jigging simple homemade flies on ultralight gear.  I had never used these flies for halalū so when I was preparing for our trip, I got my usual plastic strips and red beads ready but decided to take a few flies with me just in case.

When we arrived at the spot, there were already a few fishermen whipping the school but two individuals in particular were hooking up consistently on what looked like flies very similar to the ones I made for akule.  Encouraged by this, I tied a fly to my 3lb test fluorocarbon leader and cast just past the edge of the pile.  Immediately, a halalū swallowed my fly and got hooked deep in the throat.  I was happy to know the flies I made over 12 years ago still worked!

Since that first trip, I’ve noticed many people using similar flies for halalū with a lot of success.  It could be that people were using flies for halalū back then as well and I was just too dense to notice.  I also see flies being sold online and in stores now.  We had to make our own back then and couldn’t buy them even if we wanted to, but you can’t beat the feeling of catching fish on a lure you made yourself.

I’ll just throw in my little disclaimer here.  I don’t consider myself an expert fly maker in any way – not even close.  I was never shown how to make these flies so I’m sure there are better, more efficient methods of making these but I think I can at least cover the basic concepts to help get you started.

I should begin with a list of the supplies I use.

  1. A simple fly tying vise
  2. Lumaflex thread cut to 2” to 2 1/4″ lengths
  3. Flash thread (optional)
  4. Beads
  5. AH style gold hooks size 12 or 13
  6. Monofilament line
  7. Scissors

I recently bought a cheap vise online to replace a broken one.  I later saw the same vise being sold at a local tackle shop at the same price so if you can, you should buy this locally.  This vise easily clamps to the edge of any work table.

The lumaflex thread is basically a spandex thread that comes in a variety of colors so you should buy several to experiment with different color combinations.  Lumaflex or similar spandex thread can also be found at many local tackle shops.  The beads I use are made of glass but I have used plastic ones too.  Same with the lumaflex, I would buy several different colors to try.  The important thing with the beads is finding ones that will be able to slide past the barb and sharp curve at the bottom of the hook.  The hooks I use are AH style gold in size 12 or 13.  Gold seems to be the preferred color for most people so I go with that.  The monofilament line I use is 8 or 10lb test. For this example, I’ll be making a fly using a size 12 gold hook, blue and red beads, white wings, aurora blue flash thread, and orange body.

The first step is to slide two beads onto the hook, past the barb and sharp curve.  They should be able to slide all the way to the eye of the hook.  The hook is then clamped to the vise.

 

 

 

Thread one end of the mono in through the bottom of the second bead, then back through the same bead, creating a loop.  Place 4 or 5 pieces of the pre-cut lumaflex thread and optional flash thread in the mono loop and slowly pull both ends of the mono.  Most flies I’ve seen use 4 lumaflex threads, creating 8 wings.  As a personal preference, I use 5 threads to create 10 wings on my flies.

This is where it gets a little tricky, especially with glass beads because they crack easily.  Carefully pull both ends of the mono until the centers of the lumaflex get pulled through the bead and begin showing on the other side.  I then remove the mono and slide the second bead up against the first one.  Adjust the wings so they fan out nice and even.  The tension in the bottom bead should be enough to keep it from sliding back down.

In the past, I left the fly like this as you can see in the picture Scott posted in his first halalū article, but I have now been finishing the flies with additional lumaflex wrapped around the shank of the hook.  This helps gives added support to keep the bottom bead from sliding down and gives it a nicer, finished look.  When I’m done, I remove the fly from the vise and clip the wings to the desired length.

Hopefully this simple how-to will help get you started on making your own homemade halalū/akule flies.  I would love to hear of better, more efficient methods if anyone is willing to share.  Mahalo for reading!

Update:  Thad details how to fish this fly.

For your halalu fly rig, I would suggest you run the lightest egg lead you can cast which will allow you to reach just beyond the school. The lighter lead will not scare the fish as much as a heavier one. I run 2 or 3lb test fluorocarbon leader. As for the length of the leader, look at how long the other fishermen are running them for that spot. I use a 5ft ultralight rod and normally run my leader about 6-7 feet. There are some spots where I would run leaders as long as 10-12 feet. It depends on the wind, the amount of room you have to cast, and how easily the fish are spooked. Obviously, you shouldn’t run a long leader when it’s windy or crowded. You don’t want to snag your neighbor on a cast.

I cast my lead just past the school if possible. Make sure you keep track of where your neighbor’s lines are before you cast and know the approximate location and distance of their lines. I let your lead sink all the way if the bottom is snag free. Otherwise, let it sink a little but begin your retrieve before it reaches the bottom. There are many retrieval techniques. I like to jig my fly up from the bottom, and through the school. I hold the rod with my right hand near the stripper guide and shake the rod up and down quickly as I slowly crank the reel. Others like a much slower, sweeping movement of the fly. Watch your neighbors and try different techniques to find what works best for you.

Don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already.  Lots more Guest Posts, How-Tos and Recipes are in the works.  Thanks for reading.

If you haven’t seen the site in a while, plz check it out

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If you’ve been subscribing to posts, I’d like to thank you for your loyal support.

It’s really easy just to skim the contents of the post in the email you are sent but if you’ve been doing so you may have been missing out on some recent changes.  The easiest way to get to the site from the email is to click on the title “If you haven’t seen the site in a while, plz check it out” above, and when you’re viewing this post on the website, click on the links off the main menu.

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scott

Fish in the deep didn’t bite, awa awa did on the inside

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Screen shot from Session 5 video. Still a little low res, sorry.

The forecast called for light winds so Frank paddled his trusty fishing SUP and I took the Scupper Pro.   My plan was to try to get better with my new fish finder and learn how to fish the damashi. Frank intended to troll a frozen oama out, and then troll and jig various lures. The bait cloud was at 130 ft this time, but wasn’t showing up as dense on the Garmin EchoMap 44CV as previous bait clouds had. I dropped the damashi down but nothing bit. I’m guessing the bait was a smaller fish than opelu but I sure would like to have pulled up a bait to see what they are.

The trade winds blew over 10 mph at times so we kept paddling in a ways to reset our drift. I put the time in, dropping the damashi on various bait marks.  Frank trolled between drifts and jigged off the bottom.  Not a single touch for either of us so when the winds turned offshore and increased to 12 mph we went further in.

I had marks that looked like single, large fish, at 40 feet but they wouldn’t take a jig.  I purposely wasn’t carrying bait, so I could focus on my damashi education, but was wondering if they would have taken something real.  Frank then hooked a fish on frozen oama in 15 ft of water. Awa awa!  He called me on the walkie talkie but I misunderstood when he said “Hanapa’a………….awa” and thought he said “Hanapa’a……..off” because the fish came off. It’s very hard to push the button to talk when you have an angry fish on your line.  The fish jumped twice, then made some long runs, and spun his board around 4 times.  It was so feisty he had to dispatch it with a knife after he netted it.  I’m bummed I wasn’t able to video the action.

We fished the 10 to 20 ft depth for another hour and Frank landed a roi. I finally hooked something  on the Gulp grub that I threaded on a small damashi hook. It looked dark and when it shook off about 5 ft from the surface I thought I saw red.  Moana? Roi?

The action was very slow except for Frank’s awa awa.  Was it because the tide was so slack on this day?

Frank cleaned the awa awa and roi at the beach and fed the ecosystem with the scraps.

 

 

 

Here’s how he made his delicious awa awa fish paddies:

Fry some minced garlic and chopped round onion in oil, then add ground pork and chung choy (salted turnip).  Brown and cool.

Then add a little water to the awa awa paste to make it smooth. Mix in green onion, water chestnuts and grated carrots.  Mix in the ground pork mixture and form patties.  Fry the patties, being careful not to overcook them.  Drizzle oyster sauce or plum sauce and grind ’em!

Frank fried the Roi and you can see it at the top end of the pan. Roi is actually a very delicious grouper, and small ones from this area haven’t been reported as cig-hot.  He said it tasted very good, and plans to steam the next one he catches.

I’m seriously concerned about fishing the deep on this side of the island since off-shore winds seem to come up most of the time and cause us to scramble back in for safety.

 

Promar ProFloat Landing Net

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I’ve been using the smaller 13.5″ x 18.5″ ProFloat landing net by Promar every week for more than 2 yrs now, wade fishing, kayak fishing and boat fishing.  It floats, can be used as a temporary bait hold, has snag proof mesh that even treble hooks don’t foul, has an elastic lanyard, and best of all, it’s cheap!  It sells for about $20 – $25 in the local tackle shops.

Look closely, there’s a tagged kaku recovering in the net

 

My net is still going strong with no wear whatsoever.  The only time I couldn’t land a fish with it was when a sharp toothed aha was too long to fit in the deep net and I didn’t want it falling out in my lap.

When I’ve used friends’ nets to land fish, invariably we’d be wrestling with a hooked fish that was connected to the net by the other hooks.  Do yourself a favor and buy this net.

When is the best time to fish in Hawaii? – 2018 Update

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When I started this blog in 2014, I was trying to figure out the most productive conditions to fish, and as I gathered info I wrote a post titled “When is the best time to fish?”.   It’s been one of the most popular posts because folks are always searching for that topic on the web.  The basic info still applies but I’ve experienced the following exceptions to the rules.

 

Presence of bait fish and easy access for predators to hunt bait trump other factors.

In general, I’m fishing for predator fish that eat bait fish.  Bait fish aren’t always around but when I do find them, I always check for hungry predators stalking nearby.  Certain inshore bait fish seem to attract predators better than others.  Often, the oama school will be left alone but papio and kaku will be attacking the iao (Hawaiian silverside) and nehu (Hawaiian anchovy) schools.  Some shallow spots are best to pursue predators when the tide rises high enough to allow them to reach the bait, other deeper flats have more predator action when the tide is lower, limiting the area bait can flee.  Each spot is unique. Fish the individual spots enough to learn the patterns.

 

In deep water, presence of bait and moving water often trump other factors.

Shallow inshore areas need enough water for predators to feel safe hunting, which usually means the rising tide is a great time to fish.  Deep offshore areas always have enough water, and the overhead sun has less negative effect than in the the shallows, so what seemed to be the key factors are presence of bait fish and a moving current.  Current can be caused by tidal movement, wind and waves.

 

Consider the Hawaiian Moon Calendar prediction.

Besides tracking tide, wind and size of moon, I started noting the 30 day moon phase of each outing. The ancient Hawaiians noted each day/night of the 30 phases from New Moon to Full Moon and came up with general observations for each of these phases.  Some of the observations/predictions are counter intuitive, for example some of the phases leading up to the Full Moon are expected to be good fishing days, whereas I thought they’d be unproductive during the daylight hours because the predators were hunting at night.  I’m still accumulating catch data to compare with the Hawaiian Moon Calendar predictions but there does seem to be a correlation between the Calendar’s prediction and my results.  Log as much info as you can about each fishing trip in a way where you can determine patterns.

Big improvements coming!

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In order to provide diversified and interesting content, I’ve enlisted the help of friends to Guest Post in their areas of expertise.  More How-Tos and Product Reviews will be also be added.

If you have any other improvement suggestions, please reply or send me a comment. And if you haven’t subscribed already, please do, so you don’t miss any posts.

Thanks for your faithful support,

scott

Guest Post: Shibi catch of a lifetime on aluminum skiff

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This post is from my fishing buddy Erik who has taken me out on both his 14 ft aluminum skiff and 16 ft Livingston, and taught me how to jig two years ago.  He is a very talented videographer with a huge following on Instagram (@fishoahu).  We’ve also shore fished together but didn’t do nearly as well land-based. 😉

Aloha fellow lawaia,

This is the story of my first shibi.

This day I planned to go out for a half-day whipping/plugging session from our 14ft. Aluminum Lowe skiff paired with a 9.9hp Yamaha tiller.  My dad (usual fishing partner) was in a training off-island and weather was calling for very calm winds so I invited my cousin’s boyfriend, Kekoa along with me.  Kekoa’s only other time with us had been using small poppers on our 16ft Livingston a few weeks prior.  We didn’t do so well that day so I wanted to see if I could put him on a fish.

Swap Meet kage!

The night before we headed out I packed my usual gear along with my new Garmin Striker Fish Finder/Chart plotter, a $10 Kage I found at the swap meet and one lure that was speaking to me.  I’d been reading and seeing a lot of posts about the Shimano Head Dip lure but didn’t have one to throw.  Most of my time spent throwing top-water lures has been with poppers that have cupped-faces.  A 60 gram GT Fight Club floating stickbait, “Oddyssey” was thrown into my lure box along with some other poppers.

The morning of our trip, Kekoa and I met at 6am at my grandma Filomena’s oceanfront rental property, loaded up the boat and were on the water just before seven.  The skies were clear and the water inside Kaneohe Bay looked like a lake.  Anxious about getting Kekoa a bite, I hastily stopped at a reef where I’ve had pretty consistent bites from papios.   Since the wind was non-existent and the tide was at its lowest and heading up, the drift was very slow.  After a few casts with nothing chasing or hitting, I quickly decided to head out to deeper waters.  My plan was to get as far and fast as we could to fish places that are typically less-fished (because of normal rough conditions) while it was still early.

Only 15 minutes into the full-throttle run I spot a school of bait-fish “snapping” at the top of the water.  I motioned to Kekoa and tell him “look over there!”  His eyes lit up and I tell him to put on a lure and get ready.  The school looked to be maybe 15ft. circumference? and they glistened at the top of calm seas.  We could see clear to the bottom of the reef and I guessed we were in about 30 ft of water.  Kekoa put a yo-zuri hydro popper on his Daiwa setup and waited for me to position the boat.  I pull up close to the school and Kekoa starts casting around it.  I turned the motor off to drift and just observed the school a bit while Kekoa was fishing.  I didn’t know what the bait fish was so I stood up in the boat and thought that I saw bluish back with yellow tails . . . Opelu?!?  I’ve never heard of opelu schooling on the top like that and it definitely wasn’t nenue or awa (what I normally see) so I was puzzled.  The school of bait seemed mostly unaffected by Kekoa’s popper but sometimes the school would scurry below the surface if the lure got too close.  The school would always reappear at the surface after a few moments.  Since Kekoa was on top-water and I could see that the bait fish weren’t getting hit by big predators I decided to try drop a damashi to catch one of the bait fish.  While I’m setting up my rig I see Kekoa hooked-up.  He’s fighting the fish well and it’s giving him some small runs.  He gets the fish boat-side and is smiling ear-to-ear.  Kekoa easily hoists the 11” omilu into the boat and we feel that the pressure to produce is now off.

 

Notice the ceramic eye that popped out, exposing metal ring

After repositioning a couple times to stay near the school we managed to get really lucky and have the school nearly run into the boat.  When the school got really close I hooked a small fish on my damashi.  It was a medium sized la’i.  Was that what that school of bait was?!?  I rigged the la’i up for live-bait, Kekoa continued whipping and I decided to try out the new GTFC floating stick bait.   I threw the stickbait out and watched it sail across the clear blue sky before a loud splash-down.  I kept the rod-tip low and gave the lure some small sweeps.  I liked the way the lure disappeared for a second and then reappeared at the surface making the water move around it.  On my 3rd cast . . . BOOM! I got a big blowup on the lure.  Kekoa quickly turned his head and looked at me and I realized he heard what happened.  Because the wind was so light the bait fish-snapping sounded like someone nervously tapping a pen on a desk and when the fish came up to my lure it sounded like someone loudly slapping the water.  The fish didn’t stick or come back for the lure so I inspected it and found a couple nicks.  There were no scratches in the lure so I could only guess it was an ulua.  I also looked at my daiwa coastal rod and saw that the ceramic inner part of the eye separated from the 4th guide.  There was enough pressure to fit the ceramic piece back into place but I wasn’t too confident it would last the rest of the session without causing damage or knots.  After that hit, our hopes grew but we were having a harder time staying around the bait pile as the sun rose.  While we kept repositioning I continually checked the live-bait but nothing was happening to it.

At 8ish we decide to go deep and try bottom fish.   On the way to the bottom fishing area we spot the school and are were positioned to get a better look because the sun was at our back.  I stand up and see the bait fish and then to my surprise I see an approximately 3ft long black-backed fish right in the middle of the school.  I didn’t know what to make of it so I slowed down and tossed the live-bait back out to troll it with the school, hoping that the big fish would see an easy breakfast.  The school was getting harder and harder to keep up with because it wasn’t staying at the surface as long and starting to go deep.  We also noticed that there was more than one school of that bait fish.  Nothing was happening to my live-bait after 10 minutes so I pulled it up and throttled towards the bottom fishing area.  We arrive at the bottom fishing spot and I look at the fish finder and see some small stuff at 100 ft.  I drop a damashi rig and Kekoa continues on topwater.  I wasn’t getting anything deep but was having fun watching the new fish finder.  Our drift was pushing us from deep to shallow and noticed that visibility was great to 80 feet.  I wasn’t getting bit on the damashi after a couple long drifts so I went back to topwater with the GTFC Odyssey lure.  We were still seeing the bait schools which gave us hope.

We were drifting into 60 feet of water when I got the bites I’d never forget.  I stuck with the same retrieve that caught the interest of the previous fish.  I was able to get a hookup on the third cast but the fish quickly came off.  My sixth cast proved that “keep casting” pays off.  I didn’t realize that I was filming during the hookup as I usually turn my camera on after I’ve hooked-up (which is why I didn’t get the blistering first run and chase-down with the boat).  I realized after I watched the footage that I turned the camera on while bottom fishing because I had a fish on that got off and then forgot to stop recording.  In the video after the hookup and when the fish started taking the first run you’ll see my hand go over the camera.  That’s when I thought I was turning the camera on!  What happened between that time and when I finally turned the camera back on was lots of excitement followed by some nervousness.  When I turned the camera off during the initial run the fish dumped about 1/2 my spool very quickly.  The fish headed down and then toward deeper water.  I realized then that I didn’t have a small fish on and told Kekoa that I wanted to turn the motor on in case I had to really chase the fish.  I started the motor and the fish was still running so I put the boat into gear and headed towards it while gaining some line back.  Once I was over the fish I put the boat into neutral and Kekoa had cleared the deck and was in position to help me land whatever was at the end of my line.  While watching me fight the shibi he noticed that the red blinking light on my GoPro wasn’t running like it usually is while filming.  I quickly looked down to see that it was off and was so bummed that it wasn’t filming but was grateful he noticed so that I could turn it on.  Anyhow, here’s the edited video of what ensued:

 

 

The video tells the majority of the story but aside from some prayers here’s some things that kept racing through my mind during the battle:

“is that ceramic eye going to pop-off on one of these runs?”

“is my drag setting too loose/tight?”

“why the hell didn’t we bring a gaff?”

Since the last part of the video was cut-off due to my sd card not having available space here’s what happened:  We realized we had to secure the fish with the kage and Kekoa gripped it tightly while watching the fish’s every move.  I started to slowly scoot over to the opposite side of the skiff to counter balance Kekoa’s weight and give my pole more leverage to get the fish boat side.  The fish was near the top of the water on the next go around and Kekoa hit the fish square in the body.  The fish splashed hard as it freed itself from the kage, Kekoa held onto the kage and the fish was free to take another run.  The fish tried to swim away but I could feel that Kekoa hit the fish where it hurt.  I saw blood trailing only 10 feet to where the fish was and could feel the “fight” was leaving the fish.  I quickly angled my rod around for Kekoa to spear the Shibi with the securing blow and this time the fish could not swim off the kage.  Kekoa moved fast to grab the tail and expertly lifted the fish into the boat.  WE. WERE. . . what’s a word for ecstatic-elated-relieved-overwhelmed? Because that’s what we were.  We immediately low-fived and let out some yell’s that I swear could’ve been heard from Hawaii Kai.

Erik holding the Oddyssey, Kekoa holding the shibi

I never expected a catch like this and the amount of ice and size of cooler showed it.  I knew that we had to make sure that the fish was taken care of so that the meat stayed fresh, so we immediately bled it and headed back in.  The entire 25 minute ride back was full of talking about the battle, looking at the fish and Kekoa patting the fish and saying “Brrahh!!! what?!?!?” As if checking to see if it was real and not a dream.  When we got back to my grandma’s beach house we put the fish on an old rusty spring scale and it read 34lbs.  That evening I cut up the fish and invited some family over for some fresh sashimi.  The fish was shared with family, friends and even my son’s teachers.

Erik with his hard earned catch

I really wish that I got Kekoa securing the fish and bringing it onto the boat on video.  Our elation once that fish was on-deck cannot be described with words.  If I were to try I would say that it was one of those moments where there’s an instant bond made with someone due to a life-changing event.  Though this is not a 100lb ahi or 1000lb marlin it meant a lot to me to be able to land it on the gear I did.  Also, my grandma Filomena passed away a few weeks prior to this catch.  She was the matriarch of my dad’s side of the family and a huge reason why I get to fish from a boat with ease and as often as I do.  During the fight I was thanking her and praying that she help me get it in the boat.  She came through in the afterlife just like she always did on Earth.

Big thanks to Kekoa and my Grandma Filomena.

Drag was set just enough to not bend the hooks completely.

 

 

2nd kayak damashi attempt

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It rained really hard last week and I waited a day before attempting to kayak fish while the storm system was blocking the trade winds  Expecting brown water, I was stunned to see so much debris on the beach.  The brown tint extended a half mile out of the protected bay.

My fishing buddies couldn’t make it but since it was forecast to be the lightest wind day that week, I paddled out for more damashi training.  Taking the advice of friends, I brought 4 to 8 oz lead weights with pre-tied line, short 2-hook damashi rigs and Gulp grups.  The best thing about the gear was that it was stuff I had around the house.  The lead weights were from my grandfather’s pre-1970 shore casting days.

On the previous outings I had marked clouds of bait with my new Garmin Echomap 44CV in the 100 to 125 ft depth range but on this day a bait cloud passed under me at 55 ft.  I dropped a damashi rig with 2 small artificial fish skin hooks weighted by a 4 oz torpedo sinker.  The weight was heavy enough to sink straight down and after the second pull I felt a strong tug on the line.  The fish pulled like I imagined a strong opelu would pull, and assuming it was just a bait fish I was lifted and cranked fairly quickly.  There was a good bend in the rod and about 20 ft from the surface the hook pulled!  The fish had straightened the small damashi hook.  I was playing the 7lb test branch line, not realizing the hooks were so soft.  Both sets of fish skins were pulled off the hooks, just leaving a bead and bare hook.

I put on the heavier rig with the small squid skirts but the bait school had moved on.  Continuing on to 125 ft, I dropped down on small pockets of bait but nothing bit.  Giving up on the deep bait school, I put a Gulp grub on one of the two squid skirted hooks and paddled into the 70ft range.  When I checked the rig, there was a deep water lizardfish head, chomped up, hooked on the Gulp grub hook.  Shucks, missed whatever took that lizardfish.  Got another hit that ripped up that Gulp grub but didn’t stick.  I also diagonally whipped a 60 oz swimming jig unsuccessfully.

By this time I had been out for 2 hrs and hadn’t landed a single fish.  I was a mile from shore and the trade winds began to blow above 10 mph.  There was heavy rain in the valley.  Began to paddle towards the safety of the shallows and the wind really started gusting.  I was paddling directly into the 15 to 20 mph wind and the heavy rain had reached me.  It took 30 mins of hard paddling to cover the half mile distance to a more protected spot in the bay.  In 25 ft of water a small trumpetfish got hooked on the Gulp grub and I hastily unhooked it and resumed my paddle in.  The conditions were so treacherous at times that a boat came by to check on me.  That was comforting to know that some caring boaters watch out for the smaller craft.

The rain let up for about 10 mins and then another squall with strong winds came through and tried blowing me back out to sea.  I pulled my line in and made the paddle of shame back to shore.

Lessons Learned

  • Unstable weather can generate rain squalls, which can generate very strong winds.
  • When wind starts blowing out to sea, don’t stop paddling until you’ve reached safe water.
  • The damashi rig is much more effective when it can be fished straight up and down.
  • Fish the damashi with a light drag since the hooks are soft and two fish could be pulling against each other.
  • Adding scent or bait makes the damashi flies more attractive.

Well, I was stoked to hook something in the bait school even though I didn’t see what it was.  I’ll try tipping the damashi hooks with ika or shrimp next time, and may even drop down a frozen oama. And I’ll keep a more watchful eye on the weather conditions.

Happy New Year!!!

Thanks for reading the blog even though we’re beginning to stretch the boundaries of Nearshore Fishing.

 

Failed kayak damashi attempt

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I had “accidentally” caught a nabeta on a 2 oz jig the last time out and hoped that a  damashi rig would be a lot more effective.  Found these packaged damashi rigs from my California party boat days but dealing with so many hooks concerned me.  I split the rigs in half, sort of, and limited the modified rigs to 2 hooks each.

Expecting the current to be slow on a projected light wind day, I used a 2 oz Ahi USA Assault jig with the treble hook cut off as the damashi weight about 2 ft before the bottom hook.  Added an assist hook to the top.

The winds were light on our paddle out and Frank immediately hooked up with two 12 inch omilu on frozen oama.  I put out a lipped sinking swimming plug when I reached 50 ft and had a screamer of a strike.  A fish jumped out of the water in the distance and I was hoping the long, skinny fish was another ono like Frank had caught a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, it was a tail wrapped aha which I video’d but am no longer giving those nasty fish any more media coverage.  With such a hot inshore bite we were anticipating some action in the deep.  It took a while to find what I think was the opelu school and they were scattered near the bottom in the 120 ft area.  Unlike the previous trips, they weren’t bunched up and thick, and just past them, there was a weird rip current churning the top of the water that took us on a bumpy ride out to sea.  We paddled back closer to shore and noticed the bait school was staying just on the inside edge of this rip.  Our weights didn’t get the damashi rig straight down through the strong current and after trying for more than an hr we paddled in a ways to look for nabeta.

More weirdness. Our damashi rig appeared to getting pulled to the east, but we weren’t drifting to the west.  Once again, the rigs weren’t straight up and down which made for sloping jigging of the flies.  Nothing bit our rigs and then the trade winds picked up and we had to paddle in to the protection of the inner reef.

Frank deployed another frozen oama and got bit right away.  Another off-season 12 inch omilu!  He was making it look too easy.  I joined him and whipped my swimming jig in the vicinity but bite ended.

I consulted my damashi senseis and asked why we did so badly.  They said our weights were too light for the strong current, my hooks were too far away from the weight, and when we fished the inside, there was probably a strong current pulling east with wind blowing west, holding our kayaks in place.  Bottom line, when the damashi isn’t getting down effectively, use more weight.  I’ll try 4 to 5 ounces next time, and make my lead about 5 inches from my bottom hook.  If we actually catch an opelu we’re not fully prepare to use it properly but we’ll deal with that bridge when we come to it.

If you guys have any damashi tips for us, please send them our way!

 

 

The stuff I use and why I use ’em – Fishing Tackle

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(Updated April 2019)

Since starting the blog portion of this site in 2014, I’ve stumbled upon equipment to make my fishing easier, more productive and more enjoyable.  I can’t share our fishing spots with you but I can share the equipment I especially like.

The gear categories are fishing tackle, fishing attire, and kayak fishing equipment.

My style and preference may be very different from yours so please take that into account.  Where I deviate the most is using bait casting gear instead of spinning gear.  I’ve mentioned why I like to use bait casters here.

Some of my gear may be discontinued but you should be able to find a newer, hopefully better version of the product.  If you have a product you think is better, please share it with us.  I’m always looking for continuous improvement.

I’ll update this list as I think of other products to add or replace, and write separate product reviews for the really deserving ones.

Fishing Tackle

Rods: I primarily use bait casting gear and like my rods to be as light in weight and as sensitive as possible.  I try to be careful with my rods so I’ve been able to use graphite / carbon fiber rods which are lighter and more responsive than fiberglass. The lightness really makes a difference when I’m whipping or jigging for hours at a time.  For whipping, I try to find G. Loomis demo rods on eBay, and use Shimano Trevala rods for jigging.  I also have a Shimano Game Type-J jig rod that is a super light, strong delight to jig with all day.

Reels: Again, I primarily use bait casting reels.  I used other brands in the 90s to kayak fish and they corroded quickly so I switched to early model Shimano Calcuttas and have used Shimanos since. The Shimano bait casters rated for salt water are easy to cast, corrosion resistant and fairly easy to maintain.  If I need to have the reel professionally repaired, Shimano’s flat rate repairs have been very reasonable.  Reel parts are also available online at a great price with expedited shipping.  I’m able to do most of my reel maintenance myself now, after bungling my initial repairs.  Besides the Calcuttas, I use Shimano Curados, Tranxs and a Trinidad (conventional).

Line – Backing or Main: Sufix 832 braid. I’ve tried the other popular brands with less than desirable results.  I’ve found Sufix 832 to be round (8 strands), smooth and cast very well.  It doesn’t bind into itself they way the other brands did, and if I do get a rare backlash I can easily pull out the snag without too much drama. I’ve heard great things about Jerry Brown braid and want to try that soon.

Line – Top Shot: I’m able to put Seaguar Invizx fluorocarbon on my bait casting reels. I’ve tried to put it on a spinning reel and it spun itself off.  Invizx, being castable fluorocarbon, is nearly invisible in the water and very abrasion resistant. It takes a lot of rubbing on the reef to get cut off by a fish but it also makes it hard to break off snags.  I use Invizx on my trolling reel and inshore casting reel.  Invizx only goes up to 25lb so I don’t use it on my plugging setup.

Line – Leader: Seaguar Blue Label fluorocarbon leader. I like that Blue Label is supple and easy to tie knots, and doesn’t seem to kink like some other brands.  I use 40lb Blue Label in place of wire leader when kaku are around and don’t think I’ve been cut off yet.

Hooks: When I lived in California, I’d go on party boat trips once or twice a year.  The guys would tell me that if you’re gonna spend the money for these trips you don’t want to lose a fish because your hook was too weak or too dull.  The “designer” hooks cost a little more but you know they are sticky sharp and won’t break on a fish.  I use a Gamakatsu Live Bait hook as the front hook on my double trolling rig because the short shank doesn’t extend out too far and make the bait look funny, and an Owner Flyliner hook on the rear hook because the longer shank will extend out of the fish and be easier to unhook. I pinch the barbs down because I often tag and release and it’ll be easier to pull out of my flesh. I replace my lure trebles with Owner Inline Singles for the front hooks and Owner 4X trebles for the rear hooks.  The designer hooks have a corrosion resistant coating and when they begin to rust I toss them.  Usually I lose them before that happens.  I started using the big VMC Tournament Circle hooks to fish big baits from my kayak’s rod holder.  They are strong and sharp and not as expensive as the Owner and Gamakatsu circle hooks.

Update April 2019: I now use VMC hooks in place of the designer brands wherever I can because they perform almost as well and are often close to half the price of the designer hooks.  My hookup ratio hasn’t seemed to suffer. Here’s an team review of the VMC 6X circle hooks and 4X treble hooks.

Lure Clips: Tactical Angler Power Clips.  These clips make it easy to slide in and out lures very quickly and the wide bend allows the lures to swing more freely than if tied directly to your leader. Haven’t lost a fish due to clip failure yet.

Weights.  I do use a special weight to whip and troll.  It’s my secret weapon.  Maybe I’ll reveal it later.

Swivels.  I don’t have a specific brand but I do try to use ball bearing swivels.  The bait casting reel doesn’t introduce line twist like a spinner does so I don’t have problems with tangles.

Lures – Whipping. I’m of the belief that the bait fish in Hawaii are small and shifty. Most of the plugs available domestically are larger than I prefer, or don’t cast well in the wind.  Friends and I have been using 1/2 to 3/4 ounce, 4 to 5 inch JDM lures that match our hatch, cast well and most float.  They are hard to obtain at a reasonable price but I’ll write more about them later.

Lures – Jigging.  Since the Japanese invented the Slow Pitch jigging technique it stands to reason that the JDM jigs are the best.  The jigs available locally work too, and I’ve had some amazing results with the Live Deception jig by Ahi USA.  I love jigging but don’t get to jig very often. Friends and I are still trying to get better at the sport.  All but the Live Deception, 4th from the top, are from Japan, but some were sold in the local tackle shops.

Landing Net: Promar ProFloat landing net.  It floats, it has tangle free mesh, an elastic lanyard and it’s cheap.  What more can you ask for?  It’s available in the tackle shops in town.

Gear Lanyards: I use various tethers on my tackle bag and kayak.  I really like the T-Reign Retractable Tether because it doesn’t leave loose cords around to get tangled in.  So far, after a few years of use, they haven’t corroded.  I use Boomerang Snips too and after years of use, if the retractable spring stops working I glue an attachment point and use the T-Reign tether to hold it to my bag. (see photo)

Waterproof Tackle Bag – Patagonia Stormfront Sling.  This bag is expensive, and the price has gone up twice since I purchased it 2  yrs ago.  But the main compartment really is waterproof and makes for worry-free wade and boat fishing, and easy cleanup. Patagonia honors their lifetime warranty. A zipper tab broke and they gave me a brand new sling bag after 2 yrs of use.  This time around I won’t be carrying bait for oama and stinking it up.

Fishing pliers: Rapala aluminum pliers.  All my previous “carbon steel” needle nose pliers have eventually rusted out and left corrosion stains in their sheaths.  These aluminum pliers shouldn’t rust but they are shorter than the ones they are replacing.  Hope they’re long enough to keep my fingers away from sharp teeth.

Going further and deeper to extend the season

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In the past, our “season” has ended when the water temps cool and the bait leaves the inshore waters.  Knowing this end was near, we prepped the kayaks and SUPs to do some nearshore bottom fishing further out than we had previously attempted.

The first outing yielded our first kayak/SUP uku but we had to paddle in to safety against strong winds and deal with having to keep the kayak straight in following seas.  This was how that outing went.

After that successful but dangerous outing, we tried another deep drop off but the wind came up and was pushing us out to sea. We had to paddle for our lives to get in and were emotionally shook up from the realization that we would have needed to be rescued if we had become incapable of paddling hard for shore.

I had Go Bananas in Kapahulu add a rudder and some convenient bungee “trees” to my Scupper Pro, and I picked up a Garmin EchoMap 44cv fish finder/gps from West Marine on Black Friday.  My hope was that the rudder would make my paddling more efficient, especially in windy conditions, the GPS would take us to nearby artificial reefs and mark hot spots, and the more advanced fish finder would accurately tell us what type of fish were below.  I also got a Thule Hull-A-Port “J” style cradle to securely carry the second kayak on its side.

Our next outing was back to the deep water spot where we had gotten in trouble.  This time we picked a day with almost no wind, and not much swell.  The new fish finder/gps accurately told us the depth we were in, and marked what I think were fish on the bottom and a large bait school suspended from about 50ft to 100ft.  Nothing was biting our jigs and I paddled further out to mark more bait. I heard Frank yell “hanapa’a” but couldn’t see what he was fighting. He tried to talk over the walkie talkie while fighting the fish but I was just getting fragments.  When I paddled back to him, he was getting towed against the wind and current towards me!  The fish didn’t want to tire, and he was battling it on an ancient Penn 440SS which was definitely not made to fight fish of that size.  I shot video of the long fight and the very difficult landing process.

Frank will write up his recollection of the amazing, miraculous experience but here’s a preview of his catch.  We still can’t believe he caught a pelagic on only our 3rd deep water outing.  I jigged near the bait school for a few drops for nada and then we paddled in to take care of the prized fish.

 

On the next light wind day I was dying to return to the opelu / pelagic spot. Frank couldn’t make it but had designed and oversaw the process of fabricating a streamlined transducer rod and plate so I could hang the transducer over the side with as little drag as possible.  This thing is work of art!

I tentatively paddled out solo but was relieved to see so many boats around and helicopters above.  The bait school was deeper on this day, in 125 ft of water but again, nothing bit my jigs.  I even tried trolling jigs and swimming plugs “Frank-style”.

 

Happy enough that all the new equipment was working well, I let the wind blow me in as I steered with the foot controlled rudder.  At 100 ft I had a bite on the jig that came off. I assumed it was a hage but was still glad for that one bite.  At 80ft I hooked something that felt like a small hage and winched it up. I was stunned to see a nabeta hooked on the rear treble of the Live Deception 2 oz jig with its swim bladder popped out through its gill.  I marked the spot on my GPS and returned to it but couldn’t catch another fish.  I’ll have to return with a proper damashi-type of setup.

 

 

 

 

 

My friend and fellow kayak fisher, Haru, told me how to gut the fish but leave the scales on and scrub the slime off with Hawaiian salt, then salt and pepper it before deep frying, taking it out to cool, and then frying it a second time to crisp up.  My wife used a ponzu sauce and chilli pepper water Frank had given us, and that fried nabeta was ono with a non-fishy, sweet, soft texture.

So far the uku, ono and nabeta we’ve caught in deeper water have been much less fishy tasting than the papio we’ve been catching inshore.  Now I understand why boaters often prefer bottom fish to reef fish.

Instead of waiting for the bait fish to return to the shallows, we’re now gearing up to target the bottom fish and pelagics of the winter season.  Chee hoo!!

Hard fighting or great eating, take your pick

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In early November, Capt Erik invited Frank and me to fish on his 16 foot Livingston.  The winds were very light and surf was small, so we felt extra blessed and excited to fish areas that would normally be too turbulent. The plan was to start deep (300 ft plus), while the conditions allowed, and work our way in.  Erik and I jigged while Frank used the damashi rig to give the bottom critters more menu choices.

Capt Erik put us on spots that produced for him in the past, and while Frank began to bring up small moana, our jigs went untouched except for a phantom swirl that resulted in my Shimano flat side 140 gm lure gone and the leader slightly curled as if the knot got bitten off. Nothing bit for a while after, which made me wonder if I just tied a bad knot and the jig fell off on the way up?

Doubt began to creep in. Maybe the conditions were too calm and the predators weren’t feeding down there?  Frank brought up a small nabeta on the damashi as we drifted in shallower, that piqued Erik’s interest.  When a large nabeta came over the side, Erik grabbed his light spinner damashi setup and left me as the sole jigger.

Frank landed a jumbo moana, and then Erik hooked something with his damashi that peeled line off his small spinning reel.  I pointed my cap cam on the action and we were stunned to see what Erik coaxed up to the surface.

We were in about 140 ft when the damashi bite slowed.  Capt Erik announced we’d be moving once our lines were up, and then my jig rod slammed down with authority.  I had on the very dependable 2 oz green mackerel Live Deception, and it didn’t let me down.  The fish powered towards the bottom as I tried to put the brakes on.  I was using my heavier jig setup because I wanted the stiffer tip to spring back as I speed jigged, and was glad I had the Tranx 500 with 60 lb fluoro and 65 lb braid to back me up.  You can see how this up and down battle went.  Capt Erik filmed the cool underwater sequence and Frank filmed above water with my cap cam.  The fish was released tired but unharmed.

We stayed on the spot after the fish was landed and I checked my tackle. The kahala had slightly bent one of the treble’s tines out and I bent it back with my pliers.  I dropped the Live Deception down again, and maybe 10 cranks off the bottom something hit it. It felt solid but wasn’t running hard.  I wanted Frank to battle something with the big level wind bait caster setup, and I could use a break after the kahala, so I asked him to take over.  During that transition, the fish ran parallel to the bottom and if felt like it went in a cave.  Frank fought it for 50 minutes.  This battle really deserves a post of its own so please look for that sea monster story soon.

The yellow spot papio swimming in air, still trying to throw the jig

After that long battle we took a break for lunch and then Capt Erik drove us inside of the 80 ft mark.  Frank reminded me that I hadn’t caught anything to be taken home so I switched to the pink Jigging World jig Erik fishes in the shallows.  Sure enough I got a nice hit and a 13.5 inch yellow spot came up.  I bled it and iced it down so I could compare it to the delicious yellow spot we caught at the Banks that I turned into poke.  Here’s how we did on that Banks trip.

 

 

Capt Erik took us way inside to the papas’ edge to show Frank how he uses small poppers and right on command he hooked a scrappy 14.5 inch white papio on light line.

What a perfect day!  Everyone got a chance to scrap with some fish and bring home something delicious. The nabeta, weke ula and yellow spot papio are some of the best tasting fish we hope to catch.  Big Mahalos to Capt Erik for his relaxing hospitality and for putting us on so many different types of fish.

Stay tuned for the Sea Monster post. We were scratching our heads, wondering what could be so large and heavy and not want to be moved off the bottom.  It was definitely a tackle tester.