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Are they in?

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At Hawaii Nearshore Fishing, we feel strongly against “burning spots” that others have worked hard to find and learn. Photos and videos are edited to not reveal landmarks, and we don’t mention specific locations.

Regarding “where da oama stay?”, our recommendation for oama pro and newbie alike is to walk the likely areas on various tides and times of day and see if the early season oama have come in. If you find them before the word gets out, you’ll have them all to yourself for a few days.

Our prediction is that it will be a “recovery year” for bait fish and papio, much better than last year but not as good as the warm El Nino years. There have been more fruits on the trees than last year, and the early papio season has been better than last year’s, supporting the “recovery” theory. Have fun and be safe.

Holoholo: Live Bait and Vertical Jigs = Mixed Bag

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Shea started kayak fishing 3 yrs ago, briefly on an Ocean Kayak Scupper Pro, soon after, moving up to an Ocean Kayak Prowler 15. He built his safety awareness in the confines of Hilo Bay, unintentionally flipping the Scupper Pro twice and found the Prowler 15 to be a much more stable fishing platform. He has only been fishing offshore for 3 months, mainly on a 2015 Hobie Revolution 13, but attributes his rapid success to the years of learning how to catch live opelu outside the bay as well as hours of watching kayak fishing videos on YouTube and receiving tips from the kayak fishing community. He fishes on the Big Island with Coach Haru when their schedules match up. I asked Shea if he wouldn’t mind sharing his most recent outing with us. Here’s his recap, with video of the day on the bottom of this post.

Shea: The surf on Hawaii Island’s east side was flat – 1 foot and winds were forecasted light and variable all through Memorial Day, so my friend and I decided to launch at 4:30 AM. We reached the fishing grounds just as the horizon was lighting up and started searching for opelu to use as live bait. It didn’t take long before we started marking large bait balls feeding 25-50 feet down, and I dropped my home made sabiki rig baited with HiPerformance Lures “fish sticks” and managed to pick up 6 baits before the sun was even up. On previous trips, I had only caught 1-2 opelu after hours of trying, so things were off to a much better start than usual! We moved out into deeper water and passed over huge bait balls that weren’t biting, so I decided to drop an 80g jig that Haru had given me on a previous trip. Within the first 10 cranks of the very first drop, I hooked into a fish that doubled my Tsunami Trophy jigging rod and peeled the 40lb braid from my Penn Slammer III 5500 in long, powerful runs. It didn’t take long for what I’m pretty sure was a good sized Ulua to find some structure to cut me off on.

I tied on a 120g Jigpara Slowfall and dropped again, immediately hooking into something that felt much smaller. It turned out to be a 2-3 lb Uku, and I decided to let it go to and put out my first live opelu on a wire stinger rig in the hopes that some predators might be hanging around the bait schools.

I let out ~100 feet of line and set the drag on my Penn Spinfisher VI 8500 as light as it could go to mimic the “liveliner” function on other reels. After 45 minutes or so of no action in spite of many promising marks on the fish finder and a couple drowned baits, I decided to switch to straight 40lb fluorocarbon leader and hooked another live one through the nostrils with a 5/0 Gamakatsu Live Bait hook. I was still free-spooling this bait out when line started flying off way faster than I knew an Opelu could take it. I gave it about 5 seconds before clicking the bail over and tightening the drag down to set the hook. After a few good runs and a heavy pull that made me think I had a shibi, the fish started giving in and spiraled up to the surface. I was surprised to see a chunky 19-lb Kawakawa float up on its side. I sent out another live bait, then dispatched and bled the fish for ~10 minutes.

Just after stowing the fish in my fishbag, I noticed some promising marks on the bottom ~170 feet down, so I dropped the jig and pulled up a 4-5 lb omilu. After taking a couple pictures, I tossed him back to hopefully become a reef donkey someday.

As I was dragging my bait back up to the ledge, I felt the telltale tugs of something grabbing my opelu and quickly flipped the bail open. After a few seconds of letting line fly off the spool, I closed the bail and tightened down again and the first run of this fish was much faster and longer than the kawakawa’s had been. After five minutes or so of tug-of-war, I got my first view of the fish ~50 feet down and briefly saw the sickled outline of a shibi before it took off on a run straight down. Another five minutes of pumping and cranking later, the shibi was exhausted and surfaced, giving me a chance to hit it with my home made kage gaff. Not wanting to take any chances, I sank my handheld hook gaff into the fish as well and pulled it aboard. This was definitely my largest shibi so far, weighing in later at 29-lbs. I brained and bled the fish out and stowed it in a Hobie fishbag behind my seat.

At this point I had what I thought were two live baits left in the tube, so I gave one to my friend who had just lost his last bait to what we believe was an ono. I tied on a wire rig hoping to use my last bait to try for an ono, but the last bait had a busted lip from my damashi and had drowned. I sent it to the bottom on a 4 oz bank sinker, hoping for a shot at a bigger uku instead. After drifting around for a while, my rod bent over slowly as if I was hung up on the bottom. As I pulled the rod out of the holder, line started ripping off the reel and after a seven minute battle, a small ulua came up to the surface. Not the uku I was hoping for, but it was a nice fight. With two fish already in the bag, I decided to release this fish after taking some pictures.

After previously fishing the windward side in 6-foot swell and pouring rain and being unable to catch more than one or two baits, this trip really stands apart and will probably stay with me for some time. It’s not often that the east side is calm as a lake, so I feel super lucky that we got this break in the weather. I gave away most of the fish to my friends and family and made sashimi, tataki, and poke with the remainder over the course of the following week. The kawakawa meat aged especially well and still tasted great even six days later. 

-Shea

Check out the video:

Holoholo: Papio action is heating up!

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Matthew is back with a very timely shore fishing update.

Matthew: It’s only been a few weeks since I wrote my last post, but a lot has happened since then. Like flipping a switch, the Papio bite has turned on all of a sudden and is excellent as of now. All of my friends have caught Papio on their last trip or two and most of the time have caught more than one per trip. 

I was pretty dead set on fly fishing a few weeks ago, and landed another nice Oio which was my second on the fly rod, but then the weather report for Sunday presented some not-so-ideal weather conditions. High winds, cloud cover, and a fast rising tide would have made it extremely difficult to sight fish. I decided to go check out an old Papio spot, and was treated to a nice Papio on my very first cast. Welcome back to Papio whipping. I hooked up to three more that day but lost them all, but was still satisfied with the one Papio.

A few days later, I went Papio fishing at the same spot and was treated to the best day I’ve had whipping. I landed seven Omilu ranging from 11-15 inches, had many more spit the hook, and saw countless chases and boils. This is probably an average day for someone fishing on another island, but for two hours on Oahu, it was a “once-a-year” kind of trip.

Fly fishing was now completely tossed to the curb and I was now hooked on Papio fishing once again, my old passion. I was invited to my friend’s beach house for dinner and I figured, why not bring my pole just in case? Sure enough, I had some time and I threw a few casts at an area that I was completely unfamiliar with. As dusk approached, I was able to land my biggest Papio in a few months, which put up a great fight. 

The next Sunday, I had a chance to go with two guys I’ve been fishing with for a while now, and hit up one of the old spots. We had yet another good day. I landed a Papio and a Lai, one guy landed three Papio, and one guy lost one and had a bunch of bites. 

So, enough of that… But what about predictions? So far, this season is looking like it is going to be an above average season, and it’s been looking like it for a few weeks now. The Halalu and sardines are in a select few spots that I know of and the Oama are starting to make their appearance at some of my spots too. I’ve been seeing some Iao on the flats, which almost always means that predators will be drawn towards shallower waters. Other fishermen have been sharing similar results to our catches and have been reporting the same uptick in bait sightings. Hopefully this year will make up for last summer’s subpar action. 

In summary, the season is just starting, but if you haven’t gotten out fishing yet, now’s the chance. I’d guess that the good fishing will last until mid-August, and then by October the bite will probably be dead or at least slow again. Stock up on summer gear, stay safe, have fun, catch some fish, and I’ll catch you on the next report??

It’s better to be lucky than good – doubled up on the pelagics!

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Late Spring / Early summer is the best time to catch pelagics on live opelu. Problem is catching opelu during this time is really hard because the opelu know the pelagics are hunting them. Best shot at the opelu is at the crack of dawn before the pelagics are on them but I’m not even driving to the launch at that time. Still, I was hoping to catch some hungry, stray opelu and drag them around in the deep.

I decided on the Windward side because the winds were lighter than the South side, and hit the water at 8:40am, 3 hrs after sun rise. Bait was scattered and sure enough they didn’t want to eat my damashi. In fact, the only thing falling for it were the deep water lizardfish. No nabeta, no opakapaka. The conditions were so nice that I decided just to run the Bixpy motor on the lowest speed and drag the damashi out to 300ft just to see what kinds of marks would show up on the fish finder. At 200ft something latched onto my damashi hooks and I was completely astounded to see two small, yet perfectly sized opelu come up. It was after 10am! I put one on my live bait rig and tried to keep the other alive in a juice bottle, head first, changing its water every so often.

I tried catching more opelu but failed so I went out to 300ft (a whopping 3 miles from land) and turned around and let the current push me in while I tried to hook something else with the damashi. Sure enough, with my damashi on the bottom in 280 ft, the opelu was taken and the line was going out fast. It probably took more than a minute to bring in my damashi, so the fish had run out a lot of line. I was really hoping that it was my first shibi (small yellowfin tuna) and it had some frantic head shakes, but when it came up I saw silver and sadly thought it was a kahala. Instead it was a tired kawakawa because I had fought it with so much line out, so when I bled it over the side it actually died a few mins later and the blood stopped flowing.

I had drifted in and was at about 250ft when I dropped the second, now dead, opelu down. It got slammed near the bottom and this fight was a strong up and down battle. I put the Avet SX Raptor in low gear and grinded it up. Because the fight was so short, the kawakawa came up green and took longer to get in position to kage. It stayed alive while being bled over the side, and after 5 mins I got tired of leaving a bloody trail for sharks to follow so I bagged in my my Large Hobie kill bag. There wasn’t room for another big fish so I headed into the shallow drop off to check on the reef fish.

The last time we fished the drop off was in April and the water was a chilly 74 degrees. This time it was 77 degrees and the damashi got hit on every drop until the hooks and lead were broken off. Misc reef fish (lai, moana, hawk fish, etc) were released. Looks like this year’s inshore season is about to go off.

I feel so blessed (and lucky) to have stumbled upon the two opelu the way I did, and be able to put them in front of kawakawa. The kawakawa, being big, bloody fish required a lot more special handling than a 5lb uku. I had to stop to buy ice on the way home to supplement the Arctic Ice in my fish bag, and had to cut all the darker, bloody meat away from the filets to maximize taste and shelf life.

But the recipients of the fish ate ’em within hours of receiving it and said was similar but tastier than yellowfin tuna and less *fishy/bloody* than aku. That was a testament to the instructions Kelly provided (bleed well, ice well, clean all the guts and dark meat out right away, wrap in paper towel and change the towel when it gets bloody).

Big fish returned to the South Shore and one tried to eat my uku

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It’s been a few months since I’ve checked my “big fish” South Shore spot. The last two times the only critters present were little bait stealers. Boaters had been getting ono and mahi mahi on the troll recently so the plan was to get out, catch opelu and troll ’em up out to 300ft. Unfortunately the few bait marks didn’t bite so I paddled around with the Bixpy motor assisting me, and nothing bothered my 8″ frozen opelu. Since the water was so flat, I went out to a spot about a mile away from my normal grounds, that held tackle busting ulua in the past.

Before I reached the spot I saw some promising marks and dropped the frozen opelu down. Felt some hard pulls and something ran hard with the bait. I thought it was a small shark but it settled into a familiar jerky fight. A long, skinny uku surfaced but had some fresh wounds past its dorsal fin. Something left a 6 inch bite mark, biting down from the dorsal fin towards its tail. Maybe that’s why the fight was so intense early on. What grabbed it wasn’t that toothy since the uku wasn’t shredded, so we’re thinking big ulua.

I drifted around that area, but nothing wanted another opelu or jig. On my way back to my regular grounds something really heavy ate my opelu and didn’t want to budge. I eventually broke it off and lost the rest of my baits, including live moana, to bait stealers too small to eat my big hooks.

The uku was 22″ and only 5.5lb because it was a male that had spawned out. It was pretty busted up on the outside but luckily the bite marks didn’t enter the prime meat.

Water temp was 76.5 degrees, up from 74 degrees two months ago. That’s still a little cold for May, but on its way up to the peak temps of 84+ degrees in the summer. The big fish are back but the opelu are really hard to catch now.

Cool products: Rogue Fishing Company phone tether and rod/paddle leash

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We’re always looking for new products that will enhance our fishing experience, and sharing recommendations with our readers. An ad for an improved phone tether showed up in my Instagram feed recently. I’ve been using a waterproof pouch on a lanyard attached to my pfd (personal floatation device) when I kayak fish, and it’s kept my phone safe, but I often can’t unlock my phone through the pouch. Even if I can, I have a hard time texting through it. Since my Samsung Galaxy S8 Active is waterproof, I really didn’t need the pouch. I checked reviews of Rogue Fishing Company, and their products, and all looked very positive.

So I joined their email list to save 15% off my first order, and ordered their 3rd generation phone tether ($19.99) and their rod/paddle leash ($17.99). A few days later the products arrived. I was very impressed with the ergonomics and quality of the components.

The leash of the phone tether is a compact fabric covered coil, the loops that hold the 4 corners of the phone are a durable silicone, and the carabiner and metal ring are corrosion resistant. The position of the silicone loops are designed to not interfere with the phone’s camera, and should stretch to fit most phones. Here’s Rogue Fishing’s product description and video of the Protector 3.0.

Even though my phone is supposed to be waterproof, if water gets in the charging port, a warning is displayed so I taped over that port temporarily. I took the phone tether and rod leash out to the deep this week. I could text on-the-water fishing reports to my buddies and ugh, answer phone calls freely. I resisted the temptation to take photos on the water, and instead used the GoPro on my cap.

I had been using a hard plastic, coiled paddle leash for years. It does the job and is very strong, but is heavy and rattles around on the deck of the kayak when I paddle. Rogue Fishing’s rod/paddle leash is much more streamlined, lighter, quieter, and the clip that attaches to my kayak doesn’t rattle. Even the elastic loop that cinches to the paddle has less resistance when I rotate the paddle, so it’s less taxing to use. Here’s the product information and video for the Defender Rod and Paddle leash.

Both the tether and leash were big improvements on what I had been using. I’ll post an update in a few months of hard use.

Update 6/5/21: The Protector phone leash and Defender Rod and Paddle leash are in the Store now.

Holoholo: How to catch less fish: Fly Fishing

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Holoholo writer Matthew broadens his shore fishing skills and tackles fly fishing.

Matthew: Fly fishing… It can either be peaceful and enjoyable or a complete mess of frustration and tangles. Sure, it looks easy to cast a fly setup. Wave the rod forward, wave the rod backward, and let go of the line and watch it sail. It seems so simple and easy, or so I thought. After picking up a fly setup for the first time, I headed to one of my go-to Oio spots and tried casting. It resulted in a disaster, a horrible wind knot, and a hook in my shoulder on the first cast. Luckily I took the advice of another fly fisherman and started off with barbless hooks, and the hook didn’t go in too far. What happened? It turns out that muscle has nothing to do with casting, and it has a lot to do with form and timing. Timing, timing, timing, timing. I still have not gotten anywhere mastering it yet. 

After taking a few more horrible casts that would’ve made anyone laugh had I been fishing with a buddy, I made my way out past the shoreline and tried blind casting downwind. My casts were still pitiful and the line slapping the water probably scared any fish away within a hundred yard radius. Long story short, it was a tough evening. I ended up with a Nohu (poisonous Hawaiian rockfish), which fought like a rock, and a bunch of actual rocks that I pulled up from the bottom. 

I headed out the next day at midday to attempt, with emphasis on the word attempt, to catch an Oio sightcasting. I got lucky and saw one within minutes, as I already knew how to spot Oio, which is the only component of fly fishing that I am decent at. Casting accurately, enticing a fish to bite, and fighting a fish on fly gear are things that I still suck at. As you might expect, the line on one of the false casts slapped the water with a loud SMACK! and the Oio hightailed it out of there. Aargh, this is harder than it looks. I saw several Oio after that, and all ended relatively the same way, the line hitting the water and the Oio spooking.  

The next day I went out and dedicated more than half the trip to just learning how to cast in the shallows, and I got a lot better at it. After getting the timing slightly better and incorporating the double haul technique, my casts were looking better. I headed out and after a while I was able to spot a lone fish around four pounds heading straight towards me. I waited to see if it would turn, which it did, and I made a cast without spooking it around 12 feet in front of it. I thought, “Damn, the reef is so gnarly here that if I hook this fish I’ll probably lose it”. To my surprise, it ate the fly and the fly line started going through my fingers, and not to my surprise, it reefed me almost instantly. Aargh. I retied my leader and ended up spooking even more fish before I decided to call it a day. 

The next week, I tried at a new spot, and saw a few fish, but the wind was so bad that it was nearly impossible to make a decent cast. I ended up blind casting, but to no avail. 

I was starting to get really frustrated with fly fishing and was considering bringing back out the spinner rod and reel for my usual Sunday Dawn patrol. After thinking about it for some time, I decided to give the fly rod another chance, with a new strategy and new flies in hand. The only problem was that I didn’t check the weather and it ended up being very windy and with clouds overhead. Not the best conditions for sight fishing. I proceeded forward, sighting some fish, until the rain came. There I was, the only idiot on the flat, in horrible wind and rain. I took out my phone to video, so I could at least bring something home, right? I ended up scrolling on instagram for a little bit, in the middle of the water, until I looked around and spotted a blueish-green blob around 20 feet away from me. By some miracle, an Oio had presented itself right to me, probably not being able to see me because of the ripples on the water and choppy waves. But I could see it, and that’s the main thing. 

I put my phone away, silently stripped out the line needed for a 20 foot long cast, and decided to lead the fish by a LOT. Luckily it never changed course and it came within 5 feet of my fly sitting on the bottom. I started with a long strip to catch its attention, followed by some short and fast ones. To my amazement, the Oio lit up and swaggered over to my fly. I gave it two hard, fast strips, and on the second one, I felt the weight of the fish, and set the hook. The fish felt the pain and took off toward the horizon as I frantically tried to release the loose fly line. Once it got into the reel, I applied mild pressure on the reel with my other hand and kept the fly rod high. Once it stopped running, I could feel it rubbing against rocks and ran over to free it from three different coral heads (in hindsight, I was lucky). I started working the fish in but forgot I had to feed the line into the reel evenly (I’m used to spinners that have a level wind mechanism), so the line piled up on one side and the reel jammed. I quickly let some line out and filled the other side of the reel, getting the fish in closer until we locked in some circles around each other.

After what felt like an eternity, it froze on the surface and I netted it. I was ecstatic and let out a pretty loud yell. The fish was bigger than I originally thought, measuring at 22”, and since it was a “fatty”, I’d probably estimate it at five and a half pounds. I took some pictures and it was released back into the water. Wow, what a rush. I went home a little after that, stoked to the moon and back, happy that I had managed to land my first Oio on the fly rod. 

I’m still a beginner and learning as I go, and most likely got lucky with that fish. Thanks for reading this long story. As for the Oio, I’ll be back for more, that’s for sure. And as always, good luck to you all.

How the Avet SX Raptor held up after a year of kayak fishing

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The Avet brand of reels is not well known in Hawaii. You won’t see them in local tackle stores. I had heard of the brand but hadn’t seen a recent ad for them in years. Accurate is the much better marketed brand that also builds 1-piece aluminum framed reels with stainless steel and anodized aluminum components.

When I was at the 2020 Fred Hall Show in Long Beach, I was taken over to the Avet booth and explained to long time rep Ben Frazier how I needed a light, powerful reel to land strong fish and sharks as safely as possible on my kayak. Specifically, I wanted to troll my baits with very light drag and clicker on, and then increase the drag quickly once the fish was hooked. The problem I was running into with my star drag Shimano Trinidad, was that I took a while to spin the star drag to proper fish fighting tension, and the high gearing of the reel, while great for bringing in the bait quickly, was hard to winch sharks off the bottom. Ben suggested the small framed lever drag SX in the fully loaded 2-speed Raptor version. The Raptor came with a max strike drag of 17lb, full max at 26lb, with low 3.8:1 gearing and high 6.3:1 gearing. It even had a magnetic cast control to pretty much eliminate back lashes. The SX Raptor weighed in at only 17 ounces, and retailed for $395.

I had fished that little reel for a year, landing small ulua and large sharks with ease. In fact, anytime the high gear was feeling a bit bogged, I switched to low to bring fish in quicker. The lever drag mechanism was much easier to adjust properly while fighting a fish, and I liked how light it felt on the rod.

It was my first lever drag 2-speed reel and it exceeded my expectations. But then it was time to break it down and see how corroded it got. I watched a video on how to open it up and clean it, and it didn’t look hard at all but was very different from my Shimano casting reels. I played and paused the video as I took the reel apart. There was no trace of salt or corrosion in the reel. I was amazed. And no breakdown of the drag washer material despite fighting sharks at high drag, to try to bust them off. I couldn’t believe how pristine the innards were. I could have easily gone another year without opening it up. Later, I read that lever drag reels are sealed better at the reel handle than star drag reels, and don’t let much water in.

I just use the Avet as my bait trolling/bottom fish reel so I’ve never casted it. Never jigged it either. But for what I use it for, it has been excellent. From what I read online, the comparable Accurate reel is smoother but more expensive and requires more maintenance.

I definitely recommend the Avet SX Raptor as a light-in-weight workhorse reel and am looking to add another Avet as I step up into larger fish. Please let me know if you’re interested in purchasing an Avet reel. If there’s enough demand, maybe I could become a dealer for the Hawaii market.

Holoholo: Golden at long last

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Jason has been chasing a particular species of inshore jack all his life. How fitting that he captured it on a fly rod at the spot he first gazed upon one as a child.

Jason: The story begins the day before, during our Saturday morning outing.   I had spent most of the day fooling around with streamers at the edge of the flat, trying for papio, lai, or whatever would bite.  Things were pretty slow, so when the tide went down, I decided to switch to targeting bones.  

Anyone who knows me knows I am an unabashed bomber, but the tide was low, and the light was good, so I decided I would sight fish.  My friends John and Brent were on the beach talking story with a fisherman they had just met, and I decided I would fish nearby, in a location I knew was frequented by pa’opa’o.  There were a lot of blacktips that day, and I saw a few bones but none were interested.  About 30 minutes in I spotted what, from a distance, appeared to be a pa’opa’o. Just as I raised my rod, it spooked, and took off for the channel. “Maybe next time…”

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, and since we had all struck out we decided we would give it another try Sunday.

Given what I’d seen the day before, I decided I would focus on the same area right out of the gate.  The morning light wasn’t great, and the tide was a bit higher than it was midday Saturday. This was all the excuse I needed to revert to my preferred MO of “targeted” bombing. I hit all the same spots where I’d seen fish the day before, eventually parking myself at the same location I’d seen the pa’opa’o. I got myself into a nice casting rhythm, covering a 90 degree swath of water with my 6 wt R.B. Meiser switch rod.

I had not been doing this for more than 5-10 minutes when I noticed a bait fisherman wading out nearby.  I kept one eye on him and the other on my casting, hoping he would not stop near me.  I was beginning to contemplate moving when I suddenly felt a heavy take, followed by a relatively slow, but powerful run.  Having hooked a number of barred and yellow spot trevallys in the past, I recognized it immediately.  Could this be it?  It definitely was not a bone!

Whatever it was, it knew what it was doing, and took me straight into the channel, tangling my fly line on the edge of the reef in the process.  I made my way all the way to the edge (which was a little sketchy) and managed to untangle it.  At that point I realized it hadn’t gone into the middle of the channel, but instead towards the nearby pier. 

I tightened up the drag, and was able to steer it away from the pier, but a nearby piling sticking out of the water was still a threat.   After applying more pressure, I was relieved to see the flash of the fish’s side a few feet in front of the piling, indicating I had turned its head before it could wrap me.  The problem now was my 6 wt switch rod lacked the lifting power to control the fish. A few minutes went by, and I managed to finally muscle it to the surface and within view…it was a pa’opa’o. The pressure was really on now!

With a relatively light (and long) switch rod, I realized it would be tricky to land by myself, so I yelled for John to come over.  He booked it 100 yards plus across the flat with his net, while I continued to keep it away from the pier and near the edge of the flat.  It was the longest minute or two of my life, but he finally arrived and and made his way to the edge and into a little sandy channel where the fish and I had been at a stalemate.  After a few tense moments and last second escapes, the fish was finally secured in the net.  I couldn’t believe it!

Along with awa’aua (ladyfish), the pa’opa’o (golden trevally) is a fish I’ve dreamt of catching since small kid time.  I finally got my awa’aua on the fly in 2016  – but the pa’opa’o had continued to elude me…until now.

P.S. As a kid, my father would often take us to the area near that same pier to fish for halalu.  I’d often explore the pier itself, and would stick my head over the edge to take a peek at what was below.  I would usually see a school of weke or small kupipi, but on one occasion, there was a big beautiful pa’opa’o swimming beneath it.  That memory, like this one, is forever burned into my mind.  Thanks for letting me share this story!

Jason

Coach Haru: Love/hate relationship lure fishing for ono

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I love to catch Ono and hate them also. I lost so many lures by them. Of course it’s a part of game but…..   usually ono fights very hard in the beginning then slows down in the end. Once I see the ono near surface, ono is pretty much done. Easier than Mahi or ahi even bigger Kawakawa, they fight even on surface. When I fight hard then suddenly lose the tension of line, what? @#$%! Ono cut the line! That feeling is very bad. $20 jig, leader, assist hooks sometime cut PE line sucks. It’s not fun to tie PE and leader on yak. 

I lost one of front assist hook. It had 150lb coated braid. I can feel when I lose one hook during fight. I thought I lost this ono but thank god, tail assist hooks snagged on his bod,y that saved it. Here are some tips for fishing for ono. My friends use a foot to 2 ft long wire leader connected to leader but I snapped connection many times when fighting fish. Also I catch much less than without wire leader. Maybe distracts jig action??? So I use thin wire assist hooks. 

There are many kinds of wire hooks, plastic coated, outside is braid line, inside has wire. I don’t use short or small jig, too easy to lose. Because jig fits in Ono’s mouth then tooth touches leader. Most of time I caught ono when jig falling. When line gets slack ono run over the leader or PE main line, lose without notice. Especially PE is not strong against sharp objects. Jigging is basically vertical fishing. Way up with jigging is not the only way to catch fish, letting the jig fall down to the bottom also catch fish. Jig is falling to imitate wounded bait. Center balanced jig stays sideway position when line is slack, but no tension no feeling. Ono cuts line without notice., When line gets tension, jig’s head goes up to be diagonal or vertical. Need technique to keep the jig sideway with line tension. As soon as fish bites, set the hook hard and never slack the line. About tail hooks, when jig is sideways, it is 50/50 chance fish attack head or tail. Also back up hooks. Like I had ono break one of front assist hook line, the other was slightly hooked on lip but tail hook hooked on behind gill to save the fish. Long center weighted jig goes sideways well and also fall more slowly so jig can stay in water more longer than fast sink rear weighted jigs. Ono bites mid section and with long jig will not reach to the leader. So have length of assist hook line(maybe wire) longer at least 1/3 of jig length or an half. 

I get bite at between from 100-250ft drop off. But always bite at mid range and a few feet below surface. I’ve never caught on surface lures like poppers and minnows. Always a little deeper. Seem to me they always hang out with Kawakawa and sharks. Kawakawa hit surface lure all the time. Even though, I still drop the jig to the bottom. Because not only ono I look for when falling, pay attention to depth, colored PE remember the color when hit the jig on the bottom. So stop the jig at the right color depth, when you feel the fish on the jig set the hook. Also fast retrieve is good too. That case fish bite on the tail go jig, want to have good but smaller hooks.  Time to go near shore fishing. Aloha

Holoholo: C-Tug kayak cart has numerous usability issues

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Despite so many positive reviews online, Guy ran into the following problems trying to get his Hobie Compass to the water and back, through sand.

Black plastic bucket cut open and shaped to conform the hull of Guy’s Compass

Guy: I read so many good reviews about the C-Tug kayak cart with beach wheels and really wanted to like it. Unfortunately it hasn’t performed as expected. The cart’s flat pads don’t cradle rounded hulls well. The cart’s straps slip off the kayak if the wheels hit any obstacle and the cart has to be repositioned. I had to add a cradle made out of a plastic bucket, to hold the C-Tug in place.

Sand in tire tread after being sprayed with water

I attached and detached the wheels under water and sand got into the plastic parts. Sand remained on the inside of the wheels despite traveling over a hard surface.

It was difficult to clean off without water. Sand gets stuck in the tire tread and probably cuts into it.

Wheel’s hub is scoured from sand stuck on axle

Sand got inside the axle and scratched up both the inside of the wheel and the axle itself.

Plastic axle scoured by sand

Sorry that my first Holoholo post isn’t more upbeat but I just wanted the kayak community to know that my experience hasn’t been as good as was expected.

2021 Early Inshore Season Predictors

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C&R May 2021 by Matthew

Early last year, even before the Covid shutdowns sent folks recreating in nearshore waters in droves, we noticed that the inshore bite was slower than normal and bait fish were absent. 2020 turned out to be one of the lousiest fishing years in recent memory and fruit crops like mango were lacking also. We at Hawaii Nearshore Fishing believe that was primarily due to the affect of the La Nina weather phenomena, which cooled the ocean water temps and changed the direction of ocean and wind currents.

Good news is the effects of La Nina should be dissipating very soon, and we expect this year to be a transition year to normalcy. Fruit trees seem to have more flowers than normal, leading to more fruit. Already, more early season papio have been caught than last year.

We don’t expect the oama / papio season to be as epic at the 2015 and 2015 El Nino years but we do expect fishing to be better than last year. Stay tuned for a more in depth oama prediction as indicators become clearer.

-scott

Opelu only attracted sharks so we dropped down to jigs and damashi to find the fish

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Been hearing of ono caught within kayak range on the South Shore so Guy and I went out to the deep to hunt for opelu. Couldn’t find any biters and headed inside 100ft dragging a frozen opelu. Something tapped the bait, then took off on a few sustained runs. I was hopeful but when it slowed and felt heavy, my heart sank. I dropped the Avet SX Raptor into low gear and 20 mins later a 6 ft plus sandbar shark was cut free.

Reef fish were showing from 90ft to 75ft (counting backwards since the drift was toward shore) on the sonar so I broke out the 60gm tungsten jig and hooked something that felt really jerky. A small yellow spot papio came up that spit the jig just as I was about to lift it into the yak.

Guy hooked a yellow spot on a 20lb fluoro dropper rig to add to the nabeta he caught earlier and we worked the area for a while but the bite was really slow. I hooked another yellow spot on the jig that stayed on, and this one was about 10.5″ FL. Nothing else wanted to bite the jig, and my half pieces of opelu were getting yanked off my bait rig armed with big hooks so I put a slice of opelu on the assist hooks of the tungsten jig. Hookup! Something pulled drag and began to do the circles that deepwater fish do. Uku! Small, at 2 to 3 lbs but a fun fight and great size to steam whole.

Guy managed to hook a hagi on a jig and then the bite completely went dead, so we retraced our track to head in. Guy saw some bait balls near the bottom in 100ft of water and I dropped my home made damashi rig with 10lb fluoro and special opelu flies that Robert had tied up for me a couple years ago. Instant hookup and a small kawalea (Heller’s Barracuda) came up but the other damashi hook was cut off.

I dropped the 60gm tungsten jig down and it didn’t get a sniff. Rebaited the solo damashi hook with a CHL Minnow, found the school again, dropped down and hooked another kawalea. Next drop the deep water cuda bit me off and that was it for me. Guy’s dropper rig with 20lb test, geared for the big fish that broke off on previous trips, may have been too heavy for the kawalea this day. They only wanted Robert’s lucky flies.

I gave the uku, yellow spot and one kawalea to my church friend who previously liked the moana I had given her but said the small bones were a little tricky to deal with. The bones on these fish are much easier to locate and remove, and all three are great tasting white meat fish. She steamed the uku whole for her family, fried the yellow spot and is contemplating what to do with the kawalea. 🙂

Holoholo: Whipping weighted flies for oio

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There was so much interest in the art of bouncing small lures for oio that Matthew decided to share how he transitioned from papio whipping to retrieving lures excruciatingly slow.

Matthew:

It was probably somewhere around December when I was a little annoyed about how dead and slow the Papio action was. I was doing everything right but getting no results at all. It isn’t like me to give up Papio fishing, but desperate times require desperate measures. I weighed my options at trying different styles of fishing, those that an average fisherman like me could do, some of which included shore jigging, plugging, ultralight fishing, and oio fishing. I tried shore jigging with a friend of mine who had the idea of shore jigging down pretty well, and that didn’t go so well. After a few trips I decided I didn’t like that kind of fishing, and I quickly decided that plugging was going to be even slower than regular papio fishing. My ultralight rod was broken, so I decided not to try fishing with a half-broken ultralight rod. I decided to try my luck at Oio fishing. I’m kind of a fisherman who doesn’t use bait, not because I don’t like the smell or the hassle of getting it, but because I just like the challenge of catching a fish on a lure, where it’s more of a challenge. I’d seen pictures of many Oio that a few guys were catching on lures, and I thought, “well, it can’t really be that hard, can it?”. I headed out to a spot that I knew pretty well with a bunch of misplaced confidence. Turns out, it was really that hard and the guys were just making it look easy. Catching Oio on lures was not easy.  I must have gone almost ten times before I decided that it wasn’t for me and I shelved the idea for later. I returned to fishing for Papio. 

It also turns out that going back to fishing for Papio was just like banging my head against the wall over and over again, and in the three months that passed trying for papio, I only landed a measly 12 incher. I decided to stop banging my head against the wall and considered trying for Oio with lures again. With a few tips from Jeremy (see his recommendations) whom I’d been messaging on Instagram for a while, I headed back out to the spot again, with newborn confidence, which once again… was misplaced. I went on a few more trips being completely whitewashed. I decided not to give up this time and instead take a more strategic approach this time. I looked on google maps and tried to find the areas that looked best within the spot, areas that just looked “fishy”. I marked them on the map and looked for landmarks that could help me find the spot once I was out there. The next trip, I tried the spots, running through a few, until I tried a sandy channel that I had marked on the map. I casted and thought I was hung up on more seaweed for a second, as it was coming in with little resistance. Then, I felt the kick of a tail and my reel started screaming. I’d finally hooked the fish that I had been chasing for months. It put up a spirited fight and I landed a… small three pounder. Damn! These things fight harder than they actually weigh. I tried marking more spots on the map and went more times, failing for a few trips before finally hooking a nice seven pound Oio on the lure. It put up a really good fight and eventually surrendered. I was stoked, and it was my new personal best at the time. 

I was wondering if I could get any more distance on my casts, as I felt that I wasn’t getting enough distance with my papio whipping rod (you have to use light lures for Oio to not spook them). I bought a lighter whipping rod from a friend and went out to another spot I hadn’t tried in two years. I waded out to a sandy channel that looked good on google maps and bam! First cast I had a nice Oio on. It put up a real good fight on the lighter whipping rod and my lure was casting further, so I was like, “yeah, this was the right decision”. I kept marking places on the map that looked fishy and put a mark wherever I caught a fish.

Eventually, after a few more trips, I landed two more nice Oio before hooking into a really nice Oio on the light rod, which put up an awesome fight. It was probably one of the longest fights I’ve ever had, lasting around fifteen minutes. After taking a monster first run and bringing me down to my mono filler line, I was able to gain some line back before it just took all of it out again. I had to chase the fish halfway across the flat before I finally got it in my sights. It didn’t seem to like seeing me and took off on another run. I got it close again and we proceeded to draw circles around each other for what seemed like forever. I finally got impatient and made an attempt at it when it was on the surface, but I ended up flopping and embarrassing myself. I had to wait even longer before it finally surrendered on the surface and I netted it, with the tail sticking out of the net. I was stoked to land the nice Oio, which was 24 inches and around eight pounds. At this point I had started to make my own lures to catch the Oios, so it was even more gratifying. I kept marking more spots and trying new things, which leads up to now. Between that I landed a smaller Oio on my lure and missed a couple more. 

It was a rough journey to learn how to catch Oio on lures, and I really have to thank Jeremy who provided crucial information in the beginning. Without his help, I might still be struggling right now. I’m glad I have something to do when the Papio bite is dead now, but I am still learning every trip and I am nowhere near the level as some of the real hammahs that nail a few Oio per trip without problem. I’m considering trying fly fishing next, but that’s a whole new challenge and I think I’ll hold off on that for now. Anyways, good luck to you all, and tight lines??..

Lucky damashi -> one opelu -> first kayak Kawakawa

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Frank, Guy and I were blessed with near epic weather on the Windward side. The trip didn’t start off too smoothly though. Frank and Guy ran into heavy traffic on the H2-H1 merge, and then Guy’s fish finder went on the blink. Guy also had to do an on-the-water reattachment of his Hobie inflatable ama, but got things situated.

I had heard reports of ono being caught close to shore on Oahu and really wanted another one. The only ono I ever caught was on a live opelu Robert had gifted me because I was so bad at catching my own. Here’s how that trip played out. Since Robert wasn’t with us on this trip, I figured the next best thing would be to use the damashi he made for me that I was saving for a special occasion. I “baited” the damashi with CHL Minnows in the May Day color.

My GoPro was angled too high and cut off the bottom of what I tried to capture

First drop of the damashi over scattered marks brought up an opelu! I couldn’t believe my luck, called the guys over but we couldn’t catch any more. Meanwhile Guy hooked a 3lb oio on his damashi and carefully brought it to the surface, but he had forgotten his net. The oio broke off as he tried sliding into his Compass.

Wanting to take the opelu out to the ono grounds, I zipped out with the help of the Bixpy motor. Guy joined me, landing more lizard fish and little puffers than he cared to count. Nothing bothered the opelu and it was still kicking after 2 hours.

I told Guy I wanted to head over to the deep reef where maybe an ulua might give me a yank, and was heading that way when he radio’d to say fish were busting on the surface and birds were dive bombing. I circled back to the area, didn’t get any hits and turned back to the reef when I got the strike. It started with a few yanks as the fish tried to swallow the 9 inch opelu, and then the fish took off. The runs were very strong and the weight of the fish didn’t feel heavy like sharks do, so I began to think it was a big uku. I dropped the Avet SX Raptor into low gear and pumped and cranked the fish in, hoping to see a 20lb uku. Instead I saw what looked like a small yellowfin tuna! The fish snagged the keel guard under my kayak twice and I thought I lost the fish. When it got closer to the surface I could see that it was my first kayak kawakawa. Man are those fish strong. It was making clockwise pinwheels and my first attempt at kage-ing it missed because the fish dove as it neared the yak. Two more pinwheels and I was lucky enough to get it right past the gill plate.

Sharky had splashed my GoPro lens

Guy and I tried bottom fishing with frozen opelu and he got two hard strikes that literally rocked his kayak, but both shook the single hook he had in the opelu head. He rigged a trailer after that but the mystery fish didn’t return. My opelu got taken by a sandbar shark which I winched up in low gear. I thought of unhooking the shark with pliers but decided to keep my digits and cut the leader instead.

Here’s a short video of the landing of the kawakawa.

Frank had been on a papio hunt and caught two omilu within the first hour, trolling last year’s oama. Switching to damashi, he brought up a nabeta and a yellow spot papio. With his fish bag full of great eating fish, he radio’d us to say he was safely heading in.

The kawakawa ended up weighing 9lbs. It was good training for the 25lb shibi (small yellowfin tuna) that’s hopefully in the near future.

Capt Erik and Kelly gave me tips on how to clean the kawakawa. Because I didn’t have to scale and gut it, it was actually easier than cleaning a smaller reef fish. I was shocked to find the kawakawa’s stomach stuffed with 2 fresh ika and two small opelu. And yet it tried to eat the 9 inch opelu.

I was a little leery about eating the kawakawa since I don’t like fishy tasting fish. Turns out the Hawaiian bonito could be bloody but not fishy like limu-eating reef fish, and since I bled it on the yak it wasn’t really that bloody at all. It had a firm, meaty texture and a good taste. I did get one piece that left a slight bloody after taste though, maybe I didn’t cut out the blood meat on that one.

Guy took this photo before he and his wife ate the entire plate. It definitely tasted different from ono and uku but good in its own right. Bleeding, icing, cleaning right away and wrapping in paper towel definitely keeps the flesh fresh.

Guy paid some dues on just his 3rd offshore trip and will be a better kayak fisher because of it.

Thanks to Robert for the lucky damashi, Guy for putting me on the kawakawa, Frank for spreading Aloha, and the crew for teaching me how to clean and eat fish. God has really blessed me with great fishing friends.

Coach Haru: Rigging jigs Japanese-style

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A greatly under looked component to jigging is the way the assist hooks are assembled and attached.

Coach Haru:

This is my hook system for the compact tungsten jig.  Blade on jig is super popular in Japan now. It works to imitate tail of fish to swim more realistically. Flashes and spins to appeal. In murky water, fish might not see jig but see blade, blade itself is smaller than jig so if fish attracted to smaller bait it works good. It is popular now because these days there are less jerking jigs. In the beginning of jigging, we used heavy rod and reel, heavy line and jig (like diamond jig) and needed big muscle. Development of jigging focused on light gear. Rod, reel, line, jig, even hooks are going to super light because industries are more marketing jigging fishing for women and children. As well style of fishing. Regular jigging needs a lot of techniques. One pitch jerk, short jerk,  half jerk, long jerk, slow jerk, fast jerk and in Japan each spot has own jerk, Jakajaka maki, Tsushima jerk, Tanabe jerk, Haru’s jerk, etc. But for beginners like women and children, required high skill need to catch fish will keep them away, so industries have developed swimming jigs. Swimming jigs just needs reeling. Jig wiggles and flashes to attract fish. So jig makers took idea from bass fishing to use a blade. It works very well. When nobody have bite the only bladed jig gets bite very often.    

Hirauchi hook is flattened hooks to shine to imitate shirasu ( baby sardine). It creates scene of small jig is biting shirasu, predators see the small fish is vulnerable.  Hirauchi hook Idea is come from making Udon, soba  noodle also famous Japanese swords.  This Hirauchi hook has been developed to use in sabiki and fishing for isagi (chicken grunt). Flattened hook catches water to dance, shines to attract fish. I use for Halalu and other similar size of fish. My friend who owns charter business in Oahu uses Hirauchi hooks for catching opelu. He does not use any flies or plastic worms just those hooks. And he catches a lot. I think he uses gold color. Most people in Japan use regular assist hook. Because Hirauchi is not strong as regular hooks. So its not good for aiming a large fish like pelagic fish. Also edges on hooks make bigger holes that hooks come off easer. Hirauchi is good for not so big fish. The first priority of assist hook is light and strong then appearance is the second. Like ulua, kahala, Ojisan (goat fish) and bottom fish like opaka, onaga suck bait create turbulence that hooks must be light to go into inside mouth. Light hooks the key of it. In Japan,  Hamachi is the most common jigging target. Most assist hook are designed for Hamachi jigging. Here in Hawaii, targeting for ulua better to use light hooks, for pelagic like Ono or Ahi, strength is the priority. 


Fly assist hook. The green tungsten jig in first picture has a fly hook. I use a squid skirt for assist hook, sometimes use it for trail hook like inchiku. The idea is to make fish think artificial jig is eating or chasing plankton or small squid. Often target fish eat very small bait like small baby squid, shrimp, and others. When fish bite, I can feel, fish aimed fly assist hooks or jigs. Most of time, fish nibble during jig falls, fish is aiming fly. Or sometimes doesn’t feel any bites but fish on, that’s another fly hook bite.  When catch Ulua or Kahala, check where the hook on mouth. Assist hook was hooked on lips not inside mouth shows fish didn’t attacked jig. If those fish attacked jig, they suck the jig into mouth it must be deep as length of assist hook or whole jig into mouth. While jigging, and fish attacked violently, the fish attacked jig.

Damashi action for kau kau fish!

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Winds were projected to be about 8 mph on the Windward side, and a few mph higher on the South side, so Guy and I hit a Windward spot that held a lot of smaller fish in the past. Winds remained light through the morning so we went all the way out to 200ft looking for nabeta and opakapaka. Guy found a lone, big nabeta, and I ran into some very small opakapaka, and then a 9 incher; still too small to target. With that deep water check out of the way we headed into the shallow reef drop off .

On the high side of the drop off our damashi got hit by 9 to 10 inch moana, and as we drifted shallower, smaller moana and taape bit. Guy was using a damashi rig he tied himself. Lai skin, thread and beads on a #6 Maruto hook the guys at Waipahu Bicycle (Buster’s) recommended. It worked so well he didn’t need to add anything to it, and just jigged it enthusiastically off the bottom. Guy drifted further in and added two species of hagi and a nunu (trumpetfish) to his catch.

I was using an Ahi USA damashi with CHL Minnows pinned on, and caught a beautiful moana kali but it was too small to keep.

When my rig got stuck on the reef I changed to a damashi Guy had given me and added the CHL Minnows. I caught my last two moana on that and we headed in because the wind swell was getting a little dicey.

Guy’s mixed bag of fish

Guy solved the problem of the pesky moana bones by frying the fish crispy. His wife ate the deep fried nabeta before a photo could be taken.

The hagi and 1 moana were given to a friend who loves hagi. We’re gonna have to feature some hagi recipes soon!

I gave my moana to a church friend who hadn’t eaten that fish before. She cooked it “Japanese style” in a pan of water with shoyu and sugar, and found the fish tasty but tricky to eat because of the small bones. Her husband is waiting for a boneless filet of some non-fishy fish. 🙂

We were in the saddle for 6 hrs but it was a safe, fun day and Guy’s Bixpy motor on his Hobie Compass’ DIY aluminum rudder took the strain off his legs and ensured he could push in as the winds turned off shore. The bite was slow because the water was still a chilly 74 degrees but at least some fish did bite. We’re hoping the early Summer bite turns on soon.

Coach Haru: Right handed people should use a right handed bait caster

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Coach Haru explains why right handed people should use right handled bait casting reels, and why he takes both a spinning reel and bait casting reel on his kayak. Very good tips, pay attention! 🙂

Coach Haru: I don’t like too many stuff on yak.  I usually carry 2 rods. I don’t fish with dead or live bait.  So I don’t need a rod for catching bait. Reason I don’t fish with bait, when fish bite bait, many time they swallow deep so that fish’s survival chance is less than lure fishing. I only take fish for my friends and myself. Others gotta go back to sea. I don’t even like treble hook much. I clip barb to make barbless or use single hooks on plugs too.  

On the photo below, bait cast reel is left handle model but every other bait cast reels that I have are right handle model. Basically bait cast is made to crank with right handle for right hand stance. Editor’s Note” Coach Haru is a striking coach. 🙂

Many people who cast with right hand stance use left handle model because no need to change grip when reeling. Bait cast reel is made to cast with handle side is top because weight of reel is designed to cast easy and far. If handle side is down and cast with right hand stance, it’s not good as the other way. Manufacturers designed it that way. Left handed people should have left handle, right handed for right handle. People say not convenient for switch hands every time cast, but cast grip and reel grip are different.  

Casting grip.  The hook on the rod is between first and middle fingers. Thumb is on the spool to control backlash. 

Reeling grip. The hook on the rod is between ring and pinky, thumb on the reel not on the spool. Some right handed people use left handle model because don’t like to switch hands but cast less and grip gotta change anyway. When fight big fish,  fight fish with spinning rod is pull up and reel. Bait cast is reel vs fish straight reel without pull with rod. Especially bait cast rod is soft to make precise jig action.

Slow jigging is good with bait cast. But off shore jigging are vertical fishing so no need to cast no need to switch. I use right handle because I have used right handle bait cast so many years that easier for me. Also I switch to spinner with left handle when one arm gets tired. 

Usually I take 2 rods. Right handle bait cast with metal jig.  Left handle spinning reel with right bait casting rod with plug. I set spinning in right pole holder, bait cast on left holder. Go to the destination, I troll with the plug, when I get the point or found fish in fish finder, stop and drop jig with bait cast. While jigging if I see boil on surface, switch to spinning cast the plug to the boil. When I go to next spot, troll plug again.   I put left handle spinning rod in right side of holder. And right handle bait cast in left side, because location of handle. Pick the rod with right hand, reel with left hand. Cast with spinning rod, the other rod is in left side that can cast without the other rod in the way. Left handed people should do opposite. 

Holoholo: Papio not biting? Go chase oio!

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Jeremy and Matthew have been whipping with small lures for oio this Winter and Spring while waiting for the papio action to heat back up, and all-season fly fisher Jason shares some helpful tips that cross over to spin fishing for oio.

Jeremy:

When the papio bite is slow, I switch it up and target o’io.  Fishing for o’io with lures is challenging, but it’s all worth it when you finally hook up.  Nothing beats that first screaming run.  I primarily like to use light spinning gear, but if the winds cooperate, I do also attempt to use the fly rod, which is a completely different challenge, LOL.  For the spinning setup, I like to use 9’-10’ rods rated up to 1oz.  For the reel, I’m currently using a Shimano Stradic 5K filled with around 300 yards of 15# braid and attached to that is 15# fluoro leader. 

Big o’ios can rip out a ton of line, so using a reel that has a high capacity will greatly reduce your chances of getting spooled.  There’s nothing worse than getting spooled and having all that line stuck all over the reef (Do NOT let yourself get spooled if you can help it).  And as always, I highly suggest catch and release.  O’io are great sportfish that put up excellent fights that all fishermen dream about.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could experience that every single time instead of only once in a while?  Just something to think about…

Matthew:

Lately the Papio action has been pretty dead, except for a few exceptions. Even the Lai and Kaku haven’t been playing recently, and it is probably the worst Papio fishing I’ve seen in a while. The only time I was able to catch was on the north shore at the break of dawn, which was a nice trip, with a 16” papio and a 12” papio.

But since the south shore has been completely dead for Papio, I’ve taken the opportunity to learn how to catch Oio whipping with lures, or more specifically, grubs. I’ve learned a significant amount in the past two months or so, but I’m still nowhere near the level of some real hammahs out there, who catch a few Oio per trip without problem. Whipping for Oio is a lot harder than fishing for them with bait, you have to trick the Oio into biting a fake imitation of a shrimp or crab.

Oio, in my opinion, are the spookiest fish in Hawaii. Do something wrong and you can see them take off towards the deep as fast as a bullet. Cast too close to one, it spooks off. Stumble on the reef and cause a small commotion, any Oio within 40 feet is gone. I think that the spookiness of the Oio in shallow water was the most frustrating thing that I had to deal with at first. I’m used to using noisy and big lures to catch Papio. The Papio is a very angry and aggressive fish, and the more noise and commotion you make, the better chance you have of hooking one. The Papio will rush towards any splashes on the surface. The Oio is the complete opposite. Make any sudden movements or cast wrong and you miss your shot. Papio will also take multiple shots at a lure sometimes. With Oio, you only have one shot. The most frustrating thing is when you see a tailing Oio and start making your way toward it, but then it spooks away even though you did absolutely nothing wrong. I still don’t have the patience to actively target tailing Oio, so I’ve resorted to blind casting in slightly deeper water (2.5 – 4 feet deep). I understand though, that it gets even harder, in fly fishing for Oio. Fly fishing for Oio is a serious art and I have great respect for fly fishermen who target Oio. It’s something that I might consider trying to learn, but much later. 

I was able to land four Oio in the past month, by sheer dumb luck. The biggest one being 23.5” and pushing seven pounds, and three smaller ones all being around four pounds. Whipping for Oio is especially addictive because you can actually feel their first run, whereas when you’re dunking, the heavy rod and sand/rock spike takes most of the first run away from the fish. 

Anyways, it’s slow right now, so don’t worry if you’re not catching. You’re not the only one. Try something different, go for light game, smaller papio. Try topwater lures for Kaku. Try using bait in deeper water. If what you’re doing right now is not working, consider trying something different until summer. Good luck out there??.

Jason:

O’io (bonefish) are one of the fly fishing world’s most revered sportfish, renowned both for their fighting prowess and skittish disposition.  But one of their more overlooked qualities, in my humble opinion, is that they are available year-round.  Unlike those targeting papio, I usually continue to see action, even through the cold, wet winter months.  That doesn’t mean things don’t get more difficult.  When the water gets colder, the fish often aren’t as plentiful in the shallows, and cloudy conditions can make sight fishing tough to near-impossible.  For those new to chasing bones on the fly here are few simple tips to increase your odds during the winter months.

1) Be willing to blind cast.  
I know for many, “bombing” (as it’s referred to by Hawaii fly fishermen) can be a tough sell.  I know of a few sight casting purists who will refuse to blind cast, out of principle.  There are others who simply think it isn’t worth the effort.  “Why waste time and energy casting if you don’t see any fish around?”    If you’re like me and enjoy the casting almost as much as the catching, this is a no-brainer!  When the clouds show up, and high tide blows out the flat, you can just stand there staring at glare on the surface, or pack it in… or you can throw out a few blind casts, and you just might get lucky!  If nothing else, you’ll get in some good casting practice, and for me, it’s simply relaxing!  

2)  When in doubt, wade out.  
When you aren’t seeing many fish in shallow, there is a decent chance they’re all hanging out near the outer edges of the reef, where the water is deeper, there is more wave action, and they feel safer.  I find this to especially be the case in spots where there is a lot of nearshore activity from swimmers, divers or other fishermen.  Bonefish hate people!   You do need pretty good eyes to spot them out here, but in my experience at least, you’re far more likely to get an eat way out here.   And if you can’t see them, see tip  #1! 

3) Successful blind casting isn’t entirely blind.
While I never pass up the opportunity to take a shot at a fish that I see, as mentioned above, I tend to prefer bombing with a switch rod because I find it more relaxing.   Some folks I know don’t understand how it’s possible to consistently catch fish this way, but I believe the key (in addition to possessing stupid levels of persistance) is “targeted” blind casting.   I’ve found over the years that I catch more fish when I am targeting areas I have previously seen fish in, either on a lower tide, or when the light conditions were better.   As you spend more time sight fishing, and seeing fish, you will start to recognize the type of terrain that just looks fishy.  I will often target areas with a bit of wave action, where the bottom is a mix of rock and seaweed (not just in the sand pockets), or areas along the edges of channels or near on-ramps to the flat.  I will also never bomb in waters shallow enough to sight fish in, as this is a recipe to spook everything within casting radius!  As you wade out, you should also hit some of deeper sand pockets along the way as these can hold fish even on a lower tide.

4) Move!
Whether sight-casting or blind casting, there are countless times where I’ve hooked a fish just minutes after moving to a new spot.  Whether this is simply dumb luck or not, is tough to tell, but I tend to believe that if you aren’t seeing fish, or aren’t getting bites, it can often pay to move.  The more water you cover, the greater your odds of finding fish.
Well, that’s all folks!  Bonefishing during the winter is really not much more complicated than that, at least for how I like to catch them!  Good luck, and remember, he who has the most fun wins!

Coach Haru: Testing the little tungsten jig

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Coach Haru was able to give the compact 60gm tungsten jigs a solid test off his kayak just outside of Hilo Bay.

Coach Haru: This jig can swim, fall fast, cast far, and has less water resistance. When windy day from shore, or even against wind, small heavy bullet-like-jig flies very far. I use 10”6 jigging rod with PE 30LB, 5000 high gear spinning reel and can cast almost 100 yard.

“Match the bait” is key word for searching the best bait for the fishing. Often see a boil on the surface, cast a lure but fish don’t take. It might be the issue of size of bait they are feeding.  Need to find out what fish are eating by knowing each season what kind bait come to near shore. I gut the first fish I catch to see what is in fish’s stomach. Often the lure used is the same size of bait found in the fish. So if fish is not interested in the lure you’re using, change size to small like this tungsten jig.

I like 60g and 80g because they are not heavy and designed to cut the air to fly fast and far. Off kayak and boat, if used vertically, the jig drops very fast. Less water resistance that’s good for strong current or double current. When you see fish in the fish finder, jig can reach the fish zone fast. 60g can reach 300ft, 80g can go deeper depending on current.   For shore casting, on the first cast reel straight in as soon as hit the surface with rod tip up like 11o’clock position. It makes the jig to skip on surface like surface plug. I caught many Kawakawa (sumagatsuo) that way. A couple times try on surface , then next is straight reel in midrange, and next is start from bottom. If there no bite then change to jerking or mix with fast, slow, stop and go, short jerk, long jerk, slow jerk.    For shore cast with this tungsten 60g, I use 10”6 spinning rod and  reel 5000SW, colored PE 30LB( 8X), 40lb fluorocarbon leader 4ft-8ft depend on place. For kayak,  6”6 medium type bait cast rod and high gear bait cast reel, colored PE 40lb, 30LB fluorocarbon 15ft.  

I tuned up the demo jig Scott gave me. Changed eyes to red. Red eyes imitate wounded bait, 2 front hooks are Hirauchi (flattened metal) to shine those hooks. Blue assist line matches to the color of fish make it invisible in water. The rear blade is very popular in Japan now. Many makers make it now. What it does is imitate tail section. If the jig doesn’t wiggle well when straight reel in, this blade makes it to act like it’s swimming. Also blade is shinning more than jig so in murky water the blade shows up better. I thinks that fish takes the blade because it is small bait separate from jig. Rear hook is hirauchi hook too. I use Daiwa snap. It’s easy to change jigs, this small and thin snap has 75lb strength. But I don’t use deeper range and bigger jig over 100g I use solid ring and split ring.

This dobe papio must have thought the jig and blade was a tasty bait fish!

The other style tungsten jig I added a treble hook and blade to the rear and a single assist hook to the front. This white papio liked that look!