Capt Wes and me after the trip of a lifetime

What an amazing bottom fishing trip we experienced this weekend.  The conditions were calm and Captain Wes put us on some really productive grounds.  Not only did the shallow water jigs catch the uku I had been chasing for awhile, but out fished bait while landing omilu papio/ulua, kagami ulua, white ulua, nabeta, moana and random reef fish.  The 3-piece Cabela’s travel rod held up against a 30lb ulua and the Shimano Curado 300EJ bait caster proved once again, that bait casters have an advantage when heavy jigging.

Thankfully the blood stains on the brand new Patagonia Sunshade Crew I was “testing” came off in the wash that night.  It can now be my lucky fishing shirt without looking like I just slaughtered something.

The Tokunaga Challenge weigh-in was the day after our fishing trip, and Naoki was there fish printing ulua on t-shirts.  He warmed up with my Kagami before the weigh-in started and now I have a memento of the trip of a lifetime.

While it sounds impressive that my reel had only 15lb fluoro as its main line and landed a fish twice as heavy, it was a serious mistake on my part to be so under gunned. I didn’t expect to hook such a large fish on a small jig, but down in those Big Island dropoffs, big fish lurk.  I’m gonna take off the fluoro and just run 50lb braid, which is thinner than the 15lb fluoro I had on.  Top it off with a 40lb fluoro leader and I can be boost-happy again!