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Composite Fall fishing report , zero to 350ft!

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If you were wondering if things improved after the lousy summer season, here’s the Team report from shoreline to boat:

Jeremy, flats whipper and fly fisher: After a really slow summer, I had high hopes for good action in September, as it’s been a prime month year after year. This year was no exception. Papio and o’io bites were good, along with the opening of moi season, accounted for my best month so far this year. But as we neared the ending of October, action has died down quite a bit. With winter approaching, catch numbers will drop, so it wasn’t unexpected that bites have dropped, but it still disappointing when you go home whitewashed sometimes, LOL. How has everyone else fared this fall?

Matthew, shoreline whipper and fly maker: It’s been a very slow September-October for me, months that in previous years have been great for me. The fishing has been very inconsistent (at least on my part), and I wasn’t able to find any pattern (tides or conditions) in the few catches I made except for “right place at the right time”. 

Since I am a fly tyer that is eager to test my new colors, I have been strictly whipping with bubble + fly at a few spots. The Papio bite has been odd this year, ending earlier than normal. Being on the south shore of Oahu definitely doesn’t make the bite any better, but perhaps other sides of the island are seeing similar trends, just less drastic. However, a bunch are still out there, and if you’re lucky, you may be able to catch one. I was able to pick off a few Papio at one of my spots, most of them in the early morning. The only thing similar with all of the catches is that they were caught on smaller flies, around ¾” shorter than my normal flies (a significant amount for a fly). Perhaps the Papio are keying in on smaller, easier to catch prey? The colors that worked for me this month the most were Oama and Hinalea patterned flies, to match the most common baitfish at my spot. One of the Papio that I was forced to keep because it swallowed the fly had a hinalea the exact size of my fly and a small manini in the stomach. 

I have been seeing less activity in the water, such as baitfish fleeing from a predator, less schools of baitfish along the shoreline, and less follows and boils on my flies. It could mean the bite is turning cold, but it’s no reason to give up. 

It may be a good time to focus on other types of fishing, such as fishing for “easier to catch” edible fish, such as Moana, Toau, Taape, or Weke. Kaku fishing on the flats with topwater lures is a fun, year-round event that I enjoy, but not something I’ll turn to yet. Oio fishing on the flats has also been inconsistent, with some of the guys getting great results one day, with nothing the next. While the fishing may be slow, I’ll keep plugging away at my spots until I catch something. For all of you like-minded whippers, keep at it, the time will come soon. 

Dino: “Well, another whitewash morning” I say to Thad as we walk back to our cars. This is a saying that was becoming more and more common during the peak summer months. I didn’t know what was going going on? Corona virus perhaps? Cutting my nails at night? Who knows…

Things changed as October arrived. I started picking up some small paps here and there. Noting to write home about, but hey at least I was getting some kind of action. I mainly fish town and north shore for the most part. Action was good at the north shore spots where the Halalu were coming in. Good sized Lai were caught and friends picking some nice sized awa’awa. I’m primarily a whipper these days. Hardly ever using bait anymore. That being said, bubble fly is my main technique. Picked up a nice sized omilu on the town side during a dawn patrol session, weighing 4 pounds. The sun was barey coming up when it hit. The Kanakē fly by my good friend Jourdan Kua’ana of Lawai’a Flies has been really productive for me. It’s what I was using when the 4 pounder hit.

October has been pretty good considering the peak summer months has been really slow for me.

Be safe, have fun!

Jason, fly fisher and on-the-water reporter: It’s certainly been a Fall (and year) like no other.  Looking back at my logs, I see that I’ve hooked at least one bone on all 4 of my fall trips, and friends have also been consistently hooking fish. 

I will note that I have seen far fewer bonefish in shallow this year – a direct result, I believe, of the pandemic-spurred increase in nearshore ocean activity.  I have also heard that other flats around the island have been a bit slow this year, but suspect these reports are coming from hardened sight-fishermen who simply aren’t seeing as many fish.  

I personally believe the fish are still around, they’re just staying farther from shore, or are hanging out in the deeper channels of the flat where they feel safe from the swimmers, SUP boarders, spearfishermen, whippers, fly fishermen, throw netters, windsurers, kite boarders, foil boarders…. well you get the picture!  It’s a “circus” out there, as my friend Rich likes to say, haha.   If you can come away with a fish, you definitely beat the odds.  Either that, or fish the weekdays (might as well, you can’t really go anywhere for vacation this year).  I personally enjoy blind casting for bonefish with my two-handed rods, so I am pretty well-adapted to catching bonefish that don’t want to be seen.

Another thing I’ve noticed, is there seems to be fewer reef fish in general on the flats, and the oama have never really made an appearance (at least in these parts).  I am not sure if this is also related to the general increase in activity, or maybe just an increase in folks harvesting them (legally and illegally).  I know there’s got to be more of that going on this year, thanks in part to our current economic conditions.

My suspicion is that things will begin to fall off soon (pun intended), but for now, I’ll keep shooting until I miss! 

Kelly, SUP inshore troller: Fishing has been slow, mo betta go surf!

Scott, offshore kayak fisher: Fall is normally a great time to offshore fish because there are more light wind days, the water temp cools a bit, inviting pelagics to come closer to shore again, and opelu become more catchable than they are in the summer. But recently, the kayak hammahs have been reporting slow pelagic fishing despite catching a tank full of opelu. My uku spots have only held bait stealers. Not sure where the bigger fish moved to. Bottom fishing for goats and nabeta is still productive, and the big jacks are still willing to take jigs. Hope the target fish are targetable soon!

Erik, small boat fisher: Nearshore bite has been good for us this season.  As the winds died down and the seas calmed, it presented more opportunities to fish.  Calm nights have brought a good menpachi/aweoweo bite in late September and akule bite was good earlier October with larger size akule showing up.  Bigger schools of opelu have also been seen and caught and the better bite times are at dawn and dusk.  Pelagics are seen more regularly closer to shore and ono and mahi are coming in to feed on the bait.  We’ve not had to go further than 350′ for the ono and mahi, and live-baiting seems to be the best way to get them.  We’ve gotten all the pelagics on lures so far and plungers/slant-faced along with deep-diving lures are what’s been working for us. 

Holoholo: Surfboard Fishing Report

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Holoholo writer Kelly cheerfully reports that the fishing just past the reef has picked up recently. Despite the Covid-19 social distancing mandate he’s been able to legally bring home much appreciated kau kau for the ohana. Thanks for the update Kelly!

Kelly: In March and April, the papio bite was still pretty slow. I have been surfboard fishing near the breaks every couple of weeks at a variety of spots, mostly on the South and East shores on lighter wind mornings.

Usual catch has been a couple of 1-2 pound omilus with plenty of bait stealers which I am guessing are baby papio. South side has been having good size barracudas, about 3-4 pounds which I have been keeping for kau kau.

Here is a photo of the spicy kaku poke we made 🙂

There have been some random catches like moana, nunu and rois. The one noteworthy catch was a nice six and a half pound kagami on the east side which hit a frozen oama that had been getting freezer burnt from last summer. 

Holoholo: Red VMC 4X trebles worked again!

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Kelly, our minimalist SUP inshore fisherman, provided this short report to let us know the omilu are still around and the hooks are working!



Kelly: Fished Eastside on the morning rising tide over the weekend. Lots of papio action dragging dead oama outside the reef. Caught four and lost four. Red VMC 4x, size 8 hooks from Scott worked great – thank you! They look tiny but they hold. All the fish were caught on the rear treb hook, even this 17″ omilu.

Editor’s note: Still got some 4X trebles in the store. Use to replace weak stock hook, and as stingers on bait. So cheap and so good!

Front hook is a Gamakatsu knockoff from Korea.

Editor’s note: We don’t sell knockoffs. 🙂

Big omilu still catchable on outer reef

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SUP trolling veteran Kelly checked one of his east side spots last week on a moderate trade wind day, on the bottom third of a rising tide. He was trolling frozen oama he caught a couple weeks back that didn’t end up in the frying pan. Kelly uses a Korean knockoff of a Gamakatsu live bait hook in the oama’s nose and a trailing VMC 4X treble, size 8, with one hook tucked in between the anal fin and tail, closer to the tail the better.

15.5 inch omilu about to be scaled by Frank’s DIY bottle cap scaler

The fish weren’t at the closest reef he encountered so he had to go further out, against the wind, to find them on the second reef. His first bites were 14″ sized omilu and a roi. Then he found where the big fish were lying in wait, and ended up with a 15.5″ omilu and a 17″ omilu.

All but the 17″ omilu were caught on the rear treble hook.

17 inch omilu

The 17″ omilu was caught on the knock off Gamakatsu live bait hook. So much for the theory that papio usually hit the oama head first. Always good to have a back hook, whether you’re fishing your oama alive or dead.

Thanks Kelly, for letting us know that the bigger omilu are still on the reef but may be further out than they were earlier in the season.

Hunting the schooling white papio

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Seasonally the white papio, some ulua-sized, school up in the bay for a month or so, and for the last couple of years Frank and I tried to crash their their feeding frenzy party on our paddle watercraft. Each year we couldn’t find them, or they just didn’t want to bite.

We have caught small ones (less than a pound) just as the sun was going down, but never got the bigger ones to bite in the morning. Our boating friend Erik located a big school a few weeks ago, and that was the intel we went on.

Frank and I were on our smaller watercraft since we weren’t going past the breakers. He was on his SUP converted into a sit down kayak style board and I was on my old Scupper Pro kayak. I still had use of my Garmin Echomap fish finder and could see scattered bait and what looked like larger fish spread out in as shallow as 8ft. I dragged sinking swimmers and lead headed jigs through the schools for nada. Frank trolled through them with frozen oama and stopped off a reef edge to throw a popper. As soon as the popper hit the water he was on! The aggressive white taped out at about 11.75 inches. Way to find the biting fish Frank! But the action shut down since it was getting close to 9am.

I slurped the same popper Frank had luck with, over large fish marks but couldn’t get them to wake up. Finally I foul hooked a baby omilu with that popper, on the reef. Almost 2 hrs from Frank’s first fish, in the same general area, he got a surface explosion on his popper I could hear 40 yds away! This was a bigger fish, and went almost 14 inches.

That was all the action we got on poppers. Frank wisely dragged his frozen oama around and released a small omilu and got another white to match his first one. Good thing I have a fishing partner that can catch fish when the fishing gets tough. Without his whites I would have assumed those big blobs on the fish finder’s screen were turtles or something!

So we know the whites were there, it just was too late in the day to get them to frenzy. We’ll start earlier next time!

Holoholo: Old, frozen oama still works when the fish are in

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SUP fishing had been slow for Holoholo writer Kelly the last few months but suddenly turned on in a big way! Seems like the normally hard-to-catch omilu are biting with abandon now.

Kelly: Oama sighting reports have come in from all over Oahu, but I dunno where oama stay for sure. Wish I had some livies for bait. Please run your tubs again Scott!

I did find a small pile of the baby goats last week on the Eastside and got
about 15-20 but my kids ate them … haha. Found a few pretty decent looking oama and a couple sardines in the freezer from months ago so I decided to go SUP fishing on a small high tide dawn patrol.

LOTS of ACTION, but nothing especially noteworthy. Couple omilus, a few
roi, taape and a cuda. No big strikes but was fun to get in the water and
exercise. Always nice to bring home some kau kau too.

The VMC 4X treble hook used as the trailing hook on the frozen oama did the job again. ALL the fish were caught on the rear treble. I’ve never had it open up, even on big fish.

Editor’s Note: Kelly was using the VMC 4X Size #8 treble as his rear hook. That size is very small but still strong. The next two sizes up, suitable for replacing hooks on lures, or used as a larger trailing hook on bait, are being sold in the store.

Stomach content notes: roi and taape all had eggs. They must be spawning. Felt good to clean the reef of invasives. Papio had a belly full of cooked shrimp. Maybe someone threw their scampi appetizer in the water?

Holoholo: What kine papio did I catch on my SUP? Catch and Cook

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My kayak fishing partner Frank took his fishing SUP instead of the kayak for a quick outing and presented Kelly with his mystery fish after Kelly correctly identified it.

Frank: I had to get some SUP (kayak style) fishing and exercise in before the storms this week. I headed out looking at the dark gray clouds coming from the east, hoping I would get a few hours of calm winds and no rain.  After three laps around the area that was productive on my last outing, I headed East of the channel to try another action area and finally got hooked up.  I had to paddle for about 15 seconds to make sure I was clear of breaking waves. After grabbing the pole from the holder and starting reeling in, the fish was already in a hole and I got rocked. 

Feeling the bite was on I headed back to the West side of the channel and on my 2nd lap hanapaa! This fish was strong and  was taking line in spurts. I didn’t want to get rocked twice so I tighten drag to muscle it in. He fought all the way to the leader and was still splashing around refusing to be netted.  I could see stripes on the papio and I got more excited to get a fish I never caught before. Finally in the net and secured on the deck, I saw that the trailing treble hook did its job. The fish went in the cooler bag and was still flopping around while I did my last 2 laps before heading in.

Got to my car still not knowing what kind of papio it was. I asked my friends and Kelly said “barred” papio.  I gave him the fish since our kitchen is being renovated and he was stoked.  He said the fish is uncommon and very tasty.  I’m glad he and family enjoyed the special catch. Thanks to the FWA (Fishing With Aloha) crew for mentoring me at my new hobby. Be safe and Blessed. Frank

Kelly:

Frank gifted me his barred papio (Carangoides ferdau for you wanna be marine biologist types, like me) and I was super excited to try eating one for the first time! The 15″ fish was very thick and fatty, with pinkish meat similar to a yellow spot papio.

When cleaning it, I was surprised to find that it was full off eggs. Cleaning a fish with eggs is always bittersweet, since I like to eat fried fish eggs but would have loved for the momma fish to have been able to produce offspring.

We filleted the papio so we could make half of it sashimi and the other half steamed, Chinese style. The eggs were fried crispy, with only salt and pepper seasoning. They were ono however not much different from other papio eggs.

The sashimi was amazing, a bit like yellow spot (smooth and creamy) but less oily and the steamed portion was very good as well. 
Thanks again Frank! Now I can asterisk this “bucket-list” fish. One day I still hope to catch one myself and if/when I do, I will know how to prepare it … next time I’m making the whole fish sashimi!

VMC terminal tackle and Sufix 832 to be stocked soon!

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Some of the tackle we’ve endorsed on this website will be stocked soon, at introductory prices.

Clockwise from top left:

  • VMC Heavy Duty Live Bait hooks for big baits like opelu
  • VMC 4X Inline Hooks to replace big trebles on plugs or use as trailing hook on bait
  • VMC 4X Treble to replace stock trebles on small lures
  • VMC Heavy Duty Ball Bearing Snap Swivels
  • Sufix 832 Braid – 20lb – 300 yds – Hi Vis Neon Lime
  • VMC Heavy Duty Ball Bearing Swivels with Welded Rings

If these sell well, we’ll bring in more sizes.

Mahalo to those who have purchased from our fledgling store. We’d love to hear how the product(s) has worked for you.

Catch report: 2 different solar/lunar conditions, 3 separate locations

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The last few outings in the deep have been slow so we decided to mix it up.  tides4fishing.com said the major bite period was during the afternoon on a day forecast to have winds under 10 mph so Frank and I gave the afternoon a try.  Turns out was very slow, with only one shark interested in our bait, and the east winds cranked up over 15 mph as we struggled to get in.  Then we had to rush to rack our yaks before dark. Never again.

3 days later, the winds were supposed to be light again so Frank, Kelly and I fished separately on the morning falling tide. tides4fishing.com said there wouldn’t be a bite in the morning, yet we all caught our target fish.  So much for the solar / lunar activity predictions.

 

Kelly: I fished the early morning top of falling tide, past the surf break on my SUP and landed 2 omilu. Released a nunu (trumpetfish).  Lost another estimated 2-3lb papio.  Had many small nibbles.  Was action.

 

Frank: Fished for a few hours in the morning.  2 baits were stolen, got rocked once. Caught one omilu along the reef edge and caught two on the outer reef.  Action picked up on middle of falling tide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scott:  Tried to catch opelu over a medium sized bait school. Only managed a baby moana.  Tried hard for uku at the depth I’ve found them before and finally got one to end my 3 trip uku bolo.  Wind blew me off the spot as I was securing the fish and I couldn’t safely return to fish it. Landed 3 out of 4 aha on the back single hook on the way in.  Action was on middle of falling tide.

So on this comparison of two separate days, morning with a moving tide trumped the afternoon “major” bite period.  Having hours of daylight to clean up was a nice bonus.  The omilu seem to be just outside the surf break since there isn’t any bait to lead them inshore.

Holoholo: Aha (needlefish) catch and cook

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Kelly is one of our core fishing buddies and a terrific SUP fishing minimalist.  He joined Frank and me out in the deep on a calm day and sent a message to the marauding aha by keeping two to eat!

Kelly:
Since the water was malia (calm), I decided to join the ‘yak trip and see how far out I could go on my SUP while hopefully still fishing effectively. My backup plan was to troll the shallow inshore reefs for papio and awa awa. I arrived well before the latebird  ( Scott 🙂 ) so I decided to troll the inshore reef before he/Frank launched and test the inshore action. After an hour with no strikes, I saw them launching from the beach so paddled over to intercept them on the way out. The glassiness of the water and slow start inshore swayed me to tag along with the yakkers. I figured that I wouldn’t catch anything on my surface trolled oama, but it was a nice day for a paddle.

 

 

 

 

 

Well long story short, I ended up with several large `aha so decided to keep a couple for pupus (snacks). Turns out those fish are rather tasty and here are some photos of the end result. Our guests in town from Japan really enjoyed the panko `aha!

Choke strikes, back breaking fight and a jelly fish sting!

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We picked a perfect light wind, small surf day on the South Shore for our last outing of 2018.  Frank on his Hobie Revolution 13, Kelly on his Costco SUP softy and me on my Scupper Pro were safely able to fish 2 miles out.  Frank was on a mission to catch live opelu, and Kelly paddled frozen oama around.  The opelu were spotted but didn’t bite for Frank and me.

I gave up trying to catch bait and put on some small, frozen opelu.  The baits were hit hard, with drag pulled but most didn’t stay on too long. The ones that showed themselves were aha so I paddled out deeper and dropped down on a spot we’ve caught uku and lost screamers before.

Instantly I got picked up by a strong, fast running fish that took half my line, more than 150 yds.  I was hoping it wasn’t a shark but the leader eventually cut at the rear hook and had some nicks in it.  I paddled back to the same spot, assuming “if got sharks got fish” and dropped another bait down. This one got picked up by what felt like a shark from the beginning.  I tried to break it off but it stayed on for more than 30 minutes as my back strained and my left bicep cramped.  And a not so funny thing happened.  As I was trying to pull the shark from the deep, what looked like a clear jellyfish tentacle was clinging to my main line (braid). I swished the tentacle free in the water but it must have drifted over to my ankle I had over the side of the kayak, and stung me. I felt the sting hours later on land.

 

I got the shark to color but it didn’t want to come up higher than 7 ft under the water.  It looked bigger than 5 ft to me, but at that point I may have been prone to making this gladiator sound bigger than it was. Didn’t feel safe unhooking it on my tippy Scupper Pro so I cut the line and it swam free.

The shark had dragged me about a quarter mile from where we started, and I didn’t want to hook another in the shark hole so I paddled in shallower. Felt good to shake out my tired arms that way.

Dropping another 6 inch frozen opelu down resulted in a foul hooked aha so I put on a 10 inch opelu.  Shark number 3 grabbed it, but I was able to pop it off.

Meanwhile, Kelly was slow trolling his oama on the way in and landed 4 of 6 aha strikes, mostly on the rear hook. He consistently has a very high landing ratio, and does it all standing or sitting on a foam SUP with no rod holder or net.  He kept two of the aha, fried them up as fish nuggets and will write up a catch and cook soon.  Frank stuck to his plan to damashi for opelu but just got incidentals for his efforts.

There was so much bait around  (opelu, flying fish, etc) I was really hopeful that we’d connect with a pelagic. At least 15 of my opelu baits were slammed.  Just didn’t convert those strikes to the target species.  Next calm weather day we’re gonna go even further out to avoid the aha, and maybe troll faster to attract pelagics instead of sharks.

I have purchased a wider, more stable offshore kayak I’m hoping will feel much safer battling big creatures in the deep.  I’m tired of using my legs as pontoons to stabilize the Scupper Pro and getting stung by jellyfish in the process!

 

Holoholo: Oama still around, papio still whacking them!

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Holo holo SUP fishing (again)

Hi Scott,
Some fat oama are still around and the live oama you gave us were ACTION JACKSON!
A couple of weekends ago we went in inside the waves on the south shore of Oahu and had a blast! I took home three 3-pound omilu and a couple of 2-pounders and one 2 pound roi. My partner got a few small papio and a small barracuda. Didn’t get very good pics, but here is a shot of some of the catch before cleaning. The papio were all caught in the morning, near the top of a 1.9’ high tide and all fish had empty stomachs. We made sashimi, nanbanzuke, vina dos, and some chiri (soup). My wife is a good cook and it was all sooo onolicious!
Shoots,
Kelly

Kayak deep water fails | SUP shallow water successes

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I’ve been relentlessly trying to fish the deeper water (100 ft to 250 ft) on my kayak in the hopes of getting better at catching tasty bottomfish and pelagics,  Unfortunately days of small surf and light wind on the south and east shores have been extremely rare. We even tried fishing the north west side of Oahu when Hurricane Miriam was supposed to block the trade winds, but the winds were blowing a dangerous 15 to 20 mph.  I bailed after my prescription Maui Jim sunglasses were blown off the top of my cap without me even feeling or knowing it.  Those were the best sunglasses I ever had and I was one grouchy guy for the next couple of days.   It was only a few months ago that I reviewed those Maui Jim Twin Falls. Here’s that review. RIP Maui Jim Twin Falls.

The last time I caught a fish in the deep worth keeping was back in February.  Here’s that write up.  That’s a long, frustrating drought.  In the meantime Kelly has been fishing the inshore reefs off his foam SUP minimalist-style with his rod tucked in the back of his shorts.  His success rate has been much higher than mine this oama season because he has a good grasp of where the shallow reef predators like to hang out, and can handle getting tossed by the waves once in a while. Since I can’t catch fish I asked Kelly to write up his last outing.

Kelly:

Recently, I went holo holo on the south shore of Oahu with the kids after work and got a few oama for pupus and bait. The next day was very windy, so my SUP fishing options were limited. I decided on a semi-sheltered spot that seems to produce small papio regularly and ended with a mixed bag.

 

The moana kali was about 11” and was a nice bonus fish on my last oama. Note: I sometimes take smaller roi to eat –they are sooo ono steamed– however I cut off the head and belly areas to (hopefully) reduce cig risk a little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is how I made the larger papio, which was about 3 pounds.  Please click on the photos to zoom in.

“Live oama” vs “dead oama” vs “no oama” comparison

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The winds dropped this past Sunday and Monday (Labor Day) due to Hurricane Miriam blocking the trades.  Perfect conditions to see how “live oama” vs “dead oama” vs “no oama” compare.

Kelly’s SUP caught omilu

I wasn’t able to coordinate live oama pickup with Kelly so he SUP fished the south shore reefs on Sunday with frozen oama. He caught four omilu and a kaku trolling 7 frozen oama in 2.5 hrs.  He released a small omilu and the kaku.

Also on Sunday, Erik fished the east side throwing plugs from the small boat and didn’t get a single sniff.

 

Tori and Keely with the results of their short, successful trip

On Monday, Labor Day, Darren trolled live oama in the same general area Erik plugged. His crew was his daughter Keely and her friend Tori, and they trolled live oama for two hours in the morning.  They registered double and triple strikes, ending up with 8 omilu landed on 12 live oama, keeping 3.

At the same time, in the same area, Erik’s dad Ed took the tin boat out for some dead oama trolling with his two cousins. In 5 hrs of fishing they caught 10 omilu.

So live oama trolled by boat yielded 4 fish an hr, dead oama trolled by boat yielded 2 fish an hr, dead oama trolled by SUP yielded 1.6 fish an hr (didn’t count the kaku), and plugs didn’t work in the area where the papio were keyed in on oama.  Very small test sample and varying number of anglers and lines out but it supports the idea that live oama near the reef will get bit during the oama season, and dead oama will get bit, but just not as quickly as live oama.  Throwing lures on the papio looking for oama is a tough sell right now.

Frank and I ended up not kayak fishing because the storm generated waves sounded a little too risky.

 

 

Prep for light wind days ahead

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Hurricane Lane caused a lot of flood damage for most of the Island chain; our heart goes out to those affected.  Hurricanes Miriam and Norman are heading north of the islands, thank God, sparing us from further storm damage and even blocking the trade winds for us.  Looks like we’ll have some short periods of calm wind days.

Darren plans to take his daughter live oama trolling on the small boat again,  Kelly plans to troll live oama off his SUP, and Frank and I plan to bless his new Hobie Revolution 13 by dropping live oama in the mid to deep water.  All these guys are better oama fishers than I am, but I have the tubs to keep oama alive.  I tried to catch enough oama for us but the bite was a lot harder than the week before Hurricane Lane came through.  I’m thinking it was the big moon and not Lane that made the oama picky.

extra-small tub

small tub

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Medium tub. You can see a couple moose putting up with their oama toddlers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I targeted the pinkie oama on the first day. One the second day I tried for moose but they seem scarce now that so many small oama are in. I managed to hook one mega moose that broke my 3lb fluoro on its first dash.  Had to settle for some consolation pinkies. On the third day I used 4lb fluoro and bait that a weke would hopefully eat, but none fell for it.  The pinkies shunned my bait so I ended up with a handful of ring finger sized oama.

My tubs are way too overcrowded and I’m hoping the water quality stays decent until the fish are used.

9/5/18 Update:
Here’s how the live oama did compared to dead oama and no oama at all.  If you have any catch reports to share, please send them our way.

Holoholo: SUP fishing with oama

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My SUP fishing friend Kelly has guest posted in the past and started off the Holoholo section.  He consistently brings home the kau kau fish during the oama season and also during the “off season”.  I shared 9 live oama with him that he used for his Maunalua Bay outing.  He forgot his Flow-Troll bait bucket that day and had to keep a 5 gallon bucket from tipping over on the deck of his SUP!

Kelly:
Hi Scott,
My friends and I have been capitalizing on the late oama run on Oahu and using them outside of shorecasting range to catch papio and some other oddballs. Two weeks ago we went in the Waikiki area and I got a 3-pound omilu and a couple of 2-pounders. Sorry no pics, because went in my opu fast.

Omilu and taape filets

Opihi and lomi awa awa

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raw awa awa fish balls

Fried awa awa fish balls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week we went in Maunalua Bay (thanks for LIVE OAMA!) and I got a 3-pound awa awa, 5 small omilu (1-2 pound, best kine fo’ grine) and two ta`ape. The ta`ape had eggs, so was good to take them off the reef. Ate those fish fast kine, but managed to get pics of the fileted fish, lomi awa awa and cooked patties for you.
K-den,
Kelly

Holoholo: Yellow dot papio mini catch & cook

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Kelly has guest posted a few of his unusually large SUP catches in the past. He kicks off our new Holoholo Anykine section with a short yellow dot papio catch report and great recipe.

If you’re interested in posting your catch, please let us know through the Contact page.  Can be much shorter than this. Picture, brief description of catch, general location and method used.

Kelly:

Aloha fellow fishers! Two Saturdays ago was a day after the full moon and my only free day, so I decided to do some standup fishing on the East side of Oahu, although my expectations were low due to the apparently poor moon phase. The tide was 1.0 and rising 2.0’ in the afternoon so I took my time and arrived at the secret fishing spot at 3:00pm. I figured I would just paddle around and get some exercise but no tan, since the day was pretty overcast.

Only 15 minutes after launching, as I was nearing an area in about 6-8 feet of water where I thought there may be a few papio lurking, I got a subtle nibble and set the hook. To my surprise the fish took off and headed towards deeper water. Fought the fish for what seemed long but was probably 2-4 minutes and landed this nice 3.4 pound yellow spot papio! YAY! My fave to eat sashimi style!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My parents and I had a nice papio dinner with steamed fish and sashimi. If anyone wants the recipe for a tasty steamed fish with easy cleanup, here it is:

• Whole fish 2-3 lbs best size, freshness is paramount
• Sliced ginger
• Ti leaf and foil
• Salt/pepper
• Green onions (optional)
• Peanut oil (optional)

The sauce is what makes the dish. ½ cup shoyu, ½ cup water, sliced ginger & sugar to taste. Optional: chili pepper flakes (I use the Pizza hut dry kine, about 1/3 of the packet ‘cause easy), garlic (sliced), 2 tsp mirin, honey. Bring to a boil, then thicken with about 1 tsp cornstarch.
Clean fish, slice as shown and put ginger slivers in cuts, as shown. Place ti leaf on foil and put fish on top. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper. Wrap well, so no liquid/steam can escape. Place in 450 degree oven on cookie sheet for 30-45 minutes. Use a fork to poke and see if done. Fork should go to the bone easily, with less resistance than poking a boiled egg, almost as easily as a hot knife through butter. If unsure, open foil and poke in thickest spot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When done, take out and slide ti leaf onto large platter. Pour on sauce and top with smoking hot peanut oil. Sprinkle on green onions and GRIND!

Hunting the white papio school via kayak and SUP

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After Capt Erik took me around the bay and showed me the possible places the schooling whites could be holding, Frank and I tried to find them via our paddle-powered watercraft.  Unlike the recent boat trips, we launched in the afternoon on a big incoming tide to allow for enough time to get into position before the witching hour started.  The wind decreased from 10 mph down to almost no wind so we were able to cover more ground than usual.

My Garmin 44 CV fish finder/chart plotter marked bigger blobs halfway down the water column in the wide sandy channels, and there were bait balls around but the fish didn’t want to eat for the first 2.5 hrs.  Finally, at 5pm, Frank got got a hit on his frozen oama trolled near the papa’s edge and brought up a legal omilu (he didn’t measure his fish).  He followed that up with a bigger and stronger omilu and it looked like the early eaters were beginning to bite.

I surveyed our favorite papa and marked a lot of bait and what looked like suspended larger fish.  Frank got another hit on his trolled oama but the aha managed to skitter off.  At about 6pm I had something ambush the Waxwing Jr I was retrieving on the reef edge but miss the double hook.  Witching hour was beginning to start.

I tried to emulate Capt Erik’s popping style with a JDM popper that throws a lot of water with just a small tug, but was introducing slack on the spool and backlashing my Shimano Curado 300 EJ. To tighten the line I cast the floating popper and paddled 40 yds away, then carefully pinched the line and popped it back. I could get a good deep gurgle with a side sweep of the rod and didn’t have to worry about backlashing my cast.  On my 3rd attempt at this I got boiled on and hooked a fish!  It was a legitimate 14 inch white papio that I decided to take home so my parents could compare it the menpachi papio they just had.  I wasn’t able to get a good shot on the water shot so this will have to do.

Frank’s fish with his foot in the background. Looks like he needs a larger fish bag so he doesn’t have to bend the fish to get them in!

Just as I was bagging the white, Frank radio’d that he caught a white on his JDM sub-surface lure! That was his first papio whipping with his Shimano Stradic 4000 XHFK and he was stoked!  It was 6:30 at this point and the sun was getting closer to hiding behind the mountains.  We kept at it, and I got another boil on the popper that skittered off the hook like an aha.  I turned my kayak to drift in and was in 6ft of water when I had my last boil. Looked like a small white that couldn’t quite get the hooks in its mouth.  The witching hour was on but we needed to be on land cleaning and racking our watercraft so we bid the biting fish adieu.

Sundown was about 7:15pm on this day and the whites didn’t really start getting active until after 6:30.  So the witching hour probably starts 45 mins before sundown and continues until dark.

After eating the white papio, my dad said he prefers that to the menpachi papio, “although some people may like the darker meat menpachi papio”.  I hadn’t kept a papio in months so maybe he was just appreciating both?

 

 

Kayak fishing the deep in light wind, small moon conditions

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The rare light wind, small wave, small moon day presented itself.  My fishing partner, Frank, was out of town so Kelly graciously filled in.  Kelly planned to troll frozen oama on the way out to the deep and then switch to damashi tipped with ika when fish showed up on the EchoMap 44CV fish finder/map charter.  I planned to keep things simple and bottom fish with frozen opelu and maybe drop a jig with the other rod.

I hadn’t bottom fished with bait at this particular spot and wanted to see if that would be the difference maker.  Kelly hooked an undersized omilu within minutes of launching and released it. I steadily paddled out, telling him my depth via walkie talkie as he followed behind.  Before I reached the 100 ft mark, Kelly battled and landed a big aha which he also released since he hoped for better fish in the deep.

Fish gathered under me so I dropped a frozen 6 inch opelu down on a relatively small offset circle hook.   The first couple were getting pulled off the hook without me even detecting the theft.  Then some came back with 2 inches missing off the tail, or puncture marks through the body.  At first I was excited because our last two big moon bottom fishing trips yielded no bites, but as I quickly went through my bait supply,  concern mounted.  Kelly damashi fished and after a while got a bite. Up came a big nabeta! Whoohoo!  I was surprised they were in 100 ft since I thought we were over a rocky ledge, not the sand that nabeta hide in.

More of my opelu were mangled and the bite pattern sure looked like fang-toothed nabeta, though maybe I was wishful thinking.  I was down to a 3 inch piece of a big opelu head and three 8-inch whole opelu.  I changed to the 12/0 VMC circle hook I had been using in the past, since the offset hook I was using had too small a gap to slip around the bait.  With the opelu head securely hooked through the nostrils, I dropped down and waited. Tap, tap, tap. Kelly was watching nearby when the fish ran hard with the bait and took drag for a second. It managed to pull the bait off without getting hooked.  Sigh…

Kelly magically brought up a moana on his damashi and I hooked it through the nostrils and set it down.  I drifted that moana further out, over ledges for a good amount of time and nothing hit it.  It was a good test and in the future I’ll stick to opelu if I have some.

We started fishing our way in, and Kelly stretched his body by standing and fishing off the SUP.  Takes a lot of dexterity and calm water to do that.  At 60 ft he got a bite.  Here we are, hoping the fish isn’t “black”.

I ended the day with no fish landed, extending my bolo head streak to 7. Kelly felt bad and insisted I take home the nabeta since that’s the only fish my wife wants to cook and eat.  He said to gill and gut it right away and place it on paper towels in the fridge to keep it dry.

I rolled it in corn starch, deep fried it lightly, pulled it out to let it cool and fried it again, “Coach Haru style”. I slightly under fried the outside so it wasn’t as crispy as it should have been but my wife ate it to the bones.  Nabeta is the best! Thanks Kelly!

And while I got skunked once again, I do believe I got so many hits and steals because of the dark moon phase and moving tide.  Just gotta convert that knowledge to fish caught, next time.

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.