Sardines are in, and there are some oama showing already. The early season predators, which tend to be larger than the regular season ones, are hitting the baits in low light.
Dust off your gear and go!
The wind and rain forecast was worse at my preferred Windward spot so I tried an area that is normally more forgiving. Forgiving it was not, with 10 – 12mph onshore winds to start that increased to 15mph plus. It was hard to fish, and the target species (uku, opakapaka, weke nono, moana kali) did come up on the damashi but they were all babies. It seems like this area holds recently spawned fish in the Spring that keep biting when the older, smarter fish don’t.
When I was pulling my kayak up the beach I noticed a shore fisherman casting and retrieving his lure at a fast pace. He then started to sift the sand with a long handled net. He was trying to catch sand turtles (mole crabs) for bait but wasn’t able to find them in the blind. I gave him my frozen opelu bait so he could use it on a piece of line and attract the sand turtles to him. We talked story for a bit, then I left him to cleanup, which went quicker since there were no fish to tend to. 🙂
The shore fisherman walked up to me at the parking lot, carrying a still alive big oio! His name is Teddy and he said he was able to catch 2 big sand turtles and since he wasn’t planning to dunk, he put one on his hook he was whipping grubs with a plastic bubble filled with water. He casted out pretty far with a 7ft Roddy Hunter pole, 10lb Ande mono on his Shimano Sedona HG 2500 reel and 12lb JLine fluorocarbon leader.
He put the rod in his rod holder with the drag kind of loose and when he looked up line was peeling out! The big oio almost spooled him yet he was able to avoid all the coral heads in the shallow area he was fishing. Masterclass level of fishing with light gear!
He got his scale from his truck and the fish weighed a bit over 7lbs, which made the accomplishment even more incredible. Teddy called his friend to pick it up and iced the fish down with my unused bag of ice. The friend happily grabbed it to make lomi oio, and Teddy went back to see if there were more oio looking for sand turtles.
Seeing Teddy’s success made the sting of my bolo head less severe. 🙂
A series of North and North West swells large enough to run the Eddie Aikau contest swept through and were still present when we fished the Windward side of Oahu. Waves were wrapping and breaking on exposed outer reefs but the inshore reefs just had stronger than normal currents swirling. Friends found the oio bite to be good for 4lb to 6lb fish, so I was hopeful that the damashi fishing in my regular spots would be productive.
I had brought a 4-3/8 inch, sinking 2-1/4 ounce Duo Blazin 110 in case I had to stay shallow and whip the reef, so instead, I trolled it on the way out to the damashi spot, averaging 3mph. In 10 mins, a very skinny aha was on. I’m convinced this lure with its tight wobble would be deadly whipped for papio, and trolled for pelagics. I’ll try to test this lure in the future. You can learn more about Duo Blazin here.
Out at 140ft, there were non-breaking N swells rolling through, and chop generated from far off squalls. Not dangerous but not calm by any means. The bottom marks present on the last few trips were absent and all that came up were small opakapaka, yellow barbelled goat fish and tons of lizardfish. The target nabeta and kampachi were mysteriously absent. I managed to scrape up 3 opelu off small schools and gave up to see if the fish on the reef were behaving oddly also.
The fish were clustered in 40 to 50ft but a weird assortment of very small moana, hawkfish (not the po’opa’a) and unusual hinalea were caught. I did get lucky with a 1lb moana kali, but couldn’t find anymore since the “rubbish fish” were mobbing the damashi. The wind changed to a cold, offshore blast so I headed in.
Friends later told me that bottomfish often move deeper when large swells roll through so that could explain why the bottomfishing was so slow, with very small fish caught. But the oio fishing was better than expected for this time of year. Maybe the oio moved in shallow to take advantage of the swirling current stirring up critters?
Merik Chun returns to share how this summer’s bait fish, whipping, shore casting and throw netting season has been. We’re very blessed to get his insight from all the hours he spent on the water.
Merik:
Potentially the most rewarding time of the year for any fisherman. The summer months. This usually ranges from mid-April into May, and can last all the way till August, and as of recently maybe even September.
Throughout these last few months the primary focus was shore fishing. To be specific bait casting and even throwing net (ʻupena). There was definitely a presence of fish, but knowing how to catch them is always the tough part.
The first form of baitfish to show up this year were the nehu, followed by small schools of halalu and sardines. This attracted predators such as papio, kaku, and moi. This summer the main baitfish which I had focused my attention toward was the halalu and sardine piles. I usually target these baitfish by whipping for them, using a light game rod, with a smaller size reel. Using a California style rig with at least 2 arm spans of 2# mono to a small hook with an aqua strip, with the right stroke it was possible to catch these small baitfish. While the halalu in particular are good eating fried whole, I usually just caught enough to free line in hopes of Papio or other predators. The best time of the day I’ve noticed was right as the sun was going down, and that’s where the action came. I managed to get lucky with a few small papios, the occasionally kaku snip, and even an out of season moi, all on live sardine/halalu.
This summer has also proven to be productive in the shore cast category, which was primarily baitcasting with the occasional slide bait. Baitcasting is a popular way to catch a large majority of Hawaii’s nearshore fish, using a long casting rod, and a reel (conventional/spinner) usually spooled with monofilament line. From the beaches to the rocky shores, bait casting has proven to be productive. I managed to get lucky with everything from Oio’s to mu’s and even another out of season moi! While baitcasting, I usually like to fish around the tide changes around 2 hours before and 2 hours after the slack tide. This is when I’ve noticed fish feeding actively consistently, but it’s also a variable which is heavily dependent on location and time of year.
Another focus for myself this year was throwing net (ʻupena kiloi) which is the art of using a cast net to target fish along the shoreline. In Hawaii, there is a legal size requirement for the eye of the net which is 2”. This ensures that smaller fish are able to swim through which would be too small to take home. Knowing the size requirements of your net and the fish you’re after is a must. For the most part, the fish population in the areas I usually try are quite normal. Schools of kala and manini grazing on the reef was a sign of a healthy reef, but were not my main targets. One thing I’ve noticed this year was an influx of uhu and pananu close to the shoreline. This is a fish I haven’t seen much of in the past. Everything from blue and brown pananu, to even red whiptail uhu’s were plentiful in numbers in an area where I haven’t seen them before. They proved difficult to throw on always sitting right out side of throwing range. Though every once in a while when they climb up the reef or a flush of whitewater covers them, I’d get lucky. This was a good sign that the parrotfish population was present in what seemed to be sustainable numbers.
When it comes to throwing artificial lures, I hadn’t gone on as many trips as I would have liked. I would go on the occasional flats trip bringing along a light-game setup with the hopes of hooking into an oio, while really the main goal was to find some fresh bait! Ironically although I wouldn’t have much luck in the bait department, I happened to consistently get lucky with oio strikes. It’s always the case when you go out with a goal in mind, and it happens that you get lucky in some other way shape or form. Whenever I walk the flats with the hopes of targeting an oio, I end up finding tako. I guess that’s why the Hawaiians never speak about what they’re targeting and just keeping it simple by saying that they going go “holoholo”. I was quite surprised that I was hooking into so many oio as during the summer months they usually are a bit harder to come across. In the few trips I had gone on, I managed to get lucky with a handful of strikes, and a few solid fish landed. A fantastic sign that the oio are still actively feeding and are around.
Before the summer months came around, I told myself that I was going to try go on more plugging trips. That never really came to fruition as I only managed to get out and try three times. Although I never landed any fish, I did get action two out of the three trips. These trips were dawn patrol trips which I’d get out to the spot at around 5:00 in the morning before the sun peeks over the mountain. I would work a stretch of grounds where I have gotten action in the past, until around 8:00 where I’d feel like the action had shut down. The first of the three trips came in early June, where the grounds looked fishy, only to find myself cast after cast with no action. I had seen one small omilu in the 5# range and casted at it only to have it ignore my lure and swim off.
The next two trips came around Mid-August and these trips are where I had noticed an influx in fish activity. As soon as the sun peeked over the horizon, I’d find myself watching omilu in the 10+ pound range following the lure up to my feet. Then no more than five casts later, Hanapaʻa! The strike came following the sweep of my stickbait, and was strong enough to pull me off my feet. I had a hard time keeping the rod up as it stripped line from my reel, but out of all my strikes this was the first where I felt like I had a chance. But to my disappointment with the dense reef structure and intricate ledges it managed to get pinned down and spit the hook.
After the action from that day, I decided to try again two days later. Same plan with similar conditions, get to the spot crack of dawn, and play the rising tide. This time the action came later in the morning around 7am. It’s a type of excitement that you must experience first hand in order to truly appreciate. Being able to witness an ulua chase after your lure. In this case I was able to watch the fish swimming chasing my lure only to take a single swipe at it and miss the hooks completely. Immediately next cast in the same area, I had another black Ulua follow my lure up to the ledge only to turn last second. These two fish were just above rat size around 20-25 pound range, but the excitement was there nonetheless. A few casts later, a pair of proper Omilu around the 15# range followed my lure up to my feet, only to lose interest in my figure eight’s. This amount of action in Mid-August was no surprise. During this time about a week prior, oama schools began appearing at some spots in the area. The past few of years the oama have been making a late summer appearance in around Mid-August to early September, which would make sense on why the omilu seemed to be more plentiful at this time. Soon enough oama and papio action is going to be a part of a Winter report.
The action during these summer months never ceases to amaze. From slinging lead to casting lures, there is always something to do. This year’s summer had been filled with action in every shoreline department. Main thing is that you just get out there and try. Just remember, it’s an amazing gift to be around the ocean, and any catch is simply a bonus. With the winter months ahead and oama still around there is a good chance that the action will continue. Just gotta get out there and go fishing!
With more fish being caught now, and a lot being released, our On-The-Water fly fishing reporter Jason has some essential tips.
Jason: With catch and release fishing increasing in popularity, it’s important for newer anglers to be aware of the importance of proper fish handling. I’ve put together a list of tips to ensure the fish you release survives to be caught again:
1) Try to avoid sticking your fingers under the fish’s gill plate. This can damage the delicate gills, causing the fish to bleed. A bleeding fish will often end up a dead fish.
2) Try not to hold the fish out of water for more than 15 seconds at a time. One study showed that a fish held out of water for more than 15 seconds is up to 600% more likely to not survive.
3) Keep ’em wet! Handle the fish with wet hands, if possible, and try not remove too much of its protective slime.
4) Revive the fish by facing it into the current or pushing it in a circle. Pushing the fish back and forth, contrary to what you may see on TV, is actually not good for the fish as its gills only work in one direction.
5) If possible, fish barbless! A barbless hook does less damage to the mouth of a fish, and is safer for you, too! I personally pinch or file down all my barbs before I even begin tying a fly. When people ask why I fish barbless, I joke that it’s as much for me as it is for the fish! I’ve been fishing barbless flies exclusively since 2017, and I can count on one hand how many bones have spit a barbless fly running at me.
6) Try to release the fish in an area free of predators. This is obviously not always possible, but we try our best. For instance, if I land a fish in an area where I earlier saw a shark, I will to wade to an area further down the flat to release it. Ensuring the fish is fully revived before the release will also help, as a tired, slow-moving fish is easy pickings for a shark or large barracuda.
7) This last one is going to be controversial since it’s pretty widely practiced by both fly fisherman and conventional fishers alike, and in many cases is done to obtain a weight of the fish. Try to avoid “lipping” the fish and suspending it vertically. If you do, try not to hold it in this position for too long as it can damage the fish’s jaws and put strain on its spine and organs. Anyway, if rule 2 above is followed you should be ok.
Some of the above may seem excessive, or even downright silly. As a beginning fly angler and catch and release practitioner, I committed many of these myself. But remember, if it’s worth releasing a fish, it’s worth doing so in a way which maximizes its chances of survival. Otherwise, you are better off harvesting it (if it’s legal, of course) and making some delicious lomi oio or fried papio! Thanks for reading, and happy fishing (and releasing)!
Every year, there are a few months when the bite comes to a grinding halt. The slowdown is normally exacerbated by cold fronts dropping the water temps quickly, but this year, the water has stayed relatively warm at about 75 – 77 degrees and yet it’s been super duper slow since mid-January for the shore guys out to the boat guys.
We’ve had stretches of very calm water which actually slowed the bite even more. The less desirables, above, although tasty, bit because nothing else would.
The papio at heavily fished spots probably won’t be in until the end of May at the earliest. According to the late Jim Rizzuto’s Fishing Forecast, it’s also a slow period for moi and ulua but the aholehole bite should be good. Papio and ulua should improve in April. Kaku is a wildcard, according to Mr Rizzuto.
Best bet: The guys fishing for oio with bait and lures (flies and small weighted jigs) have been doing well lately. Get in the water and get it to where they are feeding, for your best shot at the silver bullets.
Bait has been hard to locate and catch, and if you’ve been lucky enough to have live bait, they generally went unmolested. Even the bottom fishing has been slow. Mr Rizutto’s forecast says that uku is normally slow until April, but Mahi normally return in March and some were actually caught this week. Kawakawa should be around now, though we haven’t heard of much.
Best bet: Fish the best conditions (low visibility, good current, some chop on the water) with the liveliest, freshest baits and drop down to where the fish are holding.
Winter/Spring trolling season hasn’t been too good. Some billfish and aku have been caught but not in great numbers, and the mahi and ono haven’t really shown in consistent numbers yet. Just this past week, there’ve been reports of large shibi/small ahi off the west and south side of Oahu, but the bite has been on and off. The Deep 7 snappers are biting but nabeta has been slow. Sailfish and kawakawa should bite through April according to Mr Rizzuto.
Best bet: Plan to round out the day by bottom fishing with the best baits and conditions possible. Things hopefully pick up in March.
Avet reels have been around for 20 years and are known for their small-footprint frames billeted from aerospace grade aluminum in the good ol’ US of A. Because their machining tolerances on their stainless steel gears are so small/exact, the reels don’t have to rely on excessive bearings to run smoothly. Instead, the reels are very easy to maintain workhorses that can take a lot of abuse in the salt and keep on performing at a high level.
There are 6 lever drag series and have recently added a star drag series. The base models start with a single speed gear and a single drag washer, and their largest reels have 3 speeds and 4 disc drags. A magnetic brake to minimize back lashes can also be added. Then there’s all the colors you can choose from. Really, it’s like building your own custom reel.
I’ve been kayak fishing with an SX Raptor for almost 2 years. The SX series is their smallest frame, but the Raptor model added magnetic cast, 2-speed and a max drag of 26lb in a 17oz reel. It’s been awesome to grind up ulua and sharks in low gear, and when I took it apart to clean it, there was very little residue to wipe off.
Hawaii shorecasters have been loving the medium sized Avets to cast effortlessly and bring in big game, and the boat guys have been running the large trolling reels.
The Avet reels have been underpriced for so long that they did raise their prices this year, but are still much cheaper than Shimano and Accurate when you compare features.
Drop me a line if you’re interested in an Avet. I’ll order the reels as they are requested and while I’m prohibited from selling at a discount, I can provide a rebate on other products purchased in the Store.
You can learn more about the various Avet reel options by checking out the Avet Reel website.
If you haven’t been working the grounds this summer, Matthew tells you what you missed and what you can expect to happen in the next few months.
Matthew: Summer is now pretty much just a memory, and the action is unfortunately starting to slow down. I expect that we might only have a few weeks left of decent fishing before the action reverts back to levels commonly experienced during the winter months. The saving grace for the remainder of the season could be the arrival of the Oama, which still have not fully arrived inshore yet. Many are struggling to find schools of Oama and I personally only know of a few. Those few are not big schools and are not really biting too well.
For bait fishermen, the numerous Halalu piles over the course of the last month or so have served as Papio magnets, and those fishermen have been quite successful. However, some of those piles have been netted or just left without warning. The few piles that remain are guaranteed to be crowded and not so fun to fish. Without the Halalu piles to draw in the fish, and with the Oama still being nowhere to be found, there won’t be much incentive for Papio to come inshore. Sure, there will always be a few Papio hunting for smaller reef fish and Lizardfish, but unless the Oama come in, there definitely won’t be as much action as we saw in July and the first week of August.
In general, the fish have been dead set on biting at true dawn and true dusk, with not much action between those times. I’ve been getting the vast majority of my action from 530-630 A.M. and 630-730 P.M. Pretty much all of my trips have produced no action for the “junker” time, but then had one or two bites from a bigger fish towards the “better” time period. Unfortunately I got to experience the sting of a bunch of total whitewash trips over the last two weeks, something that didn’t happen to me during June and July, except for maybe a few times.
I think that it is still a good idea to squeeze a few more Papio out of this season before the action goes completely dead. After all, it will take a few weeks to make the full transition to “winter fishing” again. But after the action dies down, it may be a good idea to reconsider other types of fishing. Freshwater fishing is a year-round option, as well as Oio fishing, Moi fishing (when in season), and other small game alternatives (reds, reef fish, nenue, kala). Of course, you can still fish for the straggler Papio as well.
This summer was definitely the best season that I’ve ever experienced, with several big Papio caught and many smaller ones. A few of my friends also had great success fishing for big Papio as well. Overall the year so far has provided much more action than the previous one, so perhaps this winter will hold more fish than in the past. Stay safe out there, have fun, and good luck fishing!
Go gettum! -Matt
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
This would be my ninth time fishing at the Heeia Fishpond, and I was hoping to take advantage of the rising tide for most of the time that I would be fishing there. When I got there, the conditions were pretty good for fishing, but it was also very humid due to the rain the night before, and no wind at all. Within an hour I was already soaked with sweat and it looked like I had actually fallen in the pond. I caught two Kaku on back to back casts on the Kastmaster, but then, after that I decided to go after some of the toau. Since both of my poles were occupied, I set up a handline. I had never handlined with a spool before, so unfortunately on the first toss I tossed both the bait and the $15 dollar spool of line in the water.
Luckily, I had brought my nine foot net, and I just scooped it up. But if the water had been deeper, it wouldn’t have ended so well. I learned how to successfully throw it and landed three Toau in short order. But that was sadly the whole school of Toau. I put on an oama and started whipping with it, and I was just about to take it out of the water when a Kaku came out of nowhere and inhaled it. I was tempted to set the hook right there, but I let it swallow it and then set the hook. I landed it, and it was a decent sized 16 inch Kaku, and really fat for its size. I started to dunk some oama and then I heard the bell ring. Someone had tangled my line and I reeled it in to untangle it. The line was still halfway in while I was untangling it. After I untangled it, I put it back in the pole holder.
Immediately after, the bell started to ring again and the reel started to scream a little. This time it was a real fish. I reeled it in thinking the whole time it was a Papio, but it fought differently than I was used to. Then I saw why. A really fat moi had surfaced with my oama in its mouth. I yelled for the net and my mom came, and she started recording instead of handing me the net. I took matters into my own hands and grabbed the net, and netted the real fat moi. It was only 13 inches, but it must’ve weighed a pound and a half or a little over because it was so fat. Almost obese fat. I tagged it and released it, and watched what could’ve been a real good dinner swim away.
I started whipping shortly after with a bubble and strip rig. I was worried because the leader was only six pound, because I forgot the 20lb I usually use at Heeia because of the Kaku. I just hoped there would be no more Kaku that would bite that day. I was wrong. Far out, I saw a Kaku take the lure and jump out of the water with it in its mouth. It then took off on a short 15 yard run due to my relatively light tackle, with an eight pound mainline, but not ultralight. I worried about the six pound leader the whole time, but somehow it came in close enough for netting. It saw the net and didn’t like it at all. It took off on another run, but that was its last effort. It came in reluctantly into the net after. It was the biggest Kaku of the day, at a decent 17 inches, but good on six pound line. I bagged all of the Kaku that day, as well as the Toau, and donated them to the Heeia Fishpond staff, which were asking for donations. After that, I had a real nice strike on my dunking pole that would not stop. The hook eventually popped and I was super bummed about that. I think it was either a big Papio or Oio.
Overall, that day was sort of a success, but it could’ve been better. Interesting that almost none of the dunkers hooked up at all, but a lot of the whippers on the wall had caught fish. Once again, whipping takes the vast majority, but dunking hooks the quality fish, as it has with pretty much all my fishing trips. I think I prefer whipping. Kastmasters and strips were again KEY in catching the smart Kaku in the fishpond. Scott has some Kastmasters in his shop, the exact same kind I have, for cheaper prices than in the stores. Oama are fully in, go gettum guys.
Holoholo writer Hunter shares a too-close encounter with an eel.
Hunter: I was out fishing Kaiser Bowls with my friend Issey on Labor Day. I was dunking dead oama while Issey was whipping with grubs. Right off the bat I had my oama followed by a 4 pound omilu which just didn’t want to bite. A few minutes later Issey hooked up to a lai which we released. Then, a while after that my pole with dead oama went off but didn’t hook up. Issey threw out his pole and hooked up to a nice 11 inch omilu. We debated on keeping it or not. Eventually we just kept it because Issey had not eaten omilu in a long time.
We decided to clean it so I jumped in the water while Issey cut open the fish. I was holding the fish while Issey pulled out the guts when all of a sudden what felt like a knife cutting pretty deep and my hand was pulled under a rock. I pulled it out and saw my fingers bleeding rapidly. Issey’s hand had also gotten cut but his was nothing compared to my cut. I applied pressure and headed back in while Issey cleaned up. The eel got a 2-fer: a piece of me and the whole omilu. Initially I thought the papio bit me, not realizing there was an eel in the water. A group of people were kind enough to help me with my injury.
Afterwards, I headed to the hospital and ended up having my wounds glued shut.
Lesson learned: Never clean a fish while in the water with its guts and blood coming out. Especially near a rock wall which is most likely housing eels. I wasn’t thinking and I paid the prices for it. Be careful and if you are near a rock wall which you think could be home to eels do not go in the water with open wounds or anything that might attract eels.
It’s the first week of August and like clock work the oama are filling in around the island and omilu are coming into the shallows to grind ’em. Omilu are even being caught on frozen shrimp now, in places that weren’t biting a week ago.
White papio are schooling up to feed and spawn, and kaku are hanging around the sardine schools, falling for lures that resemble the baitfish.
Halalu have been in for a few weeks and are drawing bigger predators.
We suspect this isn’t gonna be a long season, so get out and get yours now!
Thank you to those who participated and helped us understand our audience a little better.
Most of the poll participants fish even when it’s not oama season, finding other fish to target.
Presumably, good size papio is the most popular nearshore target species, so taking that out of the choices, you guys rather catch a screamer oio than a trophy size kaku.
The vast majority of you either just whip, or dunk and whip. Less than 20% just dunk and chill.
And if you’re fighting a hard fighting fish and buss line, more than half of you are just stoked to have had the experience of hooking and fighting such a good fish. A third quickly shake it off and try again. 10% throw a mini tantrum and were honest about that!
You can see the poll results stats here.
Middle school fisherman Hunter keeps catching bigger and bigger fish! Here’s his short recap of his recent, first ulua.
Hunter: I woke up at 5:30 to go to Kaneohe with my Uncle Dean, not expecting to catch anything big. I arrived and set up my pole for omaka and caught nehu. I then dropped down some sanma I bought from Times and some uluas came up and ate it, which was a good sign.
I dropped down my bait but the uluas didn’t want to play. Uncle Teddy came and saw the uluas. He came back and told me he was going to help me catch one. He helped me and showed me what to do. We waited for about an hour.
The uluas kept circling the bait but not daring to go for it. Eventually an ulua made a mistake and bit. I pulled as hard as I could to set the hook. It was a 30 second back and forth tug of war battle but eventually I brought him to the surface and the battle was over. Uncle Al netted the fish. It came out as 11.30 pounds. Decent size for my first one. I released it because I think that releasing your first ulua is good luck and I was happy about that but my grandma was not lol.
I met Mako through the Tag It fish tagging program and we talk story over text all the time. You can follow his feel-good IG posts @makosr. He likes to shorecast with “da Uncles”, making sure they’re safe when they’re landing fish at the water’s edge at night. He even brings live oama for the crew. Mako caught his personal best shore cast fish and relayed the details back to me over text message.
Mako: At first strike, scream my Penn Senator. I all ready knew was one Ulua. But my stiff Ozone pole brought it in in about 15 minutes. Seemed like 30 minutes tho. 🙂
Anyway I hardly fish for Ulua. Mostly small game, more fun. Ulua Fishing is really slow n boring!! Well, for me that is. What got me to slide bait was because I ran out of bait in freezer. BUT, I had 2 pieces of eel about 4 months old. My friend always let me use his tako but this time I actually wanted to go with Uncles and sit n cruze. Was lazy already. So I cast out only one pole. Slide my eel. And figure ok time to relax and talk story this time. Instead of always checking my poles. Catch baby eels etc. Not two hours in, my ratchet just took off like I never heard before. I grab my pole n felt its head shaking. That’s when I knew was Ulua!
The fish weighed 15lb, my first ulua. Dream fish, I’m having it Gyotaku’d. I cut it up in my small kitchen and gave it away. My next dream is to tag n release one.
6th grade Hunter shares another unusual catch, this time it’s the bait he used that was eye opening.
I was fishing down Kaneohe on Super Bowl Sunday hoping to get some fish for Super Bowl. Right off the bat, I hooked up to a solid size omaka but it came off at the net. I decided to try my luck at the uluas. Eventually I ran out of sanma so Uncle Norman gave me chicken breast. The idea sounded crazy, but he told me he caught a pao pao on Canadian bacon, so I put on the chicken breast.
At first only small papio were biting and the uluas kept coming up but turning at the last second. Then Uncle Mike came and started chumming. Then the big school of omilus came in so I dropped my bait down. After about 2 minutes I looked up to check my dunk and suddenly my line felt tight and my pole started flexing.
Here’s the thing about Kaneohe. To catch anything under the pier you must use lock drag or the fish will wrap you around the pillars, so fighting the omilu was basically just tug o war. After a little bit of back and forth fighting, I brought the 15 inch omilu to the surface and Uncle Norman netted it with Uncle Mike’s net.
Hunter is a 6th grader and fishes as often as he can. I fished with him and his middle school crew last year, which turned out to be my last halalu outing for the year. Here’s how we did.
Hunter wanted to share his truly exceptional catch from shore – big pao’pao, or golden trevally he caught a week before Christmas. Thanks Hunter!
Hunter:
I was fishing in Kaneohe Bay with my Grandpa and my Uncle Dean, when my uncle’s pole went off. It was peeling line off the real really fast, and caught us off guard. We were fishing for Pualu, and it was evident that this was not a Pualu. Uncle Dean told me to start reeling in the pole, so I started to reel it in. I kept thinking throughout the fight that it was a stingray or a shark, but after five minutes, it came to the surface and felt a lot lighter and started moving around more. A little while later, it came close to us and we saw the signature golden flash of a big Pao’pao.
At this time, I was pretty exhausted and handed the pole over to my uncle to finish the job. It took a little bit of skill to get it up to us, but Uncle Al came and netted it for us.
When we got home, we weighed it and it weighed five pounds and 10 ounces. My parents were delighted to have a Pao’pao. We ate some as sashimi, and then cooked the rest. Too bad I couldn’t have caught it later for Christmas!
Almost 2 weeks ago we made the prediction that oama would start coming into the south shore oama spots over the next few weeks, and be catchable by the end of July. We also said that papio would hitting the oama piles hard by mid-August, and be catchable with oama. Well, that turned out to be accurate and a little conservative.
A day or so after we posted that, we got reports of newly arrived oama being spotted in growing numbers, and by late last week they were biting pretty well. We held off on announcing this to give the early oama fishers first crack at oama that haven’t learned to avoid human interaction. The daytime oama predators have been showing up and mugging the schools so looks like the season is ON!
I checked my early season oama spot last week and there was a small school of newly arrived oama that were very skittish. 6 to 8 inch Moose oama came to the palu so I targeted them instead and got 4. I prefer the Moose over the small oama, to drop live in the deep with my kayak. Problem is the Moose aren’t eating in captivity yet. I guess I gotta catch a few easily trained oama babies to teach the Moose to eat.
Matthew is one of the Next Generation anglers who has been learning the ways of the Lawai’a (Hawaiian fisherman) by respectfully watching and learning from the uncles. He’s a very active fish tagger and has a large following on Instagram (@Shorefishing_Oahu_Style). I had communicated with Matthew over social media for almost 2 yrs and thought it was time we should fish together!
Matthew:
It was a good day with light winds, and a favorable tide, so I invited Scott, the owner/editor of this blog, to come out and fish with me at my sardine and halalu spot. The spot that we went to is usually junk unless the bait comes in.
I got to the spot before Scott did and quickly spotted the dark blob in the sandy area that meant there was a school close to the beach. I got my flow-troll and rope and tied it to me as I waded in the clear water. The school was only around 20 yards from shore which was good, but what wasn’t good was that I was barefoot and my feet were getting bust up from the scattered sharp rocks.
There’s a sardine in Matthew’s left hand if you look closely.
I used the smallest size damashi (which is basically a dunking rig with 6 hooked flies on it). Size 4 will work, but size 3 is the best – any larger and they wont bite it. You could also snag them, but they get smart after a while. I was averaging one sardine per 3 casts which isn’t that bad. When Scott arrived, he was whipping with a sardine-colored Shimano Waxwing Boy. The few predators that were busting up on the pile were smart enough to not eat his lures, unfortunately.
After I got enough for bait, I rigged up a live sardine rig, hooked a rather large sardine in the mouth, and cast it right past the pile exactly when an Omilu blew up on the school. Not even 3 seconds after the Sardine hit the water, my rod bent and a good sized 14 inch Omilu was on! It was a rather short but hard fight. I tagged and released the Omilu for it to hopefully get recaptured someday. If any of you are interested in tagging fish, you can visit fishtoday.org/tagit. After multiple attempts to catch more big fish, but to no avail, I switched back to sardine fishing. At around 5:00 P.M., they really started biting. I was getting one or two almost every cast. Then something really big came in and went bananas on the pile. Every minute, the whole pile jumped and there was a huge splash as the either big papio or small ulua busted the pile.
In the end, I caught 54 sardines, 2 halalu, and that Omilu. I ended up catching a decent Oio the day after and then another good sized Omilu.
The sardines are in, the Oama are starting to trickle in, and the Halalu are in if you know where to find them. The predators are often too smart to eat lures. Live bait is always best. It’s summer! Go gettem guys!
Matthew Ikeda
Instagram – @Shorefishing_Oahu_Style
Editor’s note: I’m amazed at Matthew’s ability to become such a successful fisher guy after only fishing for 3 yrs and just being in middle school. His writing is top notch and he even snuck in a bait status report. He might be “angling” for my job. But… he did make one mistake. He caught 53 sardines, not 54, because he insisted I try to catch one with his damashi rig. After I tangled the rig a couple of times because I reeled it through the top guide, I finally caught a dumb sardine that swallowed the hook and Matthew had to yank out the hook.
When I started fishing as a kid, the rare papio I caught were very small; less than today’s 10 inch fork length minimum. Most were omilu but some were small white papio incidentally caught oama fishing. I didn’t realize the two species were so different, and a lot of newbies may not either.
Look at the pictures above. The omilu (bluefin trevally) on the right have their eyes set further back than the white papio (giant trevally) on the left. That’s because they hunt looking ahead, targeting fast moving creatures on the reef in relatively clear water during the day. They have a narrower profile and dart into reef crevasses to ambush their prey, which consists mainly of small fish, but does include some crabs and shrimp.
The white papio’s eyes are larger than the omilu’s because they hunt in low light and off color water, especially at night. Their eyes are set forward because they often root around for shrimp and crabs on the bottom when they are juveniles, and tako and eels when they are larger and slower moving. The white’s mouth opens larger than an omilu in order to swallow such a big piece of food.
Many believe that white papio tastes milder than omilu because their diet includes crustaceans and other non-fish critters whereas the adult omilu mainly eats fish.
Whites are proportionally thicker than omilu, and grow much larger. The state record for white ulua (GT) is almost 200 lbs whereas the omilu record is 28 lbs.
The fish feel different on the line too. Omilu generally run faster than whites because they are slimmer and quicker, and dart into the reef holes if given a chance. Whites pull steadier and often last longer because they use their thickly muscled bodies to resist being pulled.
How should you target each species?
Omilu: They hunt early in the morning in low light and throughout the day as the tide fills in, but take a siesta when the sun is very bright. When the sun goes down, they settle back into their deep reef safe zones to sleep. They have a weakness for oama but also hit quick moving lures. Generally more discriminating than whites, they also appear to be smarter. Besides dunking around the bait fish piles, whipping near clear, turbulent water can be very productive. Omilu hit aggressively if they feel safe enough to do so.
White Papio: The bigger ones (ulua) prefer to feed in the cover of night so live and dead baits slid down or dunked work well. During the day, white papio hunt in slower moving, off color water like bays, stream mouths and harbor channels. Big ulua hunker down in deeper water caves during the day but can be agitated to bite by the gurgle of a large popper. If big whites are together they can be very competitive feeders, fighting off each other to get to the lure first.