Fish bite after the rain too! – PB uku catch, clean and cook

March 25, 2020 By Scott 9 Comments

The lingering Kona Low storm we had last week finally cleared and the winds dropped for a day, so I prepped to kayak fish. Only problem was that all State and City beach parks were closed to enforce social distancing! When it was confirmed that fishermen could transit through the parks, I parked outside, wheeled my kayak through and launched on an empty beach.

The wind was initially light and I paddled my way to the bait spot. Small bait schools passed under me but I could never connect with them. Gave up and went out deeper than I have been, to try to avoid the sharks. This must’ve been the spot because 3 boats kept drifting into my social distancing space. I guess they had no problem accessing the boat launch.

Felt hard taps about 20 secs after dropping down a frozen opelu and I was on with a hard pulling, jerky fish. Tightened the drag and tried to get it up before Sharkey caught wind of what was going on. It pulled hard until about 15 ft from the surface and was pretty worn out at color. Hooked in the corner of the mouth on the rear VMC inline hook. CHEEEHAAAA!!!

Its tail was sticking out of the Promar floating net but luckily was too docile to try to squirm out. Definitely the biggest uku I’ve landed and was stoked to get another since local fresh fish in the market is really hard to come by because of food supply issues.

Missed a fish on the next drop that pulled the bait off. Then had a bait reduced to just the head. Dropped the head back down to catch the culprit and something that felt like a school bus ate it and didn’t want to be lifted off the bottom. I finally broke free of that. My next bait got picked up by a heavy, head shaking fish and I was able to stop it and bring it up a little before it got real heavy and jerky at the 5 min mark and the line cut midway up the 40lb fluoro leader. I think it was some medium sized jack that got sharked.

The east winds picked up at this point and all but one boat headed for safety. I took their advice and paddled in to a deserted beach.

The uku ended up being my personal best at 23 inches and 6.5lbs. Since I didn’t have many pics to put up I decided to video the fish cleaning process, and planned to pull stills of what it had in its stomach. Well, turns out it had a small opelu, a baby tang-shaped fish, and something that looked like a small squid, but they were pretty decomposed looking so I decided not to use the stills. Fishing buddy Kelly reviewed my slowly improving fileting skills and pointed out areas of improvement:

Cut the fins off before scaling, so they wouldn’t get in the way
Scale the fish completely even in the hard to reach spots
Pat dry the fish if rinsed with water
Cut with long strokes to leave a smooth edged filet

I decided to share the compressed 2 min video of the catch and time lapse fish cleaning so others could learn from my mistakes. Shout out to Thad, our JDM fishing tackle purveyor, for providing the super sharp, super strong “SK11” all purpose shears from Japan. I was able to cut through all parts of the fish including the center bone!

The fish was shared with family and friends, consumed raw with citrus finger limes, steamed, baked and fried.

Wasabi kewpie mayo poke with red finger lime

I made a point to emphasize that the fish was only touched by my Coronavirus-free hands through the whole process, unlike a fish you find at the market. 😉

NOH Poke Mix – buy for the ogo and add ingredients to your liking

January 18, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

The NOH (pronounced “no”) brand of seasoned mixes is found in all the Hawaii supermarkets and Long Drugs. So convenient to just mix with water and it tastes like you put the ingredients together from scratch. But have you tried the NOH Poke Mix? It only has 3 ingredients: Hawaiian salt, chili flakes and dried ogo. You might have Hawaiian salt in your cupboard and can get chili flakes from your leftover Pizza Hut packets, but ogo isn’t easy to come by, and fresh ogo is expensive.

I like to start with the NOH Poke Mix and add sesame oil, white onions and inamona (chopped kukui nut) if I have it. The ogo tastes clean and crisp. So simple and so good. Here’s a video with Raymond Noh and Lanai showing how to use the poke mix.

We’ve taken the NOH Poke Mix to the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach the last 2 years and the guys loved it so much we were able to trade it for lures and t-shirts! The folks at NOH appreciated the exposure and are selling the mix to us at wholesale now, so we can share more freely.

You can buy it in the Store too, at a price lower than the stores in HI. If you buy the mix with another item, and use the code ADDON, a dollar will be subtracted from your shipping fee effectively making the mix ship for free.

Favorite shoreline fish to eat

December 16, 2019 By Scott 14 Comments

(top to bottom, left to right) Omilu, lai, uku, kawelea, wahanui, weke ula/weke nono, moana/moano

The Holoholo writers share their favorite fish to eat that could be caught, netted or speared from shore and how they like those favorites prepared. Matthew, our youngest writer, starts off with the most descriptive list. The other writers have provided their top 5. Please drop a comment and add yours.

If you’re not familiar with all the names, please refer to the Hawaiian Fish Name Translations.

Matthew: Over the years, I’ve eaten a lot of fish, but some I like more than others. Most of the fish I like are meaty and don’t have much bones, but there are certain exceptions.

My top ten list for shoreline fish only is as follows (ten being the lowest out of the ten and one being the best out of the ten):

Mu. In my opinion this is a well-deserved top spot. Mu are very meaty, have no bones except for the center bone, and have no fishy taste to them. Steamed chinese style with onions and garlic, and a little bit of butter, it is heavenly, and cannot be beaten. You don’t even need to pan fry this fish to make it good. Baking or steaming is the best way I think. Maybe roasting would be good too.
Uku. This one was a tough fight against Moi. Even though it isn’t caught often from shore, it still lives pretty close to shore, where shorecasters catch them sometimes. This is a non-fishy fish, and about the same as the Mu. No bones except for the center and has a very mild taste. However, sometimes they have ciguatera poison in the areas of the head and stomach region. Don’t let that stop you from eating it though. Occasionally on restaurant’s special of the day list.
Moi. Some people would put Moi in the top spot, and I would too, but after Mu and Uku, I think that Moi should belong in the number three spot. Moi is a very moist fish that is often served in Japanese izakayas. In the izakayas, they serve it deep fried with special salt and a ponzu dipping sauce. It is a killer dish, and that is that is why I go to izakayas a lot. In particular, Uosan (Ala Moana/Ward area) has very good Moi, as well as a lot of other dishes. However, they are very hard to catch, so your best bet at eating one unless you are one of those Moi hammahs is at a Japanese izakaya.
White/Yellowspot/Omilu Papio. All species of Papio are great eating. They are a meaty fish, and have more bones than Mu or Uku, but the taste is definitely there. It is mild, and a lot easier to catch than Moi, Uku, or Mu from shore. However, they are still somewhat difficult to catch, especially during the winter months. Certain species of Papio have their strengths in eating. Yellowspot Papio make fantastic sashimi, and lots of bottom fishermen praise Yellowspot Papio for their moist and fatty flesh. Omilu are great any way possible, sometimes a little fishy as it gets bigger. White Papio when they are small are very mild, tasty, and soft. However, once they reach Ulua size, their table fare rapidly goes down. Some Ulua fishermen love to eat Ulua, but there is risk of ciguatera and the meat is quite dry and tough when it gets big.
Aweoweo. In my opinion, Aweoweo are a great eating fish. I like them steamed chinese style and a ponzu or soy dipping sauce. They are somewhat easy to catch if you know the spots to catch them, but however, I don’t know the right spots for them. I would assume they are good fried as well. I know of one restaurant that served them as a special once.
Toau. Toau are very abundant, and easy to catch if you are light dunking at nighttime or dusk/dawn. They have a lot of bones, but when they are over ten inches, they have more meat than bones, and become good for eating. If you fry them enough, you can eat the whole fish, even the bones, if you cook it until it literally shrivels up. However, that is a waste of oil. They are good steamed or pan-fried. Pan fried, you can add shoyu, garlic, and onions to make a great meal. Throw in some butter and parsley to make it even better.
Small Halalu. Small Halalu when deep fried with panko and oil are very good, almost like french fries. Upper class restaurants will sometimes have deep fried smelt, this is very similar to it, but homemade. Japanese restaurants sometimes sell them labeled as baby Aji. Aji – Akule
Small Oama. Same as halalu, but a little less meat and more crunch.
Menpachi. A very flaky fish, good pan fried in butter and oil, with salt, pepper, and other garnishes. You can also deep fry them, but their main flaw is that you have to scale them more than other fish, since they have a lot of big scales similar to Toau. Some restaurants serve them as a special occasionally.
Po’opa’a. I ran out of best options, but Po’opa’a is decent table fare. They are a huge pain to clean, I would only bother with the bigger ones. Their two filets are just perfect size to make into fish and chips. Soft and meaty. However, there is quite a bit of fish taste to it, so be advised of that.

Please understand that this is all opinion, but in my mind these are my top fish.

Kelly: Steamed kumu, raw moi, raw uku, raw mu, raw yellowspot papio.

Thad: Dobe papio sashimi, moi steamed, uku sashimi, yellowspot papio sashimi, aweoweo fried.

(top to bottom) yellow spot papio, weke ula/weke nono

Erik: (Not in any particular order, I like ’em all) uku sashimi/poke, moana kali / weke ula steamed, akule fried, yellow spot papio sashimi/poke, awa aua made with Thad’s kamaboku recipe all day!!!.

Munu and some smaller moana (moano) being sold as the better known kumu

David: Fried kole, steamed weke ula, deep fried moi, steamed mullet and steamed kumu.

Frank: Moi steamed, uku sashimi/fried/soup, dobe papio poke, akule fried, palani steamed in ti leaf w/lemongrass pulehu style.

Robert: (not in any particular order I like ’em all) Fried shark steak, Oriental steamed mu, Thai style oio or awa aua cakes, nenue sashimi, pickled halalu.

Jason: Aholehole, aweoweo, omilu under 1lb, moana, kupipi / mamo, all fried, I’m a simple guy. 🙂

Holoholo: Junk, no eat… (catch and cook)

October 29, 2019 By Scott 7 Comments

My oama fishing buddy, David, has a wealth of fishing experience and knowledge and I’m constantly learning new things from him. He surprised me with this comparison to my jointed lure fishing outing.

David: Scott recently fished the incoming tide at a well known stretch of beach, casting some newly acquired, jointed, shallow running lures that had tremendous side-to-side action; these lures look irresistible (to me, but who knows what a fish thinks). Having described his whipping episode, I thought that I would conduct a crude experiment to compare underwater lures to top water poppers. I have this mild, unsupported theory that poppers have an edge over underwater lures in shallow water when it comes to Kaku and Papio because I think the splashing and chugging turmoil initiate predator instincts. Of course, logic doesn’t always apply to the habits of fish, but my reasoning is that if a fish is not overly hungry and sees bait swimming by (in this case, a swiveled-body lure), it’s sort of “ho-hum”, just another fish, but maybe not worth expending the energy to chase and grab the bait. On the other hand, I’ve always felt that fish are opportunistic feeders, and since splashing is usually associated with distress, it would seem that a splashing popper might trigger a reflex attack action. So I thought that I would try a comparison test.

I knew what time he had started fishing, so I started 1/2 hour later the next day, to mimic the same tide conditions. Scott said he had about 5 or 6 Kaku follow the bait, but only one missed strike. I basically fished the same waters with approximately the same tidal conditions, but threw poppers instead of underwater lures. There are of course a zillion environmental conditions that were different and obviously any fish that lived in the area had moved around or left completely, but since Kaku are somewhat territorial, it seemed likely that unless someone else had caught all the Kaku in the area, that they were probably still in the general vicinity. At this beach, there is a beginning and an end, so the grounds are finite.

In any case, I tried to duplicate his path and tossed poppers the entire stretch of the beach. The tide was rising quickly and it was a perfect day with little wind. Would the poppers make a difference ? I walked and threw my favorite popper, hardly pausing at all. The entire length of my trek, about 4 or 5 Kaku chased, but none hit. At the end of the beach is an area where bait fish sometimes congregate. I got to the end, and there were small schools of bait swimming around. I threw 5 or 6 times and bang ! A solid strike, my pole arched, followed by the sweet sound of the drag. I was using 6# test and a semi-noodle rod. The fish jumped twice, then it was over. Attached is a photo of the 18″ Kaku.

Scott had several chases but only one soft bite, but no hookups. I had a similar amount of chases and one hookup. Was there a pronounced difference ? No. Are poppers better than shallow runners ? Probably not. The only difference was luck. The fish just happened to be where I randomly threw. Pure luck. But hey, I had a good time and got a fish. I happen to love to eat Kaku; most don’t.

My mother was a fantastic cook, and my father was her greatest fan. Anytime I visited them and he was eating, I’d ask if the dish was good. He’s always reply with a grin, “nah, junk, no eat”. The stronger his insistence, the better the dish. So, to those who don’t favor Kaku, eh, “junk, no eat”. 🙂

I’ve tried barracuda a couple of different ways, steamed Chinese style, fried, etc. My favorite is tempura. Normally I’d cut the body into steaks then batter and deep fry them. But I filleted this one then my wife deep fried the tempura and made Tartar sauce. When it’s cut up into steaks, there are bone fragments left in the meat; but when filleted, it’s much easier eating. Goes good with Takuwan or Sanbai-zuke. I also like the center bone salted and dusted with flour, then fried like Aku or Ahi, or salmon bones in the local style. A good friend of mine makes his dip with julienned onions and mayonnaise. Both are good. I’m sure Ponzu would work well. Sometimes I use Chick Fillet sauce for the dip; of course, that makes anything taste great. Really junk, no eat…… 🙂

Holoholo: Aha (needlefish) catch and cook

January 9, 2019 By Scott 1 Comment

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!

Pay it forward uku – Catch and Cook

November 16, 2018 By Scott Leave a Comment

My family was stuffed with fish Capt Darren gifted us the day before, but the wind was supposed to be down on the Eastside and the surf manageable. It might be one of the last days I could kayak fish that side before the winter swells made the surf unsafe. Right before I jumped in the car, Kelly alerted me that the rivers were at risk of overflowing on Kamehameha Hwy. About 10 mins into the drive I heard on the radio that the rain was stalled against the Koolaus and flooding was imminent. I pulled off the freeway and headed home. The south side was dry and surf was supposed to be about 2-3ft plus.

Drove to the beach Frank and I had luck at this winter, and the reef passage looked safe. Shoots! At about the 30ft depth I dropped down a fresh dead halalu Capt Darren had given me the day before. The halalu was rigged with a sliding weight, an Owner Gorilla hook through its lower jaw and out its forehead, and a rear VMC inline hook tucked in the skin by its butt. Before I reached the 50ft depth my reel screamed! By the time I stopped paddling, turned on the GoPro, and it started recording, a few seconds elapsed so I think the fish ran for at least 5 seconds. The run was so strong and sustained I thought I had hooked a shallow water ono!

The fight was odd, though. There were some head shakes but there were also spastic twitches and the fish wasn’t resisting as much after the initial run. When the fish was below me, It felt like the line was rubbing against the reef. It didn’t feel like a papio and because the water was so shallow, I didn’t expect a pelagic. Maybe a big kaku that got tired out?

I was surprised to see a big uku (well, big is relative to me since my biggest was at most 3lb) at color. Normally they circle when I try to net them but this one was pulled in easily.

When I tried to unhook it I saw why. The size 2/0 VMC Inline hook was at the opening of its gullet!

No wonder it took off when it felt the hook, and I was feeling its teeth on the 40lb Seaguar Blue Label leader.

The water was already a little choppy and then the trades picked up soon after I landed the fish. I paddled into the wind and drifted back with it, but only had hage and small papio mess with my bait. Water was coming over the side of my Scupper Pro so with my biggest kayak caught uku to date, I paddled in.

Here’s a short video of the strike and landing of the fish.

Hope you’re not squeamish! The stuff that looks like Chinese wide, flat noodles are the gonads.

VMC Inline 4X hook size 2/0

The uku measured 20 3/8″, 1/8 shorter than the uku Darren gave me the day before! Mine had a distended stomach and weighed 4.25lb. Turns out it was filled with male gonads (reproductive organs) and nothing in its stomach but my hook! Poor guy.

Paying it forward after the previous day’s generosity, I gave a filet to my church friend so he could compare with the yellowspot he received the day before, and gave the rest to Kelly who gave me the flood alert and hadn’t had uku for a long time. Kelly is really efficient in his fish cleaning and can stretch fish like Jesus did in the bible!

Kelly:
Thank you for the uku Scott! We made it in a variety of ways, however most were raw because you took such good care, it was uber fresh.

First we made sashimi, that is the best way to get the true flavor of a fish (and the easiest prep method).

Then we made chirashi sushi, which is a big tray of sushi topped with various ingredients. My wife made the sushi and it was amazing. She topped the lightly vinegared rice with shiitake mushooms, egg, cucumber, salmon, tobiko and fresh uku!

We also made the head and bones into arajiru, which is a miso soup that sushi restaurants in Japan are renowned for. The sushi was enjoyed by my extended family (6 people) and also some folks who attended the potluck that night (about 12 people), so it fed many appreciative folks!

Holoholo: Yellow dot papio mini catch & cook

July 8, 2018 By Scott 7 Comments

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!

Kayak fishing the deep in light wind, small moon conditions

May 14, 2018 By Scott 6 Comments

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

February 23, 2018 By Scott 10 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What does the Hawaiian Yellowtail aka Hiramasa taste like?

February 21, 2018 By Scott 5 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Undergunned against the creatures of the deep – catch and cook

February 17, 2018 By Scott 2 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

January 19, 2018 By Scott 5 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Going further and deeper to extend the season

December 13, 2017 By Scott 12 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guest Post: Big South Shore Omilu on SUP – Catch and Cook

November 16, 2017 By Scott 16 Comments

It really was this big and I have the photos to prove it!

Here is a guest post about a recent stand-up paddleboard fishing adventure on the South Shore of O`ahu by my fishing buddy Kelly. He prefers staying a little anonymous for now.

Howzit fellow fishers! Scott was nice enough to humor me and let me do a second writeup for his blog. In my first guest post I caught a personal best yellowspot papio in Waikiki. Lucky Lucky.

It was a nice calm Sunday morning with a very high tide 2’+ at 7:12am and the moon phase was good, so I dragged my lazy butt outta bed early to see if the fishies would give me any action. The surface of the water looked smooth and some surfers were preparing in the dark to paddle out, so I did the same with my wetsuit and fishing gear. Hopefully no freak sets would wipe me out, as occasionally happens!

As has become my custom, I brought my foamie SUP board, although the new wrinkle for this trip was that I decided to try an ancient used Penn 209 level-wind that I bought from eBay for $25. The reel was loaded with 30lb test Yozuri Hybrid fluorocarbon/mono that some fishers in Hawaii swear by. Hopefully this reel and the heavier line would allow me to land some of the larger fish which have been giving me trouble the last year or so. I had asked Scott to service the reel, since it was kinda similar to the bait casting reels he uses. The drag had been very sticky and freespool was all hemajang and when I took it apart it was giving me fits getting it re-assembled. To my mild surprise, Scott was able to do a full service and even get it so that the drag was silky smooth and the freespool could now spin for days. I was now loaded for bear and figured the little papios were gonna be toast.

At about 6:30 in the morning I paddled out at one of my usual spots, with my cheap-o used conventional reel and charity hand-me-down baitcasting pole from Scott. The rod was a bit stiffer than I am used to and that little trigger kept jabbing my lower back due to placement but the setup seemed to be passable. I figured at the very least, I would get to paddle in some nice glassy water, get some cardio in and see a beautiful Hawaiian sunrise. 🙂

As you may have read in my other guest post, my fishing budget is extremely limited and I always try to catch fish using very inexpensive tackle that still works for the fish I target (papio). I have found that just trolling dead baits like frozen oama, halalu or sardines with a pole stuck in my shorts is pretty easy and productive. It also minimizes my gear (and prep time) and allows me to catch/surf a wave if and when one happens to come along.

The sun was just rising and the tide was peaking, so I felt there was a decent chance to catch a legal-sized omilu or two for dinner. Since the water was very high and I had LIVE oama, I decided to stay inside the breakers and close to shore, at least initially. Scott had generously given me some live oama, which I picked up in the bucket right at the spot he left them in his garage. The pickup was in the wee morning hours, prior to heading to the fishing spot -so I am very grateful that he would leave the liveys out for me! Scott even let me use the bucket and pump. I think I owe him some good homemade char siu soon. 🙂

Editor’s note: Welcome anytime!

So off I paddled, first out about 50 yards then parallel to shore. My instincts proved true and within 5 minutes of launching from the sandy beach, I got a 2+lb omilu in the bag. The fight was pretty good even though I was using a big soda-can sized floater to try to keep the big live oama from swimming down and snagging the bottom. Despite the resistance of the huge floater, the omilu made several strong runs before I dragged it onto the board.

The floater seemed to be working as an attractant, because after re-baiting and paddling back to about the same spot, I scored another thick 2.5 lb omilu right away! Both were caught within casting distance from shore. The morning was still young, so I decided to hang around to fish a bit more and use my last few liveys.

With the pressure off and the tide now falling, I headed out to the breakers. Often the action in the surf zone is hot and heavy, with all the turbulence and whitewater seeming to stimulate the fishes to eat. I landed another 2-pounder in the surfers’ channel on the way out and then decided to go past the surfers to scout some new reefy areas, quite a bit past the breakers. Anything else now would be icing on the cake.

After about 15 minutes, and a couple bait stealers taking my last liveys, I switched to a frozen, salted Halalu from Thad (that halalu trip was written up here) and replaced the floater with a light clip-on weight. Those freebies from good friends seem to have some kind of mana, as I always seem to get lucky when using gifted gear/bait!) Actually there was a lot of Aloha involved in this fishing trip, since Thad gave me the secret bait I used to catch the oama and he also gave me charity salted halalu which he caught whipping. Scott gave LIVE OAMA, the baitcaster rod and serviced my new old reel, another friend gave me the remnant line I used for leader and so on and so forth … maybe I stay just one old pa’ke (thrifty Chinese) fisherman … haha

As I trolled about 40 yards outside the surfers, I hadn’t had a nibble in about 10 or 15 minutes, so I was contemplating going in early to clean my fish. Maybe the halalu was not a good bait for this area? Maybe the bite was pau already…?

As I was daydreaming about why I wasn’t getting hits, all of a sudden BINGO-BANGO and my clicker started SCREAMING. My line was ripping out -it sure is nice to hear that loud clicker, since I usually hear a pretty quiet spinner drag. Scott’s comment regarding his screaming clicker sounding like Wicked Tuna played in my head and I told myself that this was a BIG M’Fer and I better not lose ‘em!

I fiddled clumsily with the reel since I am not used to using a conventional, I had to switch hands and flip the pole over, then finally set the hook two or three times by jerking the pole upwards, more out of habit than anything else. Of course, that made the fish pretty unhappy and he went on a 20-yard spurt. Since the water was about 15 or 20 feet, I let him run a little more than I usually do then started to retrieve line slowly, but surely. During the fight I vacillated with letting the fish run then clamping down, afraid of being rocked, as I often am. Finally, I rationalized that my line was heavier than usual and my reel bigger and stronger than my junky spinner, so I could probably just boost the fish in. I palmed the spool and just started “winching”, which is kinda how I feel fighting a fish on a rather foreign (for me) conventional reel, but after about three or four minutes, I saw the familiar electric blue hue and knew it was a nice sized Omilu.

The fish made a couple of death circles under my board, and I used the time to grab my glove from my pocket. I don’t bring a net, so I just grabbed the tail on the scutes with my gloved hand and the fish was mine. The knockoff Gamakatsu live bait hook I used was easy to remove and as I bagged the fish, I realized my backpack cooler would not zip up, so I had to leave the tail sticking out.

By now I was sooo dang stoked! My paddle-in seemed like I was just floating on a cloud, so effortless. I rarely catch nice sized papio, usually just papiopio, which are mighty tasty anyways. It turns out that this was my second largest papio … EVER!

After fishing, I stopped at Scott’s house to return his bucket/pump and he was nice enough to weigh my fish with his IGFA certified spring scale. Turned out to be a bit over 6 pounds and made lots of sashimi, poke and vina dos.

My wife also experimented with the filets and made a Japanese style nanban-fu dish that is served cold and was pretty AMAZING .

The sashimi was cut and eaten on the second and third day after the fish was caught. We like to eat our raw fish than way for most fish, since the flesh tends to be a bit softer after a couple days (depends on fish type though). My catches are small and I always ice them very well, that is the single most important aspect to keeping the fish as fresh as possible with the goal always to have sashimi quality fish at home, whether we eat raw or not!

We made poke from the not as pretty but still super fresh cuts of fish. This time I made a sweet ginger shoyu poke, which is normally the most popular with my children. Basic ingredients are shoyu, sugar, round onions and ginger. Other things we like to add depending on taste and availability are sesame oil, chili pepper, honey, toasted sesame seeds, green onions. You can also try the secret ingredient, a touch of oyster sauce … get creative and let your taste buds make the decisions!

Vina dos is a Portuguese style vinegar fried fish that my kids love. We use it for the bones, belly and other “scrap” pieces of the fish. Many popular recipes are online, so I wont go into detail but the main ingredients are vinegar, Hawaiian salt and fresh garlic – lots of garlic is the key! Oh, I almost forgot, my mom made a fish soup (“chiri”) with the head … no waste 🙂 … we live by the motto … “you kill it, you eat it” … although maybe that is just my old plantation pa-ke roots coming out … hahaha

Thanks for reading my fishiiiiing taaaales!

Guest Post: Waikiki Standup Paddleboard Fishing – Catch and Cook

May 31, 2016 By Scott 8 Comments

This is a guest post about a recent stand-up paddleboard fishing adventure in Waikiki. The writer is one of my fishing partners who prefers to remain relatively anonymous while still commenting on most of my posts. His name is Kelly and he’s a master at catching fish near the reef on his foamie SUP with the rod tucked in his shorts.

Playing hooky from work always seems to bring me good fishing luck, so I decided to try my luck on a Friday. Although it was a windy day with poor fishing tides (only a small 1.0’ high tide at about 10:00am), I decided to take my foamie SUP board and paddle around to see if the Papio season had indeed started, as Scott had been hearing through the grapevine. The trade winds were whipping, which limited my SUP fishing location options, so I headed out to Waikiki after dropping off the kidlets at school. I figured at the very least there would be nice blue-green water, beautiful white sand, attractive “scenery” and I would get some much-needed exercise.

I paddled out at my usual spot about 8:30 in the morning, with my brand spanking new cheap-o spinning reel loaded with generic 15lb test mono and my state of the art junk-a-lunka $20 pole. My fishing budget is very limited and I always try to catch fish using inexpensive tackle that still works well for the fish I target (papio). Normally, I just troll dead baits (oama if I can get them) by paddling along with a pole stuck in my shorts and that is just what I decided to do. The pole in the shorts trolling technique is fun and allows me to fish cheaply, with very little gear to pack and cover grounds that are usually less heavily fished.

The sun was out and the tide was rising, so I felt there was a decent chance to catch a legal-sized Omilu or two for dinner. On some days, I have had moderate success near the surf breaks and impact zones with all the turbulence and whitewater, so I headed out to the breakers. After about 10-15 minutes, I felt a light tug on the pole, which was tucked in my shorts right below the small of my back, and in short order pulled up a cute little Omilu. It was quickly released unharmed. A bit later, a slightly larger Omilu hit and gave me a short, but stubborn fight. This one was about 10 ½ inches, pulled a little drag and was bagged quickly. I like to land the fish as soon as possible to avoid stressing the fish – it makes fish tastier to eat (my main objective) but also keeps fish healthier if it is to be released. More on the eating part later.

After trolling for another 30 minutes or so with only one more legal Omilu hitting my bait, it was time to head in to meet Scott for a quick kayak safety exercise near the shore. I reluctantly headed down wind, back to the paddle out spot. The tide was near its peak now and I was slightly disappointed to have to paddle across a “dead area” in order to get to the stretch of beach where we had agreed to meet.

In order to arrive on time, I took the most direct route that was over a very shallow flat, rubbly reef interspersed with sand and a few coral heads. In about five feet of water, my attention focused on the beach looking for a red kayak, all of a sudden BANG! My pole doubled over and I thought WTF!??! Did my dead bait get stuck on a coral head as I paddled slowly?? I grabbed my pole from my high tech okole rod holder and pulled upwards. Well that sure pissed off the creature and he (it was a male, more about that later) made a long run parallel to shore. It was odd because it was not the smoking, head shaking run I experienced on big Papio strikes, but rather a strong steady pull. My second thought was “WTH is this, a turtle??”, since the honu frequent the calm waters in that area and sometimes eat dead fish. Throughout the fight there was the lingering question in my mind about what was on the other end of my line. Occasionally I felt a head shake, but was still flummoxed as I racked my brains trying to figure out what I had hooked. After about three or four minutes, I was able to see a silvery color and a very vague roundish shape, but still could not make out the species of fish. Whatever it was, I knew the size and color meant if I landed him, he was gonna make for some good grinds.

After another 30 seconds or so of him pulling my board in a 360-degree clockwise circle, I was able to make out a Papio … but there was no electric blue color and the tail had a black outline. I was still unsure of what exactly I was fighting. It was definitely not the color of an Omilu and did not fight like a white Papio. Could this be my first Barred Jack? I got excited and the fish must have sensed it, because he made another run that took him out of my sight range. Now I was getting a little nervous and hoped that my hook did not pull. I double-checked the drag and slowly worked him back to the board. After a few tuna-like death circles under the board, I decided that it was time to try to land the big guy. I pulled my long rashguard sleeve over my palm and fingers and grabbed the tail. The tail stump was very girthy and I was very pleased with myself indeed … but then the fish gave a hard kick, slipped out of my hands and started swimming away! “OH $HIT”!!! I screamed! Luckily, he was still hooked and I worked him back to the board again. Made a more decisive grab this time and got a death grip on the tail. Finally after hauling the fish on to the board, I saw that it was a big, fat Yellowspot Papio!!! I checked to make sure the hook was secure, in case he flopped off the board somehow.

After a minute of rest and exultation, I removed the hook and bagged the fish. WOOOHOOO! In disbelief, I started paddling for shore. Every so often, the bag would thrash around and I would have to make sure my once-in-a-lifetime catch would not escape. As an intermediate fisher with limited time and resources, I do not catch nice-sized fish very often. In fact, this was my biggest Papio ever. It was pure luck! I heard that it is not common to catch yellowspots in very shallow water and I would not have fished that area at that time, except that I had promised to meet Scott at 10:30am. As they say “better to be lucky than good”.

The Papio made some nice sashimi, poke and Portuguese style vina dosh. Here are some photos. If you look carefully, you can see the fish was a mature male and you can see the milky gonads with red veins. The sashimi was amazing, smooth and buttery with a nice soft texture. The poke was made with invasive “gorilla” ogo harvested the next day. The “gorilla” ogo is a great ingredient in poke (and a fine namasu), is very plentiful and easy to harvest. I drove up to the beach in Maunalua Bay grabbed the ogo and drove home. The harvesting part took about 3 minutes and I highly recommend this crunchy limu as a food source.

It was a great fishing/culinary experience and I will never forget my lucky luck Waikiki Yellow Spot.

– Kelly

Last ditch attempt to catch something/anything; taegu recipe included

January 14, 2016 By Scott 9 Comments

The inshore bite really slowed in the late December, early January time period. The 8 – 1o inch omilu have shown up sporadically but the larger ones appear to have gone wherever they go during the winter. Awa awa have been saving the day for Kelly, as he nimbly trolled dead oamas between sets on his SUP. Lacking the paddling speed and courage, I fished away from the impact zone on my longboard with not much to show for it.

As a last ditch attempt to find a feisty predator, I kayak fished the deep waters of the Windward side solo today. The winds were very light, and armed with live tub-raised oama, I had high hopes. After an hour of aimless paddling I finally got a strike. It felt like a decent omilu, but it broke the surface halfway into the fight. What I thought was a short awa awa turned out to be a pretty large lai. My family doesn’t eat lai so I shook it off the hook.

Hopes raised, I paddled through bait marks on the fish finder, skirted the edge of dropoffs, and even dropped my oama to the bottom. Nada. The evening witching hour came without any predator activity and I dejectedly paddled for home. As my landing site came within view, my ratchet finally screamed. I hoped it was a thick papio but suspected awa awa in such deep water. The fished towed me a bit and spun me around before I could see color. Awa awa it was, and it saved the trip for me.

It taped out at 26 inches (forklength), not as large as the previous one I caught here in the summer, but my first keeper of any kind in 3 trips. The papio continued to prove elusive.

Chester made lomi lomi awa awa out of the fish and said it had a delightful fresh, mild taste. With the left overs he made taegu for us, using recipe below. Yummm!

This taegu recipe had been featured in Lawai’a magazine. Chester uses a small convection oven and dries on the lowest setting. He puts it outside so it doesn’t stink up the whole house. Genius! Oh, and he only uses a half teaspoon of chili pepper flakes. Adjust that to your heat tolerance.