Fishing Report Archives - Hawaii Nearshore Fishing

Winter nabeta: Catch, clean and cook one of the best tasting fish in Hawaii

January 4, 2024 By Scott Leave a Comment

In the Winter, the huge NW swells often make the Windward side unfishable by kayak. So the week before New Year’s I returned to the crowded south shore amongst the boaters and kayakers who were hoping to catch something for their New Year’s feast.

I was trying to get a nice uku (green jobfish) that could be sashimi’d and poke’d but landed a perfect sized nabeta on the damashi early on. Usually I end up with just one, which serves one person at most, so I put in the effort to catch a few more. I was surprised to catch 2 more, and then had a drag pulling nunu (trumpetfish) join the party. Then this whopper of a nabeta hit, tried to go back into the sand, and eventually came up. It was the largest I had ever seen and I contemplated releasing it because I heard the big ones get rubbery when deep fried, but decided to steam it instead. Check out how big that nabeta was.

Then another nunu bit the damashi and the slimey buggah was released like the first one. I finally caught a moana for uku bait, put it down and it was immediately hit. Unfortunately a huge brown hagi (triggerfish) came up after a heavy tussle. The next moana had its bottom half cut off despite the fact I had a second hook in its tail. The last moana had a bite around its gills but the attacker missed the hooks again. Whatever the predators were, they were too small so I went back to adding to the nabeta catch.

Two more nabeta rounded out the catch, the most I ever caught on the South Shore. I scaled the two largest nabeta (12.5 inches and 11 inches) which was much harder than I thought. The nabeta scales are so pliable to allow them to burrow in the sand, that the scales bend when you try to remove them. If I intended to pour boiling oil on the steamed nabeta, the scales would have become crunchy and eat-able but my family didn’t want the oily finish.

I just gut and gilled the smaller nabeta and left the scales since everything would be deep fried crispy. All 4 were developing eggs or sperm to spawn yet the two largest ones had no eggs or sperm. And the smaller ones had critters in their stomachs yet the 2 largest ones had nothing. Maybe the two largest ones just spawned and were trying to restore their reserves? One of the smaller ones had a whole bobtail squid in its stomach (thanks Kelly for the species identification). Check out how hard it is to scale nabeta and also how easy it is to gut and gill them.

I gave the 4 smaller nabeta to a friend with instructions to salt & pepper, coat in corn starch, deep fry ’til golden brown, take out to cool and then deep fry again to really crisp the scales and skin. Unfortunately they only had Olive Oil and we learned that that type of oil doesn’t get hot enough to do the job.

The largest nabeta did get a little firm and rubbery after being steamed with ginger slices in tin foil but still tasted very good with just some Ponzu drizzle. My dad loved it so we steamed the other large nabeta that same way and that came out soft and creamy. I guess when nabeta reach a certain point their flesh gets rubbery. Nabeta is the least fishy tasting fish we’ve steamed and has such a nice slightly flaky texture. Can’t go wrong with them deep fried or steamed.

2023 Wrap-up – Shoreline to Boat (Oahu)

December 21, 2023 By Scott 5 Comments

2023 was better overall than 2022 but fell a bit short of expectations. A weak El Nino did warm up the water in the late Spring but faded, and it was a windier than normal year. Overall water temps didn’t get that high and there were less fishable offshore days than the previous years. Thanks to the Holoholo writers for summarizing their season.

Shoreline:

Oama:

Some spots were very good and consistent, holding oama through September. Other spots that normally hold large schools were dry. The oama came in late July and left by October, which is the typical timeframe. Overall, an 8 out of 10. Papio weren’t hitting the piles much though.

Halalu:

It was a very good halalu season on Oahu. The regular spots held fish for a long time despite getting pounded. Papio were seen and some caught near the halalu piles.

Oio Flats Jigging:

Matthew:

The O’io fishing this year has been great in general. Unlike previous years, I chose to completely forego the summer Papio run and instead focus on only flats fishing for O’io. It got a little tough this year with the presence of many new anglers on the flats, but spot rotation is something that I’ve found extremely valuable. Rotating between four or five spots has kept each one fresh for the next time I fish it. I never fish the same spot twice in a row. With the increase in pressure, I’ve hardly seen any fish in the shallows, instead being forced to go to deeper water in search of those smart fish.

This summer showed a really impressive number of O’io, but most of them were smaller fish (under 4 pounds). This winter has been very cold and while the numbers of O’io have decreased exponentially, the quality of fish has also increased exponentially. Recently I’ve been fishing for most of the trip without a nibble but depending on that one 5lb+ fish to come around. I haven’t had much numbers, but nearly all of my fish in the past month have been over 5 pounds. For example, I went through the entirety of August, September, and October without catching a single Oio over 5 pounds, although I was catching more numbers in smaller fish. I’ve also shifted my strategy from “stay in one area you’re really confident in” to “cover as much ground as you possibly can” recently. They’re still out there, you just gotta hope for the best sometimes. Good luck🤙

Fly Fishing:

Jason: The year overall was a fairly productive one, with all of our usual flats producing bonefish, along with the occasional 10-12” omilu (a trophy on our flats). By October, the action started to taper off, but this is perfectly normal for those of us hunting roundjaw o’io on the flats (versus the deeper water sharp jaw variety). Looking back at my catch logs for myself and friends (aka our group text string) I’d say our numbers were pretty much right around our averages, however we did focus a bit more on the windward side of the island this year than years past. This is partly due to the Navy’s closure of a popular flat, which remains closed as of this writing, and partly because exploring new waters is part of the fun in fishing!

Plugging/Whipping:

Thad: I dedicated more time during the summer of 2023 to throwing plugs instead of bubble/fly, so my papio catches were down. Did that mean I caught more of the bigger predators like the elusive ulua than in the past? Nope. But my fishing partner Dino had a year to remember with his back-to-back big ulua on consecutive days. I did have in increase in big strikes so the opportunities were there but I suffered from the rubbah hook/bent hook curse so I caught less fish overall. The plugging action picks up around the summer months but the timing is a little different every year. The 2023 action seemed to start a little earlier than the year before. Whipping the flats for oio was more productive for me this year as we’ve been able to dial in some new spots. People say the winter months are better for oio but to me they seem to bite equally year-round. Hopefully the oio action will continue through 2024 and I’ll be able to make the summer plugging strikes stick.

Dino:

2023 has been a really weird year as far as fishing goes. It was really up and down for me. I accomplished what I feel I will never be able to accomplish again. I hit uluas on back to back days in July. A white ulua in the 35 ish pound range and an omilu in the 22 pound range. Lost another one at landing some time after. The oio action on the flats has been hit or miss. Some days it’s good. Some days it’s dead as can be.

The Summer was good and the plugging really slowed in the Winter so I’ve been doing flats fishing for oio which has been a little bit of hit and miss for me. Picking one up here and there.

Hoping that 2024 can bring some good action for the bigger shoreline game. Gathering and prepping the plugging gear as we speak.

Nearshore:

Kayak Fishers (West and Northsides of Oahu): Largest shibi (yellowfin tuna under 100lb) of the season were caught in the Spring, along with mahi. Summer to early Fall were consistent for shibi and mahi. Aku popped up in the early Fall. Ono were caught in early late Fall. Bite has slowed in Winter but there are still pelagics to be caught if you’re in the right place with a lively opelu. Uku seems to be available year round.

Scott: (Windward side kayak) Slow ’til March when aku schools moved in shallow. Then the wind blew ’til October. When the weather finally allowed offshore kayaking, the small shibi and small mahi were in shallow but that only lasted a few weeks, water temp was 79 degrees. In December the temp dropped to 74 degrees and the pelagics were scarce. Currently, nehu bait balls are getting pounded by small kawakawa and opelu from below, and birds from above. North swell often shutting down exposed spots.

Dive:

Pono: Didn’t get a ton of diving in this year due to having a busier than normal schedule and a windier than normal summer (my usual dive season). However, the few outings that I were able to go on were very productive! I had a lot of fun down-sizing my speargun, kayak diving, and trying new recipes. Diving deeper has shown me that Oahu still get fish if you know where to look! I think there were more nearshore pelagics in the Fall compared to other times of the year, we were seeing shibi and kawakawa on reef dives.

Boat:

Erik: 2023 brought two new boats into our fishing experiences, a 21’ Force and a 17’ Boston Whaler. The year started steady and progressively got better with October being our best month. We are blessed to have landed Ahis in both boats this year and have caught enough fish to share with friends and family.

Offshore fishing is still good but the wind and high surf have been limiting factors.

We look forward to more fishing adventures in 2024 and hope to see more of our fishing family out in the ocean.

Mid-Sept: Have the Oama and Halalu seasons peaked? Maybe not.

September 19, 2023 By Scott 4 Comments

This has been the best oama season since maybe 2017? They came in by early August and kept coming in. A friend reported that the oama fishers have thinned but the oama are biting really well in the evening with papio hitting the piles.

Halalu came in thick in some spots and bit like crazy. They were so close in a few not-so-secret places, that a straight pole with bait was enough to fill a bucket. That appears to have peaked, but they are still around.

The bigger 5 to 8lb papio were seen and caught early in the season, and now the the 1 to 3 lb papio are hitting the piles. Fish around the piles with oama or whipping lures before the season ends. Who knows if next year will be as good as this year?

The Season has started!

July 26, 2023 By Scott 7 Comments

It’s the last week of July and the El Nino has been warming the air and water for a few weeks. We expected that to kick off the oama, halalu and papio seasons but it seems like they all just recently started picking up. Halalu are in a few of the regular spots, in large piles and have been attracting papio and even ulua. Oama are beginning to fill in at the regular spots, and still look like they just swam in from the deep.

Since this is a transitional year from La Nina to El Nino, with the scientists predicting it will just be a moderate El Nino, maybe the fishing season will be similar to how it used to be: oama and halalu will peak in August and thin out by October; papio will be hitting the early piles now and not be as showy by September, but still catchable if you put out a live bait.

Now is the time to whip near the bait piles in the early morning and late evenings as the predators try to ambush the bait in the low light. To help with that, we have restocked our Japanese Domestic Model (JDM) lure supply with what was so successful in 2018 and 2019.

Go to the Store > Newly Added to see the recently added products, or select the product category you’re interested in.

Fish bit like crazy in the storm runoff and rain!

May 4, 2023 By Scott 2 Comments

It rained hard the night before and continued to shower on the Windward side but the wind was projected to remain light. Since fishing in the rain the previous time was phenomenal, I put on a light rain jacket and paddled past the runoff browning out the launch.

Because the current was too strong to pull the bait tube out deep the week before, my plan was to try to catch opelu inside, and then drift ’em around to find the elusive Windward uku that has eluded me. A 12 inch opelu bit on the first drop, followed by perfect, bite sized 7 inch opelu on subsequent drops. Normally opelu are hard to catch after sunup but it was overcast and raining and the fish thought it was dawn I guess. With such perfect, small baits I decided to try to paddle the 1 mile out to 250ft.

Using the Bixpy motor, the current was manageable and I got a hookup at 160ft. It had been months since a fish has stayed on longer than 5 seconds and I was stunned. The fish ran so hard, and so deep I thought I was fighting my first shibi (yellow fin tuna under 100lb) but after 6 mins a really round kawakawa came to color.

I was so out of practice I knocked the kage in the water and had to tail grab the fish. Good thing the kage floats!

The circle hook, which was lightly snagged on the roof of the kawakawa’s mouth, fell out when the fish was in the kayak. Man, I was lucky to land it. After so many pulled baits on J hooks and a few on circle hooks, this was the first pelagic landed in 7 months.

I did manage to get out to 275ft but nothing took the next 7 inch opelu so I paddled back in to the shallow dropoff. The rain was falling lightly but consistently. Since I was wearing the rain jacket over my long sleeve shirt, I felt fairly comfortable.

Sure enough everything wanted to eat the CHL Minnows on the damashi. Nabeta on the bottom, opelu on the top, lai in the middle and even a baby uku! An aha (needlefish) took the opelu I had been free lining, and nothing took the next opelu I dropped down with a weight. The mature uku had eluded me again!

I wanted to give the nabeta a rest, just took 3, released the rest of the damashi fish and headed in as the rain abated. Was nice to dry off while I cleaned up.

The kawakawa felt like it was close to 20lb because I was used to catching fish under a pound, but ended up weighing 14lb after being bled. It fought spiritly but the St Croix Mojo boat rod and Avet SX Raptor in low gear sealed its fate.

I do love these overcast, light wind, light rain days that really get the fish going!

Holoholo: 2 Uku, 1 Shibi without the help of sonar

March 22, 2023 By Scott 2 Comments

Grant Taura previously shared how he catches akule in the pre-dawn morning off his kayak. Check that out here if you missed it. He’s back to share his best offshore catch to date. Takeaway: Good luck doesn’t just happen on the kayak. You gotta get out early, put in the time and cover a lot of ground!

Grant:

We decided on a 4am launch. Our normal routine is to catch Akule as a backup bait just in case we aren’t able to pick up Opelu at sunrise. Shortly after launching, while powering up my navigation lights and fish finder, I soon realized that my fishing chart was working but my depth chart (sonar) had no signal. It didn’t take long for me to find that the cable connection at the fish finder had failed and could not be repaired at the moment. Being that the depth chart is a vital tool and critical in locating and catching bait, I was tempted to turn around and call it a day. Then I remembered the last time I had issues with my fish finder, I brought in a Shibi and a Kawakawa, the first time I landed two Pelagics in a day. Fishing, like any sport, is all about mindset, perseverance overcoming obstacles in order to be as successful as possible with the situation and circumstances in hand. So, I decided to utilize what I have learned up until this point and go for it. I asked my partner, Roger Tabugadir, to call out the “marks.” That’s what we call when we see potential Akule or Opelu on the fish finder. Good partners can also be huge in your success and this day proved that. Roger called out marks perfectly. I mark my line in my reel in 50ft increments with different color line, so when he called a depth, I dropped my line to that depth according to the color of my line. He was consistently on point with both the Akule and the Opelu. We were both able to pick up enough Akule for friends and family and also enough Opelu to last the day. It actually ended up being way more than what we needed.

We then headed to deeper water. My target was the Uku and any Pelagic that would take the bait. Roger on the other hand, targeted his favorite Nabeta and Pelagics. By using my fishing chart, I was able to kind of determine my depth. Although it wasn’t accurate and I wasn’t able to locate any marks because of my depth chart not working, I was able to still fish the general area and depth by following the fishing chart. Another good tool that I had as a backup was the Navionics app on my phone. I had forgotten about it. Paul Miguel Braga (You Tube Channel: Shallow Water Shibi), who had a later start than our 4 am launch, had suggested I use the app which also shows you your location and fishing charts. Soon after, I hooked up on my poor man’s downrigger. As I was fighting the fish I was trying to determine and identify what I had hooked up to. I could tell it was some kind of Jack or my targeted species Uku, by the head shakes. After reaching my leader and about 20 feet of remaining leader I was able to see that it was my first Uku of the day at 13lbs. Landing an Uku never gets old. I let out “Cheee” bled, took a pic, bagged and iced. I’ve been blessed to have met some awesome fishermen like Devan Inouye ( YouTube Channel: Where’s D-AHI? ) who shared some tips for targeting Uku. I learned that the best way is to gather information from different fishermen who are willing to share tips and find ones that work for you. There are a lot of different ways that will work.

After setting up and dropping the next bait, I cleaned off the deck using my manual bilge pump and had a protein bar.

Time went by, my guess would be another hour and a half, before I took a strike on my Penn 8500 Live Liner reel. After counting thousand one, thousand two….to thousand five, I flipped the live liner to set the hook. I was on, and I could tell it was a tuna by the tail beats and just as I was starting to fight the fish my line had tangled around the bail and at that moment my line had slacked and I could no longer feel the fish and I yelled Ah! as I thought I had lost it. I now focused on untangling my line off of my bail, taking my time to not make it worse. After untangling, I was reeling and taking up slack and my line felt a little heavy like something was still on. I took up the slack and I guess the fish finally realized that it was hooked and took off. It was about a 10min fight until I heard that I had reached my leader, that sound you hear when you go from braid to fluoro.

When it hit about the 20 ft mark, I could see it was tuna but wasn’t able to identify ‘til it got closer. It was a 21 lb Shibi. I removed my drive to prevent the line wrapping around it. Took out my Kage and missed on the first attempt and got um on the second. Did the “cheee”, bled out, bagged and iced. In the meantime, Roger had drifted North and out of my radio range. I didn’t hear all the action that he was having on his side. Paul was in between and was in radio range and heard the action. Unfortunately, Roger’s previous Nabeta spots didn’t produce any Nabeta this day. But he managed to land a nice size Aku. It was time to head in. In one last attempt, we let out one bait and slowly made our way in. I was about to bring my line in because we were in the 50ft depth when I took a strike. With the same feeling I had on my first Uku, I could feel the head shakes. This one took a little under 5 minutes to land. It was an Uku around 8-10 lbs. After putting on ice we headed in and called it the day.

Holoholo: Offshore Kayak Fishing on Hawaii Island – A Summary of 2022

December 31, 2022 By Scott 2 Comments

Big Island kayak fisher Shea Uehana (YouTube: Affordable Wahoo) summarizes his second year of offshore fishing. You can compare this to his previous year here, and to Devan Inouye’s Oahu Offshore Kayak Fishing Summary here.

Shea:

January 2022

Opelu and akule were both scarce through most of the month, but the few that I could catch were quickly eaten by hungry shibi ahi in the 25-35 lb range. I actually got a single shibi each trip out in January.

February 2022

Opelu were easier to find as we ranged out to spots on the southern end of the Big Island. The shibi bite was hot on the east side, while Sailfish readily took live opelu every trip out to the west. I also consistently came across a large school of Great Hammerhead sharks just milling around on the surface in South Kona.

March 2022

Bad weather on the windward side forced us to head west. The shibis were smaller at west spots, but Mahimahi and Kamanu (Rainbow Runner) started showing up. One of the Kamanu I caught this month is still my PB to date, a chunky 21 lbs. Smaller ono started showing up near the end of the month, and on one trip I lost six in a row to sharks!

April 2022

Opelu were suddenly abundant pretty much island-wide. I was finally able to break the ono curse and landed the first of the year early in the month. Large Mahimahi started showing up on the NW side of the island, and a buddy and I doubled up. His bull must have been close to 40 lbs and the cow I landed weighed in at 26 lbs. At the end of the month, I lucked out and landed my biggest ono yet… on a circle hook with flurocarbon leader!

May 2022

The opelu suddenly made themselves scarce, and even the akule were almost impossible to find in the pre-dawn darkness. The only pelagic I got all month was a Kawakawa (Mackerel Tuna). The skunking got bad enough that I made the leap and finally tried my hand at deep dropping for bottom fish in 600-900 feet depths. In a stroke of luck, I actually got my first Hapuupuu (Hawaiian Seabass) the first time trying this new fishing method.

June 2022

I pushed further than I ever had before in search of good deep-dropping grounds. I even purchased a Penn Squall 40 paired with a Shimano Trevala X-heavy to have better line capacity and so I wouldn’t burn out my spinners cranking heavy rigs up from the deep. The deep dropping yielded delicious deep sea species such as Gindai, Opakapaka, and Ehu. On one trip out, I even caught a couple opelu (the first I’d gotten in over a month) and lucked out when two 30-40 lb shibis grabbed them on the way in.

July

Fishing at our usual east side spots was shut down all month due to high winds and choppy seas, so we hit the old stomping grounds on the NW side of the island. Catching live opelu was really hit or miss. Some days we filled the bait tube in minutes and others we struggled to even catch a single one. The pelagic action was also pretty slow, but the few fish that I did catch were some of the best I’ve gotten to date, particularly a chunky ono and a slammer mahimahi. I also made the decision to upgrade my conventional reel to something with better cranking power and chose an Avet MXL 2-speed lever drag (thanks Scott!). The low gear on this reel is just great and made cranking heavy bottom rigs up from 700+ feet so much easier. I was able to get 3 absolutely delicious gindai in one day.

August

Catching bait was a breeze in the first half of the month, and it seemed like smaller (10-15 lb) mahimahi were starting to show up in numbers. However, in the later half of the month, the opelu once again played hard to get and I ended up falling back on deep dropping or vertical jigging to put fish on the yak. Reef fish like Black Trevally and Omilu saved the day some trips. This was really a stark contrast to August 2021, when we seemed to be inundated in opelu schools much of the time.

September

The opelu at my home grounds continued to ghost us, but luckily there were some great breaks in the trade winds and we capitalized by heading to some fertile grounds. The bait were much easier to catch there, and aku, decent shibis, sailfish, and my PB to date ono all came up this month. From what I heard from friends who kept trying the usual grounds, the opelu bite was not great and fishing was tough.

October

I only went a couple times in October, but the mahimahi were pretty active both trips. Inspired by watching Rokkitkit on Youtube, myself and a couple other guys started using Gofish trolling cameras to capture underwater strike footage. I lucked out the first time using it and a decent bull mahi ate my dead opelu on camera and even tried to eat the camera itself!

November

The opelu finally decided to come out in force, and it seemed like we caught way more than we needed every trip out. Nice sized shibis in the 30-50 lb range bit consistently, and we even lost a few that were probably way larger to sharks and pulled hooks. The last fishing session of the month was right after a huge cold front had passed and the shibis and mahimahi were voracious. This month finally felt like the Fall bite we’d been waiting for was turning on…

December

Ended the year strong with shibis ranging from 40 – 55 lbs, Ono 35 – 45 lbs, and some Ehu for New Years dinner! Opelu cooperated on every trip and nice conditions made for a great month.

It’s on! Oama biting, papio being caught, inshore and nearshore beginning to go off!

August 7, 2022 By Scott 16 Comments

Breaking News: At the start of the 2nd week of August, the reports are coming in. Oama are showing up in all the usual places and beginning to bite fairly well. It already looks like a better oama year than last year.

Early season papio are being caught with the oama and the papio bite will probably get even better in the weeks to come.

Juvenile mid-depth fish like weke nono / weke ula are showing up, and the kayak guys had a really good day Westside with the kawakawa and small mahi. Lots of annoying kawalea (deep water cudas) and aha (needlefish) are swarming the offshore baits too.

All these seem to signal that the SEASON IS ON!!!

When will this wind end?!

July 14, 2022 By Scott 4 Comments

January through March 2022 had lighter wind than normal. Good for boat and kayak fishing, and keeping mango flowers on the tree. But the wind has been blowing fairly constant April – May – June, into July. Usually passing storm systems break up the trade winds but we’ve have very few of those during this period.

In the last 3.5 months, I’ve only kayak fished twice and basically bolo headed. Not good when I want to test my new St Croix Mojo boat rod and smaller tungsten jigs. The guys shore jigging at reef drop offs have been finding white papio close in, and the guys targeting oio with jig heads/grubs have been doing well also. The nehu and iao are in but meaningful schools of oama have not arrived yet.

August is 2 weeks away and is usually the best month inshore and offshore. Let’s hope some harmless storms peter out north of our islands, and give us a break from the wind.

Holoholo: A Fly Fisherman’s Perspective on 2022 So Far

May 30, 2022 By Scott Leave a Comment

I’ve asked Jason, our in-the-water fly fishing reporter, to fill us in on how the Spring has been, and what the near-term outlook may be. You can check him out on IG at commonmango82.

Jason Tsurumaki: For reference, I mostly fish the east Oahu flats and employ a mix of bombing (blind casting) and sight casting, which I personally feel is the most productive approach to these deeper, reefier fisheries. Because I do not strictly sight fish (like the majority of fly fisher’s targeting o’io), I tend to pick up all sorts of interesting bycatches which can act as a barometer for the overall nearshore fishing picture.

Looking back at my catch log, east Oahu was pretty hot from the start of the year up until about mid April. We are unsure what caused the slow down, but speculate it’s a combination of increased fishing pressure (from both fly and regular fisherman) and more activity in the water overall due in part to reopening. Those familiar with these spots know they are easy to access and frequented by every waterperson under the sun including fishermen, divers, surfers, SUP boarders, windsurfers, kite boarders, and in recent years, foilboarders. We believe the fish are still around but have become more wary and less likely to come onto the flat and feed aggressively.

Outside of the fly fishing world, I am not sure how many folks are familiar with the concept of “educated fish.” In short, the belief is that as more fish are caught (and subsequently released), the population gradually learns to either not go after strange pieces of fur or plastic, or to simply avoid an area altogether. The degree to which this actually occurs is debatable, however. There are certainly other factors, many of which cannot be easily accounted for.

We’ve recently pivoted to another south shore spot and have seen modest success, but time will tell if this holds. In the meantime, we will intermittently check out the east side spots, to see if things perk up again. Sometimes locating the fish can feel like a game of whack-a-mole.

One last thing worth mentioning is we haven’t “bycaught” too many papio yet this year, I would say far fewer than most years. So not sure if this is a bad sign or not for all the papio whippers out there. Although readers do need to keep in mind that we normally fish on the flat, well inside of the breakers. As always, your mileage may vary.

If pressed for a near-term outlook, I’d say the current La Nina cycle will keep fishing on the slower side.

Good luck folks, and have fun!

How the weather has been so far – Oahu 2022

April 28, 2022 By Scott 5 Comments

Banner mango year for this tree due to heavy rain in January and light winds that didn’t knock down the mango flowers

The last El Nino cycle was in 2016. The warmer air and water attracted bait and predators, as well as hurricane near misses. Between the Fall tropical storms, the inshore fishing was outstanding. Since then we’ve been in the cooling La Nina cycles and the fishing has declined along with the temps.

The rain and wind of the recent years has differed a bit from this year. Normally there are a few very light wind days in the Winter, and February and March are pretty rainy. This year we had at least one day a week with winds under 8 mph from January through March, but April has been consistently over 12 mph.

The last big rain occurred on New Year’s Day, and this Winter has been relatively dry. What does that mean for fishing?

The shoreline estuaries need rain runoff to support the food chain that supports bait fish nurseries. More rain often results in more bait fish. This dry Winter may affect baitfish later this year and next.

Hopefully we get a break in the wind soon, so the the boats and kayaks can get out and see what has come in since March.

Did the offshore kayak season just start? Bolo is over!

March 23, 2022 By Scott 4 Comments

Not counting some good eating damashi fish (nabeta and small but keeper opakapaka), I bolo’d (skunked) the last 6 trips. January through March is just so slow. But the bolo broke and it sounds like pelagics were caught all around Oahu this past week.

Frank joined me on this super calm Eastside trip. Surf was really small and the wind didn’t pick up ’til 1pm. It was the calmest it could be, but there was a moving tide so the water was a little off colored, which was good for getting bites. The solunar activity was low so I wasn’t expecting much. Man was I wrong.

We glided over the glassy water to the opelu grounds but it took a while to find them. My damashi rig was beneath a nice pile I saw on my fish finder, and as I luckily intercepted it, I hooked 3 opelu on my 3 hooks! 1 must’ve flipped off while unhooking the other two. I gave one to Frank and put the other in my lazy man’s bait tube (a long cylindrical food container I kept refilling with water). We tried for more opelu but couldn’t find the school again. Frank put his opelu out and it got inhaled about 10 minutes later.

He carefully battled his fish, making sure he could get it boatside for identification, and I put my opelu out on fluorocarbon with no weight since BI kayak fisher Shea has been telling me to free line live opelu to present in the most natural manner. Frank boated a nice aku which surprised the heck out of me. We were 3 miles from shore and I thought aku don’t come that close to the island? We celebrated Frank’s first aku ever, and resumed trying to find the bait pile.

My opelu got picked up and dropped 3 times and eventually killed. It looked like the fish was leaving marks by the opelu’s gills. Maybe a second hook on the tail would have hooked ’em? I stuck to the single hook and no weight to appease Shea and decided to head out to deeper water that had yielded kawakawa last year. I was so relieved when my dead bait was finally taken. The fish fought really jerky and surgy but when I dropped the Avet SX Raptor in low gear it was coming up as if my line cut. I slowed down my cranking to make sure I didn’t pull the hook, and an aku surfaced with a busted tail. First aku for me too, and fishing with no weight works, even with dead bait!

Pressure was off, we both had fish, and my bolo was over. Whew. I called Frank over to where I hooked up and was putting on a new leader since the aku swallowed the hook. Frank dropped on a huge bait mark and hooked something on his 15lb damashi line that almost spooled him! He had to cup the spool of his spinning reel to regain line and was in for a long battle. I figured no way could he land a pelagic on that rig and tried to catch ’em on a jig but the school had moved off. Frank masterfully played out the fish and a slightly smaller, very tired aku came up!

We drifted back in to where the opelu school had been earlier but couldn’t find biters and damashi’d around to check the status of the smaller fish. The lizardfish, trumpetfish, small opakapaka and moana were back. Looks like even the inshore fishing is on!

I’m still stunned we caught aku from the kayak. I had thought they didn’t venture in too shallow, and if they do, they’re gone before you can reach them. When Capt Erik saw this photo he said my aku (top most) was male and was probably tail wrapped, hence the jerky fight and broken tail. He said Frank’s were both female, being shorter and fuller in the belly. What a forensic fisherman, he was right! I found sperm in my aku and Frank found aku eggs in his two. The lowest one in the photo is the one caught on the damashi rig.

Mine taped out at 25 inches and weighed 11lb at home. Frank didn’t have a scale handy but said his larger of the two egg carrying females was 23 inches.

I had been carrying cube ice in my fish bag all these past bolo trips and finally got to use it. The aku was iced well on the kayak and the drive home, and packed with even more ice in a cooler overnight, so when I cleaned it, was very firm and far less bloody than the kawakawa have been.

Capt Darren said kawakawa is bloodier than aku to clean, and my friends who tried the aku said it had an “ocean umani” taste that had more flavor than kawakawa, but was less “irony”. But they liked kawakawa sashimi also. They were happy to get any fish after waiting so long during the Bolo.

Frank sashimi’d, poke’d, seared and fried his two aku and shared with his Men’s Bible Study and family.

Hope we get another shot at aku this season.

Holoholo: February – March Shoreline Report

March 12, 2022 By Scott 8 Comments

Dedicated shore fisher Matthew shares his observations of the way Winter has transitioned into Spring, updating the general report posted last month.

Matthew:

It’s been getting slower and slower recently for the vast majority of people. Personally, this winter was among the best that I’ve ever enjoyed, and the bite was consistently great. However, spring has come and the fish appear to have left for “greener pastures”. A lot of people whom I know have switched to fishing on completely different sides of the island, which has rewarded them handsomely. However, being limited to fishing only Oahu’s south shore has really shown me how vulnerable my chances are. It’s been getting increasingly difficult to find any fish on the flats and on the reefs.

Often, when I do catch an Oio, it’s only a small one (three or four pounds), not the larger ones that many Oio fishermen pursue (five pounds or larger). The Papio bite wasn’t ever really good to begin with, but it was passable. Come spring, it has completely died. Even during the first hour of sunrise and the last hour of sunset, there appears to be no sign of the Papio that would regularly navigate our waters. Normally, this would be attributed to cooling water temperatures and the lack of bait fish near shore, but this year appears to be significantly worse than those of the past.

The people I know that have been shore jigging have been striking out equally as much. The bubble and fly method has also not been successful for the people that I know. However, people on boats have been having great luck recently (maybe that’s where the fish went?) with many fish such as Uku, Ulua, and Pelagics.

So, unless you can shell out the money for a boat, stay put on shore and grind out the next few weeks or months. I suspect that as the water temperatures rise, the baitfish come in, and summer arrives, the fish will also come around. Please also erase Kona winds forever (nobody likes them).

For now, people that have been dabbling in UL (ultralight) fishing have been relatively successful, as well as the freshwater game. If you want to grind out the flats game (I probably will), you’re more than welcome to, but don’t expect much. The same goes for whipping for Papio and other inshore predators. Until the water heats up and the baitfish arrive, I’d expect things to remain much the same. If you’re a ulua fisherman (sliding or baitcasting), now’s that time of the year where all the big ones come up. Quite a few large Ulua have been landed in the past month, and perhaps there’s a 100+ pounder waiting out there somewhere.

Good luck, stay safe, and just have fun!

Shoreline to boat, the doldrums had set in! What to expect in coming months.

February 20, 2022 By Scott 10 Comments

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.

Inshore

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.

Kayak

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.

Boat

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.

Eastside: Calm, big moon, light boat traffic. Small fish hungry because big fish not attacking?

January 20, 2022 By Scott Leave a Comment

The winds continued to be very light, and the North swell took a break so I went to one of my favorite Eastside spots to compare conditions with the Southside. I had never fished this area in January, and was expecting the water to be cold. Instead the water was sheet glass calm and a degree warmer, 75.5, than it was last week on the Southside.

It took 45 mins to get out to the first spot, with the Bixpy motor doing the heavy lifting. I had forgotten that the Eastside comparable depth was a mile further than the Southside. First drop in search of opelu and a small-medium nabeta came up! I hadn’t found these all of last year, and was very pleasantly surprised. Caught 2 more to make a meal of them but snagged structure twice and had to retie. Left the area to get away from snags and didn’t find any bait. The damashi continued to get bit and occasionally bit off on every drop. If this were the Southside on a sheet glass day I’d have to use bait on the damashi, but the fish were happy eating CHL Minnows.

I was really enjoying seeing what would come up next until realizing I had spent 2 hours playing on the reef without a hard tug, so I put out a frozen opelu and headed out to 225ft. Nothing showed up on the sonar and nothing hit the opelu. So different from the summer when deep opelu schools were hanging out near the bottom and kawakawa were taking dead bait.

Drifted back in, had the opelu pulled off at the shallow drop so I put on a live long nabeta looking wrasse and it was just pecked at. Dropped down a live 9 inch lizardfish next without better luck. Put down another frozen opelu and it got pulled off. Seemed like the small bait stealers were pretty brazen because they knew the big predators weren’t around but definitely preferred opelu to reef fish you and I wouldn’t eat.

A bunch of weke nono and a baby uku came up on the damashi, but too small to keep and it was past time to head in. Can’t believe I was playing in the calm water for almost 5 hrs. Then my bait rod finally hooked up but the fish ran into a cave. I’m telling myself it was a roi so I won’t be as bummed. I broke the line off and heard sea birds laughing behind me. I turned around and couldn’t believe my eyes. Fish were crashing on the surface and birds were dive bombing the bait that was chased up. I didn’t have hooks on my bait rig but wanted to get a closer look so I motored/paddled over but the melee ended and the birds sat on the water waiting for the bait school to be chased up again. Unfortunately the action didn’t show up well on the video I took.

Well, the frenzy never reappeared so I headed in with just 3 yellow nabeta in my fish bag after 6 hrs of hard fishing., I learned that the small fish still bite even though the water is super clear but the predators may not feed on calm days after a big moon. It’s definitely worth going back in the Winter until the damashi bite slows down.

My neighbor masterfully deep fried the nabeta by first seasoning in salt and pepper, then coating with corn starch. He scored the fish to allow the oil to cook the bones to crunchy perfection.

When in doubt, fry longer to make sure the bones are cooked through and the flesh is no longer mushy.

Holoholo: 2021 Oahu Shore Fishing Recap

January 6, 2022 By Scott 4 Comments

Die-hard shore whipper Matthew reviews the past year is such rich detail, it’s hard to believe he’s *just” a 10th grader.

Matthew: 2021 was an interesting year. Whether you’re glad or sad that it’s over, Happy 2022, and may this year be better than those in the past. In terms of fishing, it was a very up and down year. Meaning, when it was good, it was great, but when it was bad, it was BAD. For some reason, there was no in-between in 2021. In the summer of 2021 (after many months of horrendous fishing), a rather unexpected surge of big fish took the fishing community by surprise. More big fish were being pulled up than ever before, and many benefited from this uncommon event. I landed my personal best papio, then again, then again, and then again. In other words, they just kept getting bigger. The oio bite was also flourishing, and many took those opportunities. The Halalu run may have been one of the best in the past couple of years. However, the Oama run arrived late, and when it did, it was rather underwhelming.

But, the summer of 2021 was amazing. It warmed the hearts of many fishermen whose fruitless spring efforts had finally paid off. It was by far my best summer and according to some of my friends, their best summer as well. Too bad summer can’t last forever…

Once August closed out, so did the bite. Just like a switch was flicked, the Papio bite suddenly turned dry, all but one oio spot (for me) dried up completely, and the bad weather started to pour in. In fact, that bad weather still is plaguing many fishermen currently (written 1/2/22). The after effects of this current storm will probably leave the flats muddy and unfishable for at least a week or two. It may change the structure of some spots, shifting sand and mud to places they weren’t before.

Anyways, that one last Oio spot that I continued to hit until probably around November dried up eventually, and so did my hopes of landing my personal best before the end of the year. I tried moving to different spots, but all I could really find were rats, with maybe one 5# oio mixed in every once in a while. The Papio bite continued to stymie anyone’s efforts who actually bothered to try. Many were hoping for a change of pace in December, and that’s what they got. It got even worse. December may have been the worst month of fishing that I have ever experienced. I was able to pull a few Oio out of it, but absolutely nothing in terms of Papio. Many of my friends shared the same struggles as I did.

So, new year, new fish? Maybe? I still haven’t gone fishing yet this year due to the thunderstorms. ****I will go fishing in any amount of rain and wind, still stubbornly casting away, but the moment thunder is heard, I don’t want anything to do with it. Don’t mess with thunderstorms if you’re holding something that’s basically a lightning conductor in your hand.****

Hopefully we’ll see reason to believe that 2022 will be a better year for fishing. Whatever happens, the summer of 2021 will go down as one of the best summers for fishing ever, if not the best, and the winter will go down as one of the worst. Maybe 2022 is due for a little more consistency (it really does owe us some!). Have fun out there, stay safe, and tight lines.

Holoholo: Offshore Kayak Fishing on Hawaii Island – A Summary of 2021

December 28, 2021 By Scott 2 Comments

Shea has provided us with some great posts this year and we requested he summarize his first year of offshore kayak fishing. The sheer poundage of fish he caught is astounding. He provides tackle tips, a monthly almanac of how the weather changed and what types of fish bit. Check out his YouTube channel, Affordable Wahoo, for action packed, superbly narrated videos.

Shea: After buying a secondhand kayak and watching YouTube videos of guys and gals kayak fishing offshore in Hawaii for pelagic predators like ahi, mahimahi, and ono, I was intrigued but not quite ready to take the leap straight into the blue. I spent all of 2020 fishing within the confines of the Hilo Breakwater for papio, lai, opelu, and akule. In January 2021, I was reunited with a childhood friend who also had a kayak and wanted to get it into action fishing. After a shakedown trip in Hilo Bay catching papio, he suggested we go for it and make the leap into offshore fishing. Eleven months later, I’m still learning something new every trip. However, over the past few months, the catches have been much more consistent. Here’s a monthly summary of the journey thus far:

February:

Got a secondhand Hobie Revolution 13 from a friend on Craigslist. Did a shakedown maiden voyage in Hilo Bay light jigging for papio, then a short offshore trip on the west side catching reef fish.

March:

First dedicated pelagic trip on the NW side. Landed first decent fish offshore, a 15 lb Uku (Green Jobfish), then lost the biggest shibi ahi I’ve hooked to date right at the side of the kayak. Upgraded my gear the next day to a Penn Spinfisher VI 8500 with 65 lb braid and 40lb fluorocarbon topshot. Very next trip out of South Kona, landed first pelagic, a 21 lb shibi ahi at Keahou Bay. Lost a ton of fish to cutoffs (probably ono), so I rigged up 40 lb braided wire stinger rigs for next time. Lucky thing too, because the next trip out of South Kona, I hooked was a 65 lb Sailfish that would certainly have cut fluorocarbon leader with its bill.

April:

The weather and surf finally started looking good on the east side of the island, so we started exploring the grounds. We discovered some reliable opelu grounds and managed to hook into some decent sized Kawakawa (Mackerel Tuna) and smaller shibi (Yellowfin Tuna). At this point, I was still having trouble getting solid hookups on fish once they ate the live opelu. I must have lost twice as many fish as I landed just because I was letting fish swim around with the bait way too long before tightening the drag during the strike.

May:

The big kawakawa continued to bite, along with some nice sized uku. Later in the month, I got my first decent sized shibi, a 30 pounder. I made the change from braided 40 lb wire to single strand stainless brown 44 lb and it seemed to increase strikes on wire, at the cost of having to change the rigs out when they got kinked. At this point, I getting a better idea of when to tighten down on the drag, though I still lost a few strikes from what I think were ono…

June:

Got a mixed bag of large kawakawa and decent sized shibis. Rainbow runners started showing up in large schools and stealing baits as well as sabiki rigs. Finding opelu was difficult at times, with schools being far and few between. Often when we did find them, they wouldn’t bite. We did, however, have some of the calmest waves and wind that I’ve ever seen.

July:

The opelu became very scarce on the east side, so I resorted to vertical jigging for rainbow runner, kahala, and ulua most of the time. I must have lost over $100 worth of jigs to unstoppable reef donkeys. When we could find live bait, sharks and kaku (Great Barracuda) would often take them before a pelagic could. The kawakawa seemed to disappear as well. We did make it out to the leeward side once and I landed my best shibi to date, a 41 pounder.

August:

Shibis continued to bite on the west side, while the onos finally seemed to come out in force on the east. I landed my first ono, my PB uku, and a decent shibi all in a couple hours on one trip. At this point, I began running wire rigs pretty much all the time. With so many ono around, the fluorocarbon leader would get snipped almost immediately. The smaller shibis didn’t seem to care, but the larger ones seemed to shy away from the wire rigs.

One key change to my strategy was to set my drag to ~4 lbs when running a wire stinger. Up to this point, I was setting my drag as light as it could go to let the fish run and hopefully swallow the bait. I ended up losing every ono strike because they’d either swallow the entire wire rig and cut my line, or the hook wouldn’t set in the fish’s bony mouth. The tension on the strike with even just ~4 lbs drag seems to be enough to get a decent hookup. It also helps keep the ono from swallowing and chopping the entire wire rig above the swivel.

September:

Large schools of mahimahi in the 10-15 lb range showed up in force on the west side. Opelu were very plentiful and it wasn’t uncommon to have more than 10 baits within an hour of fishing at dawn. I landed my first mahimahi (three of them) on the same trip. When the weather permitted, we headed out on the east side and akule were easy to find in the dark. These made excellent bait for both ono and shibis. At the end of the month I managed to land my PB 41 lb ono and a few mahimahi on the same trip. The bite was truly on fire no matter where we went it seemed. Bird piles and surface boils were a frequent sight, usually around midday.

October:

The mahimahi continued to bite really well, with large schools offering chances at hooking two or even three in a row at times. The mahis were also getting larger, ranging in size from 15 – 25 lbs. We often saw large schools of flying fish getting struck on the surface, as well as the occasional school of small aku jumping out of the water. Trolling live or dead baits near these schools often yielded mahimahi or ono.

I made the switch to Knot2Kinky titanium wire leader and didn’t regret it. It has the stealthier presentation of single-strand wire, with the benefit of being somewhat kink-resistant. This means you can potentially reuse the same rig after multiple strikes.

November:

The mahimahi bite suddenly slowed down dramatically. Large schools of flying fish and small aku were no longer an everyday occurrence. Instead, large schools of rainbow runner seemed to infest the waters. While the mahi strikes were rare, when they did bite they would either be very small or very large. Shibi and ono continued to bite, though less frequently. Near the end of the month, high winds and rainstorms started becoming more prevalent, and unpredictable thunderstorms started rolling in. The opelu on the NW side also became much more difficult to find and catch at times, making for tough fishing some days.

December:

Heavy rains, big surf, high winds, thunderstorms shut down the windward side of the island most of the month. Even the leeward side had its share of bad weather. We fished in good weather windows on the SW side of the island and managed to have some of the best fishing of the year. I pulled off my first shibi + mahi + ono combo in one trip, and the 37 lb bull mahi was my new PB.

Finally caught a Southside fish: Catch, spike, bleed, ice, clean and cook

December 6, 2021 By Scott 4 Comments

The last 2 trips to the Southside had big bites but no fish landed. I went out last week to see if I could land what had been cutting and busting me off. It was the calmest of all the previous trips and the fish really didn’t want to bite for the first few hours. Nothing on damashi, nothing hooked on the dead opelu, just a lot of small boats coming way to close to me and spooking the already spooked fish.

Finally my bait got yanked hard, a bit of line pulled, and the opelu was gone. I dropped another opelu down, kept the drag Avet SX Raptor’s lever drag loose and put on the clicker. Immediate hard tugs, then hookup! A very jerky, spastic battle ensued which led me to believe it was an uku down there, and sure enough a nice one came to color. It had swallowed the rear titanium-wired stinger hook, and was already bleeding.

It’s been 6 months since I caught a good sized uku, so I was stoked to get one and break my bolo streak. I spiked it in the brain, bled it over the side, and put it on ice cubes and Arctic Ice in the fish bag. The rest of my subsequent baits were stolen on this too calm day so I eventually went in.

Since I had “cooked” some recent fish in the fish bag before putting them on ice, I iced the fish well on the short drive home, and buried the 6lb fish overnight in 40lb of ice cubes and Arctic Ice.

The next day the cooler was a chilly 34 degrees. The bottom shelf of my fridge, in comparison, is about 37 degrees because we open the door too often.

The fish was very fresh and drained of blood when I cleaned it more than 24 hrs after capture. Icing it firmed up the flesh so it was easy to filet and I decided to leave the rib meat on since the fish had so little bloody areas. It was a male in pre-spawn with those waxy fatty pieces in the stomach cavity, which translates to an oilier (in a good way) taste.

My neighbor loved the light, delicate flavor of the uku sashimi, in comparison to the kawakawa he had tried earlier, and fried the uku bones with salt, smoked paprika, garlic and corn starch. Man that looks good yeah?

It’s humbug to have enough ice to properly cool down a fish but totally worth it when you produce optimal tasting filets with a long shelf life.

Composite Late Fall Fishing Report – Zero feet to 300ft

November 19, 2021 By Scott Leave a Comment

Last year we did our first composite Fall report and it’s interesting to see how 2021 compares to the mostly dreadful 2020. The contributing writers who didn’t submit a summary this year haven’t been able to fish the Fall sufficiently.

Jeremy, flats whipper and fly fisher:

After a decent fall last year, this year’s September catch report has been comparatively slow. Topwater papio action was almost non-existent and fishing on the flats wasn’t very successful, so had to change tactics just to try to get bites again. Switching it up to egg lead and curly tails or jigs helped save me from getting white-washed more than a few times. Using the small curly tails work really good if you just want to get some kind of action. Everything will bite those. Hinaleas are your best friend when you’re just trying to get any bites, LOL.

But, halfway through October, the action has been a lot more consistent. Been working the jigs and flats hard, and have been landing some decent fish. Working deeper in the water column has been the most successful. Surprisingly, have been able to still find some decent sized papios around. O’ios have been on the smaller side, but bites have picked up again.

Matthew, shoreline whipper and fly maker:

So… The weather is starting to get a little nasty, it’s getting colder, and the bite has dried up in many places. Yep, winter is here. It seemed like just a few weeks ago when the fish inshore were plentiful. Now, many may be asking themselves, “Is there really much, if anything, out there?”. There have certainly been a few days where I found myself wondering the same thing. There have certainly been a few days where it felt like I was casting into a void. And there have certainly been a few days where all I wanted to do was go home and take a long shower because of how cold it is out there.

Now that the Oama and Halalu runs have pretty much concluded, the number of Papio and other predators that are inshore has understandably decreased. The red-hot action of the summer is now just a memory. Even the number of big Oio on the flats has decreased, and most of the catch is now just rats. Catching a five pounder would be considered fortunate. Some spots that I used to frequent have gone eerily quiet. In fact, all but one of my Oio spots have gone dead. Fortunately for me, that one spot is consistently producing fish, but it is frustrating to know that other spots have turned into dead zones. When fly fishing (sight fishing) at one of those now “dead zones”, I only spotted four Oio in a couple of hours. That number, considering the amount of time spent, should be much higher. All four of those fish were extremely skittish and didn’t let me get anywhere near them.

There is still some hope to cling onto, as there are some spots that have some sort of bait still around. There are a few spots with small schools of sardines and perhaps some small schools of Oama scattered around the island. If you can find one of those spots, you can probably assume that there will be a predator that is feasting on the now rare opportunity.

Alongside the small glimmers of hope for bait populations, there is one other positive thing that comes with Winter: the surf on the south shore has finally calmed down a bit. While surfers may not see it the same way, it does make fishing on the rocks a whole lot safer and comfortable. Still, use caution if you are fishing a more exposed spot.

Shore jigging is an option that you can use when the bite is cold in the shallows, as the fish in those areas appear to be present year round. Uku, goats, and other bottom fish could await if you find the right spot. However, note that jigging is a costly hobby. Losing braid and jigs to the reef slowly adds up over time. It is also demoralizing to break your line every time you get hung up, knowing you just lost another jig. Additionally, retying your FG knot is extremely annoying.

Overall, it’s getting a lot slower. Sometimes you won’t catch fish, and that’s a fact that you need to accept even if it sucks. But the joy of the sport isn’t always in catching a fish. If you can find happiness in the process, you’re well set on your way to enjoying your trips, even in winter. If catching fish is of utmost importance to you, perhaps try other alternatives. Freshwater fishing is a year round option that will always be there for you. Flats fishing can be boring at times, but it is effective year-round. Whatever you choose, stay safe and most importantly, have fun!

Good luck! -Matt

Scott, offshore kayak fisher: Another La Nina started this Fall and surprising (to me at least), the water temps haven’t dropped too quickly. We’ve had 5 weeks of at least one day of light wind, so the kayak fleet have been out pulling on pelagics and other deep water exotics before Old Man Winter shuts down the action. Opelu is getting a little easier to catch for the dawn patrol (not me), and the opelu in the market is the perfect size although at an all time high price. Very calm wind days have been easy on the body but hard to find biting fish without the right bait. Jigging has been slow unless the water is rougher or bait is getting attacked.

Late, brief oama season has started?

September 14, 2021 By Scott 18 Comments

We’ve been hearing more reports of small schools (less than 300 fish) of oama sighted and beginning to feed fairly well; with papio, some very large, attacking the schools. Normally this occurs by the beginning of August, so the oama schools are really late, but our guess is this is the best it’s gonna be for this year.

Gettum while you can!