Very calm, glassy day yet the small bottom fish bit, unlike the previous trip. Keeper bottom fish didn’t though. Here’s what I think happened.

February 3, 2026 By Scott Leave a Comment

Last week I fished a calm day on the Windward side that had chaotic lumpy cross swells and the fishing was extremely slow except for opelu biting all day. This week, the wind and the swells died down, and the water was so clear that divers on jet skis were racing out to check the spots normally undiveable.

I didn’t expect the bottom fish to bite well but they did. The big, desirable keepers were smart enough to stay away, though. Big opelu bit all day again. Here’s the quick recap.

I got out to my first spot and hooked a solo opelu. I lost the school after securing it, so I put it out on a weighted line and went deeper looking for bottom fish. The undesirables bit – big taape, nunu (trumpetfish), hagi, moana so I moved further out. I was able to catch more opelu but the opelu out on the weighted line only got its stomach removed.

On the way to the deep ulua / kahala jigging spot at 200ft I came across some good marks and dropped down. A juvenile uku came up on the damashi so I released it and dropped again, hoping for a much larger version. Something hit the damashi and pulled drag, and after maybe 30 seconds it broke off the 25lb hook line. It didn’t feel like an ulua or kahala so I was intrigued.

I put on a 30lb damashi rig, the heaviest I carry, and dropped again.

A juvenile uku and a juvenile weke nono came up. The right species, just not the right size.

Two large opelu, normally line shy, came up on the 30lb rig with large Completely Hooked Lures Sprats. On the next drop I felt the tail beats of opelu and then the line surged down. I fought what I believe was a shark for less than a minute and the hook line cut, but an opelu came up on the top hook.

I put the live opelu out again on the weighted rig but it didn’t get touched. The bite shut down and all I had in the fish bag were fairly large opelu. I checked my shallow bottom fish spots on the way in, and the small undesirables bit. Nothing good like keeper weke nono, yellow spot papio, moana kali.

At the shallow reef shelf on the way in, I dropped down the damashi as a 4th Quarter – Hail Mary attempt and hooked a malu (single spot goatfish). They don’t get too big, and they have very clean, flaky meat, so this one was added to the fish bag.

Summary: The big opelu bit again, predators weren’t balling them up, and the small bottom fish bit in the calm conditions but the smarter, larger bottom fish didn’t. I’m guessing, since the conditions were so calm, the food chain wasn’t activated. And am also guessing that the cross swells during the previous trip just scattered the bottom fish and didn’t set up feeding lanes.

This separate cooking post details how the opelu were smoked, and how the malu was lightly pan-fried. Both came out winnahs!

Targeted larger fish on the Windward side. Found some that put the hurt on me, and a couple that went home in the fish bag.

January 12, 2026 By Scott 4 Comments

I am grateful for the fish caught out of the Westside on the previous two trips that went to holiday parties, but wanted to catch fish larger than 3lbs. My plan was to use larger soft plastic lures from Completely Hooked Lures, to deter the smaller fish from biting, and drag live opelu around to find a stray mahi mahi or kawakawa. If that failed, I’d drop the 120g tungsten knife jig down in deeper water since I have yet to land a fish on it.

I have been using the Sprat (top lure) and it catches everything including large opelu, but still attracts smaller moana and smaller taape. The Gobie and Grub have thicker profiles so hopefully that are too much of a meal for small fish. That funny little lure on the bottom is a prototype that Landon of Completely Hooked Lures sent over with my order, to try on picky opelu.

I took out a damashi rod rigged for opelu with a CHL Minnow (smaller version of the Sprat) and the prototype little lure on 15lb. I had a second damashi rod rigged with Sprats, Gobies and Grubs for the larger fish, on 25lb.

At the first stop where I normally target moana kali, there were opelu bait balls around and sure enough the lighter damashi rig brought up opelu on both the Minnow and the little lure. The opelu bite was good and by the time I had 6 in my bait tube, there wasn’t anything else good on the bottom. So I headed over to a slightly deeper spot that has held small uku, and big jacks. On the way over, in what I think is a flat hard bottom, was a layer of something right off the bottom. I dropped the larger damashi rig down and a 2lb omilu came up. That was very unusual, finding omilu not on a rocky reef. I released it and caught another omilu right after. Not wanting to be catching hard fighting fish I have to release, I moved on to the uku/ulua spot, but just caught the rubbish fish (trumpetfish and taape) that bite when the conditions are too calm.

So I put a live opelu out with a sliding tungsten bullet weight in front of it, and towed it out a mile. Something took chunks of it behind its head and killed it but was too small to take the hooks. I put another one out and something else took chunks in the stomach area. Odd that those fish didn’t chip away at the entire fish but that was an indication that pelagics weren’t in that specific area.

I reached a spot in 180ft where kahala have hit jigs in the past, and I dropped the mangled opelu down to the bottom. Sure enough something strong grabbed it, and my drag’s strike setting wasn’t strong enough to stop it from rocking me. Assuming there were more kahalas around I dropped down the 120g tungsten knife jig. It took 45 seconds to reach the bottom, and I could barely feel any resistance jigging it back up. On the 4th drop it got hammered and I had the drag set very tight so I wouldn’t get rocked. The fish was so strong and the jig rod’s butt dug into my side. I was huffing and puffing but couldn’t stop to rest because the fish would then turn its head and swim down to rock me. After less than 3 minutes, which felt like 10 mins, a white ulua (GT) surfaced. I had let it depressurize about 20ft below the surface so it was able to swim down fine. Here’s the truncated video of that battle. If you’re interested in purchasing the 120g and 180g tungsten knife jigs, you can find them in the Store here. They’re pricey because they are tungsten, but they won’t tire you out until something big hits it.

I rested up a bit after that jig battle, and motored back to that big fish spot and dropped another chunk of fresh opelu on the bait rod, with the strike setting set higher. Sure enough another fish hit it and I was in for another grueling battle. A slightly bigger ulua came up that I released. Convinced there was nothing else down there but strong fish I didn’t want to fight, I put another live opelu out and headed back to shallower uku spot. Up to this point I just had opelu in my bait tube and nothing in my fish bag.

Finally, I landed a decent sized yellow spot papio after going through moana and big taape.

It took a while to catch a second yellow spot, right after a big opelu was hooked on the big damashi rig, and it was time to head in.

So I struck out with the live bait but the larger damashi lures did seem to attract larger fish, and I was finally able to fish deep enough to catch something on the 120g tungsten knife jig. Pretty good fishing despite very calm conditions and a junk moon phase.

The yellow spot ended up weighing 2lb and 2lb 10oz after being bled, and both were males developing sperm. Maybe all those papio were on the bottom getting ready for a spawn?

My neighbor Brian turned the larger yellow spot papio into something almost too beautiful eat.

Hot action before Hurricane Kiko: Big fish on new jig, and 5lb Windward uku (green jobfish) finally caught, unexpectedly

September 9, 2025 By Scott 2 Comments

I’ve been wanting to confirm that the new, bite-sized Duo Metal Force 120g 3.5inch jig would attract reef monsters but always ended up mining the depths with my damashi rig. And for 5 yrs I’ve been searching for a legitimate keeper uku (green jobfish) on the Windward side, but the slopey, sandy terrain didn’t hold big ones, it seemed. The calm winds before the arrival of Hurricane Kiko let me check an area that held a lot of promise, and it delivered!

The light wind window fell on the weekend, the day before the Full Moon, and I normally don’t fish weekends but made an exception. The beach was crowded but surprisingly the water wasn’t. The boats must’ve sped off to the buoys to take advantage of the great conditions. It took more than an hr to paddle to first spot, after 9:30am, and the big fish were waiting. The first damashi drop (15lb rig) resulted in a busted rig, and the 2nd rig (20lb rig) got pulled into the rocks. 3rd damashi rig (20lb rig) came up with a lone 2lb omilu, and the other 2 hooks and lead were gone. The Land of the Giants was living up to its billing.

That spot cooled so I moved down the line to the next spot on my GPS. A 1lb uku and an 8 inch weke nono came up on the 20lb rig.

When that cooled, I paddled to the next spot and dropped down the green and gold Duo Metal Force jig, hoping the monsters below would want something a little more substantial. On the second drop, the jig was grabbed by a fish that ran in smooth, powerful spurts and was really hard to lift off the bottom. It felt like a small ulua and I was wondering why I couldn’t gain much line with the high speed, old school Trinidad 14 reel. You can watch this video and see why I struggled getting it to the surface. The intro, showing the jig, was filmed at the start of the trip when the water was still choppy.

Right after landing the big omilu, I snagged the Duo jig on the bottom. That almost never happens but I guess I really was over a productive, rocky area. I put on the green and gold 120g tungsten knife jig and it got pulled on the way down but dropped. Nothing hit it after that.

I had released all the fish so far, so I put on a 25lb damashi rig with CHL Sprat lures and Owner Live Bait hooks to put something in the fish bag. It was 11am and the solunar major bite period was supposed to start and run to 1:30pm.

Something hit right away that pulled line in jerky spasms but was manageable on the medium light Shimano Game Type J rod and Shimano Calcutta 300TE bait casting reel. I was stoked to see a good sized uku behind a small moana reach the surface. It’s been a 5yr mission to land an uku that size on the Windward side, and only caught juveniles and strafed baits in the past.

The uku was hooked from the outside, in its gill plate, and that must’ve allowed me to steer it to the surface, unlike the big omilu that was planing against the water. The very cooperative uku even sprinted into the landing net, as you can see in this video. It was 21 inches from head to fork, and weighed 4lb 12 oz after bleeding. I’m calling it 5 pounds! 🙂

After the ground breaking uku, the bite slowed with small nunu (trumpetfish) and moana, and really cooled down after 12 even though there was a lot of the brown plankton debris on the surface. Nothing else was kept.

These are the CHL Sprats and Minnows I used this day. I use the 1.5 inch Minnow for opelu and go up to the 2.25 inch Sprat to target larger fish.

I’ve tried the Duo Metal Force 120g jig 3 times now. The second time something cut it off the line. This time it caught a fish and then I lost it. So there are currently just 2 left in the Store at Intro Pricing. If they sell out, I’ll order more. The Green and Gold 120g tungsten knife jig was so easy to pull through the water. That will be the go-to jig on the next trip.

Thank you Jesus for such a beautiful, safe, productive day on the water!

Summer Report: Shore to Boat

August 26, 2025 By Scott Leave a Comment

Here’s a quick summary of how the summer fishing has been.

Shoreline:

Oama and halalu came in early and are still around but in fair to average, not great numbers. Papio are being caught off the bait piles, but again, not in great numbers. Whippers have had to work hard to connect with the seasonal predators.

Kayak:

Spring was good for shibi (yellowfin tuna under 100lb) but that bite has slowed. Not much kawakawa or mahi have been caught. Opelu have been hard to catch in the Spring and Summer but are beginning to bite better lately. Shallow bottomfish bite has been slow but should pick up in the later Fall.

Boat:

May through June, the Ahi bite was on fire, starting on Westside and ending on North East side. Lot of big aku (otaru) and school sized aku were caught during this time frame also. The bite on those big fish has slowed in the summer.

Early Summer Report and Prediction: Shore, Kayak and Boat

July 7, 2025 By Scott 6 Comments

I’m writing this in early July, with the peak fishing season a month away. Here’s how it’s been going so far, and how I think it will end up, based on weather indications.

The La Nina pattern of cooler water has ended and water temps are returning to “normal”. We didn’t get much rain in the Winter, and the mango crop wasn’t good. That usually means that the bait fishing season won’t be very good either, and without bait, the predator fishing will be a challenge.

Halalu have been in, and the oama began to show in early June, which is a month and a half early. The oama schools have been small, so that seems to be an indication that this oama season will be brief. Hope I’m wrong.

The early, larger papio have been whacking the piles so get out before they’re gone.

The ulua season, normally peaking in the late Spring hasn’t been so good either. Neither has the offshore boating season been. But kayakers who can get live bait early in the morning, continue to defy the odds and get shibi ahi (tuna under 100lbs).

Being out of a La Nina period is good news, so the coming Fall should be an improvement overall. Keep fishing; can’t catch fish from the couch!

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.