More misses than hookups on the Top Water lures

September 22, 2016 By Scott 6 Comments

Top water plug fishing has become my favorite fishing technique of late. There are a lot of shoreline spots that host papio and kaku ready to jump a bobbing, slurping lure. Even if the water is only a foot or so deep, the lures float and don’t get hung up. With a 25lb fluoro leader, I haven’t been cut off by kaku yet.

Sounds like an ideal fishing method huh? Well, the top water hookup ratio is notoriously low. The fish either hit the lure body but miss the hooks or get suspicious and veer off at the last millisecond.

There are recommended times to fish top water, and some lures are designed to have better hookup ratios than others.

Fish seem to hit top water lures better when the sun angle is low. Dawn or dusk. The fish may be more easily fooled in the low light, or they don’t like looking up into the bright sky to feed. When the sun is overhead I often get weak attempts to pull the lure down.

This lure shape has always attracted fish but often the fish splash next to it a few times and become disinterested. Maybe it’s because the body is so fat that the fish are blocked from the hooks? Look at the scratches on its back, opposite side of where the hooks are. To be fair, most of the attackers are kaku trying to slice off the back end of the lure. If they were decent sized papios they probably would’ve wolfed the whole lure down.

When I miss fish with the chubby lure above I switch to this narrower, bobbing lure. It misses fish too, but eventually hooks one.

Maybe the fish’s jaws are wrapping around the slender body better and eventually finding a hook? Both lures are sold out of Japan and this narrow faced lure is especially hard to find. The model I’m fishing is really a freshwater bass lure that I’ve been putting saltwater hooks on. Look at what it attracted in the past.

This kaku hit an hr before dark. I pinch down the barbs of the hooks so I can tag and release the fish with minimal harm.

And this kaku kept missing my hooks but was hooked by Clay’s lure. Clay employs a much faster retrieve that gets the kaku to commit. I’ve been trying to learn that retrieve. The last time out I walked my lure back quickly and when I was about to lift the lure out of the water a white papio took a swipe and missed the hooks.

Mores misses than hookups but a very exciting way to fish.

Oama bait and switch

September 1, 2016 By Scott 4 Comments

A friend was planning to troll oama off his board on the rising morning tide and I decided to wade out to the break to see I could get anything to bite a frozen oama retrieved slowly. This would be my first time using oama this season since I’ve been so enamored with top water fishing.

I whipped the narrow raccoon faced top water lure that got so much attention on my previous trip, but nothing showed interest on the way out to the waves. My friend paddled by and said the strong winds and rain were making it very hard to troll effectively. He had a legal omilu in his bag and said he was gonna try the inshore, more protected waters.

With the tide rising and the wind and rain getting stronger I decided to whip the oama past the reef before the conditions pushed me back to shore. I didn’t want to deal with double hooking the oama since that tends to make the fish spin and is more prone to getting stuck on the reef, so I was resigned to missing fish that hit the back of the bait. Sure enough, my first oama got shorter on each cast until I just had the head left.

Small omilu and kaku could be seen at the reef’s edge chopping away at my bait and eventually pulling it off. Something pulled my bait down and my hook got stuck. When I popped the line I broke off my 25lb fluoro leader and was too lazy to tie on a new leader so I just slipped on a weight and tied a hook on the 15 lb main fluoro.

I moved away from the bait stealers and cast into a deep channel that separated sections of the reef. I let the bait sit away from the bait stealers patrolling the higher water column and it seemed to drift against the current, toward me. Then the line was pulled into the nearby reef edge. Fish on, but it didn’t feel like much with my drag nearly locked down. The fish was in a small crack in the reef and I could feel my 15 fluro line rubbing. It felt like a big hinalea or roi, and I tried to muscle the fish out of the hole. Out came a bright blue omilu! Instead of running out to sea it swam through the cracks in the reef past me towards shore. I followed it, freeing the line from the rocks. It was like being pulled by a leashed dog, running through shrubbery.

When I caught up with it, the omilu was pretty spent. For a decent sized fish it only had taken out 20 yds of line but those 20 yds were pretty frayed. I hadn’t brought tags with me since tagging in chest deep water was difficult, so my friend took this photo and I bagged the fish. You can see what a gloomy, windy day it was.

I still had defrosted oama with me, so instead of wasting them I went back to the reef edge and the bait stealers found me. After feeding 3 oamas to them with none hooked on the front hook I switched back to the narrow faced top water lure. I was hoping they’d think it was another easy meal and sure enough a kaku swiped at it but missed repeatedly. Maybe the chop was making it too hard for them to locate the bobbing lure? I switched to the oama colored Waxwing Baby and hooked an undersized omilu on the first cast. The bait stealers wised up and I headed in.

Frozen oama was definitely more effective than lures on this blustery day but the bait and switch tactic did work for a while. The omilu measured 16.5″ FL and was close to 4lb. That matches the largest papio I caught inshore last year, also caught on oama. Do you think we can catch fish on the top water lures to rival that size?

Top water / sub-surface lure session

August 30, 2016 By Scott 7 Comments

Erik and I fished one of our test grounds during the middle of the day, on the last 1/3 of the big rising tide. We didn’t expect a lot of action because of increased visibility and choppy conditions but hoped for the best.

I started with lure #2 in the picture above. Erik used a more traditional, rounder popper. Our poppers didn’t generate any follows for either of us so I changed to the narrow faced top water lure (#4). The pattern I used kind of looks like a narrow faced raccoon, in a fishy kind of way. It’s such a unique looking lure with a unique swimming action. It dips and bobs like a bait fish flipping and diving in the water. I threw it past a shallow reef shelf and when I retrieved it onto the shelf it looked like a patch of white sand was stirred up. The patch followed the lure as it dipped and squirted, and I realized it was a huge white colored fish! White ulua? But it was long and cylindrical. Turned out to be the largest oio I had ever seen free swimming and it was very interested in the lure. It then bumped the lure, realized it wasn’t edible and swam off disappointed. So was I.

I told Erik what happened and he put on a soft sided lure that resembled a large nehu or a slim sardine. On my next cast a 3/4 lb omilu came over the reef shelf to follow my lure but turned away. The fish were getting too good a look at our fake offerings.

We worked our way down the beach and Erik’s nehu lure attracted the attention of kaku and aha. We both missed fish so I changed to the Waxwing Boy (lure #5) that I could retrieve faster, and hopefully give the fish less opportunity to scrutinize it. Eventually I hooked a good size kaku that was followed by two others. It shook the hook off before I could land it.

Erik changed to a narrow stick bait that looked like a small mullet, and got follows and a blowup but no hookup. I put the narrow racoon-faced top water back on and got a lot of kaku follows but no hits until I paused to let it sit and a kaku jumped out of the water to hit it but missed the hook!

In short, we got a lot of follows and hits but didn’t land a single fish. Curse of the mid-day sun?

JDM lure looks great but hasn’t caught a fish yet?

August 2, 2016 By Scott Leave a Comment

I’ve been running a lure comparison pitting a few JDM (Japan Domestic Market) top-water lures against the Shimano Waxwing, my go-to sub-surface lure.

One JDM lure in particular has trounced the competition. The Waxwing had fallen behind until I resharpened its hooks and it made a strong come back the last time out. Another JDM lure has the perfect profile of a chubby baby mullet, and has great coloration. It hadn’t even gotten a boil, however. I was told by my JDM supplier that the chubby lure rides higher in the water than the one trouncing the competition, and because of that, the predators aren’t able to see the lure as well. He recommended weighing the lure down by putting on heavier split rings and hooks.

Because that lure looks so darn cute I ran out and got the heavier Owner hyper rings and Owner 4X treble hooks. Using the Daiwa heavy duty split ring pliers I got from my JDM supplier, sliding thick gauged hooks onto split rings was no longer an exercise in frustration. I did a buoyancy test in an unoccupied oama tub and the lure floated much deeper in the water.

Since this was the only lure in the test that hasn’t even gotten a look, I started with the chubby guy today. The beach was lined with conventional rods as if some tournament was going on. I couldn’t fish my normal test grounds so I cast out about 20 yds from the last rod on the beach.

A few casts later and a 17″ kaku boiled on it and was hooked. I kept the toothy fish hooked so I could leave it in the water, and tagged it. Weighing that lure down really did make it more visible to predators.

I put the Waxwing on and didn’t get a single bump but I attribute that to all the activity in the water.

So at this point of the lure test, the Waxwing and the two JDM top-water lures have all caught fish. Each lure has had its day under different circumstances. Another JDM top-water lure arrived in the mail today. More testing is ahead.

Sharp hooks make a difference!

August 1, 2016 By Scott 1 Comment

After missing fish the last few times out, I sharpened the replacement double hook I run on the Waxwing Baby. One of the two hooks had been sliding off my thumb nail. Now it can pierce my nail, ouch.

Jason, the recent fly fishing convert, joined me on this outing as I continued the JDM lure testing. He waded out onto the shallow flat targeting the papio and kaku I was hoping to hook from shore. Normally he targets oio but wanted to add those species to his fly caught list.

Almost immediately he had a kaku on that battled for a while before cutting his fluoro leader. Ugh! It took his streamer fly (I dunno what it’s called) but that gave us hope.

I started with the black/chrome WW, and had a small white follow the lure onto the sand. A little while later I caught this undersized white with the hook that I had just sharpened. Hmm… could it have been the dull hook that was causing all those misses? Too small to tag, it was released.

A few yards down the beach a kaku stopped the WW and hooked up. My first fish I tagged solo. Hmm, I didn’t miss this fish either…

With a fish tagged, I put away my go-to WW and put on a JDM top water lure I’m still getting used to. I tried to “walk the dog” but there was no interest. Dang, and the lure finish looked so realistic.

Next lure up was the top-secret JDM top-water lure that hasn’t failed yet, either inshore or offshore. On the first retrieve something boiled on it but missed. Then I went through a bit of inactivity until I decided to sweep the rod hard to make it gurgle. Slurp… POP! A slightly smaller kaku jumped on and I tagged it. Man, that lure is really magical.

I walked over to small channel and walked-the-dog. Nothing. I was expecting something to rocket out of the water with the secret lure in its mouth. Thinking the predators couldn’t see well in the waning light I made the lure gurgle and pop. A white papio lunged twice but missed the secret lure’s hooks. Hmm… good test for the previous top-water lure now that I know there’s a hungry fish around. I put on the previous lure, gurgled hard and sure enough a white boiled but missed the lure. Maybe it was just too dark to see? It was raining so was a good time to head back.

I caught up with Jason and he said he had hits and misses but hadn’t stuck anything solid after the first kaku. We started heading back but saw some bait near the shore so we gave it a parting shot. Jason hooked something on his popper fly and this one stayed on. Turned out to be a legal white papio, his first on a fly rod! It had a smushed jaw as if it had run into a wall when it was young. Other than that it looked healthy so I tagged it and Jason set it free.

Not a bad first attempt for Jason to target papio and kaku near the shoreline. And the Waxwing’s catch ratio is back up now that it has sticky sharp hooks. I gotta work on that other JDM lure that has yet to catch a fish.

JDM lure out fishes Waxwing again!

July 30, 2016 By Scott 2 Comments

My Pacfic Islands Fisheries Group (PIFG) boss, Clay, took me for some nearshore tagging training at a heavily fished town spot. The bait fish weren’t around in large numbers but we still managed to get strikes on lures and Clay caught an 11″ FL omilu and a 17″ FL kaku.

I was using the Waxwing Baby in black/chrome and again I missed all of my 3 kaku strikes. Later I noticed one of the hooks wasn’t sticky sharp, gonna have to make that laser sharp! Clay had more strikes on the JDM (Japan Domestic Market) top water lure and was able to land most of his. He even had the kaku repeatedly come back and hit the JDM lure after it slipped off the hook. There’s something about that lure that makes the fish want swallow it.

Clay’s omilu was the first I ever tagged. Hopefully I start landing fish so I can tag my own.

JDM lure testing while the oama trickle in

July 28, 2016 By Scott 4 Comments

The oama are late this year, probably because there were still good numbers of oama around in the early part of the year. The spawning weke must be confused by all this extra warm water.

Some oama have been seen around Oahu over the last few weeks but not in the large numbers that we normally have by the end of July. Hopefully the oama do make it in soon before the traditional season (July to September) is over.

Free from chasing oama, I’ve been field testing Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) lures and comparing them to lures we can buy domestically. In general the JDM lures have a more detailed finish and crisper response. In the top-water testing so far, the JDM lures hold a slight edge over the Shimano Waxwing, which is made in Japan but sold in the US. The top-water test isn’t really an apples to apples test because the Waxwing rides a little below the surface and only has a rear double hook, but the Waxwing was my go-to surface lure. Both the Waxwing and the JDM top water lures have caught fish, but the JDM lures have gotten much more violent strikes and have always caught fish whereas the Waxwing got blanked the last time out.

caught on black chrome Waxwing Baby

Testing has been on shallow flats, mostly casting from the dry sand, targeting the lure happy kaku. Kaku in the past have cut my 15lb fluoro main line but they have yet to cut me off since I’ve been using a 25lb fluoro leader. The leader has been nicked so I know they have hit it, but it’s held. Knock on flourocarbon. On this particular day, I started with the go-to black chrome Waxwing Baby. Over the span of an hour, walking the sand I caught two small kaku.

kaku on JDM top water lure

I double backed and put on the JDM lure. In the same area, within 5 mins, I caught two more kaku that hit with much more aggression. Both shot straight out of the water, shaking the lure in their mouth like a dog would shake a bone.

On another outing, I was surprised to see a 12″ FL white hit the JDM top-water lure 5 feet from shore. It looks like it tried to stun it with its scutes and tail and got snagged on its side.

shibi on JDM lure

We even took the JDM lures off shore for a shibi (small ahi) tagging trip at the buoys and they worked while the larger Waxwing and the Shimano Orca Pop failed to register a hit. Now that’s a pretty versatile lure.

Much more field testing is required but so far, the JDM lures have caught me with their refined appearance and performance in the water. All the test subjects were released with a few holes but relatively unharmed.

Gear shake out

July 12, 2016 By Scott 2 Comments

Finally, after a month of gusty days, the wind slowed enough to kayak fish. During that time off the water I had repurposed two reels I hadn’t been using, purchased a light, sensitive jig rod, and assembled some eye catching micro jigs from Japan. With so many things to try out I left the frozen oama at home.

(L to R) Calcutta 200TE, Calcutta 300TE w/Trevala rod

I started by whipping the black/chrome Waxwing Baby with an upgraded Calcutta 200TE. The level wind reel was great for fishing bait but too slow for retrieving Waxwings, so it hadn’t seen use in months. I came across a 200TE main gear upgrade sold on a Japanese Domestic Model (JDM) website that increased the line retrieval from 25 inches to 32 inches per crank. The downside of that retrieval increase is a proportional decrease in torque and drag (level wind reel have drag washers on the gear stack and are affected by gear ratio). Sure enough the Waxwing was zig zagging like it does on the high speed Shimano Curado 300EJ, but on the discontinued Calcutta 200TE that sports a stronger frame and better centrifugal brakes. I did feel one bump and a miss.

I put the whipping rod down and picked up the new lightweight jig setup: A Shimano Trevala S rod so thin and light that it made the compact Calcutta 300TE reel look big. The 300TE, one size up from the 200TE, was gathering dust in a box since I stopped using it as a small trolling reel. I added a longer power handle to replace the two-knobbed paddle handle and could immediately feel the increase in cranking efficiency.

(top to bottom) Live Deception, After Burner Japanese jig, Jigpara Japanese jig

I lobbed the shiny, nehu looking Jigpara jig (bottom lure in the photo) from Japan and lifted and fluttered it back. Not a single bump. Odd. So much activity on the fish finder and so little interest in the lures. In the distance, 2 guys on a boat were whooping it up like they landed an ulua, so that made me fish harder.

Switching back to the WW whipping setup, I cast onto the shallow reef top, hoping I wouldn’t backlash and get my lure stuck. A long fish lunged for the WW and missed the hooks. On the next cast, the lure was sucked down and a fish swam through the shallow crevices in the reef. I was relieved to see omilu blue instead of aha gray. The omilu ran line out against the drag and I had to tighten it further. The drag really was diminished by the higher gear ratio, and didn’t feel as smooth as it normally did. Because I was “practicing” tagging papio, I had planned to take a photo while the fish was still in the water, measure the fish against the markings on my kayak, and let it go. The fish wasn’t aware of my good intentions and literally spit the lure at me. It missed me by about a foot to the right. The freed omilu, which I got a good look at, was at least 2lbs, maybe even 3lb.

Nothing else was on that reef top so I paddled out a bit and cast over another reef edge. A pretty big aha grey hounded across the water like it’s nickname “poor man’s marlin” and also spit the hook. I was relieved my lure was still attached and I didn’t have to release that toothy demon. To give the jigs an equal chance, I switched back to the jig setup, changed to the Live Deception jig and bounced it off the shallow bottom. Still no interest. Back to the Waxwing and I got another hit and drop of either an aha or kaku.

It was about time to see if the white papio were gonna swarm at dusk like they did the last time they hit every micro jig dropped in the water. The fish finder picked up breezing fish gathering close to shore, but they didn’t take the Waxwing or the Live Deception jig. Maybe it was too early? I waited for the sun to drop lower and then “poof” they were gone. No fish on the fish finder. I paddled around not believing that they would suddenly pick up and leave but appeared to be what they did. The whites must’ve gotten bigger and headed somewhere else to attack bait.

Look at what 3 fish did to this lure! (zoom in)

Maybe I had missed other fish and didn’t realize it?

No fish landed but I was glad my confidence in the Waxwing was restored. It had recently been outfished by surface poppers and heavy jigs, but proved once again that in shallow spots holding bait, there is no equal to a well-retrieved Waxwing. And the Calcutta 200TE with higher gear ratio was fast enough to make the Waxwing look enticing.

The Trevala S light jig rod could cast jigs well despite it’s short 6’3″ length due to its soft tip. I guess I’ll have to see how well it holds up to a fish some other time.

Note: Charley’s is running a jig combo special, which includes the Trevala S jig rod and the Shimano Curado 300EJ reel I used on that Big Island jigging trip of a lifetime. Trust me, it’s a deal you don’t want to miss out on.

Big Island boat jigging trip of a lifetime

June 16, 2016 By Scott 12 Comments

Warning: This post will cover action beyond the “nearshore” boundaries and may take a while to read.

I was invited by Neil, the President of Pacific Islands Fisheries Group (PIFG), to boat fish the Big Island the day before the Tokunaga Challenge weigh-in. We would be working the weigh-in, collecting nearshore tagging data and selling Lawai’a magazine subscriptions. I almost declined the invitation because I had gum surgery 2 days before the planned fishing trip and hadn’t eaten solid food since. I’m glad Neil encouraged me to go. I decided to bring a 3-piece Cabelas travel casting rod instead of my 1-piece rods, to avoid paying for oversized luggage. The rod tip was pretty stiff to jig with but I had no other option. I paired the rod with a medium action Curado 300EJ, filled with 15lb fluoro and backed by 50lb braid. There was about 175yds of line in total, and I attached a 25lb fluoro leader. I was hoping for some goats, papio and maybe even an uku on my relatively light gear.

We had Captain Wes at the helm, first mate Braiden, Neil and myself aboard the 19.4ft Alii Kai named the Akemi K. We started by trolling frozen oama but they were quickly mauled by hage so we replaced them with Crystal Minnows. A just-legal yellow spot papio was landed during a long dry spell so we stowed the trolling gear and zipped out to the first bottom fishing spot.

We wanted to field test a few different jigs so I handed Neil a 42gm (1.5oz) Shimano Coltsniper, one I hadn’t fished before. He dropped it down with his medium spinning rig, got a bump, had a fish pull line and come unbuttoned. That was promising. I free spooled a 2oz Promar Live Deception jig, a size I had never fished, and dropped it to the bottom. Jigged it up and down as best I could with the stiff rod tip, and began to do the slow lift and crank. About 15 feet off the bottom the line took off.

It felt like a good-size papio, making smooth runs, shaking its head and resisting being pulled up. The Cabela’s travel rod had a good parabolic arc, bending from the middle of the rod, and performed much better than expected. After about 5 mins we could see what looked like a big omilu making deep circles under the boat. As it got closer we couldn’t believe our eyes – Kagami Ulua (African Pompano), a relatively rare and delicious catch. Braiden gaffed the fish and it was official. Kagami on the first drop of the Live Deception! My first ulua ever. Neil and Wes looked at each other in disbelief, then Neil quickly dropped his Coltsniper back down.

Neil got picked up and the fish fought stubbornly but didn’t shake its head. Uh oh, hage action! That was his introduction to micro jigging.

I dropped down again, jig/pumped and about 20 ft from the bottom, felt a hit. A few nice runs, abrupt headshakes, and a 3lb omilu was boated. I expected a larger fish from the way it ripped line and shook its head. Man those omilu are tough. I checked the line and the 25lb leader had a couple small nicks so I changed it out and made sure the uni-to-uni knot connecting fluoro main to fluoro leader was cinched down. I didn’t want to lose another big fish to a badly tied knot like I did a few weeks ago.

Captain Wes re-positioned the boat and Neil hooked into something that pulled stubbornly but not like a papio. After a fun fight, Neil hoisted the largest cornetfish I had ever seen. Cornetfish are often confused with the trumpetfish, but the cornetfish can get much larger. It was shaken off the jig and set free.

Neil followed the trumpetfish up with a moana and was definitely catching on quickly to this “shallow water” jigging technique.

We moved to a new spot; I dropped the Live Deception down and before it hit the bottom the jig felt like it got picked up in a strong current. I engaged the reel and line peeled off the drag. The line angle looked straight up and down but the water wasn’t as deep as the amount of line out. 75 yds of 15lb fluoro top shot was out and the fish wasn’t slowing. Captain Wes quietly said “this is a big fish”, telling the others to clear their lines. I tightened the drag carefully and the fish still kept going. Finally I tightened it to the point the line started pinging and there was maybe 25 yds left on the spool. The guys were coaching me but we all figured the fight would end in a few seconds. Miraculously the fish slowed and I started making very small pumps, gaining one or two turns of the handle at a time. The fish rested and I got back 1/4 of the braid backing. It surged again, but didn’t take out too much line. I then started doing the drop a few inches and crank quickly method and the Capt remarked that he never saw anyone boost an ulua with such small gear. I took that to mean “be very careful” so I slowed the pumping action and tried to be as smooth as possible so the fish wouldn’t realize it was being yanked out of his home.

The travel rod’s foregrip was half the length of my other rods so my left hand spilled over the ends and was beginning to cramp. My left bicep was engaged the whole time and felt like I was doing a really long isometric curl. But I could hear the voices of ulua vets in my head saying “kill its spirit, don’t give him hope”. So I kept the tension in the rod, hoped my back would hold out, and short pumped when I could. Halfway up, the guys decided to resume jigging cuz they figured it would either be awhile before the fish was landed, or the line would pop soon. The travel rod seemed up to the task but I was worried about my uni-to-uni knot joining the braid to the 15 fluoro main line that I tied months ago. I really hoped I tied that knot well! The fact that I hadn’t eaten real food in almost 3 days also wore on my mind.

At around the 8 minute mark the uni-to-uni splice was on the reel and I had about 75 yds of 15lb fluoro left. The big fish saw the boat and tried to make it down to its home but only took about 30 yds of line. That was the last big run it made. The rest of the way it planed its body and resisted getting pulled into view. We still didn’t know what was on but thought it was some kind of big jack. I had only caught one kahala before, a little more than 10lbs, and just caught my first actual ulua, but strongly felt that this fish was an ulua not a kahala. The one kahala I fought didn’t seem to have the leverage of a wide body that this fish did.

When it was finally at deep color, it looked brown and long like a kahala. Ugh… I was disappointed but still wanted to see how large it was. Then as I pulled it closer, the body shortened and color darkened. Black ulua? It looked huge, even larger than I had imagined. I had always said that I’d photograph and release a large ulua but the Capt had plans for smoked ulua to share with the ohana, so he told Braiden to gaff ’em. Capt Wes had given us smoked ulua and was super ono so I knew the fish would feed a lot of people. The Live Deception’s treble hook was hooked on the outside of the fish’s head and so was the assist hook. This caused the lure to bend but also prevented the fish from chewing through the 25lb leader I had just tied on. Lucky-Lucky. The leader and main line didn’t have any nicks at all. I removed the 2 oz Live Deception to ensure I wouldn’t lose it to a fish or a snag. It was going into “the museum”. I didn’t have any other 2oz lures so I put on a 1 oz Live Deception.

Upon closer examination, Capt Wes said that the fish was a dark, white ulua or GT. Oxymoron, I know, but I guess they can get dark if they live in the black lava tube caves. I would not have believed that my tackle and lack of big fish catching success would’ve allowed me to land that. All credit goes to the Capt who put us on the fish and maneuvered the boat. Near the end of the fight he backed down to help me gain line, deftly keeping the line away from the props.

I told the guys to use my bait casting setup cuz I was done for a while! My left arm felt useless. Neil declined and promptly brought up a monsta hage on his spinning setup. He said he was doing his best to keep the rubbish fish away from the rest of us. What a nice guy! Actually, what he didn’t know was that I rubbed hage-attractant on the Coltsniper before I gave it to him and it appeared to be working. He brought up a good sized moana next that jumped off the hook. I actually saw it break the surface! He still refused to use my bait casting rig so I dropped the 1 oz jig down, did one lift and a fish was on! I had never fished with Neil before and he was beginning to think I could catch fish at will. If you have read my blog you know that was far from the truth. In fact, a fishing buddy Kelly has never seen me land a decent fish. Here’s a classic outing.

zoom in to see the treble near its tail

So I asked Neil to fight the fish on my line and he said “no, no need” (translation: I don’t need your pity, I can catch my own fish). I told him I’m just gonna put the rod in the rod holder and let the fish come undone so he took the rod and skillfully battled the fish. Turns out the omilu was foul-hooked. Neil said “you knew was foul-hooked you buggah, that’s why you nevah like fight ’em!”. He was beginning to think I could catch fish at will and tell how they were hooked!

The Capt had seen enough and took his turn with my bait caster. He had used large conventional trolling reels with right hand cranks, and smaller spinning reels with left hand cranks, and had to adjust to cranking such a small, light reel with his right hand. On the first drop he got used to the action of the rod, the quick free spool release and the level winding of the Curado. On the second drop he hit the bottom, jigged once and was on! The pole bent in its parabolic arc and line peeled off the spool. Another big fish, surely an ulua. Capt Wes took his time and played the fish like he catches ulua every day, which he probably could do if he wanted to. After a patient battle he landed a beautiful omilu ulua, about 15lb. Capt Wes was very impressed with the gear and the way the 15lb flouro held up to such a strong, heavy fish with sharp scutes.

Neil and Braiden switched to damashi to target the tasty kau kau fish. I wanted to see what else the Live Deception lure could catch and dropped down again. Neil started catching legal yellow spot papio, which are tastier than omilus and whites. Braiden started off eradicating a few taape. I felt what I thought was the jig getting fouled on itself and brought up a deep water lizardfish. Uh oh, maybe Neil rubbed some lizardfish-attractant on the jig when I wasn’t looking. The boys started bringing up nabeta (razor wrasse), which were the best eating fish caught on the trip. I hadn’t eaten nabeta before but grew up hearing how it just melts in your mouth when you fry ’em scales and all. Then I actually foul hooked a nabeta on the Live Deception! Man that lure really does deceive everything!

The jigging action slowed down for me, probably because we were in shallower water where there were less predators. A moana came up on their damashi and I dropped it down as live bait. I was hoping for big papio and maybe even the uku that has eluded me on Oahu. Nothing hit that lively moana on the next few drifts and the boys continued to catch yellow spot papio, nabeta and taape.

Too lazy to rig up with damashi, I dropped the 1 oz Live Deception down again and felt it get picked up right off the bottom. Felt like a couple lb omilu so I asked if Braiden wanted to play with the bait caster. He took the small reel in his large hands and worked the fish up to the boat. UKU!!!! My first uku I ever hooked, and on a jig at that. And I handed it off!!! Aww shucks.

With that it was time to pack it up and head for the barn. What a boat trip of a lifetime. My equipment held up, the 1 oz and 2 oz Live Deceptions were on fire, and I was bathed in Big Island hospitality by Capt Wes, Braiden and Neil. I brought back the Kagami ulua, uku and a few nabeta to Oahu for my family and friends to try. Will write more later… this has gotten too long as it is!

Almost forgot. This is how small the reel was. Too bad I didn’t take a picture of it next to the 30lb ulua. It wasn’t even fully loaded with line. Lucky-luck indeed.

Note: I purchase my Live Deception jigs at POP and Charley’s. POP has the most variety, both in sizes and in colors. Charley’s has the best prices in general, and besides the Live Deceptions, they’ve brought in a new assortment of very small micro jigs from Japan. Charley’s is also running a jigging combo special: the Curado 300EJ I used on the Big Island paired with the Shimano Trevala S jig rod which would’ve had more sensitivity and backbone than the travel rod I used. That combo at the price Charley’s is running now, will be the perfect setup to start shallow water jigging.

The New Moon Curse?

June 6, 2016 By Scott 6 Comments

Kelly and I SUP’d / kayaked fished the day before the New Moon. My fish finder marked fish and we caught a few legal omilu and whites on frozen oama, with Kelly getting cut off on coral by a larger fish. Nothing hit my micro jig. All the papio were released intentionally or unintentionally, in preparation of the start of Papio Tagging this summer. The bite was the best around the top of the tide so we went back the following day to dial things in.

The wind and swell were down a bit from the day before, and nothing seemed to be stirring in the depths. The same places that showed fish on the fish finder the day before were barren. Even the turtles were absent. I scouted the deep areas and the reef edges, and Kelly crossed over the flats into deep water and back. Halfway through our outing Kelly got a strong hit that took a third of his line. He had paddled over the reef edge, into the deep side, and was perfectly positioned to fight the fish in obstacle-free water. But it came unbuttoned.

That fish gave us hope but all we got was a series of short bites on our frozen oama and I landed a 9″ white. Kelly paddled back to the launch point and I dawdled behind, hoping an evening bite would magically materialize. In the 20ft to 15 ft sandy/muddy gap in the reef, the fish finder began to show some mid-sized fish. Another 9″ white was hooked and released, and the next oama got hit as I let out line. The frenzy was on but Kelly was already out of the water.

He texted “goodbye” and I was free to try out the small but heavy jigs. I paddled out to deeper, clearer water to give the jigs their best chance. The fish finder transducer was suction cupped to the side of the kayak at an angle so the depths read deeper than they actually were. I’m guessing it was 30 – 40 ft even though the fish finder said 56ft. The fish were marking from the bottom to halfway up and really thick.

Exploded view of Live Deception jig and assist hooks before being slid onto Power Clip

I cast a 1oz Live Deception jig that had a rear treble hook, with added assist hooks connected via a Tactical Angler Power Clip. I had snagged my trolling line and as the lure sank it hooked up! Another 9″ white came up but the Live Deception lure was gone! Meanwhile the oama didn’t get touched so I reeled that in and stowed the rod.

Exploded view of micro jig and assist hooks before being slid onto Power Clip

I kept the assist hooks and slid on a 30 gm micro jig. It got hit halfway down the sink also! And same thing, 9″ white caught on assist hook but the micro jig was gone. What the heck? This happened when I had caught a kahala deep jigging an 80 gm Shimano Flat Fall. I had thought a fish hit the Flat Fall hook and another hit the independent assist hook, and the Flat Fall-hooked fish pried itself off the clip. Now I began to realize that the kahala and small whites were flipping the heavy jigs off the clip with their head shakes.

this white threw off the Live Deception jig

this white threw off the 1st micro jig

this guy threw off the 2nd and last micro jig

this one threw off the 2nd and last micro jig

I had one 30 gm micro jig left and slid it down the power clip next to the assist hooks. Cast out, let it sink, hookup, repeat. Couldn’t be any easier. Reel in a 9″ white and no jig left on the clip. I guess the clip wasn’t intended to have heavy lures and separate assist hooks. 3 casts, 3 whites, 3 jigs lost. I was out of jigs so I got a chance to see how surface lures would work on these sub-surface whites.

The normally effective Waxwing Baby couldn’t raise them and neither could the Yozuri Hydro Popper, which slayed the 1lb – 3lb whites off the boat the previous week. I had been disappointed that the Waxwing and micro jigs did not work at all when the Poppers raised all those fish from the depths and was beginning to think poppers were all we needed. But on this weird evening following very little activity during the day, when the small whites were swarming halfway down the water column, the only thing they wanted were sinking jigs. I guess every lure has its day.

Friends who fished further out on their boat, and others who fly fished the flats said this day was unusually slow, yet the next day had more action. I had heard that the New Moon, like the Full Moon, was a slow day to fish. One theory, my wise fishing kupuna told me, is that fish travel on those two moon phases so they’re less interested in eating. It’s like the predators and prey have a truce so they can complete their migration. How productive has the New Moon been for you?

Guest Post: Waikiki Standup Paddleboard Fishing – Catch and Cook

May 31, 2016 By Scott 8 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– Kelly

Semi-nearshore boat popping for papio

May 26, 2016 By Scott 5 Comments

The wind was forecast to be under 10mph and Erik invited me to dial in the shallow water micro jigging. The last time we did this, Erik found the spot by triangulating the landmarks without aid of GPS and fish finder, but I had a discontinued fish finder lying around that I had been dying to use. I jury rigged the Huminbird PiranhaMax 230 to be more water proof, by removing the base and putting the AA batteries in a waterproof tackle box. I was as excited to see if the fish finder would help us as I was to actually catch a fish.

The winds ended up blowing more than 15 mph and there was a trade wind chop on the water. We had to scrap the bottom fishing plans and throw lures on the inside. Erik started with a Yozuri Hydro Popper on his Shimano Sahara 4000 reel, packed with 15lb braid and a 30lb fluoro leader. I kept my micro jig on and tried bottom fishing the marks that began to show near reef edges. At the first drift an omilu shot out and followed Erik’s popper, then a 6 ft Galapagos shark got interested. Erik kept his lure out of the shark’s mouth and action slowed. I jigged in the shallow water for nada.

The fish doesn’t look as big as it really was because I had taken it at an angle

Erik moved us to another spot and hooked up on his first cast. A strong fighting 3 to 4lb white gave him a good tussle before surrendering. Erik let it go, planning to keep his 4th papio and 6th papio if he was able to catch that many. His plan wasn’t boastful, he just wanted to keep a fish if there were enough of them were around. My micro jig wasn’t getting any love so I changed to a Live Deception jig I could cast.

Erik moved us to another spot, gurgle-popped his popper and hooked up on the first cast again! A slightly smaller white fought its way back to the boat. I cast the Live Deception around, tried different retrieves for … nada.

Third drift, Erik hooks up on the first cast with the Hydro Popper again. Man, that guy can find and catch fish. I tried a Waxwing Boy where he hooked his white papio but got no follows even though it swam so enticingly. I dug around and found an old resin Kaku popper from the 80’s. It didn’t float and thus, didn’t line up that well to make a big splash on the sweep. Erik’s next fish could be kept so we made another drift.

He got a hit as soon as the popper touched the water, even before he moved it! But it came off during the fight. I had yet to even get a strike. He felt badly that I was getting skunked so he offered me the lure that had been working so well for him. I was afraid I’d lose it in the rocks or something but he assured me it floats. He put on a larger Yozuri 3D popper.

Next drift, Erik landed his 4th white but it was smaller than the previous ones so he released it. I was struggling to get used to popping with a bait caster and wasn’t getting the right gurgle and slurp action going. Erik stopped fishing and tried to put me right in front of some easy to catch fish. Drifts went by and finally a fish lunged and splashed but alas, no hookup. Another white missed the hooks and then we saw a silvery streak hit the lure from the side but missed the hooks. Arrggh… we’re right on top of the reef at this point but I tried again since that was the closest I had come to hooking a fish.

Hookup, the fish took to the air to pull somersaults. Awa awa! I guess my retrieve couldn’t get the more aggressive white papio going but it fooled a not-so-smart awa awa. At this point I wasn’t picky. Erik had already landed 4 whites out of 6 hookups. The awa awa wasn’t very big but it jumped and shook it’s head right next to the boat. The hook stayed in and we were able to release it.

We tried some other spots but the bite had slowed way down. With a few minutes left, Erik took us out to where he had the most action and a papio hit and shook off his 3D Popper. I threw into a deep channel, saw a splash, and felt a solid hookup. A second later the line went limp. What the heck?!! The 15lb fluro main was cut clean, above where it was spliced to a 2.5ft 40 lb fluoro leader. Either a long fish cut the line with his tail or a pack of fish swarmed the lure and one hit the line above the lure. I felt awful to lose Erik’s magic Yozuri Hydro Popper. Hope the replacement popper I get has the same mojo.

Erik ended up not taking any papio home for grandma but didn’t seem to mind. I was happy I was able to hook something on my inaugural popping trip and was satisfied with the way the fish finder worked. Erik didn’t use it to find out where the fish were, but it did mark fish where we got our strikes and even marked followers when we retrieved our lures back to the boat. I’m hoping it proves its worth on a bottom fishing trip.

Surfboard trolling scouting report

May 25, 2016 By Scott 7 Comments

Guys have been reporting sightings and catches of 1lb – 3lb papio on the South Shore so I dusted off the longboard and hit a favorite spot. I brought 4 live oama I had been raising and a couple of frozen ones. Being off the board for 5 months took its toll; my triceps and upper back seized before reaching the surf. After a lot of rest breaks, I headed into the 15 mph trade winds so I would be blown back to the launch site when pau.

Nothing bothered the frozen oama I had towed until I got to a wide channel next to a surf break. I paused to catch my breath and saw my floater go under. An oama head came back on the front hook. That gave me some hope. I put on a live oama and started paddling again. Something pulled the floater down but this time, when I checked the bait, a foot long reddish-brown ika was hanging on to it! I pulled the oama away and it had a one inch piece missing. The ika stayed around my board even after I prodded it with my rod tip. I finally fed it the oama in hopes it would be full.

I paddled over to the eastern reef edge to get away from the pesky ika and the floater dipped again with no line taken. This time the middle of the frozen oama was eaten and the hooks remained in the head and tail. 3 baits down and no drag pulled yet. I decided to use the live oama before they died in the bait bucket, and loosened the drag so the weak strikers could take the oama deeper.

Suddenly the clicker screamed and I had trouble getting the rod out of the holder. But when I tightened the drag and pumped the fish back, it felt like something streamlined shaking its head. I expected to see a small trumpetfish but instead landed a 13.75 inch fork length omilu. I guess it spent all its energy on the initial run. It was bagged for my parents since I hadn’t brought fish home for quite a few weeks.

I decided to drift back in but the current and winds tried to blow me out to sea. I wasn’t making much headway and considered belly boarding a wave in, which is fairly risky with the milk crate mounted on the front of the board, but eventually made it around the waves. When I pulled the bait in, I saw a reddish brown ika pull off the oama. Either there was a pack of them or that one ika was a pig. I set the remaining live oama free away from any hungry ika.

The bite wasn’t red hot but there was at least one decent papio prowling around. Maybe the papio season is slowly starting.

Jigging and popping for pelagics and ulua

May 17, 2016 By Scott 11 Comments

(top) Shimano Trevala with Daiwa Lexa HD400XS
(bottom) Shimano Terez with Shimano Tranx 500

Erik and his dad, Ed, invited me out on their 16 ft center console catamaran to troll to the nearest buoy, hit some deep and shallow jigging spots and finish up with some evening ulua plugging. I brought the Shimano Trevala jigging rod and Daiwa Lexa HD400XS reel to jig and the Shimano Terez Waxwing rod and Shimano Tranx reel to plug. Both setups were untested because I hadn’t been able to target large enough fish in the past. We definitely exceeded the nearshore range on this trip but hopefully you guys will find this report interesting from the tackle and technique perspective.

80g blue sardine flat fall

The wind was light and seas fairly calm so it was relatively smooth sailing to the buoy. Unfortunately nothing wanted our trolled lures or dropped jigs so we headed back in to their 200 ft plus jigging spot. They had caught big kahala and pelagics at this spot before so we rigged up with the heavier jigs. Ed went big with a 280 gram Shimano Butterfly Flat Side jig, Erik went with the 130 gram Shimano Butterfly Flat Fall jig, and I went with the smallest Flat Fall in the 80 gram size. 80 grams are equivalent to 2.8 ounces, so my jig wasn’t exactly small either. The Trevala medium heavy action jig rod has a soft tip with a lot of backbone and the Daiwa Lexa HD400XS brings in 43 inches of line per crank with a max of 25lb of drag. I slipped on a belt gimble and an extra pair of assist hooks to the front of the flat fall, and was hoping for something larger than a hage to test my gear.

The guys let me fish the starboard (right) side of the bow, which had a lot of open space and allowed me to cast right handed. On the second drop, about 20 ft off the bottom, I got hit. The fish pulled a bit of line and then I could feel frenetic tail beats. The soft tip of the Trevala rod made it a fun fight and soon we saw a tuna-shaped fish swimming in circles. Kawakawa for Erik’s grandma! The guys were stoked that I was able to get my first flat fall fish and we resumed jigging and cranking with anticipation.

After a couple of drops we weren’t seeing anything on the fish finder so we were about to move. I burned the flat fall back in and got hammered about a third of the way up. This fish took drag and kept the rod bent. I wasn’t sure-footed enough to stand and fight the fish so I sat side-saddle on the bow’s platform (I don’t know the proper boating terms) and tried to short pump it up. It felt like a decent sized jack and made some powerful runs straight down, but the Lexa’s smooth drag eventually tired it out. Erik got some great underwater shots of the fish and then deftly lifted it over the side of the boat. My first kahala ever.

The strange thing was my flat fall jig was missing and the kahala was hooked on one of the assist hooks I had clipped on to the Tactical Anglers Power Clip. (zoom in to the top photo of the Flat Fall jig attached to the Trevala rod to see how the lure had been attached). The clip was slightly bent. It’s pretty hard to slip off a lure to remove it, so I was stumped as to how the jig was pulled off and the kahala was still hooked. One optimistic theory is that another kahala had hit the jig on its rear assist hooks and the kahala I landed tried to take the jig away and was caught on the top assist hooks. They pulled against each other and somehow the flat fall was pulled off the power clip.

We didn’t measure or weigh the kahala but Erik estimated it to be at least 10lbs. Because of its reputation as a worm-filled ciquatoxic fish, it was released to battle the next angler. I replaced the clip but made a critical mistake that you’ll read about a little later.

Ed scaled down to the 130 gm blue sardine flat fall and resumed his speed jigging with big rod sweeps. Something heavy stopped his jig about 1/3 from the bottom and repeatedly yanked the rod down but didn’t run too far before the hook slipped. The guys think it was a fairly big kahala that successfully shook the hook off.

The action slowed so we moved to a shallow water spot (50 ft deep) that produced ulua on the poppers for the guys before. Ed went up on the stern’s deck (I really need to learn the proper boating terms) and started throwing a 150gm Pelagic Warrior Gladiator blue/green Lumo popper with his Okuma Makaira heavy jigging rod and Shimano Saragosa 10000 spinning reel, spooled with 100lb braid and a 150lb fluoro leader. They’ve learned from past battles that a strong, abrasion resistant leader and main line that can handle a very tight drag are requirements against the scutes and tail of ulua and coral reef caves. Ed heaved the heavy popper and noisily gurgled it back to the boat, and Erik and I jigged with micro jigs but there were no takers at this spot.

Erik moved us to another shallow reef and Ed woke an ulua from its slumber. The beast came out of the water to intercept Ed’s popper and tumbled tail first. The fight was on and Ed was able to stop the fish after its initial run, but then it made it to the reef below and ran through the rocky valleys until it could expose the braid to the sharp rocks. CRAAACK! The line popped like a gunshot and Erik caught his dad as he fell backward. While we were disappointed, we were pumped to witness such raw power.

The spot we were in didn’t leave much leeway to safely fight large ulua but appeared to hold fish. Erik decided to risk his favorite 125 gram Spartan blue Lumo GTFC popper on a Shimano Tallus Bluewater Series extra heavy rod and Saragosa 10000 spinning reel packed with 80lb braid and a 150 lb fluoro leader. He set his drag tight and launched the lure as far as he could. Sweeping the rod explosively, he created a bubble trail that called up another ulua. The ulua turned and headed back for his cave. Erik cupped the reel spool, crouched and leaned back hard against the rod and hoped against hope that his line would withstand the razor-sharp live coral below. CRAAACK! Just like that two favorite poppers donated to the depths below. The guys felt bad that they left lures in the fishes’ mouths and hoped the hooks would soon be worked free.

We moved to a deeper reef that provided a little more cushion and Erik resumed plugging while Ed and I micro jigged. I had a 30 gram blue and silver Jigging World jig clipped on to a 60lb flouro leader and 65 lb braid. After seeing Ed and Erik get rocked, I set my drag pretty tight, to where I could barely pull line off the reel. Something slammed my jig as I did a fast lift-crank-drop and burned line back to the bottom. I was shocked to feel such power and speed and called out to the guys. It surged a second time and then the line went slack. Rocked on the bottom? No… The leader’s end was in loose curls. Not quite like how it would look if the knot unraveled but why else would it be curly? I’m thinking that when I tied on the power clip after replacing the bent one, I didn’t use pliers to pull the 60lb fluoro leader tight. Rookie mistake made while rushing to get back in the action. The surge that popped the line was strongest I’ve felt in years.

What a versatile, action packed trip. I am so grateful for Erik and Ed’s hospitality and generosity. And I have to admit, after seeing the ferocity of the ulua strikes on the poppers, I wasn’t ready to throw a big Waxwing at ’em and risk getting pulled off the deck.

Semi-nearshore shallow water jigging

May 7, 2016 By Scott 8 Comments

I know the blog’s focus is Nearshore Fishing, so I’m gonna ask for a little leeway on this post.

A new fishing friend and new Lawai’a feature writer, Erik, very generously offered to take me out for a quick bottom fishing / shallow water jigging expedition yesterday. It had been 15 yrs since I’d been on a boat so we picked a very light wind day to launch. My fishing window was short so we had to run, drop, jig and gun. The cross-directional swell bounced the 14 ft aluminum boat enough for me to get a little green around the gills but the fishing action managed to keep my mind off the shifting horizon.

Live Deception, Waxwing Baby, Waxwing Boy, Flat Fall 80g, Flat Fall 80g

1 oz Mackeral Live Deception on left. 2.8oz Black Anchovy and Blue Sardine Flat Fall on right

Erik was fishing a pinkish, silvery 30 g (1.05 oz) Japanese micro jig he purchased from Charley’s Fishing Supply, and I started with an 80g (2.8 oz) blue sardine Shimano Flat Fall (furthest right in the photo). Erik expertly put us on the spots, fishing the reef’s edge from 70ft deep, drifting inward toward shallower water, without aid of a fish finder or GPS.

He started feeling hits on his micro jig and brought up the brownish hage, and moana. I hadn’t felt a thing on my flat fall. I kept trying to emulate the way Erik would pop his rod tip repeatedly when the lure reached the bottom, then lift and crank the lure back to the surface in an exaggerated pumping motion. When Erik saw that I was getting disillusioned, he pointed out that there were new scratches on my lure and that something had taken a swipe at the flat fall but missed the two assist hooks. That must’ve happened as the lure free fell, and it gave me hope.

Then Erik’s rod bent over in an upside down “U” and line peeled off the spool. Something larger than a hage had taken his jig midway up the water column and was surging for the bottom at an alarming rate. Erik’s spinning rig consisted of a short, fairly light action Star spinning rod and Shimano Sahara 4000 reel, packed with 15lb braid and a 30lb fluoro leader. He tightened his drag, cupped the spool and the fish surged again. A veteran of many light tackle battles with large fish, Erik kept the combatant out of the rocks and enjoyed the scrap, wondering what could be pulling downward so intently.

After a few shorter runs we saw color. Electric blue fins, silvery body? Big omilu? On closer examination Erik exclaimed “yellow dot papio!”, formally known as the Island Jack. His previous fish had been released but not this one.

notice how the boat’s stern isn’t lining up with the horizon? we’re swinging back and forth!

Yellow dot papio are one of the tastiest papios. The 6lb beauty was destined for a starring role as sashimi and ceviche.

I was stoked to witness the fight but began to suspect my flat fall was too large for the area we were fishing. On my next drop, it felt like my jig was being sucked down, and then it felt stuck. Erik swung the boat up current and the “stuck” kept being pulled along, then suddenly popped free. What the heck? It happened again on the following drop and the jig didn’t have any new scratches. Erik said it could be a tako grabbing on and eventually pulling free. As much as I like tako poke, I wanted to catch something on the flat fall with teeth, fins and scales! On the next drop I temporarily got stuck in a solid rock, and when Erik moved the boat to free my jig, I reeled up and hunted around for a smaller lure.

I was given Ahi Live Deception jigs as a promotion to try in our local waters, and happened to have a 1 oz Green Mackeral pattern in my tackle box. (See top photo). It was the only small jig I had. The lure feels like a slender, flexible slab of lead and is laser printed with an actual fish photo. It looks very lifelike but lacks the fancy bevels and curves that the flat fall sports. I hadn’t read anything about its swimming action, nor seen any underwater videos about it. How good could it be? But on the second drop I got a hit. Yay, an actual fish caught on the small treble hook! A smallish, but legal moana. I was feeling more and more queasy, so I tossed it back without a picture.

kawakawa

On the next drop something yanked, then let itself be retrieved a bit… then took a little line. The skunk was definitely off my back, and this fish felt bigger. I was using the Shimano recommended shallow water jigging setup: Shimano Trevala F medium action rod and Curado 300EJ bait casting reel and while I could feel the twists and turns of the fish, I easily coaxed it to the surface. Turned out to be a small kawakawa, my first ever. Erik held it for me and I snapped a quick pic with my phone’s camera. I could barely see through the glare, and focusing on Erik and the fish while the horizon gyrated back and forth was pushing me closer to urk-dom.

Two fish back-to-back on the unheralded Live Deception. Erik brought up another brownish hage on his micro jig and I caught an orangey weke I had never seen before, followed by a small taape. The taape was kept to rid the reef of invasives and was destined to become Erik’s crab bait. I was really impressed with the Live Deception’s effectiveness and hook up ratio. The treble was working too well actually, as it was hard to unhook the fish. I bent down each barb and threw the jig over the side. Halfway down I felt a tug and then … nothing. Something had taken the lure down its gullet and cut the line. My new magic lure… gone.

While I put the flat fall back on my leader, Erik hooked what was probably the offending lure-swallower. A kawelea, or Heller’s Baracuda. Not as fearsome looking as the kaku or Great Barracuda and supposedly better eating. Erik tossed it back since his yellow dot papio would keep his family fed for awhile. I threw my flat fall over the side and finally, felt something hit it. A kawelea was hooked on the rear assist hook and was released also. I looked at my watch and it was time to ride the swells in.

6lb yellow dot papio and taape

Not bad for only 2 hrs of bottom fishing without GPS or a fish finder. Erik’s micro jig and my Live Deception lure were probably closer to the size of bait the fish were feeding on, explaining why the larger flat fall wasn’t getting much attention except for those mystery dead-weight snags. If not for Erik’s expert small skiff skills, I would’ve started another 15 yr boat-ban, but instead look forward to mining the bottom for more critters.

Slow action following good day

April 23, 2016 By Scott 6 Comments

Pete and I went back to the spot that was unexpectedly good one day after the full moon. We found out that two days after the full moon wasn’t so good.

Pete caught a couple 6 inch omilus on his blue sardine Waxwing Baby, and I got a few kaku hits and misses on the same lure. This time I used a 25lb fluorocarbon leader that got nicked by one of the kaku but not cut. That saved me $15. Once again, Pete didn’t get any kaku hits and I didn’t get any omilu hits that I know of. The fish didn’t hit with much vigor, which is what normally happens when the moon is big and the predators can feed at night or be chased around by even larger predators.

We did see a school of baby mullet porpoising out of the water for at least 50 yds. So some predators made a passing appearance.

Unexpected Waxwing action 1 day after Full Moon

April 22, 2016 By Scott 8 Comments

Pete, from NorCal, was back in town. The nearshore fishing conditions weren’t looking good, with a big moon and lots of trade wind. A tune up wading trip with cut bait yielded a few undersized omilus so we were off to the Windward side armed with Waxwing Babys, the 2.68″ 1/2 oz size.

We didn’t expect much since the full moon was last night, and the first Windward spot we tried was lacking in visible bait fish and predators. I was using the black/chrome Waxwing, which imitates baby mullet well. Pete was armed with a blue sardine Waxwing, which is my go-to color when I fish the inshore reef. I missed a small kaku, then we both went 15 mins without a follow. We were working our way back to the car when my lure felt like it ran into a floating log. I felt one twitch and the line was cut. That must’ve been a decent kaku, and in its mouth went $15. I put on a rainbow trout pattern Waxwing that, to me, mimicked an oama.

A smaller kaku hit and missed the hook, and a lizardfish followed that up. Time to hit the next spot.

The next spot had a few schools of bait fish on the flats but nothing crashing on them. Pete lined up to fish a dredged boat channel and I moved off to fish deeper water. A minute later I heard his new Stradic CI4+ 2500 drag sing for the first time. His parabolic 9ft light weight rod was bending under pressure as Pete brought the fish in.

I didn’t measure it, but it looked like a 12″ fork length omilu – very unexpected given the challenging conditions. We admired the fish for a few seconds and let it swim free.

Pete fan cast the area and I worked the shallows for kaku. He soon hooked another omilu, this time about 10″, and all I got was a stop and a miss. The rainbow trout wasn’t doing the job and I didn’t have a blue sardine so I grudgingly put on the battle-scarred black/chrome Baby that was featured in the Lawai’a Waxwing article. I had been sparing it since it had survived so many fish strikes but I really had nothing else to use. Besides, I’ve never lost 2 Waxwings to bite offs in one day.

I managed just one weak strike and was heading back to Pete when I saw this brownish/blackish head appear 5 feet away from me. It wolfed the Waxwing and poof, there went the lure that should’ve been preserved in a fishing museum. RIP little black/chrome Waxwing Baby.

Pete had another fish pull line and come unbuttoned, then it was time to go. Interestingly, he didn’t hook any kaku and I didn’t hook any omilu. I’d gladly trade the lure stealing kaku for an omilu. Think I’ll try the blue sardine pattern the next time!

Winter nearshore doldrums continue

April 4, 2016 By Scott 4 Comments

In the last couple of weeks I have paddled further in the harbors and bays only to experience slower fishing. It finally sunk in that predators aren’t looking for oama right now. To reverse field I took the longboard into a South Shore reel channel today and threw the Waxwing Boy on the new Shimano Terez rod and Tranx bait casting reel. The equipment performed well but nothing bit to test the Tranx’s drag system. Doesn’t the Spring seem slower than it usually is? Or was last Spring especially good because of the El Nino effect?

I have heard of oio coming up in the last month, and a few ulua being caught at night in the deep spots. Other than that, there doesn’t seem to be a lot going on in the shallows.

This 30lb plus ulua was caught by my good friend, Lauren, last week. Despite this being his second ulua ever, he released it after the photo was taken. What a great example for the younger generation.

Waxwing therapy

March 24, 2016 By Scott 1 Comment

The Windward side was rained out so I decided to check one of my South Shore spot’s Spring recruitment of baby fish. I brought some palu and my Waxwing rig. It felt good to go minimalistic and not have to shlep all the kayak gear.

I hadn’t thrown the Waxwing in 9 months and it took a while to tune the Curado 300EJ baitcaster properly, and crank with the right tempo. The optimal swimming speed occurs when you crank fast enough to feel the resistance of each kick. Too fast and the lure’s zig zag tightens up. Throwing in a hard crank every 3rd or 4th turn makes the lure swing out.

As I was trying to figure this all out, a small kaku hit the black/chrome Waxwing Baby in a foot of water but shook off before I could get my camera out. It felt rewarding to hook something on a piece of plastic after trolling live oama for miles and miles with few takers. A very confident lizardfish was more than happy to pose for a photo soon after.

The iao and nehu weren’t in but I did see large oama / small weke in a deep channel. They snubbed the palu so I’m thinking they were the nocturnal weke ula (red weke) variety that sleeps in suspended schools during the day and disperses to feed at night. Enlarge this photo and try to make out the slender, slightly curved fish shapes.

Bait surveillance over, I put on the bone Waxwing I marked up as an oama and walked the shoreline back to the car. Small kaku struck and missed the hook until I finally landed one for the camera. I had added a light green top and a yellow lateral line but the kakus managed to scrape most of the markings off.

Here’s what it looked like at the end of the day.

Well, it looks like predator-drawing-baitfish aren’t in yet but it was sure fun to make those Waxwing swim.

One strike in 3 hrs of paddling

March 16, 2016 By Scott 1 Comment

Monday was the only day with relatively light wind/good tide/time to fish this week. The windward side was drizzling off and on but it looked like it was clearing so I headed out on the kayak. The synthetic fiber clothing I wear shed water fairly well but it did get cold when I stopped paddling.

And paddle I did. I headed out to where I last hooked an awa awa, about a mile from the launch point. I passed over some small fish on the bottom but nothing wanted to eat my oama. Got to the area that had action before and it was holding bait and suspended fish. It still took about 10 mins before I got a strike. The fish hit, then jumped but this time it couldn’t shake the hook. Had I not seen that I would’ve hoped it was a papio by the way it took line. Instead it was a 3lb awa awa youngster that didn’t know how to pace itself. After pulling hard against a stiff drag it came up tired.

I decided to let it grow up a bit, and after taking this photo it popped off as it rubbed against the kayak. Slack line really does allow the hook to wiggle loose even when it appears the fish is hooked well.

The rain fell harder closer to land and the wind was choppy at times. Nothing else hit the oama or flat fall jig.