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Caught the kawas (kawakawa and kawalea) and nothing went to waste

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The rain squalls and wind took a break on the Windward side so I was finally able to take Terry out on his Scupper Pro to explore the deep. He had guided me on my inaugural Westside kayak outing a couple weeks before. The deepest he had previously gone on the Windward side was about 130ft and that’s where we started dropping the damashi in hopes of finding nabeta. All I could manage was a puny skinny nabeta I released. An opakapaka pup of about 8 inches came up next and I tried depressurizing it so it could go back down but it floated so I had to keep it. Then the deep water lizardfish swarmed us.

We kept going deeper in hopes of finding the opelu piles. Terry put down a lizard fish as live bait and took a big strike that managed to come off his hooks. That gave me the idea to drop down a twice frozen opelu while hunting for the bait schools and after a while my reel went off! After a spirited, jerky fight a very round kawakawa came up that had taken both hooks so far down I had to cut the leader. I brained it to calm it down, and bled it over the side until the runoff ran light pink. The kayak cockpit looked like a crime scene and took a while to wash off.

Terry headed into the shallow ledge to damashi for reef fish, and I tried to find more pelagics. Sure enough my multitasking skills tripped me up. My damashi rig snagged my bait rig and as I tried to clear the mess I wrapped the bait rig line around my rudder. So I headed into the shallows to look for Terry. I couldn’t raise him on the VHF radio even though I could hear other kayakers 2 miles away, and turns out his radio wasn’t receiving properly. I finally reached him when I was a half mile away. This drove home the point to test your safety equipment and make sure all are in proper working order. Had I needed help Terry wouldn’t have heard me and I would have had to call the Coast Guard or nearby boaters. Terry has since been in touch with the radio vendor to trouble shoot the range problem.

Terry had been catching small and medium moana on his damashi and had one out as bait. I joined him, and found good marks on the deep end of the ledge, as I drifted shallow. Small weke nono and moana climbed on but nothing big so I reset my drift and went over a better mark with bigger fish. Dropped the 60gm tungsten jig with glow spinner blade, which makes the jig look like it has a fluttering tail, and made contact with something that yanked a lot but couldn’t pull drag.

Up came a Heller’s Barracuda (kawalea or kawelea, depending how exact you want to be) that tried its darndest to either throw the jig or bite through the leader.

Nothing bit Terry’s live moana and we had been out for 5 hrs and still had a couple miles to paddle in (paddle and motor in, in my case), so we set a comfortable pace and let the trade winds help us. It was so nice not to have disorganized following seas to worry about.

The damashi bite was better than it had been the last few trips. Dunno if that was because the water had warmed or if we were just able to fish more effectively in the calm water. Some odd ball fish landed were baby kaku, small trumpet fish, baby porcupine fish and some mystery fish that busted our light leaders.

The Laurel and Hardy of Kawas

I picked up some ice on the way home and left the kawakawa and kawalea packed in a cooler over night. When I cleaned the fish the next day, they were in great condition. The kawakawa weighed 10lbs after being bled the day before, but was fat because it had eggs and a belly full of decomposing small fish of various species. One looked like an oama that hadn’t made it in from the deep yet. That’s a good sign, maybe the oama are making their way in now.

Kawakawa has a bad rap as a bloody tasting fish, but if bled well, cleaned properly and wrapped in paper towels to remove more blood, the flesh has a great consistency and more taste than small yellowfin tuna. There’s also so many usable parts. The kawakawa was shared as follows: center bone for my neighbor to deep fry, fillets with dark meat removed for a friend to eat raw, eggs for my oama buddy to palu, belly strips went into the freezer to be used as bottom fishing baits, and the bloody scraps went to my sister’s cats. I also prepped the opakapaka pup and kawalea for my neighbor to steam.

Holoholo: Summer big papio action was red hot – will it continue?

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If you haven’t been working the grounds this summer, Matthew tells you what you missed and what you can expect to happen in the next few months.

Matthew: Summer is now pretty much just a memory, and the action is unfortunately starting to slow down. I expect that we might only have a few weeks left of decent fishing before the action reverts back to levels commonly experienced during the winter months. The saving grace for the remainder of the season could be the arrival of the Oama, which still have not fully arrived inshore yet. Many are struggling to find schools of Oama and I personally only know of a few. Those few are not big schools and are not really biting too well. 

For bait fishermen, the numerous Halalu piles over the course of the last month or so have served as Papio magnets, and those fishermen have been quite successful. However, some of those piles have been netted or just left without warning. The few piles that remain are guaranteed to be crowded and not so fun to fish. Without the Halalu piles to draw in the fish, and with the Oama still being nowhere to be found, there won’t be much incentive for Papio to come inshore. Sure, there will always be a few Papio hunting for smaller reef fish and Lizardfish, but unless the Oama come in, there definitely won’t be as much action as we saw in July and the first week of August. 

In general, the fish have been dead set on biting at true dawn and true dusk, with not much action between those times. I’ve been getting the vast majority of my action from 530-630 A.M. and 630-730 P.M. Pretty much all of my trips have produced no action for the “junker” time, but then had one or two bites from a bigger fish towards the “better” time period. Unfortunately I got to experience the sting of a bunch of total whitewash trips over the last two weeks, something that didn’t happen to me during June and July, except for maybe a few times. 

I think that it is still a good idea to squeeze a few more Papio out of this season before the action goes completely dead. After all, it will take a few weeks to make the full transition to “winter fishing” again. But after the action dies down, it may be a good idea to reconsider other types of fishing. Freshwater fishing is a year-round option, as well as Oio fishing, Moi fishing (when in season), and other small game alternatives (reds, reef fish, nenue, kala). Of course, you can still fish for the straggler Papio as well.

This summer was definitely the best season that I’ve ever experienced, with several big Papio caught and many smaller ones. A few of my friends also had great success fishing for big Papio as well. Overall the year so far has provided much more action than the previous one, so perhaps this winter will hold more fish than in the past. Stay safe out there, have fun, and good luck fishing! 

Go gettum! -Matt

2021 Oama Season – *** Check for Oama updates ***

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Well the 2020 oama season was a bust, as was the nearshore fishing and life in general. Looks like the 2021 oama season hasn’t really started yet, and it’s already the middle of August.

*** Update (11/6/21): While the inshore water temp this summer was cooler than the “good” oama years, the fall water temps haven’t cooled drastically, so there’s actually new oama coming into Oahu’s north and windward beaches. Papio are still being caught off the shore too. Not sure if this is because a new La Nina started, but this not-so-cold water has extended the luke warm oama season.

*** Update (10/12/21): Still got some catchable oama if you find the right school at the right tide/time. There’s also still some papio inshore. Get chance!

*** Update (9/27/21): On Oahu, it seems that the oama didn’t go into the traditional South Shore spots as much as they normally do, and instead went up on the Eastside. There’s some papio hitting those oama, so get both while you can. The wind and water temps are dropping so we’re definitely in a Fall pattern, heading into Winter.

*** Update (9/7/21): There were reports this Labor Day Weekend of oama schools numbering in the low hundreds biting sporadically. Not sure if the papio are still inshore looking for oama, but only one way to find out.

*** Update (8/31/21): There’s a glimmer of hope! Some folks have reported catching a few tiny oama off small piles. Maybe the major wave of oama is beginning to come ashore, a month late.

*** Update (8/26/21): No schools of oama found to be biting baits yet. Not looking good for the oama season at all.

*** Update (8/17/21): The catchable oama mentioned a few days ago became less catchable and ran from the anglers. The schools haven’t really settled down yet in most places. ***

*** Update (8/14/21): A few of the traditional spots reported catchable oama this weekend. Maybe there’s hope for the season after all! ***

Here’s how the past years have gone:

  • 2014 – Normal start and stayed a little longer than expected. Arrived in late June and was mostly gone by October.  El Nino began late this year and water began to warm up.
  • 2015 – Season started late and ended late. Oama came in late July and stayed at some places past December. El Nino in full effect.
  • 2016 – Season started late and ended late. Oama came in late July and stayed through November. El Nino ended this year and water began to cool.
  • 2017 – Normal start and slightly late ending. Oama came in late June and began to leave in October, at most places. La Nina brought a lot of rain.
  • 2018 – Season started in late July, ended in the fall and wasn’t particularly long or good. La Nina was thought to have ended before the Summer and could be blamed for the late start.
  • 2019 – Season started late and fizzled. Weak La Nina effect continues to affect the fishing.
  • 2020 – Blame the La Nina? Blame the Covid pandemic crowds playing in the water? It was the worst oama and papio season in recent memory.

Sorry for the bleak prediction but it’s looking like a terrible oama season unless they come in late and strong. With NOAA’s announcement of another La Nina winter, that’s unlikely. The silver lining is the halalu piles in the traditional places that are drawing large papio in the early morning hours.

Kayak fished the Westside for the first time!

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It had been 8 weeks since my last decent catch and the wind on the South and Windward side of Oahu wasn’t letting up any time soon. I had been planning to meet up and fish with Terry, a contributor to the Hawaii kayak FB groups and a customer of the Store, and so he offered to show me his go-to Westside spot. The day was forecasted to be blowing over 12 mph everywhere else but only 8 to 12 on the lee side of the island.

I got to the spot a little after 7am, taking just 10 mins longer than it does to go to the Windward spot we had been planning to try. Terry was already setting up his Scupper Pro, which he skillfully outfitted with rod holders, fish finder, drag chute, insulated kill bag, bait tube, etc. I used to fish off a Scupper Pro and carried much less gear yet but looked more overloaded and disorganized than Terry’s setup.

The water was only slightly dimpled and the wind felt like 8 to 10mph but wasn’t impacting us at all. After a mile paddle we were at our first spot in 90ft of water. That’s a mile and a half less than the paddle to our Eastside deep spot! There were marks on the bottom that didn’t look like opelu but we dropped our damashi down to see what was around. A small moana came up for me and since Terry recently caught a 4lb uku on a moana in that general area, and I normally don’t do well with live moana, he put it on his live bait rig. I then hooked something that fought like a small papio but it shook off right before I could see what it was. Then I hooked a nice sized blue nabeta. Spoiler alert, that was the highlight of the day for me.

Terry began to get big bites on his homemade 20lb fluoro damashi rig. He had what felt like a good size papio break him off, then caught a beautiful 1.5lb weke nono.

He had been drifting around with his moana down for an hour and a half, and checked it to see if it was still intact. It was, and as he lowered it again the line took off! After an odd feeling fight he brought up a 3.5lb uku that was hooked in the mouth and in the side, thus inhibiting the way the uku could swim. We both were stoked with his action and I dropped a refrozen whole opelu down which immediately got mauled and yanked off the hooks. Felt like a small uku and I was expecting to connect with another soon.

Well, I just had my opelu baits chewed and pulled and Terry had two of his live moana steathily removed so he took me to the spot less than a mile away where he had caught his previous uku. We saw some bait marks that didn’t bite, I lost more baits including a live malu (sidespot goatfish), trolled around, jigged around, but couldn’t catch anything else.

I was super impressed with how Terry could cover the grounds without aid of pedals or motor, and fish over deep spots. He’s not exactly a spring chicken (neither am I), but showed no signs of tiring from the paddling. We both got a little stiff sitting on non-elevated kayaks seats though.

Our cars were intact with beach goers nearby and all was good. I did hit pau hana traffic on the way home and would need to leave by 2pm next time. My take of this area is that it does get fished often because the weather is favorable, but there still are reef fish inside. That’s a good sign that the fish population is healthy, but the fish weren’t big enough to swallow my hooks. That happens on the South side a lot too. Just gotta find the ledges that are holding the bigger fish.

Terry broiled the weke nono filets in a sake, vinegar, shoyu, ginger marinade. Was a bit dry but his wife said was ono. The next day they ate some of the uku as sashimi and steamed the rest Chinese style. Was winnahs! I saw my neighbor walking his dog as I was unloading my fishing gear and gave him my lonely nabeta. 🙂

Holoholo: Papio Palooza at the Old Stomping Grounds

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Big Island kayak angler Shea (IG: @shea_ue, YouTube: Affordable Wahoo) shares an incredible early morning shore whipping bite. There’s even an action packed video capturing most of the retrieves and strikes! Sounds like the papio are in, and are hungry!

Shea: My friend and I got to the grounds just at 5:15 AM, just as it was getting light enough to see the heavy offshore rains on the horizon. I was armed with my light shore casting setup: Okuma Hawaiian Custom 9’0 medium paired with a Daiwa Fuego LT 3000 spooled with 12lb Fireline braid. We were both using plastic casting bubbles and some craft fur “deceiver” patterns that I tied back in 2019. This was the first time in over a year that either of us had been to the area so we weren’t sure what to expect. The plan was to just see what was biting practice catch and release.  

It was still pretty dark when I made my first cast out over the reef’s edge. I retrieved it with my favorite pop-pause action, using short downward sweeps of the rod to chug the bubble forwards a couple feet, then reeling to pick up the slack. Something exploded on the fly just as it was passing over the drop-off about 30 feet out. After a brief but intense battle, I scrambled down the rocks to the waters edge and landed a healthy 15 inch white papio (juvenile Giant Trevally). It had inhaled my fly, but after some finagling with my pliers, I sent the fish home with a good release. A couple casts later, another smaller white papio around 9 inches long grabbed the fly way out in the deep and came in without much of a struggle. My friend landed her first fish of the day, an 8 or 9 inch omilu (Bluefin Trevally) a few minutes later. This was also her first ever papio on a fly!

We kept moving along and working the edge of the reef and it wasn’t long before I took another strike just as I was bringing my fly into some structure. This fish felt a little bigger and pulled drag as it dove over the edge and I could immediately feel the grating of my leader against rocks. Luckily, the fish decided to change direction and unpinned itself from the bottom. A couple minutes later, I was able to slide an ~16-17 inch white papio onto the rocks, work the hook out from the corner of its jaw, and nose dive it back into the water. My 8-foot 25lb test Mason soft monofilament leader was pretty scraped up, so I decided to retie.

On the very next cast, a scrappy 11 inch omilu inhaled the fly and came in pretty easily after a short run. I couldn’t believe how fired up the fish were over this fly! I had tried using it at this exact spot a few times back in early 2020, but didn’t hook anything but a few aha (needlefish). Baitfish such as halalu, sardines, and nehu are much more abundant this time of year, so perhaps that helps explain it.

The wind picked up and we decided to change up the game a bit and re-rigged with 10lb J-line fluorocarbon leader, a size 3 “aji” hook, and soft plastic glitter strips. We used the tailwind to bomb casts way out there for a half hour or so, missing a few strikes and landing a couple small lai (Doublespotted Queenfish). My friend lost the glitter strip I gave her on a cast, then found a Campania grub on the ground and landed a 9 or 10 inch omilu on it. Way to improvise!

The big lai weren’t cooperating, so I changed back to the fly and a couple casts later, had the most explosive strike of the day as a white papio almost went airborne on the lure in 3 feet of water. It did the usual strategy of diving right over the dropoff, but this time I held the rod tip as high as I could and managed to keep the line off the rocks. I think this was the largest one of the morning, somewhere around 18-19 inches long and very healthy. This fish really surprised me, as it was already 7:30 AM and I’m used to the white papio bite stopping right after sunrise. Sometimes it pays off to wake up early and just go even when it’s cold and rainy, because you never know when you’ll be in the right place at the right time!

Here’s the video capturing all the action.

Tight lines and fish responsibly everybody!

-Shea

Holoholo: Papio action is heating up!

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Matthew is back with a very timely shore fishing update.

Matthew: It’s only been a few weeks since I wrote my last post, but a lot has happened since then. Like flipping a switch, the Papio bite has turned on all of a sudden and is excellent as of now. All of my friends have caught Papio on their last trip or two and most of the time have caught more than one per trip. 

I was pretty dead set on fly fishing a few weeks ago, and landed another nice Oio which was my second on the fly rod, but then the weather report for Sunday presented some not-so-ideal weather conditions. High winds, cloud cover, and a fast rising tide would have made it extremely difficult to sight fish. I decided to go check out an old Papio spot, and was treated to a nice Papio on my very first cast. Welcome back to Papio whipping. I hooked up to three more that day but lost them all, but was still satisfied with the one Papio.

A few days later, I went Papio fishing at the same spot and was treated to the best day I’ve had whipping. I landed seven Omilu ranging from 11-15 inches, had many more spit the hook, and saw countless chases and boils. This is probably an average day for someone fishing on another island, but for two hours on Oahu, it was a “once-a-year” kind of trip.

Fly fishing was now completely tossed to the curb and I was now hooked on Papio fishing once again, my old passion. I was invited to my friend’s beach house for dinner and I figured, why not bring my pole just in case? Sure enough, I had some time and I threw a few casts at an area that I was completely unfamiliar with. As dusk approached, I was able to land my biggest Papio in a few months, which put up a great fight. 

The next Sunday, I had a chance to go with two guys I’ve been fishing with for a while now, and hit up one of the old spots. We had yet another good day. I landed a Papio and a Lai, one guy landed three Papio, and one guy lost one and had a bunch of bites. 

So, enough of that… But what about predictions? So far, this season is looking like it is going to be an above average season, and it’s been looking like it for a few weeks now. The Halalu and sardines are in a select few spots that I know of and the Oama are starting to make their appearance at some of my spots too. I’ve been seeing some Iao on the flats, which almost always means that predators will be drawn towards shallower waters. Other fishermen have been sharing similar results to our catches and have been reporting the same uptick in bait sightings. Hopefully this year will make up for last summer’s subpar action. 

In summary, the season is just starting, but if you haven’t gotten out fishing yet, now’s the chance. I’d guess that the good fishing will last until mid-August, and then by October the bite will probably be dead or at least slow again. Stock up on summer gear, stay safe, have fun, catch some fish, and I’ll catch you on the next report??

Big fish returned to the South Shore and one tried to eat my uku

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It’s been a few months since I’ve checked my “big fish” South Shore spot. The last two times the only critters present were little bait stealers. Boaters had been getting ono and mahi mahi on the troll recently so the plan was to get out, catch opelu and troll ’em up out to 300ft. Unfortunately the few bait marks didn’t bite so I paddled around with the Bixpy motor assisting me, and nothing bothered my 8″ frozen opelu. Since the water was so flat, I went out to a spot about a mile away from my normal grounds, that held tackle busting ulua in the past.

Before I reached the spot I saw some promising marks and dropped the frozen opelu down. Felt some hard pulls and something ran hard with the bait. I thought it was a small shark but it settled into a familiar jerky fight. A long, skinny uku surfaced but had some fresh wounds past its dorsal fin. Something left a 6 inch bite mark, biting down from the dorsal fin towards its tail. Maybe that’s why the fight was so intense early on. What grabbed it wasn’t that toothy since the uku wasn’t shredded, so we’re thinking big ulua.

I drifted around that area, but nothing wanted another opelu or jig. On my way back to my regular grounds something really heavy ate my opelu and didn’t want to budge. I eventually broke it off and lost the rest of my baits, including live moana, to bait stealers too small to eat my big hooks.

The uku was 22″ and only 5.5lb because it was a male that had spawned out. It was pretty busted up on the outside but luckily the bite marks didn’t enter the prime meat.

Water temp was 76.5 degrees, up from 74 degrees two months ago. That’s still a little cold for May, but on its way up to the peak temps of 84+ degrees in the summer. The big fish are back but the opelu are really hard to catch now.

Lucky damashi -> one opelu -> first kayak Kawakawa

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Frank, Guy and I were blessed with near epic weather on the Windward side. The trip didn’t start off too smoothly though. Frank and Guy ran into heavy traffic on the H2-H1 merge, and then Guy’s fish finder went on the blink. Guy also had to do an on-the-water reattachment of his Hobie inflatable ama, but got things situated.

I had heard reports of ono being caught close to shore on Oahu and really wanted another one. The only ono I ever caught was on a live opelu Robert had gifted me because I was so bad at catching my own. Here’s how that trip played out. Since Robert wasn’t with us on this trip, I figured the next best thing would be to use the damashi he made for me that I was saving for a special occasion. I “baited” the damashi with CHL Minnows in the May Day color.

My GoPro was angled too high and cut off the bottom of what I tried to capture

First drop of the damashi over scattered marks brought up an opelu! I couldn’t believe my luck, called the guys over but we couldn’t catch any more. Meanwhile Guy hooked a 3lb oio on his damashi and carefully brought it to the surface, but he had forgotten his net. The oio broke off as he tried sliding into his Compass.

Wanting to take the opelu out to the ono grounds, I zipped out with the help of the Bixpy motor. Guy joined me, landing more lizard fish and little puffers than he cared to count. Nothing bothered the opelu and it was still kicking after 2 hours.

I told Guy I wanted to head over to the deep reef where maybe an ulua might give me a yank, and was heading that way when he radio’d to say fish were busting on the surface and birds were dive bombing. I circled back to the area, didn’t get any hits and turned back to the reef when I got the strike. It started with a few yanks as the fish tried to swallow the 9 inch opelu, and then the fish took off. The runs were very strong and the weight of the fish didn’t feel heavy like sharks do, so I began to think it was a big uku. I dropped the Avet SX Raptor into low gear and pumped and cranked the fish in, hoping to see a 20lb uku. Instead I saw what looked like a small yellowfin tuna! The fish snagged the keel guard under my kayak twice and I thought I lost the fish. When it got closer to the surface I could see that it was my first kayak kawakawa. Man are those fish strong. It was making clockwise pinwheels and my first attempt at kage-ing it missed because the fish dove as it neared the yak. Two more pinwheels and I was lucky enough to get it right past the gill plate.

Sharky had splashed my GoPro lens

Guy and I tried bottom fishing with frozen opelu and he got two hard strikes that literally rocked his kayak, but both shook the single hook he had in the opelu head. He rigged a trailer after that but the mystery fish didn’t return. My opelu got taken by a sandbar shark which I winched up in low gear. I thought of unhooking the shark with pliers but decided to keep my digits and cut the leader instead.

Here’s a short video of the landing of the kawakawa.

Frank had been on a papio hunt and caught two omilu within the first hour, trolling last year’s oama. Switching to damashi, he brought up a nabeta and a yellow spot papio. With his fish bag full of great eating fish, he radio’d us to say he was safely heading in.

The kawakawa ended up weighing 9lbs. It was good training for the 25lb shibi (small yellowfin tuna) that’s hopefully in the near future.

Capt Erik and Kelly gave me tips on how to clean the kawakawa. Because I didn’t have to scale and gut it, it was actually easier than cleaning a smaller reef fish. I was shocked to find the kawakawa’s stomach stuffed with 2 fresh ika and two small opelu. And yet it tried to eat the 9 inch opelu.

I was a little leery about eating the kawakawa since I don’t like fishy tasting fish. Turns out the Hawaiian bonito could be bloody but not fishy like limu-eating reef fish, and since I bled it on the yak it wasn’t really that bloody at all. It had a firm, meaty texture and a good taste. I did get one piece that left a slight bloody after taste though, maybe I didn’t cut out the blood meat on that one.

Guy took this photo before he and his wife ate the entire plate. It definitely tasted different from ono and uku but good in its own right. Bleeding, icing, cleaning right away and wrapping in paper towel definitely keeps the flesh fresh.

Guy paid some dues on just his 3rd offshore trip and will be a better kayak fisher because of it.

Thanks to Robert for the lucky damashi, Guy for putting me on the kawakawa, Frank for spreading Aloha, and the crew for teaching me how to clean and eat fish. God has really blessed me with great fishing friends.

Damashi action for kau kau fish!

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Winds were projected to be about 8 mph on the Windward side, and a few mph higher on the South side, so Guy and I hit a Windward spot that held a lot of smaller fish in the past. Winds remained light through the morning so we went all the way out to 200ft looking for nabeta and opakapaka. Guy found a lone, big nabeta, and I ran into some very small opakapaka, and then a 9 incher; still too small to target. With that deep water check out of the way we headed into the shallow reef drop off .

On the high side of the drop off our damashi got hit by 9 to 10 inch moana, and as we drifted shallower, smaller moana and taape bit. Guy was using a damashi rig he tied himself. Lai skin, thread and beads on a #6 Maruto hook the guys at Waipahu Bicycle (Buster’s) recommended. It worked so well he didn’t need to add anything to it, and just jigged it enthusiastically off the bottom. Guy drifted further in and added two species of hagi and a nunu (trumpetfish) to his catch.

I was using an Ahi USA damashi with CHL Minnows pinned on, and caught a beautiful moana kali but it was too small to keep.

When my rig got stuck on the reef I changed to a damashi Guy had given me and added the CHL Minnows. I caught my last two moana on that and we headed in because the wind swell was getting a little dicey.

Guy’s mixed bag of fish

Guy solved the problem of the pesky moana bones by frying the fish crispy. His wife ate the deep fried nabeta before a photo could be taken.

The hagi and 1 moana were given to a friend who loves hagi. We’re gonna have to feature some hagi recipes soon!

I gave my moana to a church friend who hadn’t eaten that fish before. She cooked it “Japanese style” in a pan of water with shoyu and sugar, and found the fish tasty but tricky to eat because of the small bones. Her husband is waiting for a boneless filet of some non-fishy fish. 🙂

We were in the saddle for 6 hrs but it was a safe, fun day and Guy’s Bixpy motor on his Hobie Compass’ DIY aluminum rudder took the strain off his legs and ensured he could push in as the winds turned off shore. The bite was slow because the water was still a chilly 74 degrees but at least some fish did bite. We’re hoping the early Summer bite turns on soon.

Cold water has really slowed the inshore and nearshore fishing

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Seems like the cold water slow down is a little late this year. In 2019 and 2020, February was really cold and slow and by late March the kayak and boat fishing had picked up a bit. This year, the recent weeks of heavy rain and strong winds have been giving the fish lock jaw. Even the Penguin Banks shallow bottom fish bite has been slow. Hopefully we’re near the end of the heavy rain and wind storms and the water begins to warm. The inshore fishing has been slow since the Fall and with no bait schools around, continues to be a tough nut to crack.

To gather more data, I went out to our regular big fish / big shark spot on the South Shore and nothing big was around except a lonely gray whale that kept giving me the tail. Live moana just had their guts eaten, probably by hage, and all the frozen opelu were pulled off by predators not big enough to take the hooks. I switched to fishing the shallower fish marks with cut bait and caught brown hage and some smallish weke nono, but even that bite was very slow.

The bait the hage were throwing up did keep some 14 inch lai around me, but even they were too smart to get hooked. Water temp was 74 degrees at the start and 76 mid day. Summer temps are 10 degrees hotter than that.

At least all this rain will be good for the plants and estuaries.

Kayak fishing after heavy rain and brown water – underwater surveillance

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Finally, a small break in the rain and wind. Normally, fishing after a cold front is not too productive, but it’s been a month and a half since the last kayak outing and I was going nuts. The guys weren’t able to join me so this would be a solo expedition to learn more about the area we’ve fished the last 2 times. I brought Guy’s secret damashi bait he uses and brought my underwater GoPro rig to really see what the Garmin Echomap 44CV Plus was marking.

At about 18ft deep there were a lot of marks that looked like a scattered school of bait fish.

I lowered the GoPro and expected it to record fish spread out all over the place but instead there were these air bubbles! Is that what the fish finder has been marking? Look how murky it was.

At 100ft, I marked reef fish on the bottom and dropped the GoPro down. Very few fish showed on the video and it was still very murky that far from shore.

I’m beginning to think a lot of the marks I’m seeing on the fish finder are fish being marked more than once as they remain under the fish finder’s “cone”.

Time to fish! The baited damashi was lowered and a keeper moana came up on the first drop. It was a little too big to use for bait so I brained it with my “iki spike” and put it in the fish bag. Turns out that was the only fish I brought home. 🙁

I eventually caught a smaller moana that I put down live and nothing took it. I set that moana free with two superficial wounds and put down a frozen opelu. After a long time the bait stealers picked it apart.

On this slow day, the biggest fish landed was a table boss (a’awa) that was foul hooked in the cheek on the damashi and felt like something much better. It was shaken off and set free.

I slow trolled a frozen opelu on the way in that got picked up. Something ran for a few seconds, then dropped the opelu. A second later it got heavy and I started cranking in what felt like a 5lb weight. Then the weight released and a small tako came up! I’m thinking a fish pulled off the body of the opelu (notice that the head is left on the top hook) and the tako lunged for the head but got hooked by the rear hook. It tried to latch onto a rock and eventually dropped that rock. I was trying to figure out how I’d unhook it without it climbing all over me, but the little guy did a Spider Man swing to the side of the kayak, shook off the hook and disappeared.

Very slow day of fishing. Nothing touched the compact tungsten jig either. I think the predator fish didn’t want to deal with the murky conditions and were hunting in cleaner water.

Side Note: The little compact ExpertPower Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery I mentioned a few posts ago hardly lost any juice after the 6+ hours of fishing. It started at 13.5 V and ended with 13.0 V. Light, lasts long and was really inexpensive. Almost too good to be true. If you missed that post you can read it here.

Holoholo: Winter 2021 Shore Fishing Report

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Here’s Matthew’s much awaited shore fishing Winter round up. He’s surveyed other fishers to provide a wider coverage.

Matthew: January and the beginning of February were very consistent. It was consistently terrible. The bite was pretty much dead and the many cold days plus the cold front didn’t help the bite at all. All around the island the bite, even for bait users was slow. Like usual, the people fishing deep water got a pass this time, and were actually getting some decent fish. However, for shallow water lure users, it seemed like our attempts were being made in vain. So far in 2021 I landed only a 12” papio and a small lai for all of this year. Not exactly the start I envisioned, but hey, it’s something and I’m glad to be able to catch something. Some of the people I fish with have been getting lucky, with some occasional Papio and some smaller fish caught jigging, but nothing big. There does appear to be some good sized Papio inshore right now, and it seems like there may be very few smaller Papio inshore. The big boys may be in, and a few have come up and some more have been sighted. 

The inshore bait report is equally as bleak, with the only two Halalu/akule spots on the island being “almost year-round” spots and being very crowded. There’s no sign of Oama or that they’ll come inshore anytime soon. There is a small sardine pile at a spot that I fish but nothing too significant. Nehu don’t appear to be lining the shorelines along the flats and I haven’t spotted any bait on the flats, period. Many times the people I fish with and I have gone trips without getting bites these past few months. 

There is hope though, and this past weekend shone some light on the darkness. There was a very good-sized Omilu that came up and there was decent action at a dropoff that me and some friends fished. Strangely there were a lot of bigger Kaku present as well. Around the island there were some nice catches this weekend, but as much as I would like to see it as some new hope, I’m not going to assume anything. 

The bite appears to be very dead right now, and it’s a great time to try to change things up and throw the fish a curveball. Go fish a dropoff, or try for Oio. Try freshwater fishing, ultralight fishing, scale down your lure size, or do whatever you feel will attract more bites. Do anything but give up. Remember, even when the bite is bad, you have a greater chance of catching a fish when you’re fishing than sulking about the crappy bite at home. 

If you’re one of those people who use bait, it may be a good idea to try to catch small reef fish and tow them slowly behind a bubble float. Perhaps a small Hinalea dragged around at a dropoff would produce some good fish. If you know a halalu spot, maybe go try catch some and fry them up. If you can throw them out alive (don’t tangle others up of course), then do it. Another good idea may be to use light tackle and drag shrimp or grubs at a sandy area, targeting weke, oio, smaller papio, and anything that bites.

I and many others agree that this is the worst winter that they have seen in a long time, if not ever, and there may be some contributing factors to it. 

Some Theories:

  1. Increased number of “catch-to-eat” anglers during COVID
  2. Unfavorable weather patterns last year
  3. Cold water temperatures
  4. “Spot Burning”, often caused when someone with a large following posts a video or picture obviously depicting a known spot
  5. Lack of education about rules and regulations amongst new anglers, leading to many undersized fish being kept, bag limits being exceeded, and aquatic life being taken out of season

Whatever the reason may be for such a bad winter, it is bad and that is a known fact. There is a light at the end of the tunnel though, and we should be seeing a rise in action pretty soon. And like stated earlier, you have a better chance of catching fish at the ocean than at home. Good luck to all, and see you on the next report??.

Rain offshore made for dangerous kayak conditions

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On the day before a cold front/rain event was due, the forecast for the South shore was 9 mph south wind with gusts up to 15 mph, and rain falling in the mid afternoon. Thinking we would be back on shore by 2pm, Frank, Guy and I headed out for a return trip to the spot that yielded uku on live moana.

We could feel the onshore south wind as we left the protection of the land mass. It was a little bumpy with a lot of current 2 miles out, but still fishable. The drift was much faster than the last time we were here, so it was hard to stay over the reef fish spots, and I could only manage a small nabeta early on. Frank was feeling the rock and roll of his kayak so he went on water safety patrol for us.

Guy, fishing his first time in choppy conditions, was on fire, landing two good sized nabeta and some brown hagi that a friend from Japan wanted to eat.

Even though the rain clouds were a couple miles further offshore from us, the conditions deteriorated sooner than expected and we decided to head into the shallows to wait for the rain to pass. Frank’s Hobie Revolution 13 with a 28.5″ width and raised seat was really rolling in the “following sea” (disorganized waves pushing us from behind as we headed in). My Ocean Kayak Trident Ultra 4.3, with a 29″ width and lower seat felt more secure but there were times I had to put my feet in the water to stabilize. Guy’s Hobie Compass with 34″ width and raised seat was the most stable but still felt dicey if a wave caught him from the side.

Guy, in the safety of calmer water

When we got to the safety of shallower water, the rough conditions had passed but we decided to call it a day anyway. It was a valuable experience to be aware when the weather conditions were turning dangerous, and to learn how to brace and correct in following seas. I’ve since read that some Hobie paddlers recommend putting the fins up against the side of the hull, and paddling in very rough following seas because the fins could be hit from the side if deployed, and turn the boat broadside into a wave. Sitting as low as possible and paddling lowers the center of gravity.

It was good to see some hagi removed from the reef. Although it requires more tedious prep, some people like the taste of the triggerfish. Guy was using a secret bait which he offered to us on the water but we declined. We’ll definitely be taking it next time since he said he also had a big strike break off his line, and brought up the head of a moana. In comparison, it was super slow fishing with just soft plastics on the damashi. I’m thinking the incoming storm was giving the fish sinus headaches like it does to me.

These nabeta were deep fried and greatly appreciated by Guy’s family.

Uku ate live moana so the fresh opelu was taken home to fry!

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Wind was light and the South Shore was the safest bet as a mega North swell was pushing through. To give our main spot a rest, Frank and I checked out an area we hadn’t fished in more than two years.

For 4 hours we dropped damashi rigs, jigged lures and trolled fresh, store -bought opelu. The only action was a small fish that hit the 100gm tungsten jig but unbuttoned on the way up. Out of desperation we baited the damashi hooks with a bit of opelu skin and then it was instant hagi with some moana mixed in.

Frank dropped down a “moose” moana that got pulled off his hooks and so I reluctantly baited up with a smaller moana. I’ve been told that moana is “uku candy” but I’ve never caught any uku on the red and black, chubby goatfish and was just using the moana as a “bonus line”. We were drifting out to deeper water and I was trying to catch better fish on the baited damashi. 5 minutes later, my moana bait got tugged, pulled in short spurts and dropped. A few seconds later it got picked up again and something surged for the bottom, then fought in a jerky, spastic way. The fish pulled hard but was stopped with a pretty tight drag so I began to get hopeful despite the fact that we had never caught any uku in this area before.

A good sized uku surfaced, a bit smaller than the PB uku last time. I netted and spiked it in the brain, so I’d avoid batting my new Garmin 44CV Plus fish finder.

While its heart was still beating, I pulled the gills and hung it over the side to bleed. Frank quickly caught another moana, put it down and began to pedal to where I got my strike but his moana was hit instantly. After a spirited, jerky fight, he landed his first uku ever! When he pulled the gills of his fish, the guts came out so he didn’t have to gut it on land.

The bite was on, and I put a small deep water lizardfish down that got pulled off while I had to take a phone call. Doh… Then we tried frantically to catch more fish to bait up but the offshore winds suddenly picked up and we had to scramble in.

Since Frank kept his opelu on ice instead of using it as bait, he enjoyed a fried opelu lunch following his delicious steamed uku dinner.

My uku ended up measuring 24″ (FL) and weighing 7lb. Interesting that my biggest two uku were caught this winter when uku is supposed most prevalent in the summer.

It had the milky white, creamy stuff that the previous big uku had. Coach Haru said that its semen, and is a delicacy in Japan. Maybe next time an adventurous eater might want to try frying that. I cut up the fish and shared with friends.

I’m stoked to know that uku do eat live reef fish, and will ration the expensive opelu. Frozen opelu gets quickly chipped away by hagi whereas a live fish normally can avoid the piranhas of the reef.

Holoholo: Winter shore fishing report

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If you weren’t sure how the shore fishing has been this winter, Matthew breaks it down for you.

Matthew:

Winter is usually the worst time of the year for shorefishing; this year was no exception. Throughout the months of November, December, and now early January, the only thing that was consistent was the scarcity of Papio. I must have gone something like 0 for 20 in terms of Papio in fishing trips. I did manage to catch two nice sized Awa’awa as a nice bycatch, but the Papio were no where to be found. While the Papio have not been in, the Awa’awa have been making an appearance and my friends as well as I have been hooking a few recently. 

Many different spots at different times were tried, but all proved to be equally as bad. Some of my friends and I would sometimes even go many trips without a single bite. In December I went seven trips in a row (3-4hr whipping sessions) without a single tug or boil. Many of the Papio I have seen caught on social media have been caught with some sort of bait, most caught dunking. However, for most of the time I use strictly lures so that is not an option for me. If you have the chance to, I would probably say go for dunking with Tako, Ika, or leftover baitfish.

I tried a few different types of fishing to try to catch any fish at all, and it worked to a certain degree. I tried shore jigging in deep water, bass fishing in streams, Oio fishing, and ultralight whipping. The bass fishing worked the best and I ended up with a nice 14” smallmouth that turned out to be my new PB. For mainland fishermen, a 14 inch bass is considered big here since our streams are shallow and narrow. While fishing with topwater lures for bass may not be the most effective way to catch them, it surely is the most exciting. Seeing a bass inhale your topwater lure while jumping in the air is pretty exciting to most sport fishermen. 

Shore jigging has been popular in the winter because of the low numbers of fish in the shallows. Even though the shallows have been dead, Uku, Goatfish (Moana, Moana Kali, Weke nono, etc…), Kawakawa, and Shibi have been showing up at some shore jigging spots recently. Jigging is a very effective way to fish during the winter but it is also very taxing. A shore jigger should expect to lose many jigs in a month, sometimes even losing up to eight per trip. When you consider the average price of a jig, which is around nine or ten dollars, the losses start adding up very quickly. A lot of the times, when you break your line after getting stuck, you lose some of your braid mainline as well. This means you have to respool your reel more frequently, and braid is not cheap. While it is taxing financially, the reward can be very high, especially when you catch prized fish such as Uku or Moana Kali (although I haven’t yet).

The temperature has also been noticeably colder in the past month, both in the air and in the water. Sometimes when I’m out there early for dawn patrol, I start to question if it’s really a good idea, especially if it’s raining and a little gusty. The water temperature has also been more cold, which may possibly be the reason the Papio are nowhere to be found. 

In summary, the low numbers of success in catching Papio may suggest that it is a good time to fish for other species and other types of water. Perhaps you should take up Jigging, Bass fishing, Ultralight fishing, or Oio fishing, unless you’re as stubborn as I am, and want to continue pressing to catch a Papio. Good luck to you all, and stay safe???

The big fish are back and I caught a very expensive PB uku!

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The opelu, uku and sharks were missing on the South Shore during the Fall, and an early Winter check was due. The wind was down and swell was just slightly lumpy going out. A lot of reef fish showed on my 3 yr old Garmin Echomap 44CV fish finder but nothing bit the damashi. The magic tungsten jig wasn’t touched either.

I headed to my go-to bottom fishing spot and was shocked to see a small boat sitting there! How’d they know about my secret spot? 😉

As the boat drifted inshore I took my place behind it, dropped down and had 4 inches of my 9 inch frozen opelu’s tail bitten off. That was an improvement on the previous trips. I reset my drift, with the help of the Bixpy motor, and dropped another opelu down. Tap, tap, line pulled off the reel, then nothing. I reeled up a bit and felt the resistance of the opelu still on, so I put the Avet SX Raptor back in light drag with clicker on and hoped the fish would come back. 5 seconds later, tap, tap, zzzzzzzzzzz… Fish on! It ran so strongly I thought it was a small shark and was stoked when it stopped and didn’t feel heavy like sharks do. Then I felt the tell tale strum of an uku’s teeth on the leader, but this one felt bigger than any other I had fought. I’ve lost previous good sized uku to sharks so I was trying to land it as quick as possible but also being careful not to pull the hook.

When it surfaced, it was my personal best and I could see that the rear hook was 4 inches deep in its mouth. It did a clockwise spiral and the homemade kage, my partner Frank had made, found its mark.

With the fish still on the kage, I tried clubbing it with a small Promar bat to ensure it wouldn’t squirm when I stuffed it in a fish bag behind my seat. Problem was I had to swing backhand with my right hand and I clipped my fish finder! The screen shattered revealing a hole. In hindsight I should have secured the landed fish with my small gaff, and then move it to an area I could safely subdue it. Arrgggh!

The sad thing is that my extended warranty with West Marine ended last month. Had this happened before my warranty lapsed, I could get credit for a newer version. The fish finder worked for a while and I could see bait balls and a school of big preds under me. Then salt water seeped in the hole in the screen and shorted out the circuitry. With a rolling south swell building it was time to head in.

I put another opelu on, started trolling at about 2.5mph. A shark hit that and pulled me back out a ways before the main line parted.

The uku taped out at 26″, nose to fork, and weighed 9lb 4oz. My previous best was 6lb so this fish was quite a step up for me. It was filled with that waxy, fatty gonad stuff and the flesh was really oily, almost like how hamachi tastes. Perfect timing for some family New Year’s meals.

The distinctive opelu bait marks, uku and shark strikes tell me that the circle of life has returned to the South Shore. I have to buy a new Garmin Echomap before going out again, and will need to re-mark all the spots I lost. Very expensive uku indeed.

Holoholo: First mahi ever!

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Middle schooler Hunter has gone from shore fisher to diver and now boater in just a couple of years. He shares his first mahi mahi experience.

Hunter:

It was a calm light wind day and I had high hopes of what the ocean would provide on this beautiful morning. Me and my dad headed out to the east side to do some diving and fishing. The boat ramp was packed but luckily we found a stall quickly. Heading out we admired the glassy water and we watched it turn from a harbor green to a deep dark blue.

We dropped down our jigs in 300ft of water and waited for it to hit the bottom. As soon as I closed my bail and stated reeling I immediately get weight on my line. I watched in amazement as I brought up a baby opakapaka. It was a bit small but since we were so deep the fish had pressurized on the way up so we would either keep it or throw it back to let it die. We decided to keep it to experience a small opakapaka’s taste.

We kept jigging and sending down ika and catching larger and smaller opakapaka. Luckily we were able to release most of the smaller ones as they had not “thrown up their stomachs”, and swam away totally fine. An hour went by and I was reeling up an opakapaka. It reached the surface but suddenly fell off the hook. It had died on the way up so we started trying to grab it and swing our boat around when suddenly we heard a splash and saw our opakapaka was no longer there. Assuming it had come back to life we moved on but as I looked away I saw the vibrant blue flash of a school of mahimahi.

With my heart and mind racing I quickly threw out a Yozuri Crystal Minnow. First cast, only 3 followers which didn’t dare to bite the lure. Second cast the whole school was trailing my lure. Finally on the third cast a big splash covered my lure and my reel started screaming like I’ve never heard it scream before. I was on.

It was an effortless fight to say the least. It may have run fast but it had tired out faster than any other fish I’ve seen. We had no gaff so we three pronged it in the head.

After securing the fish we headed in calling it a day not having enough ice to keep the fish fresh. We took it home and filleted it. I am looking forward to enjoying this fish!

Holoholo: Birthday Ulua Outing

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High school writer Matthew no longer needs an introduction as he is our most prolific guest poster. Check out the onshore and nearshore action he experienced in just the span of a few hours.

Matthew:

My birthday was coming up so I booked a trip with Captain Chris Wright (IG – @alohafishinghawaii) to hopefully get on some Uluas plugging and some Oio on the flats. When the day arrived, we got on the boat at 630 and headed out to his Papio spot to warm up for the plugging. I started off with a modified bubble that had a popper lip epoxied on it, made by Frank. It had really good action and I had no doubt it would attract fish. As we got out to the spot, we started casting and I started to get chases from Papio. Unfortunately, the modified bubble did its job too well and the Papio wouldn’t even look at the fly, all they wanted was the bubble. We could see splashes attacking the bubble but not going for the fly. As we got out further, I got a big explosion from a big Papio, but like the others, it wanted the bubble and not the fly. I reeled it in and saw some teeth marks that had punctured the bubble. 

I switched to a popper that Captain Chris had rigged up and started casting that. Within a few casts, I hooked up to a nice 3-4 lb white Papio and fought it to the boat. It was nice to finally feel some weight on the pole. We released it and with the next drift, I hooked up to another similar sized Papio. Same process, fight, catch, and release. 

After, we started drifting out to the deep to try and catch an ulua. I switched to his heavy plugging setup and started casting a big surface skipping iron that he had. We casted that for around an hour and a half without any strikes, so we headed inshore to target some smaller Papio with the light tackle (kastmasters, grubs, small flies). We were fishing along the edge of a reef that looked pretty fishy, and pretty quickly we were getting bites. 

We landed a few 10-13” range Omilu before we were reaching the end of the reef. All of a sudden, the baby turtle that was cruising next to our boat crash dove and swam away. The reef fish on the reef scattered and hid. We were wondering what happened, but then a few seconds later we saw three black shapes passing under the boat. They passed less than five feet away from the boat in crystal clear six foot deep water. They were big Omilu Uluas that we estimated to be upwards of 20 pounds. Of course, we made a cast toward them, but they weren’t interested in something as small as my 1/8th ounce kastmaster I had on. 

We headed even more inshore to the flats to hunt for bait, which in this case, small crabs were the bait of choice. We scoop netted around 15 small “blue pincher” crabs and headed out to catch some Oio. Captain Chris hooked us up with a smaller setup that was meant to be used to sightcast tailing Oio. He instructed us to cast ten feet in front of any Oio we saw. 

Unfortunately, we didn’t see any oio so he told us to cast over the dropoff and slow drag the crabs. On the first cast, I felt something subtly tapping on the crab that I assumed was an Oio (I had never hooked an Oio over 14” before since I don’t target them). I opened the bail and let it eat it. After a few seconds, I reeled up the slack and set the hook hard. What happened next was something I had only seen on videos before, but never experienced in person. The oio took off on a blistering run that had the reel spinning faster than I had seen before, even faster than a big Papio. The oio made a high speed run for around 30 seconds before it stopped. I started to gain some line but the Oio made a second run, this time toward a barnacle-crusted buoy. I ran at full speed to try and get to where it was, keeping the rod high at the same time. Fortunately it never made it there and we were able to fight it safely. After a few more smaller runs, we had landed it. We took some pictures and released it. 

We ate lunch on the flats and then decided to go for Uluas again. We headed out to his first spot and casted for a while with an orange popper. We didn’t get any bites after around an hour, so we headed to his other spot with only 45 minutes left before we had to head in. I started working his popper, and after 15 minutes of casting, the popper was tossed into the air over a flurry of whitewater. We could see an Ulua’s tail heading back down into the depths. I kept retrieving the popper and a few seconds later, it came back and demolished the popper again. I set the hook a few times and it started barreling towards the depths with so much power it knocked me off my feet. I stood back up and started trying to boost it but it was already over. It had cut the line in the reef. I was completely humbled by the immense strength of the fish. We were all bummed but it was a great learning experience, as I now knew how much strength I had to give to keep the Ulua from reaching the reef. Little did I know, I would need to boost an Ulua up sooner than expected.

Captain Chris rigged me up with an even bigger popper and on the very next cast, I could see a huge black shape following the popper in. It hit it once but missed, and it disappeared. I kept working the popper and a few seconds later, just 15 feet from the boat it came out of nowhere and completely obliterated the popper. I set the hook hard a few times before planting my feet against a cooler for leverage. Knowing what happened to the last Ulua, I started boosting it even before it stopped running. I’d never tried to stop a fish before it stopped its first run, but in that case it was necessary. As soon as it stopped running, I kept boosting it as Captain Chris started moving the boat towards deeper water. The Ulua took a second run that I stopped pretty quickly. After, the Ulua stubbornly resisted, but after a while, it came to the surface and Captain Chris was able to grab it by the tail. 

Captain Chris and my Dad were cheering for me but I was either too exhausted or shocked to say much. It was by far the biggest fish I had caught whipping. We took pictures of it but it wasn’t too thrilled about that and whacked me hard with its tail, leaving a wound I didn’t even notice until I got home. We released the fish and we headed back into the harbor. 

Many mahalos to Captain Chris for making my birthday a memorable one and for putting us onto the fish with expert tips. It was something that I will never forget. I would highly recommend Captain Chris @alohafishinghawaii to anyone that is looking to fish saltwater in Hawaii. 

On a side note, the shorefishing bite has significantly slowed in the past month, a few papios coming up in late october to early november, but only one Papio coming up in the last few weeks (at least for me). Out of the five trips I went on recently, I landed a 12” papio and a good sized Awaawa. It does seem like the Awaawa are moving inshore for the winter, as I have hooked quite a few in November as well as my friends. Good luck to all of you in this slow winter season!

Composite Fall fishing report , zero to 350ft!

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If you were wondering if things improved after the lousy summer season, here’s the Team report from shoreline to boat:

Jeremy, flats whipper and fly fisher: After a really slow summer, I had high hopes for good action in September, as it’s been a prime month year after year. This year was no exception. Papio and o’io bites were good, along with the opening of moi season, accounted for my best month so far this year. But as we neared the ending of October, action has died down quite a bit. With winter approaching, catch numbers will drop, so it wasn’t unexpected that bites have dropped, but it still disappointing when you go home whitewashed sometimes, LOL. How has everyone else fared this fall?

Matthew, shoreline whipper and fly maker: It’s been a very slow September-October for me, months that in previous years have been great for me. The fishing has been very inconsistent (at least on my part), and I wasn’t able to find any pattern (tides or conditions) in the few catches I made except for “right place at the right time”. 

Since I am a fly tyer that is eager to test my new colors, I have been strictly whipping with bubble + fly at a few spots. The Papio bite has been odd this year, ending earlier than normal. Being on the south shore of Oahu definitely doesn’t make the bite any better, but perhaps other sides of the island are seeing similar trends, just less drastic. However, a bunch are still out there, and if you’re lucky, you may be able to catch one. I was able to pick off a few Papio at one of my spots, most of them in the early morning. The only thing similar with all of the catches is that they were caught on smaller flies, around ¾” shorter than my normal flies (a significant amount for a fly). Perhaps the Papio are keying in on smaller, easier to catch prey? The colors that worked for me this month the most were Oama and Hinalea patterned flies, to match the most common baitfish at my spot. One of the Papio that I was forced to keep because it swallowed the fly had a hinalea the exact size of my fly and a small manini in the stomach. 

I have been seeing less activity in the water, such as baitfish fleeing from a predator, less schools of baitfish along the shoreline, and less follows and boils on my flies. It could mean the bite is turning cold, but it’s no reason to give up. 

It may be a good time to focus on other types of fishing, such as fishing for “easier to catch” edible fish, such as Moana, Toau, Taape, or Weke. Kaku fishing on the flats with topwater lures is a fun, year-round event that I enjoy, but not something I’ll turn to yet. Oio fishing on the flats has also been inconsistent, with some of the guys getting great results one day, with nothing the next. While the fishing may be slow, I’ll keep plugging away at my spots until I catch something. For all of you like-minded whippers, keep at it, the time will come soon. 

Dino: “Well, another whitewash morning” I say to Thad as we walk back to our cars. This is a saying that was becoming more and more common during the peak summer months. I didn’t know what was going going on? Corona virus perhaps? Cutting my nails at night? Who knows…

Things changed as October arrived. I started picking up some small paps here and there. Noting to write home about, but hey at least I was getting some kind of action. I mainly fish town and north shore for the most part. Action was good at the north shore spots where the Halalu were coming in. Good sized Lai were caught and friends picking some nice sized awa’awa. I’m primarily a whipper these days. Hardly ever using bait anymore. That being said, bubble fly is my main technique. Picked up a nice sized omilu on the town side during a dawn patrol session, weighing 4 pounds. The sun was barey coming up when it hit. The Kanakē fly by my good friend Jourdan Kua’ana of Lawai’a Flies has been really productive for me. It’s what I was using when the 4 pounder hit.

October has been pretty good considering the peak summer months has been really slow for me.

Be safe, have fun!

Jason, fly fisher and on-the-water reporter: It’s certainly been a Fall (and year) like no other.  Looking back at my logs, I see that I’ve hooked at least one bone on all 4 of my fall trips, and friends have also been consistently hooking fish. 

I will note that I have seen far fewer bonefish in shallow this year – a direct result, I believe, of the pandemic-spurred increase in nearshore ocean activity.  I have also heard that other flats around the island have been a bit slow this year, but suspect these reports are coming from hardened sight-fishermen who simply aren’t seeing as many fish.  

I personally believe the fish are still around, they’re just staying farther from shore, or are hanging out in the deeper channels of the flat where they feel safe from the swimmers, SUP boarders, spearfishermen, whippers, fly fishermen, throw netters, windsurers, kite boarders, foil boarders…. well you get the picture!  It’s a “circus” out there, as my friend Rich likes to say, haha.   If you can come away with a fish, you definitely beat the odds.  Either that, or fish the weekdays (might as well, you can’t really go anywhere for vacation this year).  I personally enjoy blind casting for bonefish with my two-handed rods, so I am pretty well-adapted to catching bonefish that don’t want to be seen.

Another thing I’ve noticed, is there seems to be fewer reef fish in general on the flats, and the oama have never really made an appearance (at least in these parts).  I am not sure if this is also related to the general increase in activity, or maybe just an increase in folks harvesting them (legally and illegally).  I know there’s got to be more of that going on this year, thanks in part to our current economic conditions.

My suspicion is that things will begin to fall off soon (pun intended), but for now, I’ll keep shooting until I miss! 

Kelly, SUP inshore troller: Fishing has been slow, mo betta go surf!

Scott, offshore kayak fisher: Fall is normally a great time to offshore fish because there are more light wind days, the water temp cools a bit, inviting pelagics to come closer to shore again, and opelu become more catchable than they are in the summer. But recently, the kayak hammahs have been reporting slow pelagic fishing despite catching a tank full of opelu. My uku spots have only held bait stealers. Not sure where the bigger fish moved to. Bottom fishing for goats and nabeta is still productive, and the big jacks are still willing to take jigs. Hope the target fish are targetable soon!

Erik, small boat fisher: Nearshore bite has been good for us this season.  As the winds died down and the seas calmed, it presented more opportunities to fish.  Calm nights have brought a good menpachi/aweoweo bite in late September and akule bite was good earlier October with larger size akule showing up.  Bigger schools of opelu have also been seen and caught and the better bite times are at dawn and dusk.  Pelagics are seen more regularly closer to shore and ono and mahi are coming in to feed on the bait.  We’ve not had to go further than 350′ for the ono and mahi, and live-baiting seems to be the best way to get them.  We’ve gotten all the pelagics on lures so far and plungers/slant-faced along with deep-diving lures are what’s been working for us. 

Holoholo: After work and school grocery run

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Capt Erik shares how his plan came together, in this heart warming tale of 3 generations fishing together on their “new to them” 17ft Boston Whaler Montauk.

Capt Erik: Sometimes I feel like I’m crossing the line of exposing, experiencing, & sharing time with my oldest son into indoctrinating him into becoming someone who loves fishing. Which is why I choose to limit the amount of time we’re out trolling so that he doesn’t become bored or feel like I forced him. I balance his ocean loves (swimming, snorkeling & most: night torching) with some trolling & whipping. This fishing trip was AWEsome.

I decided that we would do an evening troll after work for a couple hours since I had a longer work week & needed to get out the oldest son out of the house to break away from the distance learning schedule. The bonus was that dad was able to go with us. The plan was to blast straight out to an area that I heard was biting & see if we could get something on the way in. 3 hours max to make it in before sunset, park boat at home and I’d wash it in the morning before I head to work. We headed out from the pier & my son took his favorite place at the bow and hemo’d his shirt before we took the boat off the trailer. I saw some rain squalls 10 minutes out & told him to put his rain jacket on just in case. He must’ve been tired from standing on the bow & bracing himself because he laid on the seat to nap. Since we were slowed for him to don his rain gear and we saw some birds diving & circling already I looked at the fish finder and noticed opelu schools.

“Dad we go put em out already?” I asked. “Yup!” Dad responded. As my son caught some ? not even 5 minutes into the lines hitting water the starboard line starts going ZzzzZzzzZzzZ. Dad takes the wheel, I try waking my son up but he’s in a deep sleep & start bringing in the center longline. Wind squall is starting & the cold air-drizzles begin. Fish is still on while I pull the center line lure in & decide to leave the port side lure out. Cranking in the fish I see an ono thrash on the port side line ? & after another quick jerk of its body it’s free. I get the ono to the boat & realize the one treble hook it’s hooked on the outside of its mouth & the fish still has some life left. No time to waste “Husssss” gaffed right in body.

I tried waking my son gently but let him rest as the rain was now consistent. 1 on the boat within 30 minutes of launching. Dad and I did a big circle to try and let the rain pass knowing we’d be following it if we turned around and went straight back in. My son woke a little while after and was surprised to see the fish. He was still groggy and the rain squall wasn’t moving so we decided to rush em in. We got pelted by rain and it was so thick at one point the gps couldn’t connect to the satellite. The heavy white-out rain only lasted a minute and through it all not one peep from my son. No complaining , not scared and just sitting there watching me and his Papa laugh at the situation. Of course the calm came after the rain and it was a beautiful and little chilly drive into the bay. Had plenty time to wash at pier and head home to let my youngest play with the fish and take pics.

And when we got home my oldest told everyone “WE caught a big fish.” I loved hearing that. He may not have seen the fight but he was onboard and still felt a part of the catch. He was the good luck charm!

da_satosWe have the exact same mentality and approach for our daughters.1 likeReply

fishoahuI tried waking my son gently but let him rest as the rain was now consistent. 1 on the boat within 30 minutes of launching. Dad and I did a big circle to try and let the rain pass knowing we’d be following it if we turned around and went straight back in. My son woke a little while after and was surprised to see the fish. He was still groggy and the rain squall wasn’t moving so we decided to rush em in. We got pelted by rain and it was so thick at one point the gps couldn’t connect to the satellite. The heavy white-out rain only lasted a minute and through it all not one peep from my son. No complaining , not scared and just sitting there watching me and his Papa laugh at the situation. Of course the calm came after the rain and it was a beautiful and little chilly drive into the bay. Had plenty time to wash at pier and head home to let my youngest play with the fish and take pics.