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

December 31, 2020 By Scott 5 Comments

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!

December 27, 2020 By Scott 1 Comment

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

December 19, 2020 By Scott 7 Comments

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!

October 31, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

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

October 29, 2020 By Scott 3 Comments

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!

Holoholo: Shibi on the rocks caught on homemade damashi!

October 23, 2020 By Scott 14 Comments

First time Holoholo writer Krystal with a heart warming story of an incredible catch.

Krystal: Hi, I’m on the Big Island. As a kid, my dad would take me fishing and I loved it. After he suddenly passed when I was 12, I never went fishing again. Having a health scare of my own towards the end of 2016 with a diagnosis of leukemia, life had taken on a new meaning. In January 2019, I made up my mind to do what I love. My own three kiddos were older now and I was managing my health better. Going holoholo has been my therapy. I hope to share a few of my stories with you along the way.

It all started with the invite to The Rock.

I’ve heard the name Suicide Rock thrown around by fishermen over the years but never knew where it was exactly or why it was so “famous,” if that’s even the word to use. As a novice fisherwoman, I knew it was hard to get that spot and didn’t want to skip on this potential once in a lifetime opportunity.

I had just broken the largest eye of my dunk pole a couple days before the invite and asked my brother to borrow his. The day right before our trip my husband came home with a surprise. He had just come back from visiting our landlady who had been going through her late husband’s possessions. My husband opened our car trunk to reveal about a dozen rods and reels! They were all old school, mostly medium-heavy dunk poles, just what I needed! I selected an 11 ft Ugly Stik to take on the trip and gave my brother back his dunk pole.

I had found one of my late father’s old conventional reels in our storage. Nothing special, a very old Eagle Claw brand reel with a line winder. I had never used a conventional reel before but wanted something that could hold more line than my biggest reel (a Penn Passion 5000). The guys I fish with like to use drones to take their jigs 400+ yards out and I could never get that close even with my biggest spinner.

I took apart the conventional, cleaned it, greased it and spooled on as much 50lb braid as I could on there. I wasn’t gonna jig with it, just slow retrieve a damashi with bait. I figured that this reel paired with the Ugly Stik was gonna be just fine for what I wanted, little did I know how it would turn out.

Fast forward to our trip. Suicide Rock was everything I imagined it to be, a rock out from the rest of the land that you need to time with the waves to get to. Water surges between the main land and the rock and also comes over the entire rock itself at times. Not for the faint of heart. I planned to leave the rock for the guys and stick to the safer part of the spot we were fishing.

It was near sunset on our 2nd day and I decided to give my setup a try. My friend had just tied up a few damashi rigs and gave one to me but now, it was nowhere to be found! I decided to take it into my own hands and tie one myself. I grabbed the biggest line I had: 40lb mono. A spool of line I found under the house I’m renting. It belonged to my late landlord. I looked through my tackle and picked up the size 16 BKN hooks thinking they were a decent size.

I began to tie a hook on with a snell knot, or what I think is a snell knot but couldn’t remember which way the line was supposed to wrap around. I ended up doing it backwards. I should have started with the bottom hook not the top one of the damashi line. Oh well. I looked at the bottom hook of the chain of 3 I just tied and didn’t trust the snell would hold. I managed to finagle a sort of clinch knot on top of it to give myself extra assurance and kept the tag a little longer than I normally would just in case the knot slipped a bit (little did I know).

My friend sent my damashi out into the sky and woops! It dropped pretty close to shore. There was a knot in my reel that caused it to stop unexpectedly. Unable to get the knot out, I reluctantly reeled my damashi back in so it wouldn’t snag the bottom. On the 2nd attempted drop, the bait on my bottom hook came off (I was using dead halalu pieces). Another friend decided to add a whole piece of frozen shrimp on the bottom hook as well as a small piece to the middle hook. It looked ridiculous going out on the 3rd attempted drop. My friend said he’d drone out really slowly this time. We found the knot in my reel and managed to get it out! This time the damashi went really far.

We let it sink maybe 20 seconds or so and I slowly began to retrieve. Everyone began to go about their own when I suddenly got stuck. I reeled a bit harder and wait, was this a fish? Everyone began to notice the struggle I had and shouted “Krystal’s on!”

Whatever was on my line was really heavy and every few minutes it would run and undo all the line I just managed to reel in. My left forearm was on fire as I got the fish closer to land but the guys said it was going way to the right — right to Suicide Rock! They said I had to go out there to land it. I slowly walked my way over the lava rocks, with all the guys right by my side guiding me and coaching me the whole way. They had to clear my line of the ulua poles they had out on the rock. The fish went right, then left, then right again. Finally they could see that I wouldn’t be able to land it from where I wanted as it was rubbing the ledge and getting stuck. They took my pole from me and braved Suicide Rock to fight the fish so I could remain safe on the main land.

The waves were washing all over the rock as they tried to land the fish. They had to get it unstuck from the ledge a few times and one of my friends nearly ended up in the water. When he saw the fish come up in the whitewash he reached down to grab it with the gaff and it stuck! Chee hoo! It was an 8.9 lb shibi (ahi under 100lb).

I never thought that a shibi would be the fish I’d catch with a damashi. Let alone my very first damashi I had ever tied and on frozen shrimp! Everything came together in an almost surreal way. A trip of a lifetime equaled to a fish of a lifetime.

Fishing day after full moon, super calm conditions, how do you think we did?

October 5, 2020 By Scott 9 Comments

The night before had clear skies and a bright, full moon. The next day had very light kona winds but big surf except for the South Shore so Frank and I returned to our regular spot. We planned a late start because the tide was gonna bottom out at about 10am and sure enough nothing bit until the tide began to move.

Fish could be coaxed to take our frozen opelu chunks but because they had fed the night before, they grabbed between the two hooks and stripped the baits. Thankfully the sharks were smaller than normal and chewed through the leader quickly instead of getting hooked in the corner of their mouth and dragging me around.

It was so slow that our highlight catches were a whopper nabeta Frank caught on his bottom fish rig baited with opelu chunks, and an 11 inch omilu that hit my damashi tipped with opelu skin. I’ve never caught so many omilu in the deep before and released it so it could swim close to shore and give my shore fishing buddies some action. 🙂

Was a great day to paddle around, but the full moon and calm water surface had the fish taking naps. Dark skies the night before and some chop on the water seem to be the best conditions for kayak fishing.

Small tungsten jig outfished bait and a normal jig!

October 1, 2020 By Scott 9 Comments

We were blessed with light wind this week so I was out on the windward side again, working on my damashi skills and doing more tungsten jig testing. Even though the big tide was rising, there wasn’t much current so it was easy to pan around, mark fish, then drop on them.

I started out looking for opelu, couldn’t find any, so I went past 100ft to a depth Capt Erik told me to check. Sure enough there were marks along that depth contour and my first weke nono (Pflueger’s goatfish) came up. I was stoked to find one, but since it was a little one I let it go. Drifted off that mark and must’ve been over sand because a nabeta came up next. Then it was non-stop deepwater lizardfish so I put one on my bait rod and dropped it down. Nothing touched it. Hmmm…

I took off the lizardfish and put a previously thawed and refrozen opelu on, and motored out to 200ft and back into 150ft with no love. Grabbed the jig rod with the 2.5″ 2oz tungsten weight and dropped down. Boink! A lizardfish grabbed it! Caught another lizard after that and decided to get off the sand and head in for the zone I had action on the last trip.

So the little jig was gobbled up the pesky lizardfish but could it attract a much bigger predator? I was over some spread out marks and was hopeful since that jig has been hit on every third drop or so, and kablam! Something strong and heavy yanked the rod tip down and was peeling out line. Now this was a decent fish and I really wanted to see what had hit the jig. A few minutes later a 15lb class kahala was expelling bubbles near the surface. My first kayak kahala on a jig, and a really fun fight on the Shimano Game Type J XHeavy rod and gold Trinidad 14 reel.

I motored/paddled back to that spot, and 2 drops later a stronger fish pulled line in long spurts. It shook its head so I assumed it was a bigger kahala but it turned out to be a GT that had just made ulua status. I had to tighten my drag further than I had with the kahala, and was surprised how much stronger the ulua was. I would say that the ulua fought harder initially but the kahala pulled more steadily. I couldn’t believe how the little jig, just 2.5 inches long, was causing these bigger fish to frenzy. I released the mini ulua also.

So now my confidence was super high and I dropped the jig again, and on the way down something swam off with it. This was an even stronger fighting fish and I tightened the drag as much as I dared. The runs were spurty and I could feel twanging on the line. Then there was less resistance and I cranked hard for a few seconds, came tight again and whatever was on the line at that point surged for the bottom and then the mainline cut. Either the fish was swimming towards the surface when the line felt slack, or I was reeling up a fish head that then got finished off by a shark. And the shark took my lucky blue jig whose eyes I painted with nail polish. 🙂

I put on a center weighted 100gm lead jig, found the mark again and… nada. I never got a bite again. Was it because the jig was too big or did the fish move off? The tide was reaching the slack high but I think the little magic Tunsten jig would have gotten bit some more. I just have a few of those left and look forward to trying them again!

Here’s what the fish looked like swimming off. Not the most graceful release of the kahala butat least he didn’t have any problems will a full air bladder keeping him on the surface.

Motorized kayak damashi and jigging action!

September 17, 2020 By Scott 2 Comments

The wind forecast finally dropped to fishable conditions. It promised a 10mph East wind directly onshore on the Eastside, and a 15mph North East wind coming down the mountains on the south side. So I headed East and had the launch and water to myself due to the social gathering restrictions.

The wind felt like 12 mph heading straight into it but I could push through with the help of my Bixpy motor mounted on my rudder. It was 2.5 miles out to the 130ft spot I hoped held opelu but no schools showed up on my oldie but goodie Garmin Echomap 44CV. I paddled around with the motor assisting me, at about 3mph, as I scanned around for bottom marks.

The first scattered mark, slightly off the bottom, produced a lai which I kept for a buddy who makes flies out of the skin. Next up was a surprise nabeta which must have been in a sand patch I didn’t know was there.

Then I went deeper, all the way out to 180ft but didn’t see anything good and my frozen opelu went untouched. The wind brought me back in, and I started exploring the shallower water. A very active mark showed up on the bottom so I used the motor to hold me in place against the current and dropped the 2-hook damashi rigged with CHL Minnows. As soon as I lifted it off the bottom the pole arched and line pulled off the reel! I was trying to remember how heavy the branch line on the damashi was, and was hoping it was at least 10lb test. The fish battled me all the way up, on the light drag, and I was surprised to see an uku that later was weighed 2lb 10oz. The other branch line was broken off so maybe two uku hit the rig. I had been searching for uku in this area in the past and never expected to catch them on a damashi!

When I checked my opelu it was gone and the 2oz tungsten bullet weight I was testing had teeth marks on it! Man, that was a crazy frenzy.

With the bite this hot and my damashi rig only having one hook now, I switched to my jigging setup rigged with a 2 oz, 2.75 inch prototype tungsten jig I’ve been hoping to test. I couldn’t find that mark despite having set a “Man Over Board” on the GPS so I searched around the area.

Found another good mark in 90ft, dropped the jig on it and “kapow!”. A good fighting fish jerked the tip, pulled a bit of line and gave a good account of itself. The compact jig had fallen like shot and must’ve hit the omilu on the head, haha.

I had another jig shape to test so I switched and went hunting for a good mark again.

Dropped the second tungsten jig on the mark and “whammo”, hooked up! This fish wasn’t taking line but still felt fun. A nice moana came up. Both the omilu and moana were released. I was stoked to see how well the tungsten jigs worked.

I moved off the spot and only saw scattered marks on the fish finder so I went back to the damashi, with 3 hooks this time. By now it was midday at the top of the big King Tide and the current went slack. Fish didn’t bite for a while but then it picked up with a smaller uku and omilu. I released those and the misc reef fish that were keeping me busy.

When small, brown hagi started coming up it was time to head for home. I ran the motor at a 3/4 speed and the battery died about a half mile from my landing. Running between 1/4 and 3/4 speed for 6 hrs drained the battery. Now I know and will keep more juice in the tank just in case.

Without the assistance of the Bixpy I couldn’t safely do the 7 mile round trip, and wouldn’t have been able to stay over marks while I dropped on them. Thank you Bixpy!

Stay tuned for more testing of the compact tungsten jigs. Even though they are only 2 oz (60 gm) they fall like a 3 oz (90 gm) jig because of their compact shape.

Back to the South Side to kayak hunt for preds

July 27, 2020 By Scott 5 Comments

Since the summer brought bigger surf to the South Side, we had been taking advantage of the small surf on the East Side when the wind allowed. In general, there were more fish than what we encounter in the South, but the fish were not the predators like uku and pelagics we were hoping to run into. We found protected, sandy bottomed areas that held tasty fish like nabeta and juvenile opakapaka but not the rocky drop offs that attract the bigger fish.

Surf and wind dropped on the South Side this past week, and Frank and I went back to one of our favorite spots. We started off looking for bait but couldn’t find any sizable bait balls, so it was time for Plan B. In 100ft of water, I dropped down a frozen, well preserved, year-old local opelu, about 7 inches long. Within a minute, I felt the taps, then the tugs, and then line peeled off my reel. Hanapa’a, but the fish felt really weird. No sustained runs, instead, quick downward pulls.

After a jerky 2 minute fight, this popped up. I thought it was a big omilu but noticed the 4 yellow spots on the side and the down turned mouth. Stoked, I let Frank know of the catch and he set up to drop bait.

Yellow spot / yellow dot / island jack papio are often caught in very shallow water as they feed on crabs and shrimp. Fly fishers seem to get them more often than whippers, since their flies do a better shrimp imitation. Yellow spot are one of the best tasting papio because their diet gives them a fatty, less fishy taste.

My next drop got tap, tap, tapped, then picked up. Initially I thought it was a big jack but when it slowed and felt heavy I knew it was a shark. Even with the 2-speed Avet SX reel in low gear, I had to endure a 20 minute bicep burn. Man I hate these things. It had taken me from 100ft to 200ft, with Frank keeping watch, before I could raise it high enough to cut it free. On the way back to shallower water, we dropped our damashi on deep bait marks, and when that failed, dropped opelu down but nothing bit.

I rested my arms and let the Bixpy motor take me back to where the yellow spot bit, but all our bottom fished and trolled baits eventually got ripped off without hooking anything. I even tried dropping a small 60gm tungsten jig to hook the bait stealers but they were wise to it. The yellow spot and shark had hit on the slack low tide, and the bite oddly slowed as the tide rushed in. Maybe it was midday slowdown?

Frank caught a nice sized nabeta on the damashi, and I caught some taape and moana just to feel some tugs, but that was it.

The shorter paddle on the South Side was appreciated, and it was nice to hear the ratchet sing but I could do without the shark-isometrics.

Hanapa’a writer Kelly caught a 7lb yellow spot in 4 feet of water a few years back, so I weighed mine to see if it was close. A few ounces less at 6lb 9oz! Here’s Kelly’s write up. I thought these fish don’t eat other fish much, but I guess a tasty frozen opelu was too much to resist. Glad the yellow spot bit before the shark shut things down for us.

Badly sliced yellow spot about to be eaten as sashimi

Kelly and Hanapa’a writer Coach Haru said to clean the fish right away, remove the head, gills, and blood, and wrap the fish in paper towels to extract the blood. Let the muscle tissue loosen over 2 to 3 days, then eat as sashimi. On Day 2 I ate the fish as sashimi and poke and found the meat to be soft but not too soft, and very mild tasting. It was better as poke, with the sesame oil adding some richness as well as flavor.

A friend who enjoys uku received the fish on Day 3 and his wife Joanna made a Thai vinaigrette sauce so they could eat the fish over mixed greens. Joanna doesn’t like fishy raw fish and loved the yellow spot.

Inshore fishing is still sloooooowww…

July 14, 2020 By Scott 23 Comments

Inshore fishing is still slow. I haven’t seen much bait fish (mullet, iao, oama, aholehole) this season and haven’t seen preds busting on schools near shore. It’s still a little early for oama but the other bait fish should have been in by spring time. I looked back at the July posts last year and fishing was slow this time too and picked up in August but not like the warm El Nino years where a lot of oama came in and stayed into the beginning of winter.

There’s also been a lot of people shore fishing since the shutdown started, so that must translate to fish caught and spooked. The guys that are catching are going at dawn and dusk, in spots that haven’t been pounded yet. And if they’re fishing the daylight hours, they’re using small, realistic baits.

How has the fishing been for you? Drop a comment to let us know. Mahalo!

Still a little early in the “season”. Here’s an early bait prediction.

June 25, 2020 By Scott 21 Comments

July is right around the corner but there aren’t a lot of bait fish in. The early oama that came in last month have grown to mid-size but the second wave of oama hasn’t arrived.

There were some halalu piles, like the one Matt found to have his personal best catch, but a lot disappeared and there’s speculation that they were illegally netted.

The iao (Hawaiian sardine) weren’t in at my whipping spots and the predators that follow them into the shallows were missing. I checked two spots with some new lures and bolo’d both times!

The guys (and gals) have been starting at dawn with flies on long leaders behind floaters and have been experiencing improved omilu action.

We’re hoping a waves of oama and halalu come in soon but it is looking like an off year compared the recent banner years. How do you guys think this season will pan out?

Kayak damashi action

May 18, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

On an epic light wind day last week, Frank and Kelly SUP trolled for papio past the break on the east side and I went deeper on the kayak to try for opelu and hungry predators. The water was so glassy inside that the papio bite was tentative for the SUP crew but they scraped up a few 1 to 3lb omilu to take home.

I couldn’t find any opelu and nothing ate the frozen opelu I put down so I tried to salvage the trip by catching good eating fish on the Ahi USA damashi tipped with CHL Minnows and ika strips. Over the reefy transition to sand, baby kaku and nunu came up. Then 8 inch baby opakapaka began to mob the Minnow.

Finally I struck nabeta gold and even brought up a lai. The CHL Minnow outfished the strip of ika and didn’t attract hagi so I stopped using the ika.

On a calm day with minimal current and wave action, it was so peaceful to bounce the damashi on the bottom and feel the electric action of the rod tip.

I shared the nabeta with friends who hadn’t tasted the fish before, and gave the lai to Frank for grinds and lai skin. Good fun fishing in the deep.

-scott

Holoholo: Hand-tied flies end the Rubber Hook Curse

May 10, 2020 By Scott 3 Comments

JDM expert and whipping aficionado Thad fills us in on how his last 3 months of fishing has turned around.

Thad: The papio bite at my usual spots had shut down since the start of February, so I tried targeting oio for a while without much success. Other guys I know that were fishing similar spots were landing nice oio regularly so it kept my hopes up every weekend. Its not like I wasn’t hooking up though – I’ve been stricken with the “rubber hook” curse, fighting decent sized fish on most trips only to have them spit the hook before I could land them.

So the weekend before the COVID-19 shutdown, I decided to try the usual spot again, armed with some new flies Matt (IG: hookum_flies) had tied and given to me to test. For someone that just started tying flies a week or two earlier, they were well made and looked sure to fool a fish into biting. The morning proved to be slow again, but I managed to hook what felt like a good sized papio on Matt’s Golden Blaze color. Just as I was bringing the fish to the surface and could see color, the rubber hook curse struck again. Losing fish is just a part of the fishing experience, but I felt a little disappointed that I couldn’t send Matt some pictures of his creation in a fish’s mouth.

Skipped fishing the next two weekends after the COVID-19 shutdown. By the time I felt comfortable enough to get back out there, I had also received some additional flies from Lawaiaflies (IG: lawaiaflies) that I was excited to try. Armed with the new flies on April 26th, I tried my luck again, expecting it to be another slow day but hopeful I could send some fish pictures to some fly makers.

I decided to start with an orange and white fly from Lawaiaflies, appropriately called the Creamsicle. Not long after I started whipping, I got a solid strike and landed a scrappy 12.5” omilu. It felt great finally being able to land something after losing so many to spit hooks. I quickly tagged it with a PIFG tag and released it to fight another day. For the next hour and a half, I continued whipping without any action, switching between flies from different makers.

Walked to another spot I hadn’t fished in a while, to see if anyone was hungry. I tied the Creamsicle back on and immediately foul hooked a small omilu on the top of its head.

A short while later, another small omilu decided to take the same fly. Man, this Creamsicle color was really productive! Just as I was thinking I may need to order more of this color, I got a big blow up on my big Tough Bubble that immediately cut my mainline. I’ve caught several big kaku there so that was the likely culprit.

It was time to start heading back in so I put on another bubble and tied on Matt’s Golden Blaze fly. I tried a slower retrieve this time, working the fly a little deeper in the water column. It worked and I was able to land a very colorful moana. I took some pics for Matt and called it a day. Reports I’ve been hearing from friends and the recent papio bites (albeit small ones) seem to indicate that we may be working our way out of the slow season.

Early Mango Season = Early Fishing Season?

May 8, 2020 By Scott 24 Comments

It is believed that the same environmental factors that affect the timing and the duration of mango season also affect the inshore and nearshore fishing. Amount of rain the previous year, amount of sunlight, temperature, wind patterns etc.

Mango season started earlier than normal and our Hayden tree has way more baby mangoes than previous years. Oama have been sighted in a few spots at least a month earlier than normal, and akule have been abundant this year. Initial indicators seem to point to an earlier start to the inshore and nearshore season, and hopefully an abundant one.

Get out and fish in the sun and humidity where Covid-19 has a hard time surviving!

-scott

Holoholo: Surfboard Fishing Report

May 7, 2020 By Scott 6 Comments

Holoholo writer Kelly cheerfully reports that the fishing just past the reef has picked up recently. Despite the Covid-19 social distancing mandate he’s been able to legally bring home much appreciated kau kau for the ohana. Thanks for the update Kelly!

Kelly: In March and April, the papio bite was still pretty slow. I have been surfboard fishing near the breaks every couple of weeks at a variety of spots, mostly on the South and East shores on lighter wind mornings.

Usual catch has been a couple of 1-2 pound omilus with plenty of bait stealers which I am guessing are baby papio. South side has been having good size barracudas, about 3-4 pounds which I have been keeping for kau kau.

Here is a photo of the spicy kaku poke we made 🙂

There have been some random catches like moana, nunu and rois. The one noteworthy catch was a nice six and a half pound kagami on the east side which hit a frozen oama that had been getting freezer burnt from last summer.

Baby Beast and Mini Feast from the East!

April 22, 2020 By Scott 6 Comments

Surf was booming on the north and west shores and surf on the south side was projected as high as 5ft so we went east to a new spot Erik, our small boat buddy, had recommended. Erik provided all the intel as far as where to launch, where the opelu were, where the nabeta were, and if he were free he would have met us on the water! How many guys would share their secret spots like that?

Frank and I made it out to where the opelu were supposed to be, but it was after 9 in the morning and we couldn’t find a good mark. We paddled over to a deep reef and Frank damashi’d up moana and taape on ika strips while I bottom fished with frozen opelu. I was surprised how few nibbles I was getting so I went all the way out to 200ft and had a hard thump that took the whole fish. I put my second to the last opelu on and dropped again. Thump, thump and a strong run. I was thinking shark but soon there were really hard head shakes. Not as quick as uku head shakes so I assumed it was ulua. The fish took out a lot of line so I buttoned down the Avet SX Raptor 2-speed to stop it, and after struggling to gain line in high gear, I dropped to low gear and man what a difference! The fish didn’t make another sustained run again and it floated so quickly it came up on the opposite side I was expecting and scared me!

I debated keeping the white ulua but had always said I’d release my first kayak caught ulua so I did. Looking at the photos again, it was probably just a bit over 10lbs but at the time I thought it was much bigger because of the bullish fight. Nothing else bit the last opelu in the deep so I went to look for nabeta.

Tipping the damashi with ika strips Frank gave me initially yielded hagi until I moved off the deep reef and onto sand. I dragged the weight instead of bouncing it and could feel fish lightly tugging at the ika and not hooking up. Finally I hooked a yellow nabeta (deepwater gold!). I had to wade through little puffer fish and nunu before I got 2 more nabeta in the deep, then I went a little shallower and started getting reef fish. By then it was time to go in so I turned up the Bixpy motor to contend with the offshore wind, and could sustain a 3.5 mph pace by paddling along with the jet. Without the motor I’d be struggling at 2 mph and be hurting the next day.

Usually I don’t do well the first few times out at a new spot but we were productive because of Erik’s accurate directions. We left a few stones unturned so we need to go back!

Kayak fishing improvements worked!

April 10, 2020 By Scott Leave a Comment

2 problems have been plaguing me kayaking the deep: 1) It’s been very hard to paddle against the current and stay on the productive spots, and I’ve had a recurring stiff right shoulder. 2) Been hooking more sharks than fish, and they don’t bite through the line like you’d think they would. After trying to raise a shark or two so I can cut it free, I’m spent, especially my left arm that holds the conventional rod.

To solve Problem #1, I’ve put a Bixpy electric motor on my Trident Ultra 4.3’s rudder. I just had to replace my rudder with theirs that held the compact jet motor, and was still able to use my existing rudder controls. The lithium ion battery that powers the motor sits on my fishbag in the rear tankwell and only weighs 7lbs. I can select the 12 forward speeds and 3 reverse speeds from the remote control I wear on my wrist.

Problem #2 was made worse because I’ve been using a high speed, gold Trinidad 14. Awesome smooth reel but the gearing of 6.2:1 doesn’t generate much torque and it’s been hard to turn the handle on heavy sharks. I met Avet rep Ben Frazier at the Fred Hall Show this year (right before they suspended the future shows due to Covid-19), and told him that I was having issues going from freespool to strike drag on my star drag Trinidad, and when I ended up fighting a shark, it was hard to lift and crank with my rig. He recommended the small (17 oz) SX Raptor lever drag reel with a low and high gear and max drag of 26lbs!

Look at the wake the Bixpy is producing!

Well the light wind day came to test both out, and my kayak fishing buddy Frank was able to join me. Very light WSW winds started the day and I cranked the Bixpy up to full speed at 5mph. Not bad since I can’t paddle that fast myself. I ran it on the 3rd or 4th speed while paddling along at a relaxed pace to get to our bait spot, and was easily getting 3.0 to 3.5 mph.

We couldn’t find bait and trolled out to 300ft for nada. I tried bottom fishing out there but the current was ripping near the bottom and my bait never hit solid ground. Soon we realized the west wind and west current had taken us more than a mile downwind. Frank coordinated his pedaling and paddling on his Hobie Revo 13, and made great progress heading back to our safe zone. I gave him a head start and used the Bixpy up to max speed at times, and finally caught him. Frank trolled frozen opelu and I bottom fished a fat opelu chunk after having two smaller frozen opelu pulled off by bait stealers.

Besides a humpback whale showing us his dorsal fin, it was a slow slog until I had my burrito sized chunk taken for about 5 seconds before the hooks pulled out. I dropped the tail half of that chunk down and a shark was on. Going from free spool to strike on the Avet lever drag was very easy and the shark slowed down. When it took line again I inched the lever drag up toward the max but made sure I could still pull off a little line with my hand so it wasn’t so tight the shark could yank me overboard too easily. In high gear I couldn’t gain much line so I dropped down to low gear and was amazed at how easy it was too turn the reel handle. When the shark ran, the drag would slip smoothly while I cranked but otherwise I could just crank and put a little line back on the reel. The shark really did’t run too far, and I put the rod butt down in front of my lap, like I was in a fighting chair and started to lean back and crank.

That was working well but when the shark lunged, I had to make sure the rod tip was parallel with the bow. I ended up getting the shark up in less than 15 mins, which is much faster than I have with other sharks. The low gear definitely helped a lot.

I was worried the shark would pull me over when it came up broadside so I braced my feet on the rails of the yak and kept moving them as the shark came within inches.

Judging from its pudgy shape and high triangular dorsal fin, I think this was a sandbar shark which isn’t supposed to be a man eater. Still it was spooky to have such a heavy animal with sharp teeth so close.

The south west winds started chopping up the water and it was time to head in. The rudder mounted Bixpy popped out of the water a few times as the kayak bow dipped into a small wave, but otherwise the motor, supplemented with my paddling, got me in at 3 mph. I had 2 of the 6 battery levels left after the 5 hrs outing.

I was very pleased with how the Avet SX Raptor and the Bixpy motor performed and look forward to fishing more productively with both.

Holoholo: Fishing during the winter months

April 3, 2020 By Scott 10 Comments

Our Middle School Holoholo writer Matthew is social distancing like the rest of us, and took up fly tying! He also wanted to share how tough this Winter has been for him.

These past few months have been great for a lot of people, but they’ve been the worst four months in all the time I’ve been fishing. During December, January, February, and March, I went fishing a total of 39 times, sometimes going two different spots in one day (mostly because winter and spring break fall in those months) and only caught a measly total of 7 notable fish (not counting a bunch of Hinalea, Nunu, and Lizardfish), which were a 2-3 lb Omilu, a 2 lb Omilu, Three good size Moana, and a small Kaku. Not counting as a fish, but I did catch my first ever Samoan Crab on rod and reel. I tried a bunch of spots, deep and shallow, and tried just about every technique from flies, kastmasters, grubs, to dunking but still not much. I had the mentality, “If I keep pounding I’ll eventually get something”, but eventually it seemed like it would not get better, so I’m giving up until summer, or until this coronavirus passes, which I hope it will. On a positive note, pretty much everyone else has been catching a lot of stuff, with more Papio popping up on my Instagram feed. Certain hammahs have been catching like it’s still summer at certain deep spots, or wading.

In the downtime, I decided to pick up fly tying. I’m figuring if I can’t catch fish I might as well stock up for when the fish are actually biting. At first, I had no idea, and the flies looked horrible. I had no idea what to do, and I just used nail polish to get the flies together at the head. I kept trying, got a little better, my UV flashlight and UV resin came in, and I was able to finally add eyes to some flies.

After a lot of refining the design of the flies, I think I am starting to get the hang of it, but I still have a very long way to go to get to the level that other local fly makers are at. Eventually, I want to sell some to pay back the significant amount of money all the fly materials and tools cost. If anyone has any tips for me they would be greatly appreciated, from materials to different designs I could try, everything would help me.

Good luck to all of you guys that are still going fishing now, although it seems like everyone is doing quite fine. Stay safe and healthy during this outbreak and practice social distancing.

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

March 25, 2020 By Scott 9 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wasabi kewpie mayo poke with red finger lime

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