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Everything wanted to eat before the storm!

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Last week, the wind dropped right before a significant rain storm was expected. The fishing conditions weren’t ideal though. The tide was falling to a negative low, and it was just a few days after the full moon. Usually the slack low tide means sharks and ulua, but I couldn’t pass up the safe kayaking conditions.

The 8am sun was partially blocked by the gray clouds so it looked like dawn. I was hoping the fish thought the same. My first drop of the store bought damashi meant for opelu got hit by something much stronger. The small gold hooks bend easily so I kept the drag a little loose and just wanted to see what hit the tiny fly in 75ft of water. What finally showed was a brightly lit omilu. Proof that omilu do frequent the deep structure areas when there aren’t bait fish to draw them into the shallows.

I kept trying for opelu but the bait balls were small and moved too quickly. There was some type of bait fish on the surface getting hit by birds and dolphins but I couldn’t catch up to them. With no live opelu, I paddled out to 110 ft and lowered a frozen 9 inch opelu down. Before it reached the bottom something yanked at it before running off with the bait. The fish pulled the rod tip under water a few times in a very spastic fashion and fought very jerkily. I’ve fought bigger fish in the last 4 trips with nothing landed so I was cautiously hopeful this was an uku. Was stoked to see one but surprised how small it was compared to hard it pulled. Small oio are the same way. They pull as hard as they can and wear out.

Buoyed by the instant bite I dropped another opelu down and it sat for about 20 secs before something started tasting it. Then the line took off and soon it became apparent the sharks had arrived. I tried to bust if off but it took a long time to do so and the braid parted high up. Next 3 baits were eaten within 30 seconds and were sharks too. The sharks felt like they were smaller than the normal ones but still a pain to bring to the surface.

After losing time and tackle I switched to the Daiwa tungsten jig that hooked ulua before, and had a hit that didn’t stick. My arms were worn out by then from fighting sharks so I went in.

wahanui

I had dropped the GoPro down once, in the area where I hooked the omilu (about 75ft) and looked at the video at home. At least 3 wahanui and a toau swam up to the camera as it reached the bottom and there were the eerie sounds of whales in the background.

I kept the omilu and the small uku because I hadn’t kept fish for a long time and we wanted safe, Covid-19 free fish to eat. Both fish weighed 2.1 lbs and the omilu had a 5 inch fat red oama in its stomach.

Negative low tide, big moon, yet everything wanted to feed before the storm. I’ve never experienced a bite like that before. I just gotta figure out how to stay away from the sharks.

Live opelu is way better than fresh opelu!

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Old timers have told me that opelu is the “magic bait for pelagics”, like oama is the “magic bait for papio”. Since frozen oama still works when slow trolled for papio, I’ve been buying opelu from the fish market and trolling and bottom fishing that off the kayak. It hasn’t worked that well trolled (one 11lb mahi last spring) but has worked for uku (and a lot of bait stealers) near the bottom.

Hayabusa damashi fly on gold hook

Boaters and kayakers who catch their own opelu have been telling me to save money and just catch my own but that’s much easier said than done. I’ve been striking on when others have been bringing up multiple opelu and was kind of just going through the motions of dropping the damashi down until I finally caught an opelu on the last trip. That made me realize it was possible to catch one or two for bait, and since fishing is all about confidence and sticking with it, I was determined to catch opelu and hook something good with it. To increase my odds I was using the expensive store bought Hayabusa damashi flies with gold hooks.

You can see the damashi fly springing free

I went out this week on an overcast, slightly drizzly day. It was about 9am when I reached the bait grounds but because the sun was blocked it looked like dawn. My version of dawn patrol. The fish finder marked a lot of small fish near the top of the water column and I dropped down, felt something hit but it was pulling harder than opelu should. Baby aha – ugh. Next drop was another aha. I’ve never caught them on the damashi fly before and was gonna find another bait pile but decided to drop one more time. This time something smaller was on, and because my opelu confidence had dropped due to the aha, I brought it up slowly and when it got to the surface it was a perfect sized 8 inch opelu that popped its head out of the water and shook the hook! Arrgggh…

The school moved and I spent another 45 mins in different spots trying to catch them. Gave up, slow trolled a 9 inch fresh opelu that got taken near the bottom and the hooks pulled once again. So I started fishing the 9 inch fresh opelu cut in half, with two hooks to see what I was missing. Sadly, I landed 2 big taape and a hagi. So that’s probably what has been stealing my dead opelu, not the small uku I was hoping for. Disillusioned, and now fighting a 10mph south wind, I came across a promising bait school in the area where I’ve lost ulua and sharks but hadn’t seen a lot of bait before. The bait stealers had depleted my fresh opelu supply so I decided to try for opelu on the damashi again. To my surprise I got bit on the way down! This one was bigger than I preferred but stayed on the hook and was dropped back down with two hooks in it.

I slow trolled it around and nothing bothered it until I went back to the spot I caught it. It started getting nervous and then something ran with it for a few seconds and ripped a 4 inch wound in its stomach. That was probably the small uku since hagi and taape wouldn’t be able to catch the opelu and leave such a big hole. I dropped the now dead opelu back down and the bait stealers picked it apart.

The south wind had settled down but there was a lumpy west swell that was bobbing me around, enough to come over the side of the kayak at times. The bait ball was still around so I dropped the damashi down and caught another 10 inch opelu. 3 opelu in one day if I count the one that fell off at the surface, my personal best! I put the opelu down, maybe 30 ft off the bottom and went back to opelu fishing.

The opelu got nervous, and the rod began to bounce a little as line was pulled off an inch at a time. This went on for about 10 seconds and I gave the pred time to turn the big opelu around and swallow. Then the pred took off, pulling my rod under water and I had to clear the bow of the kayak. The fish was strong and heavy but I was able to stop it with a strong drag setting, so it wasn’t a shark. The fish was turned and I was short pumping it back so it wouldn’t find the reef like last week, and then about a minute and a half into the fight it felt like the hook slipped and got stuck somewhere else. Then the fight got really jerky like the fish was getting attacked by something and it transitions to the heavy pull of a shark. 15 seconds later, the leader above the first hook was cut fairly clean with a bit of abrasion above the cut. I was running the GoPro on my cap and shared the video of the fight with friends (sorry too many landmarks for general viewing). They think that maybe a big uku ate the big opelu and made its initial strong run, and was coming in when a shark or sharks mauled it.

I like that the bait stealers leave the live opelu alone and only something fairly big will grab it. Also like that you can tell when it’s about to get hit because the opelu starts jerking the rod. So in the end I bolo’d once again, but am getting closer to hooking and landing the prize fish on live opelu.

Holoholo: Whipping report, 2nd week in January

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Jeremy is a long time fisherman who loves whipping, but will be adding fly fishing to his game this year. He’s been posting catches on his private IG account @jeremy.poi while the rest of us have been getting skunked, so I asked him if he’d mind sharing his most recent catch report with us. There’s a lot we can take away from this!

Jeremy:

Everyone knows that during the winter the bite really slows down, but can’t catch fish if you don’t go fishing so I try to get out there as much as I can.  This past weekend I braved the weather and was glad I did.

On Saturday morning, my friend and I decided to do a dawn patrol session.  It was super windy and rainy, but we love fishing so we just threw on our jackets, grabbed our gear, and headed to the spot just as the sun was about to come up.  The tide was really high and the water was a little dirty, so wasn’t the best conditions for wading, but we slowly worked our way out into the water.  I continuously made casts as I walked the reef and about 15 minutes into our session, I got a nice hit.  It’s a decent sized fish and I can feel the head shakes, so I know it’s a papio.  I get it to hand and see a nice 14” white papio on the end of my line.  I take a few quick pictures and release him safely.  First white of the year for me, so I’m happy and the pressures off. 

I continue to work the reef and cast into “fishy” areas.  About 30 minutes later, I feel a strong tap on my lure…miss…then another miss.  And then finally, on the third hit, I get a solid hookup.  Hanapa’a!  Line starts ripping off my reel and I know it’s a good sized one.  It takes about 60 yards on the first run before I get it to turn.  I’m only running 8# braid with 10# leader, so I need to be patient and not horse it in.  I slowly gain line, but the fish is still strong and takes multiple smaller runs.  I could feel the line rub slightly on the reef a few times, but after a back and forth battle of about 10 minutes, I was finally able to see the fish, grab my leader, and land this 5# o’io.  Chee!  Took some pics and thanked the fish for the awesome scrap before releasing it.  And that’s when I notice my hook.  The fish wasn’t hooked in the mouth, but on the side of his face on the gill plate, and my hook was opened up.  Got lucky on landing this one. 

Tip of the day:  Set your drag only as strong as your weakest link.  I run my drag on the light side since I’m running light line, but the wire of my hook is thin as well, so my weakest link in my setup was my hook.  Thankfully my drag was just loose enough and I didn’t lose this fish.  

Another fun session in the books.  Always nice to be able to get out there and do what we love.  And catching fish once in a while is nice too.  So all the guys not fishing due to the junk weather, take a chance and make some casts.  Fish still have to eat, so hopefully it’ll be your lure.  Good luck and tight lines!

Fish Report – 2nd week in January

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We’ve had a few weeks of wind and rain which lowered the nearshore water temps. As expected for this time of year, the bait fish aren’t in, and the predators don’t have much reason to make their way in to the skinny, cold water. White papio/ulua are being caught at night/early morning, since they feed on other things besides bait fish, and some omilu have been caught in the deeper water reachable from shore by the really dedicated guys. If you need to feel a tug, even if it’s from a kaku, you might want to fish in the late afternoon after the sun has warmed the water up and is just beginning to set.

The blustery wind seems to have put the offshore fish down a bit, with the kayak guys reporting catches of opelu and not many pelagics. The shallow bottom fish like uku and weke ula have been grudgingly biting. We’re hoping that when the wind settles down, the food chain adjusts to the temperature change and starts feeding with vigor on all the nutrients recently stirred up.

My Thanksgiving turkey has scales on it

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I was on a 4 trip bolo streak where I started each day by looking for opelu and ended with paddling in because the winds got too strong for me. The last trip started off with a lot of small fish caught on damashi (moana, malu, baby uku, lizardfish, hagi) but no opelu. When I switched to bottom fishing, my fresh halalu baits were bitten in the center and pulled off the two hooks but the fish weren’t big enough to swallow the bait and find a hook. These weren’t the typical hagi or aha bites. Instead they looked like a snapper type fish that just ate the good, soft parts of the fish.

There were a couple days before Thanksgiving with a few hrs of light wind according to the wind models, so I picked the only day I had free and was gonna head straight for the uku grounds. Before I got there the winds were already blowing 10 – 12 mph so I stopped at a shallow spot on my GPS that always had bait but I’ve never caught anything there. The current was running west and the winds were blowing east, so it was choppy but I was being held in place. Down went a fresh opelu I had bought the day before and soon I felt the tell tale taps of what I hoped was an uku. It took more than 30 seconds before the fish got hooked and then it took off. Maybe it’s because I hadn’t fought a fish in so long, but the fish felt strong! The carbon fiber drag washers in my gold Trinidad 14 gave line in a controlled manner and after a minute and a half I netted my Thanksgiving uku. Just like that my bolo ended.

I tried to add to my Thankgiving haul but I missed what felt like 2 more uku and had the rest of my baits mauled by hagi and other pests. The wind was white capping the water at this point so I went in.

The 20.5″ uku was bled a little when I caught it, put on Arctic Ice blocks in my Hobie fish bag, then transferred to a cooler when I got home and covered with cubed ice overnight per recommendation from boating friends who catch uku by the boat load. I’m hoping to get enough meat off it to be sashimi and a little poke for a family Thanksgiving meal.

This Thanksgiving, I thank God to be able to live in the greatest country in the world, in the State of Hawaii with the nicest people and the best weather. I hope your Thanksgiving is spent with loved ones and yummy food.

Holoholo: Persistence paid off

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Holoholo reporter Matthew describes how he overcame the slowdown at the end of “papio season” and found a way to consistently catch fish in the “off season”.

Matthew: Mid September to Mid October was one of my worst streaks ever. Lost a lot of big fish, couple whitewashes, and many lost lures. At the end of November, it all changed for me, but before that it was slow-complete shutoff bite. Some others have been getting good luck, but I haven’t been as lucky as them and the bite has significantly slowed down for me. 

Many fishermen have been getting good and consistent luck on flies, which might mean that the bait is getting bigger and that I need to upsize my two inch grubs for something a little bigger. Most of the master fishermen who use flies fish semi-turbulent deep water. I fished a few times with a group of fly fishermen and one time got totally smoked by them. One guy got two Papio, his girlfriend landed six Papio, and I landed none on the grubs. They were using bubble and fly rigs, and the flies seemed to be either oama or light brown colored. 

I have been getting limited luck on the sardine pile somewhere with a Lai and two Kaku, and then a nice sized Yellowspot Papio at a spot near my house. The next five trips passed painfully, with over 15 hours fished with not a single fish landed. In those trips, I lost a big Omilu, around four pounds. It fell off as it was being reeled up the wall. That was really painful. 

The next trip, I hooked a screamer on my ultralight and fought it for over 10 minutes at dusk. I could barely see it when it came close to shore, but I immediately recognized it as a big white Papio, upwards of 17 inches. It made another run, and I was able to see it one more time before it made a last huge run, and I felt the line go slack. The four pound line had cut. I knew it was coming but I was still mad. Probably the closest I’ve ever been to having a fit when losing a fish. I don’t usually get mad, but that was after two trips of nothing and last trip of losing a big Omilu. I was beaten. I thought for sure that next trip I would land a fish, but I was dead wrong. I hooked something big, and lost it again. This time I didn’t even get to see it but I think it might’ve been a decent Papio. 

Fed up with all of the losing fish and whitewash, my morale was at an all time low and seriously did not know what was going wrong. I decided to make a last ditch run to one of my most consistent spots with my partner. It paid off greatly. 

The first cast, I landed what felt like a small Papio, but upon closer examination it was a nunu. I didn’t care. I needed anything after that long whitewash period. It got even better though. The next cast, I hooked something that ran really hard, and resisted in the whitewash for quite a long while. It made another run and that’s when I knew it was a good sized Omilu. I had to find a safe way to land it, and my partner went down in the splash zone and netted it for me. I was screaming. I don’t know how the neighbors did not think something was wrong and called the police, but I’m glad they didn’t. After five trips, my gamble had finally paid off at the spot I knew I should have been fishing all along. The day was not over though. 

I proceeded to land another good sized Papio, and another, and another. I was pretty hyped, and so hyped that I didn’t even bother to change my leader where it was frayed. As it so happens, laziness  Within thirty minutes, I had landed four good size Omilu and a Lai. My partner had also landed a Lai as well. This was probably the best day I’ve had all season, and so late in the season too.

The following weekend, my sister had a tennis match, so I got to fish during her tennis match at a place right near the courts. The water was really murky and I had a hard time seeing inside the water at some points. The fish didn’t seem to care though. I was using my ultralight and felt something take it with a lot of power and make a very powerful run out toward the open sea. It took a whole two minutes for me to bring it into sight range, and I landed it another minute later after it made a few stubborn runs right at shore. To my surprise, it was the biggest Kaku I had seen in a long time inshore. I didn’t measure it, but it was pushing 24 inches or a little up.

On the ultralight four pound test and a 1/8th size kastmaster, it was amazing that either the very bendy hook did not bend out or that the line did not touch the Kaku’s teeth. I made another few casts, and hooked another Kaku, at around 14 inches, on the ultralight again. I landed it, but it didn’t fight half as hard as the other one. I switched to the bigger kastmaster with the VMC red trebles, and landed another Kaku, this one at 13 inches roughly. Already happy with my success, I let my dad use the ultralight with the kastmaster in hopes of him catching his first Kaku, and he handed me the light rod with the grub and egg lead. 

We moved more toward clear water and stayed there for five minutes when I felt a take, and all of a sudden, line started peeling out, and after a very spirited fight, I could see the electric blue outline of a decent size Omilu coming in. The fight lasted too long, because I was really letting it tire itself out so the hook wouldn’t pull. I got it in eventually and it was roughly 12-13 inches fork length. That was the last bite of the day for me, however, I was still very happy because all of this action happened between 1130 and 1245pm. I had a chance to fish later that day, and since I was already happy with the action, I decided to go after something that I never catch anyway-Moi. 

I went to a spot I heard had Moi, and after a while, I had a fight with something that pulled hard, but with hardly any drag pulled. I started yelling to my uncle as I realized it was a Moi. I took a picture, and then measured it. It was half an inch short to my dismay. I released it. 

The next cast I hooked something that felt really big, and pulled a lot of drag, when all of a sudden the hooked popped. I am 99% sure that it was a very legal moi. The very next cast, I hooked another Moi, and during all my excitement, I forgot to release it in the tidepool the other Moi was in, and I threw it back into the ocean. I realized what I did as soon as I let go of the Moi, and made a rushed cast toward the Moi hole, but the bite had already shut off, and the Moi weren’t biting anymore.

I’m sure I would have caught a legal Moi that day if I hadn’t released the little one. I kept casting, and on the way back, I was lucky enough to catch my second Kagami Papio ever, even though it was small, I was still stoked on landing such a rare fish again. 

Anyways, hopefully it sheds some light on the next few weeks of fishing. I haven’t been trying for Oama at all in the past few weeks, but I have been seeing quite a lot while whipping. Lots of Omilu are coming up onto the sand when the waves pound it just to eat the oama. Maybe it’s time to try a little bit of oama style lures? The nehu are still somewhat in as well as the mullet. Good luck guys.

Holoholo: Junk, no eat… (catch and cook)

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My oama fishing buddy, David, has a wealth of fishing experience and knowledge and I’m constantly learning new things from him. He surprised me with this comparison to my jointed lure fishing outing.

David: Scott recently fished the incoming tide at a well known stretch of beach, casting some newly acquired, jointed, shallow running lures that had tremendous side-to-side action; these lures look irresistible (to me, but who knows what a fish thinks). Having described his whipping episode, I thought that I would conduct a crude experiment to compare underwater lures to top water poppers.  I have this mild, unsupported theory that poppers have an edge over underwater lures in shallow water when it comes to Kaku and Papio because I think the splashing and chugging turmoil initiate predator instincts. Of course, logic doesn’t always apply to the habits of fish, but my reasoning is that if a fish is not overly hungry and sees bait swimming by (in this case, a swiveled-body lure), it’s sort of “ho-hum”, just another fish, but maybe not worth expending the energy to chase and grab the bait.  On the other hand, I’ve always felt that fish are opportunistic feeders, and since splashing is usually associated with distress, it would seem that a  splashing  popper might trigger a reflex attack action. So I thought that I would try a comparison test.

I knew what time he had started fishing, so I started 1/2 hour later the next day, to mimic the same tide conditions. Scott said he had about 5 or 6 Kaku follow the bait, but only one missed strike. I basically fished the same waters with approximately the same tidal conditions, but threw poppers instead of underwater lures. There are of course a zillion environmental conditions that were different and obviously any fish that lived in the area had moved around or left completely, but since Kaku are somewhat territorial, it seemed likely that unless someone else had caught all the Kaku in the area, that they were probably still in the general vicinity.  At this beach, there is a beginning and an end, so the grounds are finite.

In any case, I tried to duplicate his path and tossed poppers the entire stretch of the beach. The tide was rising quickly and it was a perfect day with little wind. Would the poppers make a difference ? I walked and threw my favorite popper, hardly pausing at all. The entire length of my trek, about 4 or 5 Kaku chased, but none hit. At the end of the beach is an area where bait fish sometimes congregate. I got to the end, and there were small schools of bait swimming around. I threw 5 or 6 times and bang ! A solid strike, my pole arched, followed by the sweet sound of the drag. I was using 6# test and a semi-noodle rod. The fish jumped twice, then it was over. Attached is a photo of the 18″ Kaku.

Scott had several chases but only one soft bite, but no hookups. I had a similar amount of chases and one hookup. Was there a pronounced difference ? No. Are poppers better than shallow runners ? Probably not. The only difference was luck. The fish just happened to be where I randomly threw. Pure luck. But hey, I had a good time and got a fish. I happen to love to eat Kaku; most don’t.

My mother was a fantastic cook, and my father was her greatest fan. Anytime I visited them and he was eating, I’d ask if the dish was good. He’s always reply with a grin, “nah, junk, no eat”. The stronger his insistence, the better the dish. So, to those who don’t favor Kaku, eh, “junk, no eat”.    🙂

I’ve tried barracuda a couple of different ways, steamed Chinese style, fried, etc. My favorite is tempura. Normally I’d cut the body into steaks then batter and deep fry them. But I filleted this one then my wife deep fried the tempura and made Tartar sauce. When it’s cut up into steaks, there are bone fragments left in the meat; but when filleted, it’s much easier eating. Goes good with Takuwan or Sanbai-zuke. I also like the center bone salted and dusted with flour, then fried like Aku or Ahi, or salmon bones in the local style. A good friend of mine makes his dip with julienned onions and mayonnaise. Both are good. I’m sure Ponzu would work well. Sometimes I use Chick Fillet sauce for the dip; of course, that makes anything taste great. Really junk, no eat……   🙂

Holoholo: Late Season 2019 Whipping Report

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Thad, our JDM expert and shoreline whipping enthusiast, provides this report in early October.

Thad: Like many years before, I wasn’t able to fish this season’s peak summer months for oama, halalū, or papio due to other important things going on at home.  Seeing and hearing of all the action my friends were having made me envious but I knew fishing would always be there and the next summer season would be just around the corner. 

Recently, I’ve been able to venture out to do my regular early morning fishing sessions and was expecting the predator action to be slow so I went oio fishing instead.  My friends were able to catch and release some legal sized papio while we targeted the oio so I wondered if the season had truly slowed down.  It was already the middle of September and the bait schools weren’t as plentiful but it seemed like the papio were still hunting inshore. 

The following weekend, I decided to devote my time whipping some CHL grubs Scott had given me to try.  It was a decent morning with five omilu landed and several more that came off.  Nothing big, but all legal sized ranging from 10 to 12 inches.  Were these the last remaining papio of the season?  Only one way to find out.

Two weeks later I decided to try my luck whipping some papio flies my friend Brandon makes for me, which I’ve had much success with in the past.  The result of this morning session was several more hits and misses, with a 10.75 and 15 inch omilu landed. My fishing partners also landed a 13 and another 15 inch omilu on grubs.  Still some pretty good action for October.

This past weekend I went on a solo mission – which is usually when the big ones bite right?  I noticed a small school of tiny baitfish darting around the shoreline as well as a small pile of oama.  The first cast of the morning with Brandon’s “Sparrow” fly produced a 10.5 inch omilu.  Several casts later, something blew up on the fly only a few yards out and took off.  There was no slowing the fish down on the first run.  Then I felt the fish pop off much to my dismay. 

I continued casting but whatever it was, it wasn’t around anymore so I decided to change it up and try a Mark White oama lure.  One the second cast, another solid hook up and short run before the lure popped out of the fish’s mouth again.  I like to change up my lures often so I went with grubs to see if there were any takers but no luck.  It was nearing the end of my fishing time so I switched back to the trusty Sparrow fly to cast as I worked my way back.  Sure enough, I got a few more tugs here there before I landed an 11.5 inch omilu to end the day.

Since I wasn’t able to fish the peak months of the season, I have no way of comparing the recent action to how it may of have been in June – August.  The recent action has been pretty good though, so I have no complaints.

Holoholo: Red VMC 4X trebles worked again!

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Kelly, our minimalist SUP inshore fisherman, provided this short report to let us know the omilu are still around and the hooks are working!



Kelly: Fished Eastside on the morning rising tide over the weekend. Lots of papio action dragging dead oama outside the reef. Caught four and lost four. Red VMC 4x, size 8 hooks from Scott worked great – thank you! They look tiny but they hold. All the fish were caught on the rear treb hook, even this 17″ omilu.

Editor’s note: Still got some 4X trebles in the store. Use to replace weak stock hook, and as stingers on bait. So cheap and so good!

Front hook is a Gamakatsu knockoff from Korea.

Editor’s note: We don’t sell knockoffs. 🙂

Is there a Fall offshore kayak season? If so, I think it started…

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I’m not sure if the nearshore pelagics like ono, mahi mahi and shibi (ahi under 100lbs) are more common in the fall, or if it’s just that the winds have finally dropped and more folks are fishing, but there have been a lot of reports on social media of kayak fish caught.

I got word that one of the kayakable spots was holding opelu in relatively shallow water, and with the winds light and surf down it was time to go! My partners couldn’t make it so it would be a solo session, under safe conditions.

My opelu catching skills continued to let me down so after more than an hr of searching for them, I put on a fresh, store bought opelu and slow trolled to 400ft. I crossed bait marks but nothing hit the opelu. Turned around and dropped to the bottom at 375 ft, brought the bait up a bit and something grabbed it and headed strongly back down.

With the frequent head shakes and unstoppable runs, I’m pretty sure it was an ulua. I fought it for more than 3 mins before the line parted. It felt lighter in weight than sharks I landed but much stronger and angrier. And while I think I could have eventually landed it, I would have let it go so it could give the shoreline guys some action. If you look at the photo of how my front hook was cut off, you can see that the 40lb fluoro was chewed and the line has a split end. Since this hook is snelled and the rear hook should be behind it, the knot didn’t come undone, which is what I originally thought when I saw the curly end!

I trolled another fresh opelu back to 100ft and finally I got a high speed strike. The fish pulled my rocket launcher rod holder down and the rod knocked my GoPro cap into the water! The Action Hat floatation did its job but by the time I wiped off the GoPro lens and put the cap back on, the fish had swum off with my bait. I’m thinking what hit was a pelagic because the rod holder would have had to be pulled down with a lot of force, and the clicker screamed for a couple of seconds.

More uneventful trolling went by so I dropped down a fresh opelu at one of the uku holes. Sure enough, tap, tap, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. The fish fought spastically all the way to the top and I was thrilled to see what I thought was a PB (personal best) uku.

The rear VMC 4X inline hook had just caught the tip of the uku’s upper lip and popped free when I jiggled it. Super lucky hook set!

I put down another 12″ opelu that immediately got chopped up but maybe the bait was too big for the other uku? Refrozen opelu just got hage bites so I made my way into the shallows and never found the opelu school. I later heard that another kayak fisher put the time in, found the opelu and caught a 25lb ono!

The uku taped out at 21.5″, exactly tied for my PB. I love catching uku cuz they are challenging to hook, fight hard, and fit nicely in my fish bag, unlike long, skinny pelagics.

I’m hoping we have more light wind days and my partners can free up from their responsibilities to help me find those opelu!

Holoholo: Floater fishing for slide bait

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Elijah is a 5th grader and has been fishing for about a year with his dad and younger brother. He wanted to share his love of fishing and some slide bait catching tips with the readers.

Elijah: I don’t whip a lot because my brother can’t so I float baits right now . I can do a report on catching small pan size fish like mamo, kupipi, and slide bait size hinalea.

So this is my 3rd time at some popular Westside beaches and I kinda know where the fish are and when I cast out to that spot (usually where red is surrounding a sand bottom) I felt a small tug and out of nowhere my drag starts screaming and I set the hook but it popped so I retrieved my float and the buggah took my bait so I walk to the cutting board and use my secret method of hooking squad and making it look appetizing.

So I recast and jiggled my floater and suddenly my float zooms 3 feet under the water and I see the fish, a nice sized mamo and some omilu! And I see the floater straining a mamo to the surface and I quickly reel it in and it was a good 2 pounder! Soon after we had to pack up and leave.

Next day we went to another beach and we set up. I was rushing to get my and my brothers floats in the water and on my first cast I realized I had missed an eye! So I reeled in the float that was 4 feet away from me and felt a small tug I reeled it to me and found a baby hinelaea chewing on my hook!


My dad told me to put it in the bucket for slide-bait and I quickly dropped it in. The secret to catching small fish for live or slidebait is to look for small pools of water in the rocks and just drop your float down and wait. You can also find some kupipi and mamo in the holes and hinalea. In the end I caught about 15 live baits, a poopa’a that we took home and some squirrel fish (my dad wasn’t happy about the squirrel fish) and was a successful day! If you are setting up a slidebait and need bait FAST jiggle your bobber for a couple of seconds.

Aloha, Elijah

Bait and Predator report – First Week of October 2019

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There’s a new wave of small oama in some holdout spots but few oama anglers are after them, and those that have been chasing papio with lures and oama are having to put in much more time to get a decent one.

Halalu have left most spots, and comparing to the last 2 yrs, a lot of traditional spots came up empty.

Even the kaku spots are slow.

These trends seem to support the following theories:

  • The papio have an internal time table that tells them to check the shallow inshore areas around July and stop checking them near the beginning of September. It could be that there are schools of oama on the reef so the papio don’t have to risk leaving the safety of deeper water.
  • Halalu numbers are directly tied to the previous year’s amount of rain fall. Last year didn’t have as much rain as the previous 2 years?
  • Juvenile kaku grow up and feed in the brackish estuaries and are big enough by the fall to leave the shallow water and start feeding on bait fish schools like opelu. The next crop of juvenile kaku show up in late Winter. There are always hold over kaku but there are less of them than in the period from late Winter to Fall.

If you haven’t voted in the “How’s your papio season going so far?” poll, please do. We’ll summarize the results in a week or so.

It took a village to catch my first kayak ono

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Our experienced deep water kayak fishing buddy Robert, who shared his catch reports and tips on this website, had offered to show Frank and me how to catch catch and troll live opelu. Our schedules and good weather didn’t line up for months but we finally got the green light.

Frank and I got out earlier than Robert, and we used our fish finders to look for bait schools but all I could bring up were reef dwelling rubbish fish. We were very relieved when Robert joined us and we meekly followed him to deeper water as he searched for the tell tale opelu marks.

Frank on the far left, Robert on the right

Robert pulled up in an area that has held opelu before and started paddling around in concentric circles. It took a while for Frank and me to catch up to him, given that we’re both old enough to be Robert’s dad! We eventually drifted over the thick bait ball, but these opelu were deep and Frank and my deep water damashi skills are lacking. Robert ended up putting five 12 inch opelu in his live well, while Frank and I just got tired arms pulling up weights that were dropped 300ft down.

After all that travel time, interrupted by rain squalls so heavy we couldn’t see land, we only had about 15 mins to troll the live opelu in the deep before we had to make the long paddle back to shore. Robert gave us each a healthy, hard earned opelu. My VHF radio was on the blink from being soaked in the rain so I stayed near Robert, and Frank gave us some space. With his live opelu out, Robert tried to add more to the live well and I kept within talking distance.

My rod tip dipped a few times as something was playing with the bait, and then the ratchet screamed! The drag was fairly loose and yet it was hard to get the rod out of the rocket launcher in front of me. The speed in which the line was being pulled was unlike anything else I had hooked before, including a small mahi. The fish dove first and then swam away from us. I had a 40lb Seaguar Blue Label fluoro leader on a front and rear hook rig, and since the fish was staying on, I assumed it was a shibi (ahi under 100lb) rather than a razor toothed ono. My main line was 30lb Sufix 832 braid, which Robert felt was a little light, but after catching way too many sharks, I knew it could handle this fish that felt faster but lighter.

I eventually got it within eyesight and we saw a silverly long shape. Ono? When it broached upside down on the surface I could see how lucky I was. The VMC 4X size 4/0 inline single hook I use as the rear hook of a double hook setup was firmly locked in the left corner of the ono’s jaw. That was keeping the line away from the teeth. Robert had stayed with me for the whole fight and was now encouraging me to bring it within range of my kage. Since I had only kage’d an uku and a mahi before, I pulled the spent fish really close, and the kage Frank had made for me found its mark.

Robert passed me his telescopic, floating Promar gaff, and I used that to pull the fish carefully onto my lap.

Click on this to see the rear hook (2) in the corner of the mouth and the front hook (1) dangling free. The grippy BUFF® Elite gloves prevented the fish from sliding overboard and my buttery smooth, hi-speed gold Shimano Trinidad 14 did the job once again.

The ono was still alive but not putting up too much of a fuss. To be safe, I knocked it out with a Promar wooden bat, and yet it was still hard to keep from sliding off the kayak. Robert suggested tail wrapping it before putting it in the 36 inch Hobie fish bag behind me. That was the scariest thing of the whole deal, sitting side saddle with my legs in the bloody water, trying not to capsize the kayak. Felt much safer with Robert and Frank there if things went badly. At this point we were in 700ft of water!!!

With the fish secured, the guys trolled their live opelu in but nothing else obliged. At our landing spot we helped each other get our kayak carts positioned and made our way to the shower. I lagged behind, struggling with my lousy 20 yr old cart, one of the first ones ever sold, and the guys saw that and assisted me. I’m seriously thinking about getting the Wilderness System Heavy Duty Kayak Cart Robert reviewed.

Another kayak guy left his hose connected for us, and gave me his left over ice since he hadn’t caught much. Frank did the same with his ice, so I didn’t have to buy ice on the way home. I just bring reusable Arctic Ice blocks, not cubed ice because I don’t expect to catch anything big!

First fish I was able to measure with the Rapala Retractable Ruler!

The ono measured 48 inches in fork length and my fish bag was only 36 inches long, so that last 12 inches was never chilled. I rushed to clean it as quick as possible and put the chunks on ice in a cooler.

Click to see the VMC 4X Inline hook size 4/0 locked into the corner of the mouth, and how the cleanly cut pieces of opelu fit back together

In its stomach I found 3 quarter pieces of the opelu bait so cleanly cut I could put them back together like a puzzle. Only the head was missing. How did the ono get hooked on the back hook, yet cut and eat the 3 pieces without cutting the line between the front and back hook? As Robert said, “it was meant to be”. I’m thinking maybe the fish bit the tail piece off and got hooked, and the rest of the bait was still attached to the head hook. It then ate pieces leading up to the front hook and stopped before cutting off that hook. That could be why my rod tip dipped a few times before it bent over.

However it happened I was super blessed to have been given Rober’ts live opelu and then have an ono not sever my fluoro leader. Thank you Jesus! Getting all that help on land from the guys and then being able to reach my wife before she drove home from work, so she could buy more bags of ice, it was like the guy at the shower said, “It takes a village to catch and process a good fish like that“.

We aren’t able to sell Promar products but fully endorse the nets, gaffs and bats we use as well as the great Promar-Ahi USA folks themselves. We’d love to sell the Buff Elite paddling and fishing glove but can’t because we’re not a “brick and mortar” store. Despite that I don’t kayak without that glove and will be buying a backup pair soon.

We do sell the VMC 4X inline hooks and I’ve found them to be strong, effective as a rear hook on bait or a lure, and very reasonably priced. I’ve never had one open up, even when landing big sharks. The guys and I are testing the Rapala Retractable Ruler, and so far, I’ve found it to be easy to deploy, shows up great in photos, and cleans up easily. We have one more in stock and if there’s demand, we’ll order more. Using Sufix 832 braid really should be a no-brainer. Since I’ve switched from the popular brand to Sufix 832 I haven’t had a problem with backlashes or break offs. The 30lb Sufix has proven to be strong enough to land 6 ft sharks, and a 49 inch 25 lb ono. 🙂

Holoholo: Oama Fly still doing work

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Jason, our prolific fly fishing Holoholo writer and in-the-water conditions reporter provides this update on his latest fly creation.

Jason: It’s been about a month since my last post “Oama Fly works!” and I’ve continued to fish the fly nearly exclusively.  Just thought I’d share some additional data points I’ve gathered since then.  The fly in question is a slightly tweaked Clay Yee’s Reef Special, a fly I had decided to try out after experiencing a few skunky weeks with my usual go-to patterns.  


Two weeks after that initial trip, I returned to the same spot with David, and managed to hook a couple more nice fish.  The smaller of the two was hooked on my old standby Super Gotcha, but the larger was hooked on the “oama fly.”   David, who wasn’t fishing an “oama fly” did not catch anything.  

A week after that, I returned once again and ran into my other friend Richard.   There were at least a half dozen other fly fisherman out, and fishing was tough due to the light winds.  I don’t think I saw anyone hook one all day, and we were about to give up ourselves when I got lucky and hooked one on – you guessed it – the “oama fly!”  

Coincidence?  The rational side of me knows that with oio, the fly typically isn’t as important as finding a fish in the right mood.  The basic Reef Special (and Clouser before it) certainly isn’t anything new, indeed it is one of the oldest patterns around.   But like most fisherman, I find once I’ve got faith in something, this becomes an awful tough thing to shake.  It’s partly why we wear lucky hats, avoid bananas on the boat, but bring the ti leaves.  In the end, it comes down to what we feel comfortable with, and this fly has definitely earned its way onto my shortlist of favorites.

Holoholo: Heeia Fishpond Fundraiser for Mauna Kea – Heeia trial nine

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This would be my ninth time fishing at the Heeia Fishpond, and I was hoping to take advantage of the rising tide for most of the time that I would be fishing there. When I got there, the conditions were pretty good for fishing, but it was also very humid due to the rain the night before, and no wind at all. Within an hour I was already soaked with sweat and it looked like I had actually fallen in the pond. I caught two Kaku on back to back casts on the Kastmaster, but then, after that I decided to go after some of the toau. Since both of my poles were occupied, I set up a handline. I had never handlined with a spool before, so unfortunately on the first toss I tossed both the bait and the $15 dollar spool of line in the water. 

Luckily, I had brought my nine foot net, and I just scooped it up. But if the water had been deeper, it wouldn’t have ended so well. I learned how to successfully throw it and landed three Toau in short order. But that was sadly the whole school of Toau. I put on an oama and started whipping with it, and I was just about to take it out of the water when a Kaku came out of nowhere and inhaled it. I was tempted to set the hook right there, but I let it swallow it and then set the hook. I landed it, and it was a decent sized 16 inch Kaku, and really fat for its size. I started to dunk some oama and then I heard the bell ring. Someone had tangled my line and I reeled it in to untangle it. The line was still halfway in while I was untangling it. After I untangled it, I put it back in the pole holder.

Immediately after, the bell started to ring again and the reel started to scream a little. This time it was a real fish. I reeled it in thinking the whole time it was a Papio, but it fought differently than I was used to. Then I saw why. A really fat moi had surfaced with my oama in its mouth. I yelled for the net and my mom came, and she started recording instead of handing me the net. I took matters into my own hands and grabbed the net, and netted the real fat moi. It was only 13 inches, but it must’ve weighed a pound and a half or a little over because it was so fat. Almost obese fat. I tagged it and released it, and watched what could’ve been a real good dinner swim away.

I started whipping shortly after with a bubble and strip rig. I was worried because the leader was only six pound, because I forgot the 20lb I usually use at Heeia because of the Kaku. I just hoped there would be no more Kaku that would bite that day. I was wrong. Far out, I saw a Kaku take the lure and jump out of the water with it in its mouth. It then took off on a short 15 yard run due to my relatively light tackle, with an eight pound mainline, but not ultralight. I worried about the six pound leader the whole time, but somehow it came in close enough for netting. It saw the net and didn’t like it at all. It took off on another run, but that was its last effort. It came in reluctantly into the net after. It was the biggest Kaku of the day, at a decent 17 inches, but good on six pound line. I bagged all of the Kaku that day, as well as the Toau, and donated them to the Heeia Fishpond staff, which were asking for donations. After that, I had a real nice strike on my dunking pole that would not stop. The hook eventually popped and I was super bummed about that. I think it was either a big Papio or Oio.

Overall, that day was sort of a success, but it could’ve been better. Interesting that almost none of the dunkers hooked up at all, but a lot of the whippers on the wall had caught fish. Once again, whipping takes the vast majority, but dunking hooks the quality fish, as it has with pretty much all my fishing trips. I think I prefer whipping. Kastmasters and strips were again KEY in catching the smart Kaku in the fishpond. Scott has some Kastmasters in his shop, the exact same kind I have, for cheaper prices than in the stores. Oama are fully in, go gettum guys.

Big omilu still catchable on outer reef

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SUP trolling veteran Kelly checked one of his east side spots last week on a moderate trade wind day, on the bottom third of a rising tide. He was trolling frozen oama he caught a couple weeks back that didn’t end up in the frying pan. Kelly uses a Korean knockoff of a Gamakatsu live bait hook in the oama’s nose and a trailing VMC 4X treble, size 8, with one hook tucked in between the anal fin and tail, closer to the tail the better.

15.5 inch omilu about to be scaled by Frank’s DIY bottle cap scaler

The fish weren’t at the closest reef he encountered so he had to go further out, against the wind, to find them on the second reef. His first bites were 14″ sized omilu and a roi. Then he found where the big fish were lying in wait, and ended up with a 15.5″ omilu and a 17″ omilu.

All but the 17″ omilu were caught on the rear treble hook.

17 inch omilu

The 17″ omilu was caught on the knock off Gamakatsu live bait hook. So much for the theory that papio usually hit the oama head first. Always good to have a back hook, whether you’re fishing your oama alive or dead.

Thanks Kelly, for letting us know that the bigger omilu are still on the reef but may be further out than they were earlier in the season.

Big omilu do eat oama!

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Don’t put away your papio gear yet! There’s still lots of catchable oama and the larger papio are still hunting them.

Elias, who had shared his unbelievable 34lb shibi land based catch of a lifetime, was fishing the West Side from the rocks, throwing into rough water estimated at about 15ft deep. He was popping a bubble with trailing Automatic Fly he won in drawing 2 years ago. when he hooked into a screamer.

The beautiful omilu went 5.2 lbs on his digital scale and had recently gorged on oama. You can see the Automatic Fly on the fish below the spinning reel. Looks like the electric blue of an omilu yeah?

I’ve never seen more than 1 oama in the stomach of a fish, and Elias’ fish had 3, so that omilu must’ve been one heck of a hunter.

So get out and fish the uncrowded beaches while the fish are still within reach!

Oama and predator report – Sept 2019

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Haven’t been getting oama reports lately and haven’t seen guys fishing the popular spots so when my friend David said he was gonna be doing some late season oama fishing, that was enough motivation to get me to check the grounds.

David had the school to himself when I arrived and the oama were 5 to 5.5″ fish with that light green color that indicated that they’d be sticking in the shallows for a while. The school size was larger than we could see from where we stood, and David had no problem getting them to eat his variety of baits. If Tina is the Oama Psychologist, David is the Oama Technologist. He loves to tweak his equipment, baits and technique to improve his catch ratio and level of enjoyment. Here’s David landing an oama with the DIY snag-free net he wrote about earlier.

I didn’t see any predators around the oama pile so I whipped the deeper water, covering a lot of ground with the Shimano Shallow Assassin with “Flash Boost” (4 inches long), but nothing was interested. I returned to shore to find the tide was a little too low on the flats and the 1 ft deep water was lined with broken pieces of limu. But there were very small iao jumping once in a while so something was hunting them. The trick was to cast lightly and hold the rod tip up so the Shallow Assassin would stay on the surface and not latch onto any limu.

15 ft in front of me the water erupted and I was tight to a fish that was taking some drag! I could see it’s silhouette because the water was so shallow, and thought it might be an oio. After a few short dashes I got a better view and realized it was a kaku putting up a spirited fight in very shallow water.

I didn’t measure it but was bigger than the small kaku I normally catch in that spot. Looks like it tried to bite the tail off the lure and it was a little tricky to extricate 2 of the 3 barbs of the treble hook to release the fish.

I walked the shoreline, casting into a foot or two of water and eventually got tired of taking limu off the hook. Put on my trusty Shimano Waxwing Baby (2.7 inches long) with rear double hook that ran snag-free and made about 50 casts before the water erupted in an “S” pattern. This was a bigger kaku and I felt it hit the lure but miss the hook. That’s the problem with the upturned double hook. It doesn’t snag limu but also doesn’t hook fish well that hit it from the side.

That ended my slow evening of whipping very shallow water with small swimming lures. Dusk arrived and David had close to a limit of oama in his fanny pack cooler to be served fried crispy for friends later. No one else joined him at the oama school that evening.

It’s the first week of September and the oama are still around in some spots but the fishers and predators seem to have gotten their fill of them and moved on. Guys are still catching papio but further out in deeper water.

Most of the halalu spots have dried up, though there’s still big schools at a few places, and those halalu are being fished hard!

The Shimano Shallow Assassin has never bolo’d. I think it’s the combination of being such a small lure that casts well and swims enticingly. Every time I’ve restocked it in the store it sold out within 2 days. But I’ll be bringing in some other really popular, hard to find JDM lures soon, so please give them a try too!

Holoholo: Eel – 2, Hunter – 0

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Holoholo writer Hunter shares a too-close encounter with an eel.

Hunter: I was out fishing Kaiser Bowls with my friend Issey on Labor Day. I was dunking dead oama while Issey was whipping with grubs. Right off the bat I had my oama followed by a 4 pound omilu which just didn’t want to bite. A few minutes later Issey hooked up to a lai which we released. Then, a while after that my pole with dead oama went off but didn’t hook up. Issey threw out his pole and hooked up to a nice 11 inch omilu. We debated on keeping it or not. Eventually we just kept it because Issey had not eaten omilu in a long time.

We decided to clean it so I jumped in the water while Issey cut open the fish. I was holding the fish while Issey pulled out the guts when all of a sudden what felt like a knife cutting pretty deep and my hand was pulled under a rock. I pulled it out and saw my fingers bleeding rapidly. Issey’s hand had also gotten cut but his was nothing compared to my cut. I applied pressure and headed back in while Issey cleaned up. The eel got a 2-fer: a piece of me and the whole omilu. Initially I thought the papio bit me, not realizing there was an eel in the water. A group of people were kind enough to help me with my injury.

Afterwards, I headed to the hospital and ended up having my wounds glued shut.

Lesson learned: Never clean a fish while in the water with its guts and blood coming out. Especially near a rock wall which is most likely housing eels. I wasn’t thinking and I paid the prices for it. Be careful and if you are near a rock wall which you think could be home to eels do not go in the water with open wounds or anything that might attract eels.

Shorefishing holoholo day

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We had been hearing that halalu were biting good at a few of the regular spots, and oama were being caught too, so Frank and I planned to just see what the day presented. Frank headed out east to the halalu spot, but they weren’t around, so we met at a spot where he could catch oama and I could throw some lures.

There was an unmolested school of 4.5″ oama that began to bite for Frank and I began to whip a 120mm (4.75″) subsurface lure. My FG knot separated on a cast and I tried to listen for the splash of the lure to retrieve it, but didn’t hear it land. Searched around for the floating lure but couldn’t find it. Ouch.

I did see a small Portuguese Man of War drifting in. My nemesis! Got stung at least 5 times last year, even while seated in my kayak! I was wearing the Anetik Shade Socks for leg protection on this day but had never tested them against stings. I warned Frank about the Man of Wars and put on the Shimano Shallow Assassin Flash Boost. Even though it was a few grams lighter than the subsurface lure was lost, it cast further because it was more compact, and had the sliding weight transfer system.

The Shallow Assassin has a fairly aggressive side-to-side wobble for such a small lure, and sure enough, I stuck a small kaku outside its mouth on the sticky sharp treble hooks.

Shortly after, an omilu pounced on the Shallow Assassin and was stuck with both hooks. Both fish hit just a crank or two after the lure hit the water, so I think the small profile of the lure matched what they were searching for.

Action slowed so I switched to a longer, jointed sub-surface lure that is the most enticing lure I own yet has never caught a fish. Well, it’s bolohead streak continues. Didn’t get another bite in the next hour. I looked towards shore, Frank was putting his oama catch in a cooler. Waded in and had to walk around a bunch of Man of War near shore. Turns out that’s why Frank quit, he was dodging 3 Man of War at a time and didn’t want to press his luck further. He caught enough oama for a couple trolling trips and I verified that the Assassin truly is a killer so we considered it a successful outing.

The online Store had sold out on the Shallow Assassins so I begged my supplier for 4 more, 1 in each color. If you want one, buy it now because these are hard to get, even in Japan. I’ll also order more Anetik Shade Socks if more people want them, please let me know. These is the first time I waded with them and they protected me from the sun and stings and didn’t sag down.