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Holoholo: Japan tackle shopping and fishing recap by Matthew

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Frequent guest poster Matthew was able to travel with his family to Japan during Spring Break and enjoy the food, tackle deals and fishing opportunities. Thanks for sharing your experience with us Matt, makes me want to go to Japan now!

Matthew: Warning: this is going to be a long one, so if you don’t have time, stop right here.

Over spring break I had a lot of fun. The day after I got out of school, I went fishing at my secret spot and got two Kaku and a Papio on some JDM’s (Japan Domestic Model products). I left for Japan, hoping to find more JDM’s and some fish.

We arrived in Osaka, stayed one night, then rode a local train to Kyoto, where we saw the monkey park and some other attractions. I found a Tackle Berry store, where I got some new used lures, even some JDM’s, some such as the Ima P-CE, and a lot others I will not name. However, the highlight of that store was a used Daiwa Sealine 250, which I got for only eight bucks. Must be a fake right? Nope, tried it when I got home and everything works fine, except for a few scratches and it being an old model.

In Tokyo, the food was so good, and one ramen place had the best ramen I’ve ever tasted. We visited Ichigaya Fishing Center, which has carp ponds. You have to pay to fish there, but it is worth it as you can catch up to twenty in an hour. I enjoyed fighting the carp on an ultra light handpole and a barbless hook. I was happy for my family, which all landed a fish. My mom and sister even landed one!

We visited the Joshuya in Shibuya, where I found the new Duel Hardcore shallow runner, which may be a limited edition, so get it while you still can. At a good price it should be 11-12 dollars in US conversion. For a general Yen price move the decimal two to the left. The shallow runner works very well, and is better than most lipped minnows, as it is not lipped, and has sort of like a built in lip, like all other Japanese lures. It is 90 millimeters and is floating, and has a knocker. Be careful not to get the mid diver, which looks exactly like it. It runs less than a foot below water when used correctly.

I also got a Pugachev’s Cobra, which is a lure that Uncle Thad likes so much. Now that I’ve tried it myself, I can see why. But for 90 millimeters it is highly priced at 19 dollars or up, some even going for 24 dollars on Amazon and Ebay. It walks very well, with a wide side to side motion. I also got a few more lures, but I have been warned to not mention their names. One works very well, with a slim nose and a nice surface action, moving around very erratically. We went to Shinjuku the next day, where we tried a fish foot spa. Some of you may have seen the video of me in the foot spa on my instagram – @shorefishing_oahu_style, but if you haven’t, then go check it out, it’s kind of funny. We went to the Tackle Berry there, where I found a used conventional for only ten dollars. Seems like Tackle Berry has good deals on used items. On research, I found out it was last made in the mid to late 1960s and was an Abu Garcia reel.

I picked up a lure that Uncle Thad had recommended, called the Daiwa Switch Hitter. It is 105 millimeters and has a neat S moving pattern 2 inches under the surface, which should drive the Kaku mad. I was lucky to find it marked off 30% of its original price, 17 dollars.

We went to a tonkatsu place next, where the chicken and pork tonkatsu was so soft, it melted in my mouth. I really liked that place.

The last fishing store we stopped at was Sansui, which is very confusing. They have two different “parts” that are broken up into four different stores, all within 1000 feet of each other. It was a huge challenge to find the saltwater part, and although it is a great place, I would advise you to not come here unless you know exactly which store you are going to, and which kind of fishing you are looking for. I purchased a Ima Komomo, which also was 90 millimeters and a diving bait with a knocker.

After five days in Tokyo, we left for Hakone, by Lake Ashi. We arrived there when it was already cold, but I couldn’t resist but to throw some lures. We ended up catching 11 smelt, but no bass or trout. After, we ate a traditional Kaiseki meal, with nine courses, which made me think my belly was going to burst. We stayed in a traditional Ryokan, with even a real Onsen. An Onsen is a lava-fed spring pool with minerals that are supposed to help with relaxation and skin issues. Only bad thing is that you have to get naked to go in there. With strangers. It was packed too, which was not good for privacy. Overall, I enjoyed the Ryokan though. The next morning, the lake was so glassy, that I couldn’t resist throwing topwater even though it was only 30 degrees fahrenheit. I somehow got a bite on my switch hitter, but it missed and was too lazy to come back for it in the cold weather.

We left Odawara Station for Osaka shortly after. When we got there, we checked into our hotel, which was very nice and in a good location. The food in Osaka was very good, unlike the fishing. I had the best crab ever at a street vendor selling king crab, Kani as they call it.

We left at five in the morning for a place in Misaki, for fishing. It was supposed to be good, but I ended up not getting a bite for four hours, and just watched my bobber move with the waves. My mom bought live Halalu, or Aji as they call it, to try lure in the Hiramasa (Japanese yellowtail). I had one do a heart-stopping circle around it before watching it leave. Again. Back to bobber fishing. Waited for another hour and a half, until, finally, I saw my bobber twitch. I broke out of my trance and watched it more carefully. Sure enough, it started moving fast across the surface. I set the hook hard, and a screamer was on. What could it be? Finally done with the junk fish, I thought to myself, and for sure a new species. No. No. No. No. No. It seems like bad luck follows me everywhere. After 30 well-fought seconds, I pulled up a fully inflated… Puffer. A puffer. Not those same pests you catch all the time in Hawaii, these can sell for hundreds of dollars per fish. But still, I was happy to finally catch a fish, but sad that it was a puffer. I was so discouraged by that, so that we left shortly after giving the Tora Fugu to a local fisherman, who was enormously grateful.

We left for Hawaii the next day, thinking about the crummy fishing, but also about how good the food was. I didn’t have a single meal that tasted bad or even mediocre in Japan. Now, time to test the JDMs. I tried my luck with the Kaku and got very lucky. I quickly got three kaku within only 45 minutes.

Next, I wanted to try bass fishing. I went to a stream and casted my topwater lure. Almost instantly, a nice size smallie demolished my bait and put up a very nice fight. I later caught a smaller one that I trapped in a pond before taking pictures.

Overall, it was a very good break and I hope to get more action on my JDM’s, and more good food like in Japan.

Matt (who is too tired to complete another long bait report)

I will do a brief bait report.

Sardines: Few, rare at this time of season

Halalu: Two piles I know of

Oama: Starting to come in, seven spots I know of

Iao: Plenty, almost everywhere

Nehu: Same as Iao

Big Moon Day: Sharks and bait stealers not around but the uku were!

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The last 3 deeper water kayak trips were plagued with sharks and bait stealers. I went out solo this week, in light wind, but wasn’t too optimistic because the moon was so big. My plan was to catch opelu (which I have yet to accomplish), then drag them around to entice the sleepy, pelagics with full bellies.

A school of 8 inch opelu actually swam by me, 10 ft below the surface, but I wasn’t quick enough to drop the damashi down, and they didn’t look like they were feeding. When I did find some marks on my Garmin Echomap 44CV, nothing bit my damashi. I could hear other kayakers on the VHF expressing how hard the bait bite was so I gave up and paddled to my spot that has yielded an uku before but lately has been the shark fighting gym.

This was still the bottom of the tide, and the current was slack. Even more reason not to expect any action but soon there was the tell tale “tap, tap, tap, yank, tap” of the uku. The yanks were harder than I had been feeling in the past, so I kept the rod in hand, with light drag and clicker on, and soon the line took off. But the fish felt too strong for an uku and I thought I was fighting another shark. Sigh. At least this one stopped after its first run and didn’t feel like it would be a half an hr battle. Then I felt the spastic headshakes of an uku, much quicker than papio headshakes, and began to hope.

My GoPro battery was drained ‘cuz I forgot to turn off the “connection mode”, so I wasn’t able to video the battle. The fish battled longer than any other uku I fought so I was still unsure what it was. When I saw my biggest uku at color, followed by a free swimming uku about the same size, there was no one to yell out to. I unsheathed the kage Frank “The Fabricator” had made for me, and was stoked to use it for the first time. Course my first stab missed the head and just caught the tip of the nose, so I pulled it out and stabbed it again. This time I got it in the collar, so it wasn’t brained but I pulled it onboard.

Used the kage again to try to kill and bleed it, hence all the holes you see in the pictures. A kage really is easier to use than a hook gaff, to penetrate fish with thick scales and skulls. Thanks Frank, it felt good in my hand. Just need more practice. 🙂

I had drifted off the spot, fighting the fish and stowing it in my fish bag, but had marked where the uku bit, so I was able to return up current of it. Dropped down, and felt the strong taps again. Maybe it was the one that came up with the first fish? This fish ran with the bait eventually but managed to shake the hooks. I planned to fish the reel in freespool with no clicker the next time a fish tapped, but that was the last bite I had for the rest of the day. The bite ended right before the tide started rising. Odd huh? Not even the pesky aha took a swipe at the bait. Is that how it works on big moon days?

I sent this pic to the guys the night before saying I hoped to catch something worth sticking

Well I had two goals for the day. 1) Catch more than 1 uku since I have never done that before, and 2) poke something with the kage Frank made per my specs: short and light.

This is how Frank ate the uku

And while I only caught one uku, it went 21.5″ in fork length and weighed about 6lb, and 5 different families got a taste.

Sure looks like the deep water kayak season has turned on!

Red hot bottom bite on the kayaks!

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Fishing had been slow onshore and nearshore for the past two months due to the drop in water temps. It’s been warmer on land lately, so it was time to check for improved water conditions. My fishing partner Frank invited his friend Christine to fish off his Hobie Revo 13 for her inaugural kayak fishing outing, and Frank tied lines, rigged baits and provided safety support on his fishing SUP.

We couldn’t have picked a better day to take a rookie out to the deep. The waves were small and the wind stayed under 8 mph most of the day, and when the west wind did blow, it was countered by the east current that bumped the water but kept us from drifting much. There even was a small rising tide to stir the fishes’ appetites.

2nd, smaller shark. Photo by Frank, off his SUP.

My first 3 drops in 130 to 170ft of water resulting in instant shark hookups. Well, the first could have been a fish (wishful thinking) because it never stopped running and popped the uni to uni splice of my Sufix 832 about 75 yds in. The other two back breaking battles were confirmed sharks that I brought to color. The 3rd shark was bigger than the 2nd, and popped the line when it saw the kayak. I licked my wounds and paddled shallower, taking Frank and Christine with me.

Bait and small predators showed up on the fish finder at 80 ft so I put a 7 inch frozen opelu down. After some hard non-hage (triggerfish) tugs only the head came back. Next opelu resulted in a wahanui, my first at this spot but Frank has caught them on past trips. You can see why the Hawaiians named the fish wahanui, or big mouth. It’s a jobfish/snapper, related to the uku, or green jobfish, but can swallow much larger prey whole.

Photo by Frank, off his SUP

Frank changed Christine’s bait from oama to small opelu and the bite was on for her! She added a thick wahanui to the aha (needlefish) she had caught trolling. I dropped down another opelu and patiently waited as my rod tip went “tap, tap, yank, tap…yank” and the ratchet went off. The fish was shaking really spastically, and running but didn’t feel too big. I was thinking it was a small, angry aha but was stoked to see a small uku, hooked in its side, come to the surface. During the frenzy with the other bait stealers, it must have run into one of the hooks.

Meanwhile, Christine was hooking and landing more wahanui and a toau (blacktail snapper). I missed a few more fish that pulled line and missed the hooks. I even fed line in freespool to a fish that eventually was hooked but had swum into a cave. Soon we were out of bait and happily headed in with fish in our cooler bags.

A bunch of kayak fishermen had landed before us and I noticed one of them had an Ocean Kayak Trident 4.7, the big brother of my Trident Ultra 4.3. His name was Robert, and it was only his second outing on his Trident (was my 2nd outing also) but he did a lot better than I did. He caught a few live opelu and fished near the area I was doing shark isometrics, and caught an 8.8 lb uku, his PB. Robert also had a kawalea (deepwater cuda) and some aweoweo. All really good eating fish!

For her first kayak fishing outing, Christine really did well. She and Frank planned to share the catch with friends and family. I did brief Frank on the perceived concern of ciquatera poisoning regarding wahanui and toau, but those two species probably aren’t any “hotter” than papio and uku. The fish weren’t too big, and the consumers weren’t people who ate a lot of reef fish, so they should all be ok.

Sure looks like the Winter Doldrums are over and it’s time to get out and fish hard!

Holoholo: Late February fish report

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Middle schooler Matthew has been actively surveying the fresh water and salt water fishing opportunities and provides this timely report.

Matthew:

Action has picked up just a little bit, but still not the desirable Papio and Kaku. I have gotten some barely legal Papio and some Kaku inshore. Besides that, they seem to have migrated offshore.

Like I said before, Smallmouth Bass fishing in streams is a good idea now, but watch the forecast and get out of the stream if it starts heavily raining. Many have died like that.

For saltwater fishing, go fishing for the less desirable fish like Moana, Roi, Toau, or Ta’ape. They are showing no disappearance in the colder months for fishing. Oio are showing up more surprisingly, with some big ones being landed still.

The smartest idea however, is to go on a boat inshore with frozen oama and slow troll. That will entice the predators right outside the surf break to eat. Trolling with lipped lures and surface lures is also a good idea. There has been a lot of wind recently, so kayaking is not often safe. Akule are starting to show up on boats inshore, fishing at night, along with some mixed catches of Opelu.

Now is the time to explore new spots that will fill with fish during the summer. I am trying ultra light fishing, with four pound line, to get the real fight out of the fish. As for bait, in some spots large schools of Iao and Nehu are showing up, so that is a plus. Early Oama are definitely starting to come in, and will be of catching size in around a few weeks. I’ve seen some very small sardines along the shore (0.5 inches), so hopefully this means it’s going to be a good Halalu and sardine fishing season this year.

However, nothing good is coming up except for Oio. Now’s a good time to try dunking (come on Uncle Scott!) and everything you didn’t do during the summer. Hope the action really picks up soon. Go gettum guys!

Maiden voyage of the NEW kayak!

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front view: Hobie Revolution 13, Ocean Kayak Trident Ultra 4.3
rear view: Ocean Kayak Trident Ultra 4.3, Hobie Revolution 13

I’ve been shopping for a true offshore capable kayak for more than a year. The ideal kayak would need to be stable in surf and chop, paddle or peddle efficiently, have easily accessible gear and fish storage, and still be car top-able. It came down to the Hobie Revolution 13 and the Ocean Kayak Trident series.

In the end I purchased one of the last Ocean Kayak Trident Ultra 4.3s Go Bananas in Kapahulu had been socking away, since the Ultras have been discontinued. I opted for the Ultra, closely modeled after the New Zealand version of the Trident, because of the large center hatch and large rear tank well that the current Tridents lack. The “Revo 13”, which my fishing partner Frank has, could probably out distance the Trident Ultra with its peddling ability, but I wanted to keep moving parts to a minimum and use the required paddling to get much needed total body exercise.

I sea trialed the Ultra with Frank on a day after a massive full moon and cold wind. As expected, the bite was really slow. The Ultra was roomy, comfortable and much more stable than the Scupper Pro I’ve been paddling, and it was easy to open the center hatch to get to gear and bait. On flat water with no wind, it required more paddling energy to get it moving than the lighter, thinner Scupper Pro, but the Ultra punched through a head wind and choppy seas better than the Pro, because of the sharp upturned bow.

Can’t wait to fight a good sized fish on it, and store said fish safely on board. Stay tuned for walk around video where John from Go Bananas talks about the merits of the Ultra and all the mods he made to my boat to make it safer to use.


Winter Doldrums have set in

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In case you were wondering, the recent cold winds have chilled the water and shut down the nearshore fishing. The shore guys, kayak guys and even boaters have been pulling up goose eggs.

Another El Nino has reportedly started in south western part of the US and hopefully makes its way to us soon.

Please let us know when your luck improves!

Holoholo: Omilu on raw chicken breast!

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6th grade Hunter shares another unusual catch, this time it’s the bait he used that was eye opening.

Hunter:

I was fishing down Kaneohe on Super Bowl Sunday hoping to get some fish for Super Bowl. Right off the bat, I hooked up to a solid size omaka but it came off at the net. I decided to try my luck at the uluas. Eventually I ran out of sanma so Uncle Norman gave me chicken breast. The idea sounded crazy, but he told me he caught a pao pao on Canadian bacon, so I put on the chicken breast.

At first only small papio were biting and the uluas kept coming up but turning at the last second. Then Uncle Mike came and started chumming. Then the big school of omilus came in so I dropped my bait down. After about 2 minutes I looked up to check my dunk and suddenly my line felt tight and my pole started flexing.

Note chicken hanging from its mouth

Here’s the thing about Kaneohe. To catch anything under the pier you must use lock drag or the fish will wrap you around the pillars, so fighting the omilu was basically just tug o war. After a little bit of back and forth fighting, I brought the 15 inch omilu to the surface and Uncle Norman netted it with Uncle Mike’s net.

The secret chicken bait is in the upper right hand corner

Holoholo: Heeia Fishpond La Holoholo – January 2019

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Our middle school Holoholo writer Matthew provided this catch report/safety tip/bait report to let us know we can still catch fish in January.

Matthew:
Heeia fishpond was having a fundraiser La Holoholo in January, So I signed up for it. When I got there and walked out, the first half of the pond was totally murky, with only 2 inch visibility. I was super worried, but when I got further out, the water turned clear (because of the water flow in the makahas).

I got there, with not a single bite for the first two hours, but then when the tide changed, I saw a big school of very small nehu. I put the smallest kastmaster I had, and casted outside of the pond. I got a few bumps, then looked and realized a school of Omilu was on the lure. I had a big one on, but it fell off immediately. As soon as the lure came off, a small one picked it up and I was on. It fought hard for just a little 11 incher, and I netted it after a short and feisty fight.

I kept casting it and landed a kaku on the inside of the pond, maybe around 15 inches. I then landed a kaku on the outside, around 13 inches, and tagged it. I started dunking in the inside. I then continued to whip on the outside, but got no more bites for around an hour. Then I got a blind omilu strike out of nowhere, but since I was not expecting it, I didn’t land it. I kept covering ground, and eventually got a 19 inch kaku on the outside that bent the only treble of the tiny hook I hooked it on. I changed the hooks then kept fishing.

I came back to see my dunking line all slack and leading towards the rocks. I knew it was an eel, so I locked down the drag completely and boosted it in. It was a ticked off “green head puhi”, and a fat one too, around 3.5 to 4 feet long and maybe 10 pounds. I got a pic of it, and cut the line. There was a large portion trailing out of the mouth, and I felt bad, so I reached closer to cut it. A VERY fatal mistake. The surprised eel lashed out and bit me two times. It hurt pretty bad, and I was mad so I kicked the eel very hard into the water, and then washed my hand off with saltwater. In case of an eel bite, their teeth do not inject toxin, but they have lots of bacteria on it. It is best to put pressure on the wound after washing it off and removing any teeth if they fall off. You should then put hydrogen peroxide on it and bandage it up. Keep putting ointment on it, and if it gets infected go see a doctor. The easiest way to prevent it is not to put your hands near an eel’s mouth, as this is a dumb injury. The day wasn’t worth it, but in total I tagged four more fish, bringing my total up to 53 total tagged fish. I hope to reach 80 by the end of 2019.

Bait Report
Most bait schools are gone, although there is one halalu school I still know of that’s hanging around. Early/late oama are coming in, and are very small. Wait a month or so, then they will be catching size. Small nehu are showing up everywhere and it may be a good idea to pull out the small kastmasters. The spring hatch of aholehole is happening, and a lot of those are around. Shoreline fishing is very slow with large lures, and I am catching all my fish on smaller lures now. On one trip, I got no bites at all on the big lures that killed it during the summer, but they jumped all over my small kastmaster. Yet another option again is to try smallie fishing. I like to fish for them two days after a big rain. You should also try new techniques, and I may try fly fishing during this off season. I’ve tried it before and it’s very hard, but the fight is insane. Go gettum during these hard times guys…

Holoholo: Big pao’pao from shore!

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Hunter is a 6th grader and fishes as often as he can.  I fished with him and his middle school crew last year, which turned out to be my last halalu outing for the year.  Here’s how we did.

Hunter wanted to share his truly exceptional catch from shore – big pao’pao, or golden trevally he caught a week before Christmas.  Thanks Hunter!

Hunter:
I was fishing in Kaneohe Bay with my Grandpa and my Uncle Dean, when my uncle’s pole went off. It was peeling line off the real really fast, and caught us off guard. We were fishing for Pualu, and it was evident that this was not a Pualu. Uncle Dean told me to start reeling in the pole, so I started to reel it in. I kept thinking throughout the fight that it was a stingray or a shark, but after five minutes, it came to the surface and felt a lot lighter and started moving around more. A little while later, it came close to us and we saw the signature golden flash of a big Pao’pao.

At this time, I was pretty exhausted and handed the pole over to my uncle to finish the job. It took a little bit of skill to get it up to us, but Uncle Al came and netted it for us.

When we got home, we weighed it and it weighed five pounds and 10 ounces. My parents were delighted to have a Pao’pao. We ate some as sashimi, and then cooked the rest. Too bad I couldn’t have caught it later for Christmas!

 

Choke strikes, back breaking fight and a jelly fish sting!

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We picked a perfect light wind, small surf day on the South Shore for our last outing of 2018.  Frank on his Hobie Revolution 13, Kelly on his Costco SUP softy and me on my Scupper Pro were safely able to fish 2 miles out.  Frank was on a mission to catch live opelu, and Kelly paddled frozen oama around.  The opelu were spotted but didn’t bite for Frank and me.

I gave up trying to catch bait and put on some small, frozen opelu.  The baits were hit hard, with drag pulled but most didn’t stay on too long. The ones that showed themselves were aha so I paddled out deeper and dropped down on a spot we’ve caught uku and lost screamers before.

Instantly I got picked up by a strong, fast running fish that took half my line, more than 150 yds.  I was hoping it wasn’t a shark but the leader eventually cut at the rear hook and had some nicks in it.  I paddled back to the same spot, assuming “if got sharks got fish” and dropped another bait down. This one got picked up by what felt like a shark from the beginning.  I tried to break it off but it stayed on for more than 30 minutes as my back strained and my left bicep cramped.  And a not so funny thing happened.  As I was trying to pull the shark from the deep, what looked like a clear jellyfish tentacle was clinging to my main line (braid). I swished the tentacle free in the water but it must have drifted over to my ankle I had over the side of the kayak, and stung me. I felt the sting hours later on land.

 

I got the shark to color but it didn’t want to come up higher than 7 ft under the water.  It looked bigger than 5 ft to me, but at that point I may have been prone to making this gladiator sound bigger than it was. Didn’t feel safe unhooking it on my tippy Scupper Pro so I cut the line and it swam free.

The shark had dragged me about a quarter mile from where we started, and I didn’t want to hook another in the shark hole so I paddled in shallower. Felt good to shake out my tired arms that way.

Dropping another 6 inch frozen opelu down resulted in a foul hooked aha so I put on a 10 inch opelu.  Shark number 3 grabbed it, but I was able to pop it off.

Meanwhile, Kelly was slow trolling his oama on the way in and landed 4 of 6 aha strikes, mostly on the rear hook. He consistently has a very high landing ratio, and does it all standing or sitting on a foam SUP with no rod holder or net.  He kept two of the aha, fried them up as fish nuggets and will write up a catch and cook soon.  Frank stuck to his plan to damashi for opelu but just got incidentals for his efforts.

There was so much bait around  (opelu, flying fish, etc) I was really hopeful that we’d connect with a pelagic. At least 15 of my opelu baits were slammed.  Just didn’t convert those strikes to the target species.  Next calm weather day we’re gonna go even further out to avoid the aha, and maybe troll faster to attract pelagics instead of sharks.

I have purchased a wider, more stable offshore kayak I’m hoping will feel much safer battling big creatures in the deep.  I’m tired of using my legs as pontoons to stabilize the Scupper Pro and getting stung by jellyfish in the process!

 

Holoholo: Big oio and yellow spot papio caught in cold shallow water on a fly

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Jason has been a shore fisherman since he could walk in the water with his dad.  He started fly fishing for oio in 2016.  He has a unique vantage point to provide fish reports since he’s standing in the water for hours looking for fish.  Here’s a short recap of a recent successful outing.

Jason:
It was a chilly and windy December morning, but I had been jonesin’ to fish all weekend, so I decided to go. The tide was also up which meant spotting the few fish that were around would be difficult, and I would be mostly blind casting.

As expected, the day started out pretty slowly. At some point i missed something that felt like a small papio, but other than that, no bites and no fish sighted. After a few hours of blind casting like a mad man, suddenly, out of the blue, I felt a subtle take, followed by a sharp tug – I set the hook and it was on! It felt like a pretty nice fish, and I must’ve wrestled with it for a good 5-7 minutes before finally bringing it to hand. A friend was about 100 yards east of me, so I waded over and got him to snap a few photos before I released the oio.

I went back to the same spot, still basking in the glow of the oio catch and thinking the day was just about over when I suddenly felt another good take. This time it felt a bit different. It ran hard, but in shorter spurts, and when brought in close, I noticed it tended to sit passively in the current, hardly moving. “papio!”, I said aloud to myself. A short while later, I brought it in close enough to see color and sure enough, I saw the electric blue outline of a nice yellow-spot papio. I had caught two around the same size in this channel about a year ago, so it seems to be a hot spot for them. Not bad action for a chilly and windy December morning…

Holoholo: Middle of December Bait and Predator Report

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Middle schooler Matthew provided this status report since I haven’t checked the shoreline scene in a while. Much Mahalos, Matt!

Matthew:
Over the past few weeks, I have noticed that fishing has gotten a lot slower. A few baitfish here and there are still around, but the nehu schools have vanished, as well as almost all of the late oama and the halalu. An interesting sight now are schools of moilii, or baby moi. These are around the island in tidepools and shallow areas.

Most of the papio are gone, but if you somehow have live oama for bait, dunking in a channel may produce one.  Kaku are still around, but just not in the levels they were in the summer. Whipping along the shoreline with small lures such as spoons, grubs, and small jigs may work now, as there really isn’t much big bait. Oio bites are getting more common though, and a few big ones have been brought up this week so far by baitcasters.

 

 

Another bad factor is that the days are getting really short, which means less time to fish. What I have been doing recently though, is going stream fishing for smallies (smallmouth bass). I ended catching my first one, and the fight is pretty similar to a papio. The smallies appear to not be affected by the changing seasons. If you do have a boat, now would be a good time to use it, as fish are moving to deeper waters along with the baitfish. If you can catch a few live opelu, you are pretty much set to catch a big papio or ulua with it, as well as other predators. Opelu, however, are getting plentiful, so that is a plus.

Getting it done on the inshore and nearshore jobfish (snappers)

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Frank and I finally had a kayak outing with light wind and small surf conditions that lasted all day.  I started out by breaking off my transducer mount that hangs over the side, but Frank did a quick repair with zip ties and duct tape to restore my eyes beneath the kayak.  Can’t beat a fishing partner that keeps you safe on land and water, and can quickly repair stuff you break in the field!

We trolled halalu out to the deep and our baits started getting mauled at the 70ft depth, but nothing stayed on the hooks.  Then Frank landed a good sized wahanui (smalltooth jobfish), common on the Big Island but not so common on Oahu anymore.  He has a knack for catching them; he caught one trolling at the exact same coordinates back in February.

More baits were stripped so we hit a deep area I had marked on the GPS.  I kept bringing up just the head of my halalu bait after feeling slight taps, despite the trailing hook tucked in the tail section, so I dropped down to the bottom and brought the bait a third of the way up.  This time I got some hard tugs and the bait was completely gone.  I put on a whole, 8 inch frozen opelu out of desperation and lowered it to what I thought was more than half way down.  Got a hard tug that pulled a bit of drag, and I waited a few seconds and got another tug and then line pulled off quickly. Finally something was solidly hooked!  The fish made some smooth, straight runs away from me and I wasn’t sure what it was until I saw color. Uku, or blue green jobfish, as it’s known in other places!

Until I pulled this photo off the GoPro, I didn’t realize that my paddle, net and shirt sleeve match the uku’s shades of blue!  I dispatched it with my bat, and squeezed it into my small 20 inch long fish bag that was stuffed with frozen bait and a frozen water bottle.  Pressure was off, with each of us putting a good eating jobfish in our bags, and we resumed the job of catching more fish. See what I did there? 😉  Instead, we missed fish and I went through my frozen bait supply and drank my bottle of water.  The uku sat in the bag for 3 hrs with just a block of Arctic Ice and wasn’t as chilled as the one I caught a week ago.

I cleaned it when I got home, and the guts smelled a little fishier than the last time too. It measured 19.5 inches, 1 inch shorter than last week’s and this one had male gonads like the previous one.  Kelly advised me to filet it right away, wrap it in paper towels, and store in the coldest part of the fridge. My parents cooked one filet on day 2, and I changed the paper towels daily on the other filet. 3 days later it still smelled fresh despite my oversight in not cutting out the blood section under the skin and was made into seared uku poke and deemed “super ono” by Thad our JDM expert.

Holoholo: Fish and Dive Expo 2018

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7th grader Matthew generously shares his Fish and Dive Expo experience with us. His mother was his in-the-field photographer.

Matthew:

 

 

 

 

 

The Hawaii Fish and Dive expo… Rumored to be the biggest fishing event in the Hawaiian Islands every two years. I heard some people even flew in from other islands to come to it. Starting off the bat, getting there and watching the fish in the man made pond is always frustrating, but is also fun to watch all of your dream fish swimming side by side. After you finally get in, there is usually a mad rush for the Campania Lures booth. Especially this year because they were selling a very realistic looking oama soft bait, and were only selling ten each day of the expo. The price on the oama lure was 15 dollars each, and you only got one bait per package. A little pricey, but I thought I would try and get it anyways. As soon as I went through the gate, I sprinted to the Campania booth… But instead ended up at the bathrooms. Oops, wrong isle. By the time I ran back to the right isle, there was a hefty line, and by the time I got to the front, it was sold out. I still bought some other goodies from the Campanis booth including some new colors. They had made a new color just for the expo called “El Richie”.

The J.Hara booth had some good deals too, including a closeout sale of Maria’s “Ma-Worms” which is an interesting looking grub. They were selling it for an absurd price of 10 packs for $1! They charged me $10 instead of $1, but that was still fine since even if they sold it for $1 each, the normal price per pack was $5. They were also selling Maria hard lures (Jig-like things, crankbaits, and jerkbaits similar to Yo-Zuri ones) for only $2 each! I bought two that looked a lot like an oama. They also had a good deal for a long net for $8.99.

 

 

I also checked out the Hanapa’a booth, and they had discounted rod holders, J-Line, and reels including the Daiwa Saltist I had heard about from my friend. I checked out some other booths that sold some Ulua Poppers, stickbaits, and jigs, including discounted micro-jigs in sardine color, so I bought one for $4.99.

 

 

I also checked some other booths out, but nothing really appealed too much to me, so I checked out the Tag-It booth. I met Uncle Clay, talked to him a little bit, and then left to wander a little bit more.

I then checked out Uncle Kevin at the Hobie and (I think?) Bloody Yaks booth. He had his giant kayak on display! It looked to be around 25 feet long, bigger than the average small boat. Overall, this year’s expo was better than 2016’s one. This was clearly an event that you can’t miss once it comes up especially when compared to the only other “fishing” expo, the Ocean Expo.

 

 

 

Fish Status:
Oama are definitely thinning out, with almost all of the traditional spots barren. There are a few spots which I will not name that I have seen new, “dumb” oama that just came in, so this may be the last “wave” before they all leave, so get your Oama now and stock up. Halalu are pretty much gone by now, with only the late season spots holding some, like Haleiwa, Waimea, and Kahe Power Plant. Campbell may have some, but I hear it’s mainly blind casting over there. Kewalo has been barren of Akule for a good 4 months now, and may come back soon. Sardines are all gone now, with maybe a pile scattered here and there, but not much any more. There may be some in deeper water that you can catch off damashi and kayak. Iao and Nehu are still in abundance, but are getting quite larger, which is attracting larger predators, but also means that they may leave the safety of the shallows soon. Another strange abundance I have been seeing is Mullet (not sure if they are Uoa’uoa or Ama’ama) all ranging from three inches to six or so inches. Sometimes there is even a large ball of mullet I see. It may be worth a shot to try snag one then toss it out past the school. Bait season is ending, so Papio and Omilu are starting to head back into deeper water, so try and get them soon.

Sharing fish, a Hawaiian tradition

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It’s Hawaiian culture to share your catch with family and friends, especially with those who are unable to go out and catch for themselves.  I’m not a big fish eater and rarely bring home more than one fish, so I didn’t participate in this tradition too much.  But a friend from church had asked me if I could keep hage for him, if I caught that incidentally, and I thought that would be a slam dunk.  Turns out I didn’t get to fish much since he asked, and when I did, I didn’t bring up any of those bait stealers.

I mentioned this to Capt Darren, so he kept a big, unusual looking deepwater hage during a Penguin Banks trip.  When I picked it up, he insisted I also take a yellowspot papio for my friend since he has never had one before, and an uku and yellowspot for my family.  Uku and yellowspot are my favorite fish to eat because they are not fishy and you can sashimi/poke them as well as steam and fry.  And, it’s possible that I can catch them myself nearshore.  Besides ono and nabeta, they are the only ones I cook at home.  I felt a little “shame” to take such good fish when I just went to pick up a hage, but Capt Darren said no big deal, he just likes to share with people who appreciate the fish he quickly chills in a salt water/ice cube brine on the boat to slow down the spoiling process.

The uku looked big by my standards, although he said it wasn’t big but it wasn’t small either.  I didn’t weigh it but measured it at 20.5″ FL.  I told him I’d be stoked to ever catch an uku that size on my kayak.  That night, the day after the fish were caught, I made a simple onion, inamona, sesame oil, Hawaiian salt and chili flake poke with some uku and yellowspot. The uku was so fresh it still was very firm, whereas the yellowspot was much softer. Both were very good, and good together with the contrasting texture.  I shared the uku and yellowspot with my parents and collectively we ate them raw, steamed, sato-shoyu and fried.  I don’t like cooked fish because it tastes fishier than raw, but wanted to see how the day 3 (two days out of the water) uku poke would be lightly fried. Had the tiniest fishy aftertaste but I liked the flavor and texture.  Capt Darren really does take care of his fish!

He also gave me their leftover fresh halalu bait that his first mate had caught since I was going kayak fishing the next day. I’d be targeting uku and yellowspot, but I figured “pressure is off” since my church friend got his hage and bonus yellowspot and my family got such prime fish.  I was moved by Capt Darren’s generosity and didn’t think I’d ever catch such a big uku on my kayak. Turns out I was wrong! Here’s what happened trolling that fresh dead halalu bait!

 

 

Holoholo: Oama still around, papio still whacking them!

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Holo holo SUP fishing (again)

Hi Scott,
Some fat oama are still around and the live oama you gave us were ACTION JACKSON!
A couple of weekends ago we went in inside the waves on the south shore of Oahu and had a blast! I took home three 3-pound omilu and a couple of 2-pounders and one 2 pound roi. My partner got a few small papio and a small barracuda. Didn’t get very good pics, but here is a shot of some of the catch before cleaning. The papio were all caught in the morning, near the top of a 1.9’ high tide and all fish had empty stomachs. We made sashimi, nanbanzuke, vina dos, and some chiri (soup). My wife is a good cook and it was all sooo onolicious!
Shoots,
Kelly

Tin Boat – No Fish Finder, No Problem

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I had planned to cautiously explore a new area 2 miles out by kayak but the wind forecast kept changing so Capt Erik graciously offered to take me on his aluminum 14ft Lowe 1457 with 9.9 hp Yamaha tiller motor.  The winds were under 8 mph at launch time and the waves weren’t bad. Capt Erik used his Navionics mobile app to provide navigation and we zipped out, past the waves, to the furthest of his spots he wanted to check that were within kayak distance from shore.

Capt Erik tested the surface bite by throwing a Yo-zuri Bull Popper and I dropped down the front half of an opelu on the bait rig.  We didn’t have a fish finder but the Navionics app said we were in about 60 ft of water.  Nothing was called up by Capt Erik’s popper and my opelu just got picked apart if it was too close to the bottom.  Capt Erik switched to an Ahi USA damashi rig he tipped with plastic grubs and started getting moana and taape.  The taape were kept to “clean the reef” of invasives, and the bigger moana were kept to join the fish fry.  His damashi action looked a lot more fun than the non-action I was getting, so I put the bait rod in the rod holder and used my jig rod with a 2 hook damashi set. I put on a CHL Luk E. Lee (emerald green) Minnow and a Purple Obake Minnow I had left over from halalu fishing.

We were bringing up fish on the damashi but nothing too outstanding (hage, table boss, small goats) so Capt Erik kept moving us to the next mark he had on his Navionics app.  I was surprised that not even a papio hit the baited line with halalu so I asked if we could go deeper.  Big fish live in deeper water, right?  By the length of the fall of our damashi rig, we guessed were were in 100 ft of water or more. Nothing hit our damashi or the halalu for a while, and then I finally hooked something on the damashi that made my rod tip twitch in a weird way. Turned out to be the slimy trumpetfish or nunu.  What was he doing all the way down there in that barren depth?  Capt Erik drove the boat even deeper and then he brought up a bigger nunu!

Without a fish finder we couldn’t easily locate drop offs so Capt Erik went further out and I reset the bait rig with a 6 inch frozen halalu about 12 cranks from the bottom.  We used the damashi to gauge depth and bottom hardness, and I kept bouncing mine on the bottom.  Suddenly my bait rig went off and the fish kept running!  I had to bring in my damashi from a long way down but Capt Erik offered to reel it up so I could set the hook on the fish.  The mystery fish had taken quite a bit of line and when I settled into the fight it felt heavy and strong.  Bigger than any uku I’ve fought, no head shakes like an ulua, and too slow to be a pelagic.  I was thinking “shark” by the steady pull with short breaks mixed in but Capt Erik said that a shark would’ve cut the line by now unless my Gamakatsu Live Bait hook or trailing VMC 4X Inline hook found its way into the corner of the mouth.

 

 

 

 

 

The next likely suspect was a kahala but I didn’t feel the head shakes associated with that species.  I tried to bring it up as quick as I could but it had other plans.  It took more than 6 minutes to get it to the surface, and it was 20 lb class kahala. Man those fish are really strong!  I was thinking medium sized shark the whole time.   The Gamakatsu Live Bait hook was perfectly set in the corner of the mouth and the trailing VMC Inline hook was busted off!

In this photo the CHL Purple Obake Minnow looks like a goatfish’s barbel!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I asked Capt Erik what is found with kahala in the depths and he said kawakawa, shibi, etc so I hurriedly dropped another bait down after releasing the kahala.  Capt Erik saw the scum line where two currents came together and put us on a drift towards that.  He felt his damashi weight settle softly and surmised we were over sand. The deep water lizardfish he brought up confirmed that.  Wishful thinking, I announced that nabeta often are caught with those lizardfish, since we had experienced that on the Big Island last year.  On my next damashi drop I felt small head shakes and some resistance and brought up the coveted nabeta on the CHL Obake Purple Minnow!  We couldn’t believe we stumbled upon deep water gold.

Capt Erik dropped his 6 hook damashi set down and hooked something immediately.  He very carefully reeled his catch to the surface and it was a whopper of a yellow/brown nabeta! That one looked more like deep water gold!  We drifted off the spot and started catching lizardfish.  A few birds were circling above and we could see 10 inch fish tail slapping the surface.  I readied for the screamer that never came.  All that activity must’ve spooked the nabeta because we weren’t catching anything on the bottom.  Luckily Capt Erik marked the first nabeta spot with his Navionics app and took us back to it, so we could follow the same drift down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We both hooked up on our first drop and I was really impressed with Capt Erik’s navigational skills to gauge depth and drift with just the mobile gps app.  Despite having to run the boat, he jumped out to a big lead as I started to miss fish and drop them on the elevator ride up.  He was up 7 to my 2 and we were nearing our departure time.

I really wanted to add to the fish count knowing how coveted these fish are and rallied with 3 more at the end.  Our lofty goal was to get 10 nabeta and we ended up with 12!

Fishing with Capt Erik and his very upbeat personality is always a good time, but finding “our” own secret nabeta hole with just the Navionics app made it a trip of a lifetime.

 

 

Cooking Tip: Yesterday I fried one of the big yellow nabeta that Erik caught but it didn’t brown and crisp up because I didn’t leave it frying long enough. The meat still tasted good but the skin and scales weren’t like the fried panko they were supposed to be. Kelly said to just deep fry on medium heat until the skin turned brown, flipping it if the fish wasn’t covered by oil. I did that to this nabeta and look how onolicious it came out!

Finally, we were able to safely fish the deep!

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Overloaded Scupper Pro in red, new Hobie Revolution 13 in orange.

Tropical Depression Paul replaced our normal trade wind high pressure system (my dad is a former meteorologist) so Frank and I launched from an eastside beach and threaded the needle through the breaks in the surf.  Frank was pedaling his brand new Hobie Revolution 13, and I was struggling to paddle my overloaded Scupper Pro to the deep. The ocean was so calm we could hear the sound of water lapping on surface. I mistakenly thought I was hearing fish tailing!  My fresh dead oama didn’t get touched so at 40 ft I put on a live oama and it got hit instantly.  I released the 10 inch omilu and put another live oama on.

Frank was trolling a whole, frozen opelu on a wire leader with an egg sinker near the front hook and something big ate it in 90 ft of water.  My fish finder was showing bait around there so I marked the spot as I got into GoPro view of Frank.  The fish pulled doggedly, and spun him around a couple of times.  Frank spotted a long, silver fish that looked like his first ono he got last fall, so he pulled out his homemade, brand new kage and speared it but the point kept bouncing off the gill plate and the fish would jump after each stabbing. Frank and I were both cracking up at his first attempt with the kage.  Finally he safely secured his “ono” but on closer examination it turned out to be a kaku, later weighing in at 10.6 lb!  Our fish eating experts have advised Frank that kaku is delicious but has been implicated in ciquatera poisonings. Small portions of the filet portion of a kaku this size should carefully consumed.

Seeing Frank’s action on a big bait, I pulled off my live oama, added a 3/4 oz bullet weight to my 1/2 oz bullet weight and put on a frozen halalu.  I free spooled it down and because the winds were so light, the 1 1/4 oz weight reached the bottom. Just as I engaged the reel the line took off!  The head shakes felt like a good size papio so I was surprised when a kahala, smaller than the papio I was picturing, surfaced.  Not wanting to deal with worms and the small chance of cig, I released it. The kahala battled hard from the bottom, up to maybe 50ft, then got sluggish as it tried to depressurize. It swam off strong on release though.

I put on another frozen halalu, and Frank resumed trolling whole opelu as we ventured further out. At 130 ft I added another 3/4 oz bullet weight to my trolling setup, bringing it to 2 oz.  The halalu got picked apart by hage so I knew I was getting to the bottom.  When we reached 200 ft my bait took off horizontally, caught in a strong deep water current and probably never got close to the bottom.  Frank was further out than I was and closer to a loud splash that sounded like a small whale breaching.  The large creature did it again and it didn’t look like a whale!  Frank said the shark had told us twice to leave his fish alone so we turned around and worked our way in!

 

 

The bottom quickly rose from 90 to 50 ft, and the fish finder picked up a lot of fish on those ledges.  I dropped a jig down and before I could work it back up my trolling rig with halalu went off.  The fish was still on by the time I stowed the jig rod, and I had a fun scrap with what I thought was a 4lb omilu but it only taped out to 15.75 inches at home.

With Frank’s big kaku and this omilu in my fish bag filled with Arctic Ice blocks and frozen bait, the front hatch area of my kayak was top heavy.  I was trying to turn side saddle to reach behind me and the fish bag shifted and I came as close to huli-ing as I ever have! Thank God there were no waves to help push me over.  I’ve been adding all kinds of stuff to fish the deep and my kayak is bogging down under the weight. Gotta remove unneeded stuff and place some things behind me to even out the weight distribution. Thanks Jon S., early member of the Aquahunters, for the suggestion!

Frank hooked a papio that eventually rocked him, and I had fish hit my trolled baits and pull drag, then take the bait. I’m guessing they were aha.  The surf looked bigger and I couldn’t paddle quick enough to navigate the surf channels so I paddled really wide around the surf zone.  Frank stayed closer to the waves, nimbly avoiding them with his speedy Revo 13 and patiently waited for me to plod in. By the time we reached shore, after paddling nearly 6 hrs, I was wiped out and cramped up from paddling my bloated kayak.

Frank’s inaugural outing on his Revo 13 was a complete success.  His handmade rod and paddle tethers worked well and his custom kage did the job on the kaku.  He said the pedaling was much easier than paddling but his legs did feel it the next day.

Propelling himself hands free, he was able to rig lines, drink water, follow the fish and even reverse to give himself space to land his fish.  I could barely pull my yak onto the sand but Frank had energy to spare.

I didn’t get the deeper water species I was targeting but learned some new grounds and caught my first kahala via kayak.  I also discovered limitations to the way my kayak was rigged and to my mid-50s body. I think a Hobie is in my near future.

 

 

 

 

Kayak deep water fails | SUP shallow water successes

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I’ve been relentlessly trying to fish the deeper water (100 ft to 250 ft) on my kayak in the hopes of getting better at catching tasty bottomfish and pelagics,  Unfortunately days of small surf and light wind on the south and east shores have been extremely rare. We even tried fishing the north west side of Oahu when Hurricane Miriam was supposed to block the trade winds, but the winds were blowing a dangerous 15 to 20 mph.  I bailed after my prescription Maui Jim sunglasses were blown off the top of my cap without me even feeling or knowing it.  Those were the best sunglasses I ever had and I was one grouchy guy for the next couple of days.   It was only a few months ago that I reviewed those Maui Jim Twin Falls. Here’s that review. RIP Maui Jim Twin Falls.

The last time I caught a fish in the deep worth keeping was back in February.  Here’s that write up.  That’s a long, frustrating drought.  In the meantime Kelly has been fishing the inshore reefs off his foam SUP minimalist-style with his rod tucked in the back of his shorts.  His success rate has been much higher than mine this oama season because he has a good grasp of where the shallow reef predators like to hang out, and can handle getting tossed by the waves once in a while. Since I can’t catch fish I asked Kelly to write up his last outing.

Kelly:

Recently, I went holo holo on the south shore of Oahu with the kids after work and got a few oama for pupus and bait. The next day was very windy, so my SUP fishing options were limited. I decided on a semi-sheltered spot that seems to produce small papio regularly and ended with a mixed bag.

 

The moana kali was about 11” and was a nice bonus fish on my last oama. Note: I sometimes take smaller roi to eat –they are sooo ono steamed– however I cut off the head and belly areas to (hopefully) reduce cig risk a little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is how I made the larger papio, which was about 3 pounds.  Please click on the photos to zoom in.

“Live oama” vs “dead oama” vs “no oama” comparison

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The winds dropped this past Sunday and Monday (Labor Day) due to Hurricane Miriam blocking the trades.  Perfect conditions to see how “live oama” vs “dead oama” vs “no oama” compare.

Kelly’s SUP caught omilu

I wasn’t able to coordinate live oama pickup with Kelly so he SUP fished the south shore reefs on Sunday with frozen oama. He caught four omilu and a kaku trolling 7 frozen oama in 2.5 hrs.  He released a small omilu and the kaku.

Also on Sunday, Erik fished the east side throwing plugs from the small boat and didn’t get a single sniff.

 

Tori and Keely with the results of their short, successful trip

On Monday, Labor Day, Darren trolled live oama in the same general area Erik plugged. His crew was his daughter Keely and her friend Tori, and they trolled live oama for two hours in the morning.  They registered double and triple strikes, ending up with 8 omilu landed on 12 live oama, keeping 3.

At the same time, in the same area, Erik’s dad Ed took the tin boat out for some dead oama trolling with his two cousins. In 5 hrs of fishing they caught 10 omilu.

So live oama trolled by boat yielded 4 fish an hr, dead oama trolled by boat yielded 2 fish an hr, dead oama trolled by SUP yielded 1.6 fish an hr (didn’t count the kaku), and plugs didn’t work in the area where the papio were keyed in on oama.  Very small test sample and varying number of anglers and lines out but it supports the idea that live oama near the reef will get bit during the oama season, and dead oama will get bit, but just not as quickly as live oama.  Throwing lures on the papio looking for oama is a tough sell right now.

Frank and I ended up not kayak fishing because the storm generated waves sounded a little too risky.