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What does the Hawaiian Yellowtail aka Hiramasa taste like?

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This winter, an abundance of “Hawaiian Yellowtail” have been caught in deep water spots from both shore and boats.    Not to be confused with the common kahala (greater amberjack) or the kampachi (almaco amberjack), these true yellowtail look like a smaller version of the Japanese or California yellowtail, and have been known to show up occasionally but not in the numbers seen in the last few months.  Maybe the water has been a little cooler than our normal winters and they found it to their liking?  The local jiggers have been referring to them as “hiramasa” which is the name of one of the two Japanese yellowtails. The other Japanese yellowtail is called hamachi when it is small and farm raised, or buri, when it is larger, and is usually wild caught.  Confusing I know.  But anyway, we were very interested to hear how the Hawaiian Yellowtail tastes.  On social media, I’ve heard people say it made great sashimi but I hadn’t heard a definitive description of the taste.

So Erik, our boat popping and jigging enthusiast, went searching for them and his dad Edwin jigged one up.  Erik passed the fish on to Thad, our JDM product expert and sashimi connoisseur, to properly review.

Erik:
Me and Dad decided to fish during the Super Bowl since my team wasn’t in it (49ers) and Dad has no interest in football.  We did want to catch the end of the game so we decided that we’d stay closer to shore.

We departed from Kahalu’u on our 14’ aluminum Lowe boat with Yamaha 9.9hp tiller around kickoff and headed toward a different spot than our normal jigging area.

My favorite type of fishing is topwater so I decided to start with that since there was a lot of rubbish around.  On my first cast of a 60gram plug I was quickly hit by something that let go almost as fast as it hit.  No drag was pulled but my pole definitely bent and I got excited.  My dad was able to catch the bend at the corner of his eye and quickly dropped his 2 ounce jig to the bottom.  On my 4th or 5th cast I got a chase and saw the electric yellow line of the elusive hiramasa.  I could tell the fish was getting used to seeing the plug and switched to another topwater lure that I’ve hooked mahi on.  The masa seemed to like the faster retrieve so I reeled as fast as I could for 5 revolutions, paused for half a second and continued the pattern.  Bango!  Hit again . . . Pulled drag for less than a second before coming free again.

I noticed my dad was jigging like he would in our kahala area and he thought that it was a kahala so I recommended he speed jig all the way to the surface.  Well, he took my advice and got the masa.  Fight wasn’t too long but the fish certainly gave a strong fight.  From the way I watched him fight and the way he explained the feeling of the fish, Dad and I both agreed that the hiramasa was pound-for-pound a better scrap than kahala.

After we snapped some pics I knew I wanted to get Thad’s input on the taste of the fish so I went home to clean it to give to him the next day. As soon as we got back to land I cleaned it but didn’t find anything in the stomach.

Thad:
I had been seeing recent social media reports of the rare Hawaiian hiramasa coming up in unusual numbers this winter and the number one thought that always crossed my mind – other than how I can catch my own, was how they tasted in comparison to the farmed hamachi that we are all familiar with.  Well, I was extremely lucky to receive one of these rare fish from Erik, who’s dad recently caught his second one on their boat on O‘ahu’s eastside.  I’ll share with you my thoughts on this prized catch.

My favorite way to consume any fresh ocean fish is raw as sashimi.  If it can be eaten that way, that’s how it’s going down. Aside from it being the easiest (and laziest) way to prepare fish, it allows you to really enjoy the unique flavor and texture characteristics of each species, without any sauce or spices to mask its flavor.  I do add a dab of shoyu with wasabi which seems to enhance its flavor.

The fish Erik gave me weighed approximately 3 pounds, already cleaned and scaled, and wrapped with paper towels and additional towels stuffed in it to absorb any blood or water to keep it as fresh as possible.  Man, I need to learn from Erik because when I give away, it’s left uncleaned and double bagged in plastic shopping bags.  The fish still had its yellow stripe and yellow fins but apparently much of its vibrancy was already lost when compared to the picture Erik took of it the day before.

 

 

 

 

I cut the fish into two fillets and sliced one into bite sized morsels to eat right away.  The white meat was slightly pink, much like papio.  I could tell from handling the meat that it was leaner than the farmed hamachi.  I could feel very little fat or oil on my hands.  I dipped the end of the sashimi into the shoyu and did see a small oil sheen form on the surface so there was obviously some fat in the meat.

The texture was definitely like hamachi.  Compared to papio, it was softer than white and omilu but very similar to yellow spot.  The perfect texture for sashimi.  I would say the fattiness of the hiramasa was also similar to yellow spot, although I recently had one from deeper and colder waters that was a little fattier than this hiramasa.  The flavor was distinctly hamachi without its sometimes overpowering oiliness.  I was surprised how great its flavor was, even though it contained less fat than hamachi.

I have to say, I really enjoyed the Hawaiian hiramasa and its unique characteristics.  It was similar yet so different from our other local fish.  It would definitely rank it up there as one of the better eating nearshore fish in our waters.  I hope you all get the chance to hook and sample one while they’re still around.

Undergunned against the creatures of the deep – catch and cook

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Holy smokers, talk about action!  OK, where do I begin?

Frank and I were able to paddle out on a sheet glass day to fish a spot we were eyeing the couple of months. The conditions were so perfect Frank exclaimed that it was “an ono kind of day” because the last time we had such good conditions he caught an ono on a jig, our first legitimate pelagic.  We both had a grab bag of baits we gathered from our freezers. Oama, halalu, opelu and ika.  We hoped we had our bases covered.

The water was so clear I didn’t need my fish finder to tell me there were schools of fish around.  At 40 ft we were followed by at least 30 aha and Frank kept one after it pulled off his frozen oama one too many times.  In about 60 ft of water we could see 7 inch silver fish passing beneath us.  All this activity raised our expectations even further.

A few kayaks and boats were already at the reef almost 2 miles out but the area was so large we had plenty of room to work the shallow bottom fishing grounds.  We started with frozen oama and my initial baits were surgically removed. Was this the work of aha?  Frank trolled up a wahanui, also called fork tailed snapper or small toothed jobfish, a good eating nearshore snapper rarely found on Oahu anymore.  I went deeper to avoid the aha and made sure my oama made it quickly to the bottom. I set the hook on a fish and was surprised to find out an 8 inch FL moana ate its goatfish cousin. Watching this video, I realized I crank up small fish too quickly because I think they’re hage.

Frank topped my efforts by catching a moana on a jig!

We fished the reef and missed a lot of strikes on the frozen oama.  One fish even cut my oama in half and missed the front and back hooks!  I got tired of this and put on a 6 inch frozen halalu which was much larger than an oama.  I didn’t change the small hooks. I just nose hooked the halalu and stuck the back hook near its dorsal fin, midway down the fish.  Dropped it down to the bottom in 80 ft of water and something hit it hard but missed the hooks again and left the head of the halalu.  While it was fun to have so much action, it was frustrating to miss so many bites.

I followed marks on the fish finder in to the 60ft depth but wasn’t getting anything good when Frank radio’d me saying he was on a floating scum line past the reef and missed a “pole benda” on halalu.  That was good enough to get me out to the deep.  As I paddled towards him the depth quickly dropped from 90 ft to 115 ft.  There weren’t a lot of fish marks on this ledge but I had heard that predators hang out at the drop offs.  I put on the front half of a frozen opelu, more than 4 inches in length and 2 inches in diameter.  The two hooks I was using looked really tiny buried in that chunk of bait.  Since the drift was so slow, I could drop down the bait and fish almost straight up and down.  I felt some heavy taps and then something strong pulled drag!  I lifted the rod, the fish was battling for a few seconds and then came off.  Arrggghh. That was a good fish.  I put on my second to the last piece of opelu, dropped down, and felt the thump again. This time I let the fish eat and it took off on a slow steady run. Then it really pulled line off the reel and it looked like it was running straight down but it was following the contour of the bottom and running to deeper water.  I was using my light Trevala S rod and Calcutta 300 TE level wind reel with only a 25lb fluoro leader and had a feeling this wasn’t gonna end well.

Here’s what the fight looked like after I removed all the landmarks.  Sorry about the waterspot on the lens.  When I frantically turned the camera on I must’ve hit the lens with my hand.

That fish felt bigger than the 30lb ulua I caught on the Big Island on a boat, and was definitely the largest fish I hooked on a kayak.  I had one more piece of opelu and Frank was fishing his halalu bait.  I put on a pre-tied leader of 40lb fluoro with slightly larger hooks and hooked the opelu in the nostril and where the front half ended.  A few seconds after it reached the bottom something pulled hard and missed the tiny hooks again.  The opelu skull with some hanging flesh was left on my front hook. I didn’t have larger hooks and didn’t have anymore opelu so I dropped the skull down. Tap, tap… wait…….pull….hookup.  I waited for the line to burn off the reel but this fish wasn’t as large as the previous eaters of the opelu.

This is what is was.  I gave it the bends by cranking it up too quickly.

After so many missed strikes I was stoked to land that uku. We were out of halalu and opelu baits and a bunch of humpbacked whales started breaching way too close to us so we worked our way to the inside to bounce the sand for nabeta. No nabeta found but Frank and I got a moana each.

Wahanui on the left, smaller cylindrical steaks of aha on the upper right, and the two red pieces of moana on lower right.

Frank fried the moana, wahanui and aha and said the wahanui and aha tasted similar, with mild white meat that needed a bit of sauce for flavor and moisture.  His wife liked those fish but he enjoyed the taste of the moana even more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My wife and I are neophyte fish cookers so we got a lot of advice from friends to properly prepare the uku.  I cleaned it more than 24 hrs after catching it and that was the reason it smelled a little fishy when steaming in a colander in a large pot of water.  I had placed ginger slices in slits I cut into the fish and we determined it was cooked by inserting a chopstick into the thickest parts of the fish and pulling it out clean. The fish was then placed on a dish and we drizzled shoyu, hot peanut oil and topped it off with cilantro.  Ponzu sauce was added to our individual portions.  The fish wasn’t fishy at all and tasted really ono despite the simplicity of the  recipe.  Friends told me later that it’s critical to keep the fish as cold as possible on the kayak and keep it cold at home. Ideally, it should be cleaned immediately to stop the bacterial breakdown which causes the fishy smell and taste.

Frank and I were severely undergunned against the size of the fish that would eat a big chunk of bait in the deep.  We’re over hauling our tackle by using large circle hooks, 60 – 100 lb leader and small-medium sized conventional reels with clickers.  Stay tuned for our next nearshore deep water adventure!

Fishing has been slow so we went torching!

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Friends from SoCal were in town a few weeks ago and I wanted to take them fishing but the nearshore prospects had been so dismal.  I opted to take them torching (reef exploring at night) instead.  The conditions were perfect for that: minus tide shortly after dark with very light winds.  Ben and his wife Zooey had snorkeled in HI but had never explored the night time reef before, so they were super excited.  They happen to own the Promar / Ahi USA company that sells nets, head lamps, gloves and air pumps, as well as the Live Deception jigs and floating landing net mentioned on this site, so torching would be a fun way to test their own gear. I hadn’t torched in a few years and had never gone when the moon was as large as it was.  I was hoping we’d at least see critters moving around in the well lit sky but feared they’d be harder to net than when they’re sleeping under a dark moon.

We didn’t take any spears and didn’t plan on keeping anything besides off season oama but they were hoping to at least see the night tako and white eel they had heard so much about.

When we got to the water Ben immediately spotted a 9 inch weke in an area I had just quickly walked past on earlier trips.  If the fish was sleeping, we would have tried to place the net on top of the fish, but I had a feeling this one was ready to make its escape.  Zooey expertly used a net in each hand and chased the weke into the net with the squared edge.  Impressive for her first attempt ever!

 

Ben spotted a slightly smaller weke shortly after, and netted it before I could video the capture.

I was amazed at their dexterity to net fish under the big moon but this school sized oama was wise enough to slip away.

We were just 30 mins into our expedition and they had already seen more fish than I had ever spotted in the “dead zone”.

Ben is using the Promar 180 lumen headlamp, collapsible net with tangle free mesh, and latex grip gloves.

The moray looked whitish when illuminated, hence the mistaken identity.

I really wanted them to experience the area that normally has the most sea creatures so I explored ahead but turned to see them huddling over something in their net.  They thought Ben had cornered a harmless white eel but were a little shaken when I explained that they had netted a sharp fanged moray eel!

We made it to the section that normally holds a greater variety of fish and Zooey gently netted a moorish idol.

She followed that up by coaxing the odd looking saron or marble shrimp into the net.

Ben gently placed it back near its home.

The Toby puffer is the dark oval thing in the bottom right.

Best of all, Zooey found a cute little Toby puffer to replace the one that had been the mascot of this site.  We saw a small night tako but no white eels and much less critters after the first 2 hours. Ben and Zooey really appreciated the night life they encountered in the shallows, something most Hawaii visitors don’t get a chance to experience.

Except for the largest weke that got spooked and jumped out of the tub on its second night of captivity, the other fish are alive and doing well as pets in my tub at home.  Catching oama by hook during the day is much more efficient than scooping them at night, but it was fun to hunt them that way.

Like his/her predecessor, the new Toby quickly got used to being in captivity and swims to the surface to be fed, spitting water at us.

Nearshore fishing has been very slow!

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The winter cold water doldrums are in full effect now.  Our group has tried wade fishing, SUP oama trolling and deep water kayak fishing the last few weeks with very little to show for it.  My fish finder was reading 73 degrees on the surface in the mid-morning.  Average water temp in July is 80 degrees so the nearshore predators must have gone somewhere warm to wait out the winter cold snap.

On our last kayak/SUP trip, the fish finder marked clouds of bait at 100 ft but my 2 hook damashi with one ika strip only caught hage at the very bottom.  Frank trolled a fresh dead oama from 10 to 80 ft and nothing bit. That has never happened before at this spot.

 

 

 

 

 

I kept bouncing the damashi with ika on one of the two hooks as I worked my way back to land.  An occasional hage would hit the ika and leave the unbaited fly alone.  Then I hooked something in 20ft of water that fought a little differently. I was surprised to bring up a small weke nono in such shallow water.  Had it been larger I would have kept it for poke.  In the second photo you can see that it has a predator’s mouth like the obake weke, much larger than the common white weke.

Since the fishing has been unproductive, the guys want to surf and gather bait until the bite picks up again.  I won’t bore you with the surf trip reports but if you’re interested, I could do some brief bait gathering updates.  Anyone interested in that?

Fish in the deep didn’t bite, awa awa did on the inside

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Screen shot from Session 5 video. Still a little low res, sorry.

The forecast called for light winds so Frank paddled his trusty fishing SUP and I took the Scupper Pro.   My plan was to try to get better with my new fish finder and learn how to fish the damashi. Frank intended to troll a frozen oama out, and then troll and jig various lures. The bait cloud was at 130 ft this time, but wasn’t showing up as dense on the Garmin EchoMap 44CV as previous bait clouds had. I dropped the damashi down but nothing bit. I’m guessing the bait was a smaller fish than opelu but I sure would like to have pulled up a bait to see what they are.

The trade winds blew over 10 mph at times so we kept paddling in a ways to reset our drift. I put the time in, dropping the damashi on various bait marks.  Frank trolled between drifts and jigged off the bottom.  Not a single touch for either of us so when the winds turned offshore and increased to 12 mph we went further in.

I had marks that looked like single, large fish, at 40 feet but they wouldn’t take a jig.  I purposely wasn’t carrying bait, so I could focus on my damashi education, but was wondering if they would have taken something real.  Frank then hooked a fish on frozen oama in 15 ft of water. Awa awa!  He called me on the walkie talkie but I misunderstood when he said “Hanapa’a………….awa” and thought he said “Hanapa’a……..off” because the fish came off. It’s very hard to push the button to talk when you have an angry fish on your line.  The fish jumped twice, then made some long runs, and spun his board around 4 times.  It was so feisty he had to dispatch it with a knife after he netted it.  I’m bummed I wasn’t able to video the action.

We fished the 10 to 20 ft depth for another hour and Frank landed a roi. I finally hooked something  on the Gulp grub that I threaded on a small damashi hook. It looked dark and when it shook off about 5 ft from the surface I thought I saw red.  Moana? Roi?

The action was very slow except for Frank’s awa awa.  Was it because the tide was so slack on this day?

Frank cleaned the awa awa and roi at the beach and fed the ecosystem with the scraps.

 

 

 

Here’s how he made his delicious awa awa fish paddies:

Fry some minced garlic and chopped round onion in oil, then add ground pork and chung choy (salted turnip).  Brown and cool.

Then add a little water to the awa awa paste to make it smooth. Mix in green onion, water chestnuts and grated carrots.  Mix in the ground pork mixture and form patties.  Fry the patties, being careful not to overcook them.  Drizzle oyster sauce or plum sauce and grind ’em!

Frank fried the Roi and you can see it at the top end of the pan. Roi is actually a very delicious grouper, and small ones from this area haven’t been reported as cig-hot.  He said it tasted very good, and plans to steam the next one he catches.

I’m seriously concerned about fishing the deep on this side of the island since off-shore winds seem to come up most of the time and cause us to scramble back in for safety.

 

Guest Post: Shibi catch of a lifetime on aluminum skiff

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This post is from my fishing buddy Erik who has taken me out on both his 14 ft aluminum skiff and 16 ft Livingston, and taught me how to jig two years ago.  He is a very talented videographer with a huge following on Instagram (@fishoahu).  We’ve also shore fished together but didn’t do nearly as well land-based. 😉

Aloha fellow lawaia,

This is the story of my first shibi.

This day I planned to go out for a half-day whipping/plugging session from our 14ft. Aluminum Lowe skiff paired with a 9.9hp Yamaha tiller.  My dad (usual fishing partner) was in a training off-island and weather was calling for very calm winds so I invited my cousin’s boyfriend, Kekoa along with me.  Kekoa’s only other time with us had been using small poppers on our 16ft Livingston a few weeks prior.  We didn’t do so well that day so I wanted to see if I could put him on a fish.

Swap Meet kage!

The night before we headed out I packed my usual gear along with my new Garmin Striker Fish Finder/Chart plotter, a $10 Kage I found at the swap meet and one lure that was speaking to me.  I’d been reading and seeing a lot of posts about the Shimano Head Dip lure but didn’t have one to throw.  Most of my time spent throwing top-water lures has been with poppers that have cupped-faces.  A 60 gram GT Fight Club floating stickbait, “Oddyssey” was thrown into my lure box along with some other poppers.

The morning of our trip, Kekoa and I met at 6am at my grandma Filomena’s oceanfront rental property, loaded up the boat and were on the water just before seven.  The skies were clear and the water inside Kaneohe Bay looked like a lake.  Anxious about getting Kekoa a bite, I hastily stopped at a reef where I’ve had pretty consistent bites from papios.   Since the wind was non-existent and the tide was at its lowest and heading up, the drift was very slow.  After a few casts with nothing chasing or hitting, I quickly decided to head out to deeper waters.  My plan was to get as far and fast as we could to fish places that are typically less-fished (because of normal rough conditions) while it was still early.

Only 15 minutes into the full-throttle run I spot a school of bait-fish “snapping” at the top of the water.  I motioned to Kekoa and tell him “look over there!”  His eyes lit up and I tell him to put on a lure and get ready.  The school looked to be maybe 15ft. circumference? and they glistened at the top of calm seas.  We could see clear to the bottom of the reef and I guessed we were in about 30 ft of water.  Kekoa put a yo-zuri hydro popper on his Daiwa setup and waited for me to position the boat.  I pull up close to the school and Kekoa starts casting around it.  I turned the motor off to drift and just observed the school a bit while Kekoa was fishing.  I didn’t know what the bait fish was so I stood up in the boat and thought that I saw bluish back with yellow tails . . . Opelu?!?  I’ve never heard of opelu schooling on the top like that and it definitely wasn’t nenue or awa (what I normally see) so I was puzzled.  The school of bait seemed mostly unaffected by Kekoa’s popper but sometimes the school would scurry below the surface if the lure got too close.  The school would always reappear at the surface after a few moments.  Since Kekoa was on top-water and I could see that the bait fish weren’t getting hit by big predators I decided to try drop a damashi to catch one of the bait fish.  While I’m setting up my rig I see Kekoa hooked-up.  He’s fighting the fish well and it’s giving him some small runs.  He gets the fish boat-side and is smiling ear-to-ear.  Kekoa easily hoists the 11” omilu into the boat and we feel that the pressure to produce is now off.

 

Notice the ceramic eye that popped out, exposing metal ring

After repositioning a couple times to stay near the school we managed to get really lucky and have the school nearly run into the boat.  When the school got really close I hooked a small fish on my damashi.  It was a medium sized la’i.  Was that what that school of bait was?!?  I rigged the la’i up for live-bait, Kekoa continued whipping and I decided to try out the new GTFC floating stick bait.   I threw the stickbait out and watched it sail across the clear blue sky before a loud splash-down.  I kept the rod-tip low and gave the lure some small sweeps.  I liked the way the lure disappeared for a second and then reappeared at the surface making the water move around it.  On my 3rd cast . . . BOOM! I got a big blowup on the lure.  Kekoa quickly turned his head and looked at me and I realized he heard what happened.  Because the wind was so light the bait fish-snapping sounded like someone nervously tapping a pen on a desk and when the fish came up to my lure it sounded like someone loudly slapping the water.  The fish didn’t stick or come back for the lure so I inspected it and found a couple nicks.  There were no scratches in the lure so I could only guess it was an ulua.  I also looked at my daiwa coastal rod and saw that the ceramic inner part of the eye separated from the 4th guide.  There was enough pressure to fit the ceramic piece back into place but I wasn’t too confident it would last the rest of the session without causing damage or knots.  After that hit, our hopes grew but we were having a harder time staying around the bait pile as the sun rose.  While we kept repositioning I continually checked the live-bait but nothing was happening to it.

At 8ish we decide to go deep and try bottom fish.   On the way to the bottom fishing area we spot the school and are were positioned to get a better look because the sun was at our back.  I stand up and see the bait fish and then to my surprise I see an approximately 3ft long black-backed fish right in the middle of the school.  I didn’t know what to make of it so I slowed down and tossed the live-bait back out to troll it with the school, hoping that the big fish would see an easy breakfast.  The school was getting harder and harder to keep up with because it wasn’t staying at the surface as long and starting to go deep.  We also noticed that there was more than one school of that bait fish.  Nothing was happening to my live-bait after 10 minutes so I pulled it up and throttled towards the bottom fishing area.  We arrive at the bottom fishing spot and I look at the fish finder and see some small stuff at 100 ft.  I drop a damashi rig and Kekoa continues on topwater.  I wasn’t getting anything deep but was having fun watching the new fish finder.  Our drift was pushing us from deep to shallow and noticed that visibility was great to 80 feet.  I wasn’t getting bit on the damashi after a couple long drifts so I went back to topwater with the GTFC Odyssey lure.  We were still seeing the bait schools which gave us hope.

We were drifting into 60 feet of water when I got the bites I’d never forget.  I stuck with the same retrieve that caught the interest of the previous fish.  I was able to get a hookup on the third cast but the fish quickly came off.  My sixth cast proved that “keep casting” pays off.  I didn’t realize that I was filming during the hookup as I usually turn my camera on after I’ve hooked-up (which is why I didn’t get the blistering first run and chase-down with the boat).  I realized after I watched the footage that I turned the camera on while bottom fishing because I had a fish on that got off and then forgot to stop recording.  In the video after the hookup and when the fish started taking the first run you’ll see my hand go over the camera.  That’s when I thought I was turning the camera on!  What happened between that time and when I finally turned the camera back on was lots of excitement followed by some nervousness.  When I turned the camera off during the initial run the fish dumped about 1/2 my spool very quickly.  The fish headed down and then toward deeper water.  I realized then that I didn’t have a small fish on and told Kekoa that I wanted to turn the motor on in case I had to really chase the fish.  I started the motor and the fish was still running so I put the boat into gear and headed towards it while gaining some line back.  Once I was over the fish I put the boat into neutral and Kekoa had cleared the deck and was in position to help me land whatever was at the end of my line.  While watching me fight the shibi he noticed that the red blinking light on my GoPro wasn’t running like it usually is while filming.  I quickly looked down to see that it was off and was so bummed that it wasn’t filming but was grateful he noticed so that I could turn it on.  Anyhow, here’s the edited video of what ensued:

 

 

The video tells the majority of the story but aside from some prayers here’s some things that kept racing through my mind during the battle:

“is that ceramic eye going to pop-off on one of these runs?”

“is my drag setting too loose/tight?”

“why the hell didn’t we bring a gaff?”

Since the last part of the video was cut-off due to my sd card not having available space here’s what happened:  We realized we had to secure the fish with the kage and Kekoa gripped it tightly while watching the fish’s every move.  I started to slowly scoot over to the opposite side of the skiff to counter balance Kekoa’s weight and give my pole more leverage to get the fish boat side.  The fish was near the top of the water on the next go around and Kekoa hit the fish square in the body.  The fish splashed hard as it freed itself from the kage, Kekoa held onto the kage and the fish was free to take another run.  The fish tried to swim away but I could feel that Kekoa hit the fish where it hurt.  I saw blood trailing only 10 feet to where the fish was and could feel the “fight” was leaving the fish.  I quickly angled my rod around for Kekoa to spear the Shibi with the securing blow and this time the fish could not swim off the kage.  Kekoa moved fast to grab the tail and expertly lifted the fish into the boat.  WE. WERE. . . what’s a word for ecstatic-elated-relieved-overwhelmed? Because that’s what we were.  We immediately low-fived and let out some yell’s that I swear could’ve been heard from Hawaii Kai.

Erik holding the Oddyssey, Kekoa holding the shibi

I never expected a catch like this and the amount of ice and size of cooler showed it.  I knew that we had to make sure that the fish was taken care of so that the meat stayed fresh, so we immediately bled it and headed back in.  The entire 25 minute ride back was full of talking about the battle, looking at the fish and Kekoa patting the fish and saying “Brrahh!!! what?!?!?” As if checking to see if it was real and not a dream.  When we got back to my grandma’s beach house we put the fish on an old rusty spring scale and it read 34lbs.  That evening I cut up the fish and invited some family over for some fresh sashimi.  The fish was shared with family, friends and even my son’s teachers.

Erik with his hard earned catch

I really wish that I got Kekoa securing the fish and bringing it onto the boat on video.  Our elation once that fish was on-deck cannot be described with words.  If I were to try I would say that it was one of those moments where there’s an instant bond made with someone due to a life-changing event.  Though this is not a 100lb ahi or 1000lb marlin it meant a lot to me to be able to land it on the gear I did.  Also, my grandma Filomena passed away a few weeks prior to this catch.  She was the matriarch of my dad’s side of the family and a huge reason why I get to fish from a boat with ease and as often as I do.  During the fight I was thanking her and praying that she help me get it in the boat.  She came through in the afterlife just like she always did on Earth.

Big thanks to Kekoa and my Grandma Filomena.

Drag was set just enough to not bend the hooks completely.

 

 

2nd kayak damashi attempt

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It rained really hard last week and I waited a day before attempting to kayak fish while the storm system was blocking the trade winds  Expecting brown water, I was stunned to see so much debris on the beach.  The brown tint extended a half mile out of the protected bay.

My fishing buddies couldn’t make it but since it was forecast to be the lightest wind day that week, I paddled out for more damashi training.  Taking the advice of friends, I brought 4 to 8 oz lead weights with pre-tied line, short 2-hook damashi rigs and Gulp grups.  The best thing about the gear was that it was stuff I had around the house.  The lead weights were from my grandfather’s pre-1970 shore casting days.

On the previous outings I had marked clouds of bait with my new Garmin Echomap 44CV in the 100 to 125 ft depth range but on this day a bait cloud passed under me at 55 ft.  I dropped a damashi rig with 2 small artificial fish skin hooks weighted by a 4 oz torpedo sinker.  The weight was heavy enough to sink straight down and after the second pull I felt a strong tug on the line.  The fish pulled like I imagined a strong opelu would pull, and assuming it was just a bait fish I was lifted and cranked fairly quickly.  There was a good bend in the rod and about 20 ft from the surface the hook pulled!  The fish had straightened the small damashi hook.  I was playing the 7lb test branch line, not realizing the hooks were so soft.  Both sets of fish skins were pulled off the hooks, just leaving a bead and bare hook.

I put on the heavier rig with the small squid skirts but the bait school had moved on.  Continuing on to 125 ft, I dropped down on small pockets of bait but nothing bit.  Giving up on the deep bait school, I put a Gulp grub on one of the two squid skirted hooks and paddled into the 70ft range.  When I checked the rig, there was a deep water lizardfish head, chomped up, hooked on the Gulp grub hook.  Shucks, missed whatever took that lizardfish.  Got another hit that ripped up that Gulp grub but didn’t stick.  I also diagonally whipped a 60 oz swimming jig unsuccessfully.

By this time I had been out for 2 hrs and hadn’t landed a single fish.  I was a mile from shore and the trade winds began to blow above 10 mph.  There was heavy rain in the valley.  Began to paddle towards the safety of the shallows and the wind really started gusting.  I was paddling directly into the 15 to 20 mph wind and the heavy rain had reached me.  It took 30 mins of hard paddling to cover the half mile distance to a more protected spot in the bay.  In 25 ft of water a small trumpetfish got hooked on the Gulp grub and I hastily unhooked it and resumed my paddle in.  The conditions were so treacherous at times that a boat came by to check on me.  That was comforting to know that some caring boaters watch out for the smaller craft.

The rain let up for about 10 mins and then another squall with strong winds came through and tried blowing me back out to sea.  I pulled my line in and made the paddle of shame back to shore.

Lessons Learned

  • Unstable weather can generate rain squalls, which can generate very strong winds.
  • When wind starts blowing out to sea, don’t stop paddling until you’ve reached safe water.
  • The damashi rig is much more effective when it can be fished straight up and down.
  • Fish the damashi with a light drag since the hooks are soft and two fish could be pulling against each other.
  • Adding scent or bait makes the damashi flies more attractive.

Well, I was stoked to hook something in the bait school even though I didn’t see what it was.  I’ll try tipping the damashi hooks with ika or shrimp next time, and may even drop down a frozen oama. And I’ll keep a more watchful eye on the weather conditions.

Happy New Year!!!

Thanks for reading the blog even though we’re beginning to stretch the boundaries of Nearshore Fishing.

 

Failed kayak damashi attempt

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I had “accidentally” caught a nabeta on a 2 oz jig the last time out and hoped that a  damashi rig would be a lot more effective.  Found these packaged damashi rigs from my California party boat days but dealing with so many hooks concerned me.  I split the rigs in half, sort of, and limited the modified rigs to 2 hooks each.

Expecting the current to be slow on a projected light wind day, I used a 2 oz Ahi USA Assault jig with the treble hook cut off as the damashi weight about 2 ft before the bottom hook.  Added an assist hook to the top.

The winds were light on our paddle out and Frank immediately hooked up with two 12 inch omilu on frozen oama.  I put out a lipped sinking swimming plug when I reached 50 ft and had a screamer of a strike.  A fish jumped out of the water in the distance and I was hoping the long, skinny fish was another ono like Frank had caught a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, it was a tail wrapped aha which I video’d but am no longer giving those nasty fish any more media coverage.  With such a hot inshore bite we were anticipating some action in the deep.  It took a while to find what I think was the opelu school and they were scattered near the bottom in the 120 ft area.  Unlike the previous trips, they weren’t bunched up and thick, and just past them, there was a weird rip current churning the top of the water that took us on a bumpy ride out to sea.  We paddled back closer to shore and noticed the bait school was staying just on the inside edge of this rip.  Our weights didn’t get the damashi rig straight down through the strong current and after trying for more than an hr we paddled in a ways to look for nabeta.

More weirdness. Our damashi rig appeared to getting pulled to the east, but we weren’t drifting to the west.  Once again, the rigs weren’t straight up and down which made for sloping jigging of the flies.  Nothing bit our rigs and then the trade winds picked up and we had to paddle in to the protection of the inner reef.

Frank deployed another frozen oama and got bit right away.  Another off-season 12 inch omilu!  He was making it look too easy.  I joined him and whipped my swimming jig in the vicinity but bite ended.

I consulted my damashi senseis and asked why we did so badly.  They said our weights were too light for the strong current, my hooks were too far away from the weight, and when we fished the inside, there was probably a strong current pulling east with wind blowing west, holding our kayaks in place.  Bottom line, when the damashi isn’t getting down effectively, use more weight.  I’ll try 4 to 5 ounces next time, and make my lead about 5 inches from my bottom hook.  If we actually catch an opelu we’re not fully prepare to use it properly but we’ll deal with that bridge when we come to it.

If you guys have any damashi tips for us, please send them our way!

 

 

Going further and deeper to extend the season

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In the past, our “season” has ended when the water temps cool and the bait leaves the inshore waters.  Knowing this end was near, we prepped the kayaks and SUPs to do some nearshore bottom fishing further out than we had previously attempted.

The first outing yielded our first kayak/SUP uku but we had to paddle in to safety against strong winds and deal with having to keep the kayak straight in following seas.  This was how that outing went.

After that successful but dangerous outing, we tried another deep drop off but the wind came up and was pushing us out to sea. We had to paddle for our lives to get in and were emotionally shook up from the realization that we would have needed to be rescued if we had become incapable of paddling hard for shore.

I had Go Bananas in Kapahulu add a rudder and some convenient bungee “trees” to my Scupper Pro, and I picked up a Garmin EchoMap 44cv fish finder/gps from West Marine on Black Friday.  My hope was that the rudder would make my paddling more efficient, especially in windy conditions, the GPS would take us to nearby artificial reefs and mark hot spots, and the more advanced fish finder would accurately tell us what type of fish were below.  I also got a Thule Hull-A-Port “J” style cradle to securely carry the second kayak on its side.

Our next outing was back to the deep water spot where we had gotten in trouble.  This time we picked a day with almost no wind, and not much swell.  The new fish finder/gps accurately told us the depth we were in, and marked what I think were fish on the bottom and a large bait school suspended from about 50ft to 100ft.  Nothing was biting our jigs and I paddled further out to mark more bait. I heard Frank yell “hanapa’a” but couldn’t see what he was fighting. He tried to talk over the walkie talkie while fighting the fish but I was just getting fragments.  When I paddled back to him, he was getting towed against the wind and current towards me!  The fish didn’t want to tire, and he was battling it on an ancient Penn 440SS which was definitely not made to fight fish of that size.  I shot video of the long fight and the very difficult landing process.

Frank will write up his recollection of the amazing, miraculous experience but here’s a preview of his catch.  We still can’t believe he caught a pelagic on only our 3rd deep water outing.  I jigged near the bait school for a few drops for nada and then we paddled in to take care of the prized fish.

 

On the next light wind day I was dying to return to the opelu / pelagic spot. Frank couldn’t make it but had designed and oversaw the process of fabricating a streamlined transducer rod and plate so I could hang the transducer over the side with as little drag as possible.  This thing is work of art!

I tentatively paddled out solo but was relieved to see so many boats around and helicopters above.  The bait school was deeper on this day, in 125 ft of water but again, nothing bit my jigs.  I even tried trolling jigs and swimming plugs “Frank-style”.

 

Happy enough that all the new equipment was working well, I let the wind blow me in as I steered with the foot controlled rudder.  At 100 ft I had a bite on the jig that came off. I assumed it was a hage but was still glad for that one bite.  At 80ft I hooked something that felt like a small hage and winched it up. I was stunned to see a nabeta hooked on the rear treble of the Live Deception 2 oz jig with its swim bladder popped out through its gill.  I marked the spot on my GPS and returned to it but couldn’t catch another fish.  I’ll have to return with a proper damashi-type of setup.

 

 

 

 

 

My friend and fellow kayak fisher, Haru, told me how to gut the fish but leave the scales on and scrub the slime off with Hawaiian salt, then salt and pepper it before deep frying, taking it out to cool, and then frying it a second time to crisp up.  My wife used a ponzu sauce and chilli pepper water Frank had given us, and that fried nabeta was ono with a non-fishy, sweet, soft texture.

So far the uku, ono and nabeta we’ve caught in deeper water have been much less fishy tasting than the papio we’ve been catching inshore.  Now I understand why boaters often prefer bottom fish to reef fish.

Instead of waiting for the bait fish to return to the shallows, we’re now gearing up to target the bottom fish and pelagics of the winter season.  Chee hoo!!

Hard fighting or great eating, take your pick

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In early November, Capt Erik invited Frank and me to fish on his 16 foot Livingston.  The winds were very light and surf was small, so we felt extra blessed and excited to fish areas that would normally be too turbulent. The plan was to start deep (300 ft plus), while the conditions allowed, and work our way in.  Erik and I jigged while Frank used the damashi rig to give the bottom critters more menu choices.

Capt Erik put us on spots that produced for him in the past, and while Frank began to bring up small moana, our jigs went untouched except for a phantom swirl that resulted in my Shimano flat side 140 gm lure gone and the leader slightly curled as if the knot got bitten off. Nothing bit for a while after, which made me wonder if I just tied a bad knot and the jig fell off on the way up?

Doubt began to creep in. Maybe the conditions were too calm and the predators weren’t feeding down there?  Frank brought up a small nabeta on the damashi as we drifted in shallower, that piqued Erik’s interest.  When a large nabeta came over the side, Erik grabbed his light spinner damashi setup and left me as the sole jigger.

Frank landed a jumbo moana, and then Erik hooked something with his damashi that peeled line off his small spinning reel.  I pointed my cap cam on the action and we were stunned to see what Erik coaxed up to the surface.

We were in about 140 ft when the damashi bite slowed.  Capt Erik announced we’d be moving once our lines were up, and then my jig rod slammed down with authority.  I had on the very dependable 2 oz green mackerel Live Deception, and it didn’t let me down.  The fish powered towards the bottom as I tried to put the brakes on.  I was using my heavier jig setup because I wanted the stiffer tip to spring back as I speed jigged, and was glad I had the Tranx 500 with 60 lb fluoro and 65 lb braid to back me up.  You can see how this up and down battle went.  Capt Erik filmed the cool underwater sequence and Frank filmed above water with my cap cam.  The fish was released tired but unharmed.

We stayed on the spot after the fish was landed and I checked my tackle. The kahala had slightly bent one of the treble’s tines out and I bent it back with my pliers.  I dropped the Live Deception down again, and maybe 10 cranks off the bottom something hit it. It felt solid but wasn’t running hard.  I wanted Frank to battle something with the big level wind bait caster setup, and I could use a break after the kahala, so I asked him to take over.  During that transition, the fish ran parallel to the bottom and if felt like it went in a cave.  Frank fought it for 50 minutes.  This battle really deserves a post of its own so please look for that sea monster story soon.

The yellow spot papio swimming in air, still trying to throw the jig

After that long battle we took a break for lunch and then Capt Erik drove us inside of the 80 ft mark.  Frank reminded me that I hadn’t caught anything to be taken home so I switched to the pink Jigging World jig Erik fishes in the shallows.  Sure enough I got a nice hit and a 13.5 inch yellow spot came up.  I bled it and iced it down so I could compare it to the delicious yellow spot we caught at the Banks that I turned into poke.  Here’s how we did on that Banks trip.

 

 

Capt Erik took us way inside to the papas’ edge to show Frank how he uses small poppers and right on command he hooked a scrappy 14.5 inch white papio on light line.

What a perfect day!  Everyone got a chance to scrap with some fish and bring home something delicious. The nabeta, weke ula and yellow spot papio are some of the best tasting fish we hope to catch.  Big Mahalos to Capt Erik for his relaxing hospitality and for putting us on so many different types of fish.

Stay tuned for the Sea Monster post. We were scratching our heads, wondering what could be so large and heavy and not want to be moved off the bottom.  It was definitely a tackle tester.

Guest Post: Big South Shore Omilu on SUP – Catch and Cook

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It really was this big and I have the photos to prove it!

Here is a guest post about a recent stand-up paddleboard fishing adventure on the South Shore of O`ahu by my fishing buddy Kelly.  He prefers staying a little anonymous for now.

Howzit fellow fishers! Scott was nice enough to humor me and let me do a second writeup for his blog. In my first guest post I caught a personal best yellowspot papio in Waikiki.  Lucky Lucky.

It was a nice calm Sunday morning with a very high tide 2’+ at 7:12am and the moon phase was good, so I dragged my lazy butt outta bed early to see if the fishies would give me any action. The surface of the water looked smooth and some surfers were preparing in the dark to paddle out, so I did the same with my wetsuit and fishing gear. Hopefully no freak sets would wipe me out, as occasionally happens!

As has become my custom, I brought my foamie SUP board, although the new wrinkle for this trip was that I decided to try an ancient used Penn 209 level-wind that I bought from eBay for $25. The reel was loaded with 30lb test  Yozuri Hybrid fluorocarbon/mono that some fishers in Hawaii swear by. Hopefully this reel and the heavier line would allow me to land some of the larger fish which have been giving me trouble the last year or so.  I had asked Scott to service the reel, since it was kinda similar to the bait casting reels he uses. The drag had been very sticky and freespool was all hemajang and when I took it apart it was giving me fits getting it re-assembled. To my mild surprise, Scott was able to do a full service and even get it so that the drag was silky smooth and the freespool could now spin for days. I was now loaded for bear and figured the little papios were gonna be toast.

At about 6:30 in the morning I paddled out at one of my usual spots, with my cheap-o used conventional reel and charity hand-me-down baitcasting pole from Scott. The rod was a bit stiffer than I am used to and that little trigger kept jabbing my lower back due to placement but the setup seemed to be passable. I figured at the very least, I would get to paddle in some nice glassy water, get some cardio in and see a beautiful Hawaiian sunrise.  🙂

As you may have read in my other guest post, my fishing budget is extremely limited and I always try to catch fish using very inexpensive tackle that still works for the fish I target (papio). I have found that just trolling dead baits like frozen oama, halalu or sardines with a pole stuck in my shorts is pretty easy and productive. It also minimizes my gear (and prep time) and allows me to catch/surf a wave if and when one happens to come along.

The sun was just rising and the tide was peaking, so I felt there was a decent chance to catch a legal-sized omilu or two for dinner.  Since the water was very high and I had LIVE oama, I decided to stay inside the breakers and close to shore, at least initially. Scott had generously given me some live oama, which I picked up in the bucket right at the spot he left them in his garage. The pickup was in the wee morning hours, prior to heading to the fishing spot -so I am very grateful that he would leave the liveys out for me! Scott even let me use the bucket and pump. I think I owe him some good homemade char siu soon. 🙂

Editor’s note: Welcome anytime!

So off I paddled, first out about 50 yards then parallel to shore. My instincts proved true and within 5 minutes of launching from the sandy beach, I got a 2+lb omilu in the bag. The fight was pretty good even though I was using a big soda-can sized floater to try to keep the big live oama from swimming down and snagging the bottom. Despite the resistance of the huge floater, the omilu made several strong runs before I dragged it onto the board.

The floater seemed to be working as an attractant, because after re-baiting and paddling back to about the same spot, I scored another thick 2.5 lb omilu right away! Both were caught within casting distance from shore. The morning was still young, so I decided to hang around to fish a bit more and use my last few liveys.

With the pressure off and the tide now falling, I headed out to the breakers. Often the action in the surf zone is hot and heavy, with all the turbulence and whitewater seeming to stimulate the fishes to eat. I landed another 2-pounder in the surfers’ channel on the way out and then decided to go past the surfers to scout some new reefy areas, quite a bit past the breakers. Anything else now would be icing on the cake.

After about 15 minutes, and a couple bait stealers taking my last liveys, I switched to a frozen, salted Halalu from Thad (that halalu trip was written up here) and replaced the floater with a light clip-on weight. Those freebies from good friends seem to have some kind of mana, as I always seem to get lucky when using gifted gear/bait!) Actually there was a lot of Aloha involved in this fishing trip, since Thad gave me the secret bait I used to catch the oama and he also gave me charity salted halalu which he caught whipping. Scott gave LIVE OAMA, the baitcaster rod and serviced my new old reel, another friend gave me the remnant line I used for leader and so on and so forth … maybe I stay just one old pa’ke (thrifty Chinese) fisherman … haha

As I trolled about 40 yards outside the surfers, I hadn’t had a nibble in about 10 or 15 minutes, so I was contemplating going in early to clean my fish. Maybe the halalu was not a good bait for this area? Maybe the bite was pau already…?

As I was daydreaming about why I wasn’t getting hits, all of a sudden BINGO-BANGO and my clicker started SCREAMING. My line was ripping out -it sure is nice to hear that loud clicker, since I usually hear a pretty quiet spinner drag. Scott’s comment regarding his screaming clicker sounding like Wicked Tuna played in my head and I told myself that this was a BIG M’Fer and I better not lose ‘em!

I fiddled clumsily with the reel since I am not used to using a conventional, I had to switch hands and flip the pole over, then finally set the hook two or three times by jerking the pole upwards, more out of habit than anything else.  Of course, that made the fish pretty unhappy and he went on a 20-yard spurt. Since the water was about 15 or 20 feet, I let him run a little more than I usually do then started to retrieve line slowly, but surely.  During the fight I vacillated with letting the fish run then clamping down, afraid of being rocked, as I often am. Finally, I rationalized that my line was heavier than usual and my reel bigger and stronger than my junky spinner, so I could probably just boost the fish in. I palmed the spool and just started “winching”, which is kinda how I feel fighting a fish on a rather foreign (for me) conventional reel, but after about three or four minutes, I saw the familiar electric blue hue and knew it was a nice sized Omilu.

The fish made a couple of death circles under my board, and I used the time to grab my glove from my pocket. I don’t bring a net, so I just grabbed the tail on the scutes with my gloved hand and the fish was mine. The knockoff Gamakatsu live bait hook I used was easy to remove and as I bagged the fish, I realized my backpack cooler would not zip up, so I had to leave the tail sticking out.

By now I was sooo dang stoked! My paddle-in seemed like I was just floating on a cloud, so effortless. I rarely catch nice sized papio, usually just papiopio, which are mighty tasty anyways. It turns out that this was my second largest papio  … EVER!

After fishing, I stopped at Scott’s house to return his bucket/pump and he was nice enough to weigh my fish with his IGFA certified spring scale. Turned out to be a bit over 6 pounds and made lots of sashimi, poke and vina dos.

My wife also experimented with the filets and made a Japanese style nanban-fu dish that is served cold and was pretty AMAZING .

 

 

 

The sashimi was cut and eaten on the second and third day after the fish was caught. We like to eat our raw fish than way for most fish, since the flesh tends to be a bit softer after a couple days (depends on fish type though). My catches are small and I always ice them very well, that is the single most important aspect to keeping the fish as fresh as possible with the goal always to have sashimi quality fish at home, whether we eat raw or not!

We made poke from the not as pretty but still super fresh cuts of fish. This time I made a sweet ginger shoyu poke, which is normally the most popular with my children. Basic ingredients are shoyu, sugar, round onions and ginger. Other things we like to add depending on taste and availability are sesame oil, chili pepper, honey, toasted sesame seeds, green onions. You can also try the secret ingredient, a touch of oyster sauce … get creative and let your taste buds make the decisions!

Vina dos is a Portuguese style vinegar fried fish that my kids love. We use it for the bones, belly and other “scrap” pieces of the fish. Many popular recipes are online, so I wont go into detail but the main ingredients are vinegar, Hawaiian salt and fresh garlic – lots of garlic is the key! Oh, I almost forgot, my mom made a fish soup (“chiri”) with the head … no waste 🙂 … we live by the motto … “you kill it, you eat it” … although maybe that is just my old plantation pa-ke roots coming out … hahaha

Thanks for reading my fishiiiiing taaaales!

First attempt at uku from a kayak

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It had taken me 10 months to get my first awa awa of 2017. Once I got it, and fish cake was made, I set my sights on my favorite fish to make poke with: uku.  I’ve caught a couple by boat on the Big Island and at The Banks, but never from a kayak.  We hadn’t ventured out deep enough to target uku before, because our watercraft and the predominate weather conditions prohibited it.

But I heard of a spot not far from shore where kayak divers get small uku and figured if they could reach them we could too.  Normally the trades were too strong there, and even medium surf would make it dicey to return through the reef passage, but a forecast promised small waves and winds under 10 mph. Frank would try out my second, ancient kayak, a flatter bottomed, more stable Aquaterra Swing on his kayak maiden voyage.

We had 5 live oama each, of the big 5 to 7 inch size, along with cut opelu.  The beach launch looked doable.  The wind began to pick up so we hurried out.  My portable fish finder wasn’t marking much fish on the bottom but was instrumental in telling me the depth we were in. At 30 ft we put out the live oama and tried to keep ’em near the bottom despite the current and wind drift.  We slowly paddled deeper and suddenly my ratchet gave a sustained squeal.  Since it was so shallow, and the strike was strong, I assumed I was fighting a good sized omilu.  I felt head shakes, and the fish pulled towards the bottom, but its strength waned quickly after that initially run back towards shore.  I couldn’t believe my eyes – UKU!  Just a few mins out, in such shallow water and the target mid-water fish had been hooked. No way.

I really wanted to keep my first uku but it was small for a fish whose state record is 39lbs and  I thought was not that abundant.  At least I got it on video and Frank witnessed the catch.  I put on the 2nd live oama and in a few minutes the ratchet went off again.  I still assumed it was a papio and wasn’t seeing much structure or fish on the fish finder.  My second kayak uku ever came up!  This one looked a little bigger than the first, and surprisingly took the big Gamakatsu 2/0 Live Bait hook in its throat so I decided to keep it. It later taped out at 14.33 inches (FL).

The trade winds were blowing 12 – 15 mph at this point and Frank had paddled up wind so he could ride the wind back down to our launch site.  I tried to radio him but the walkie talkie was very staticy.  When I reached Frank, he had an aha jumping around his kayak, not a good thing!  See what they can do.  The aha had been mauling his live oama.

My Scupper Pro felt more and more unsteady in the cross swells so I told Frank I was gonna carefully paddle back in the following seas. He is a much better waterman than I am, and wasn’t too concerned considering this was his first outing on a kayak.  I warned him that the Swing feels stable, but had no “secondary” stability due to its flat bottom.  He was probably thinking, worst case, he could rough water swim back, towing his kayak!  I paddled with my feet up on the rails to add some stability, and tacked back and forth to keep the Pro perpendicular to the wind swell.  Along the way I missed 3 strikes on 2 baits that cut off my oama but was focused on the safety of the inner reef.

In my hurry to get in, I misjudged where the “channel” really was but we got lucky that no wave broke during that time.

I was stoked to get 2 uku the first time out but we realize that this spot is rarely fishable by kayak.  We’ll be watching for a day when the winds are supposed to be under 5 miles an hr, since the winds often increase quickly.

Awa awa! Will this one stay on?

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The awa awa have eluded me all year. The are the hardest fish for me to land because they aren’t often encountered,  jump when hooked, and often succeed in tearing the hook out of their soft mouth.  Here’s how I hooked and lost the last one.  My family and friends much prefer awa awa paste to oio paste so I was on a mission to land one.  The forecast called for light north winds, with surf on the south and east shores. Frank and I decided to stay in the safety of the bay and hunt for something more exotic than omilu and whites.

We had 7 live oama each and yet the first 5 or so were cut in half, crushed or spit out by small papio,  aha and one large papio that took line and shed Frank’s double hook.  Maybe the water was too calm and clear, and the predators were a little suspicious of our offerings?

An hr and a half into our paddle, I got an odd, erratic tap on the line and turned to see an awa awa leave the surface of the water.  I called out to Frank and was glad I had just changed to a fresh leader.  The fish was on longer than the few seconds I normally would take to lose an awa awa and my confidence grew. I kept the drag light so the hooks wouldn’t pull and the fish swam towards me after its initial run.  That was unusually behavior for an awa awa. Normally they battle all the way to the boat, splashing me as I try to bring it aboard but this one was fairly docile.  It briefly pulled straight down when it got near the kayak and I waited for the second long run that never came.  When it floated broadside, I was surprised it was of decent size.

Frank offered to video with my cap cam so I tried to unhook and pose with the still squirming fish while maintaining a death grip.  The front hook was halfway down its throat and rear hook was just under its gill. It was bleeding quite a bit.  Maybe the hooks’ positions controlled and weakened it?

With the target species in my cooler bag, the pressure was off and I could enjoy the calm conditions.  Frank landed a 12 inch omilu near the papa edge and I missed a fish, and then the bite stopped. We explored for another hour without the fish interrupting our solitude.

 

I hadn’t scraped the flesh off an awa awa or the more common oio before so I decided to give that a try. My dad assisted me and we harvested more than 3lbs from the 27.25 inch (FL) 5lb plus fish. 4 different families were able to stretch the fish paste into delicately tasting fish cake. There aren’t many fish that can be split so many ways and still be appreciated.

All the awa awa strikes I’ve gotten were on live oama.  Kelly has hooked awa awa trolling dead baits but I seem to need a lively oama being pulled in the upright position.  Catching, raising and transporting live oama is a lot of work but it seems to be the best bait for the fish I’ve been chasing. Here’s what’s involved in the oama process.

Now that I’ve gotten my awa awa for the year, I’m moving on to a much harder species to catch from a kayak. UKU!!! Such a bad sounding name for such a delicious, clean tasting, firm meat fish. Its English name is “green jobfish” which isn’t that much better. They are much further out than the depths we’ve been fishing, so I’ll need the crew to join me on this uku hunt.  I’ve made poke from uku we caught from a boat and it’s now my favorite fish to eat.

How long to you think it’ll take to get my first kayak caught uku?  Here’s how we did on our first kayak uku hunt.

 

Live oama came through, I didn’t…

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The waves were 1 – 3 ft and the wind speed was about 8 – 10 mph on the Eastside, but the water was textured with some rolling swells past the reef.  Conditions weren’t as clean as the last two times we fished there but it was still doable.

Frank and I took 8 oama each that were caught 2 weeks previously and pampered in my tubs.  They had lost a bit of weight but were still chunky and irresistible looking.

On the way out we saw a monk seal flipping around near the turtles in the channel.  That was a rare sight and hopefully indicated a lot of sea life.  We headed in the direction I had fished the last time, staying safely away from the back of the waves and going from the dropoff at 40 ft onto the reef shelf.  At 20 ft the fish finder showed fish on the bottom and I got a strike on the 1st live oama at 17 ft but it eventually shook off. Frank got a strike a few seconds after mine and landed his.  My on-the-water shots were from my hat cam so I didn’t capture any of his action.

While Frank and I were in close proximity talking, I got a strike and my line had to be hand lined by Frank initially. He expertly cleared the line and gave me room to land the omilu.  I didn’t plan to put my feet in the water to tag a fish so I bagged it. With a fish each, the pressure was off for us.

We continued down wind and I got a strong hit on my 3rd oama but I was too relaxed in my retrieval and it found some rocks. I could feel it running through the rocks and couldn’t pull it out. I gave it slack, it ran some more but never came out of that hole. It was really hard to break off the 25lb fluoro leader from the kayak.  I re-rigged and tightened my drag, vowing not to be rocked again. All this action was within the first 30 mins but after we paddled into a deep sandy channel the bites stopped.  U-turning around to head upwind to where we had come from, I got an odd nibble in 40ft of water.

I tightened the line and a fish rocketed out of the water. Awa awa!! I have been trying to catch one all year and was stoked.  But it jumped again and was gone. The hooks pulled because my drag was so tight – arrrggggghhhh!  Before I had a chance to react Frank got a pull, an awa awa leaped out of the water and it too shook the hook.  Excited but bummed, we headed back against the wind and again, when we entered the 20 ft ledge I got a hit.  The hook got stuck in my net when I landed the omilu and as I tried to free it I drifted ominously close to the back of the waves.  I scampered away, cut the hook off the line and re-tied my rig. Frank radio’d in that he was going up the line to where he had success the last two outings.

He skirted the back of the waves, getting pushed a couple of times, while I stayed in deeper water and didn’t get another bite. The wind picked up to 12 – 15 mph and I headed for the safety of the inner reef.  The tide had been dropping and the bite really slowed.  Frank’s persistence paid off with another omilu on a halalu and a long trumpetfish on a live oama that was so bright yellow it spooked him.

Live oama proved to be irresistible on the first 1/3 of the falling tide but I “farmed” 3 of my 5 strikes.  Hope we get another shot at awa awa before the year is up.  Here I am with our combined catch before Frank cleaned them on the beach.

Live oama is still King but frozen halalu got the big strikes

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The early morning forecast was for light winds and small waves on the Eastside so Frank and I launched our watercraft and put out the thick live oama, Kelly and I caught last week.  Frank headed down the coast, staying just behind the breaking waves, and I used my fish finder to survey the deeper reef behind the surf line.  We kept in touch via waterproof walkie-talkie.

The tide was just beginning to rise so the bite was slow until it reached the bottom third.  My line got stuck a few times and I was able to pull out the snag and retain my double hooks but was missing the oama.  Finally it felt like a fish was on but the fight felt odd.  A 10 inch yellow spot papio was hooked on the front hook and an 11.5 inch omilu was on the back hook. Gotta love the sticky sharp Gamakatsu Live Bait hooks. The yellow spot was probably trying to turn and swallow the big oama when the omilu got hooked trying to steal it from him.  They’re doing their best synchronized swimming routine here.

I decided to try to tag them if I could them back in the water in good shape. Tagging one papio in the narrow quarters of my Scupper Pro is hard, two was quite a challenge, but the snag-free floating Promar net helped a lot. While I was tagging the second papio, Frank got a hit that pulled his live oama off.

Frank then landed an omilu on the live oama and a huge roi on frozen halalu, battling him for a long time.  Then Frank and I both had our live bait pulled into the rocks or cut off our leader.  Kelly paddled out to join us and I gave him the live bait bucket with the 7th live oama. I had one on my line and had used 5 to only catch those 2 papio I tagged.  Not a very efficient use of the live bait.  Kelly advised me to paddle up the coast towards the channel that’s fed brackish water, and he headed down towards Frank.  They can safely fish much closer to the waves on their SUPs than I can, so they often fish together.

Kelly immediately caught an omilu on the outer reef and called Frank over.  Frank converted his last 3 live oama to 2 lb plus omilu and then they both used halalu for some omilu caught and missed.

Going towards the stream outflow was the right call for me.  There were weird plankton and maybe jellyfish blooms (I got a series of small stings on my ankles) and schools of larger bait fish being boiled on.  I free spooled the last oama down and it was picked up before it reached the bottom.  The fish felt pretty decent but ended up holing up in the rocks. I could feel it still on but couldn’t free it and eventually broke it off.

I hooked a frozen halalu in the nose and butt and let line out.  Something tugged in rapid jerks and pulled it off.  I put another on and this time it stuck… line screamed off the reel. You can guess what the fish was before you see it landed in this video.  I followed it up with a small omilu on a halalu that I kept for the parents.

Trolling baits near the bottom was working really well so I wanted to see if I could drop a frozen baitfish down on my whipping setup and work it back.  This failed miserably. The fish either missed the single, front hook or the bait fell apart after a few casts.  At this point I realized I somehow knocked my walkie talkie in the water and it had floated away.  I paddled back to the channel we had gone out of and waited for Frank and Kelly to see me since they were probably searching for me.  Frank turned the into the channel and hooked and landed his biggest omilu, and Kelly missed two smaller omilu inside the break.  Good, safe fishing day with the boys.

Here’s Frank’s catch. Look how big the roi is.  With the understanding that roi isn’t that much more of a cig risk than papio, Frank filleted the roi and steamed it Chinese style.  Said it was super ono. The omilu he shared with kupuna neighbors who rarely get to eat fresh fish.

Let me know what you think of videos. I’m still learning the basics of video editing, with a lot of help from Erik (@fishoahu) who has some killer action videos on Instagram.

Oama and halalu status – late Sept 2017

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Oama season traditionally runs from July through September but the last 3 years have deviated a lot from tradition.  This year the oama were in by June and have kept coming in.  I’ve been hearing that the oama schools are still around but the oama have learned to be avoid most baits.

Halalu traditionally come in around August but came in early also, in larger numbers than recent years.  Their inshore presence has been drawing mid-ranging fish like kahala, kawakawa and kamalu (rainbow runner).  Some halalu spots are thinning out but there’s still some around if you know where to look, and don’t mind fishing shoulder to shoulder.  My halalu ban, due to too many failed attempts, continues, so this will be about the oama.

Kelly and Frank have been doing well trolling dead oama on their SUPs and were running low on bait.  I scouted a spot for them that supposedly had oama with lock jaw.  As I entered the water, schools of light green colored fish moved away from the shallows but when I threw palu, most were 3 to 5 inch papio.  For the first 20 mins, all I could keep near me were papio.  I have never seen so many small papio this late in the season, and at least 3 species (omilu, white and some striped type) were running in mixed packs.  Finally, I noticed the scattered oama on the outskirts of the papio.  They wanted to eat but the papio were much quicker to the baits.  I had to resort to chumming the papio off to the side and quickly dropping a bait down to the oama.  Even with that, most of the baits were pulled off or eaten by papio.

The few oama I was able to reach were thick and strong for their length. Perfect baits to troll on our water craft.  The bigger oama teenagers were actually hunting with the papio packs like larger goat fish do.

Kelly, my oama sensei, suggested we tag team to separate the pesky papio away from the target oama.  A couple of days later, on a lower tide, I scouted the school early and found more oama and less papio than the previous outing. The oama took a while to bite but when the papio frenzied on the palu, the oama roamed around looking for scraps to reach the bottom.

Kelly joined me and was able to get the oama to feed more consistently while distracting the papio. What a true Oama whisperer!

Check out this oama-eye view of how oama take the bait.  A papio investigated the bait initially but gave up pursuing it.  Kelly lifted his bait and an oama followed it up, then as he dropped and lifted again he hooked a different oama.

We were able to catch enough thick oama to use live on our next outing so we dumped our baits to help the over-stressed ecosystem.

I’m surprised that all those papio can find enough to food to survive, and would guess that most will be eaten by something larger than they are.  Those that survive and move on to the reef will be making an impact on the food supply there.  I wonder if we are experiencing a boom in certain species and a subsequent bust in others, due to “climate change”?

We found papio that wanted to bite!

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By all accounts, this summer season has been the best in recent memory for oama and halalu.  Both species came in early and are still around in big numbers.  Theories for their respective abundance are: 1) previous oama seasons have been very good and the increase in adult weke led to another good spawn 2) akule grow faster and spawn better during rainy years and the last few years have been rainier than those previous.

Whatever the reason for such a great bait season, it’s actually been hard to catch papio lately because they’ve had so much bait to choose from.  Kelly had been scouting some grounds on his SUP and invited Frank and me for a dawn patrol outing at one of his productive spots recommended by Erik, our nearshore boat friend.  It’s been great to share knowledge in our little fishing hui.

I don’t think I’ve ever arrived at a fishing spot while it was still dark.  Early mornings are not my thing but Kelly had a mid morning appointment so dawn it was.  The water was sheet glass calm and stayed that way until about 10:30.

In the too-early morning stumble I forgot to take my pack of frozen oama, so I bummed 3 frozen halalu and 5 frozen oama off Kelly and Frank.  The guys paddled off on their SUPs and I kept in touch with Frank via waterproof walkie talkie.  They were trolling with a small weight on their line and I was using a floater.  Kelly hooked up first, followed by Frank. I followed their trolling paths inside the break yet nothing hit my oama.  Kelly missed another fish while retrieving his line and suggested I whip instead of trolling high up in the water column on such a clear visibility day.  The guys went out through a large deep channel to fish outside the break but I opted to fish the edge of the channel itself, carefully eyeing the small surf wash over the reef shelf.

Frank reported via walkie talkie that he landed his second papio so I knew they were hooking up.  I left the floating oama out and rigged the second rod with a sliding weight to drag an oama near the bottom.  Something pulled it off and on the next cast I hooked a poopa’a.  Well at least that was more action than I got with the floated oama.  Frank called in his 3rd papio and I asked what he was using. Halalu!  I dug around and pulled out a 6 inch halalu.  It was big for the size of Gamakatsu Live Bait hook I was using but I was too lazy to re-rig.  I cast it out and as it was settling to the bottom the line moved.  Finally, a real fish. Started cranking it in and remembered to turn on the GoPro cap cam.  Drifted into my trolling line so I kept the fish on a short leash as I reached for the net.  You can see the trolling line in the video.  Cardinal mistake, keeping its head out of the water so it could shake the poorly placed hook.  Well, at least I had video proof I *caught* a decent fish.  I figured I solved the bait secret and looked for another halalu.  The last two were pretty beat up with their stomachs oozing stuff but I tried ’em anyway.

Next cast, still in the channel, I hooked something… arrggh, turned out to be a roi.  But the halalu bait was on the outside of the fish so I tried to net it before the halalu fell off.  Kept it too high in the water again and you can see the halalu sink to the bottom.  I stabbed the roi deeply with a knife and sent it back to join the halalu.

I only had one more beat up halalu left so I changed to a larger Gamakatsu Live Bait hook. I like them when just using one hook behind a bullet sinker because their shank is short so the bait fish is butted close to the sinker.  I put on a nice looking oama and some kind of shiny papio followed it back to the boat. It kind of looked like a small kagami, but it didn’t commit.  Some other fish hit the oama and jumped out of the water but didn’t hook up either.  Tired of missing fish, I rigged the last halalu and something, roi I’m sure, pulled it into the rocks.  Just then Kelly was making his way in.  He said he and Frank found a hot spot past the waves and the bite was really good on the trolled halalu.

I could see Frank paddling in towards me, then start fighting a fish just outside the break.  He called me via walkie talkie to report his largest SUP caught fish.  The 19 inch omilu was still alive with really dark coloration like it had swum out of a cave.  Frank had used his last halalu, a pretty large one that was missing its tail.  Man, the fish really wanted halalu at this spot.

Frank was trolling a small lai and I followed behind casting a 1 oz sinking swimming lure. With all the action the boys had I braced to have the rod wrenched from my hands.  The lure cast well, swam pretty well, but nothing hit it.  Hmm…  I swapped it out with a sinking lipped lure that worked on big white papio in the past.  Nada.  Frank’s lai got pulled off and he put on an oama. I switched to a small tungsten jig.  Maybe the dawn witching hour was over, it was past 10am at this point and nothing was interested in our baits. As we paddled in, Frank got bit on his trolled oama near the side of the channel I had fished in the morning.  He landed an omilu and missed another 2 before we called it a day.

Maybe it was due to the extremely clear visibility and proximity to a halalu school nearby that caused the predators to strongly prefer halalu baits over oama and show no interest in my lures.  Frank had his best day SUP fishing, ending with 6 omilu from 13 to 19 inches, and one lai.  I took a mercy papio from him, and he dropped fish off with his daughter on the way home.  After proving to be a halalu prodigy, he’s now dominating the SUP trolling scene.  Kelly did very well also in the short time he was there and was an excellent host.

 

Product testing in 180 to 500 ft of water

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We definitely were past the “nearshore” boundaries on this outing.  I wanted to test some heavy jigs with the Shimano Tranx 400, and Capt. Darren and Rey were kind enough to let me join them. I was wearing a GoPro Session on my cap for the first time, hoping to get decent footage of how the Tranx performed, and of our catches since it would be easier to point the GoPro than to take my phone for a still photo.

Darren fished the traditional methods of damashi with lures, and deploying a bonus line with cut bait.  He caught more fish than we did jigging but Rey was a close second with an amazing variety of species caught with his customized vertical jig spinning outfit.  I just landed a few fish on my slow pitch jigs, jigged slow and also fast, but the catches were memorable.  Out of respect for their privacy I’ll just be talking about my meager catches.

I started with an “inchiku” type jig that had an octopus hanging off a chunk of lead.  A small yellow spot papio hit that but the action slowed so I moved on to the new Live Deception jig with UV paint and a stout assist  hook off the front eye. The original Live Deception had always caught fish so I was surprised with nothing hit the new one. I switched to the original and didn’t get bit either.  I tried other jigs that had worked in the past and still came up empty.  An oddball looking white jig with pink stripes got hit as I lifted off the bottom and a hage made it to the surface.  That gave me some hope.  On the next drop a yellow spot papio hit it on the first lift.

We drifted past 220ft so I went with an 80 gm tungsten jig that was very dense and fell quickly.  That got slammed by something bigger as I lifted it off the bottom also.  Still, it didn’t feel too big because the Tranx’s smooth drag and big gears.  We didn’t measure the white papio but it looked bigger than 7lbs.

Rey was doing really well fast pumping through the water column so I tried a medium – fast pumping retrieve.   The slow pitch jigs wouldn’t swim well at this pace so I had switched to a swimming/casting jig from Japan.  It was easy to to tell if the jig got bumped as it fell to the bottom, and a turn of the handle engaged the Tranx’s gears. In the video below I’m clumsily lifting and cranking to make the jig shoot up and then slide a bit before shooting up again.  A smoother retrieve would have been to life and crank in an exaggerated circular motion.

About 2/3 of the way up I got hit by something with head shakes and frenetic tail kicks.  It felt like a small kawakawa but then headed for the bottom with authority. I thought a shark or ulua got it as you can hear on the video.  Turns out this same jig had caught a smaller kawakawa on a previous trip.

The 14lb kawakawa was a fun fight but the Tranx 400 had things under control the whole time.  The Game Type J rod and Tranx reel were so light and comfortable to fish the whole day.  I also had the Tranx 500 on a Shimano Trevala TFC medium action jig rod, but that felt a little bulky for the size fish I was catching. If something big showed up, I was ready to grab it though.

Rey’s unique vertical jigs and refined technique outfished me 3 to 1.  My gear and lures were really meant for slow pitching but the fish didn’t want to eat slow pitched jigs that day.  The Tranx 400 was plenty fast with 41 inches per crank but the Game Type J rod didn’t spring back fast enough for a heavy, fast jigged lure. In hindsight, maybe I should have used the heavier Trevala jig rod, but the fights wouldn’t have been as fun.

The GoPro head cam wasn’t always pointed where I wanted, and I found out it takes a long time to go through and process the worthwhile clips, but all in all it was a successful equipment testing trip. Much Mahalo to Capt Darren for being so tolerant as I bumbled around the boat, and for Rey to fill in for me when I should have been helping more.  I started the day off getting seasick (first time ever) and my back tightened up fighting the kawakawa.  That made me even more impressed with how the guys could power through with little sleep on a constantly rocking boat.

3rd time’s the charm for halalu fishing?

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Thad, Frank and Erik wanted another go at the halalu; Kelly couldn’t make it.  This would be Erik’s 2nd attempt and Frank’s and my third attempt.  Thad had done a lot of halalu fishing in the past but only once recently, when he took Frank and me for our 1st lesson.

Since Frank’s CHL Minnow with a red bead worked so well the last time, I purchased those and some other halalu necessities from Charley’s.  This time Ed gave me more halalu pointers and I was beginning to think I could do better with the proper technique and equipment.

The starting tide was a little lower than the last time but would be rising very quickly since we’ve been having so called King Tides for more than a week.  The bite was a lot slower than our previous trips and Thad, our Halalu Hammah, had to work to catch the first fish on his home made flies.  Frank joined him and began hooking up with the purple obake CHL minnows, and actually overtook the Hammah!  I entered the fray and eventually caught one with the purple obake minnow.  Hmmm, maybe this isn’t so hard after all?

Erik started with a combo fly and grub offering and hooked something that pulled drag off his small Shimano budget reel he had just picked up from Nankos this week.  The fish took him through the line up twice but Erik managed to steer it away from us and after a 6 minute scrap with a 2lb leader, skillfully landed a 13 inch white papio!  He tagged and released it to distance himself from second place on the Tag It leader board.

I went back to whipping for halalu as Thad and Frank were hooking up every few minutes.  The tide rose, the bite slowed, and Thad tried different fly patterns and soft plastics.  Frank stuck with what worked for him and kept jigging the CHL minnow with the right-hand-on-the-blank-fast-cranking-with-the-left-hand technique.  I tried to copy his style and was failing badly.  I hadn’t had a nibble in an hr, with only 3 halalu in the bucket. I gave up, walked around, took pictures, drank water and watched the guys jig.  Erik was struggling too so we tried to cheer each other on.  I even had Frank try my rod, and I tried his. His soft, telescopic 6 ft rod had a nice, soft whippy action when jigged high up on the blank. My old, graphite whipping rod didn’t flex at the top of the rod. Aha! That’s my excuse! I stopped fishing again but resumed to try different retrieves that I’ve seen other regulars succeed at. None worked. In the last few hours Erik and I didn’t catch a single halalu.

True Halalu Hammahs can stand on water! Halalu pile circled in red.

The tide got really high where only the two Hammahs continued to fish, with water rushing past their tabis.  The other regulars had given up and gone home, and it was time for even the Hammahs to quit.  Final count for this challenging bite: Frank had 32 (only his 3rd attempt at halalu fishing, what a natural!), Thad had 27, I had 3 and Erik caught the largest fish but no halalu.  Technique definitely matters when the bite gets tough!

This may be my last attempt at Halalu Fishing!  Hope you enjoyed the posts.

 

1st Halalu attempt ever!

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The halalu have been in for a while and Thad invited Frank and me to join him.  Thad hadn’t halalu fished in years, but went a few days prior and the bite was pretty good. Frank and I hadn’t even witnessed halalu fishing, let alone attempted to whip for them. I had been avoiding halalu fishing like the plague after hearing how crowded and tense it could be but we had hoped Thad’s spot wasn’t heavily fished during the week.

Frank and I didn’t have the requisite light gear but he acquired a small old school Shimano rear-drag spinning reel and soft telescopic 6 ft pole.  I didn’t have any light spinning gear so I tried to make do with my smallest bait caster that I only used a couple of times before. I was leery about using a bait caster since they aren’t designed to throw light baits and light line, but this was all I had. I mated it with a lighter bait casting rod that I wade fish.  All my bait casting rods have fast tapers made to whip heavier lures so lobbing a light weight would be challenging.  Put 4lb test on it and loosened the mechanic brakes and tried casting a 3/8 weight in the back yard.  With a lob cast I could get 20 to 30 ft at times so I hoped it would be good enough since the halalu were supposed to be close in.  The one halalu-friendly feature of this small Calcutta 50 was the small retrieval rate of 12 inches per crank.

Layton at Charley’s Fishing Supply set me up with the hooks and soft plastic strips we needed, and gave me some basic halalu fishing pointers.  He explained that I could buy a block of the strips and cut them to the size I wanted, but cutting them cleanly wasn’t an easy process.  I opted for the pre-cut strips and planned to shorten them by cutting them in half with a knife.  The 3 colors he picked out were the popular ones for this phase of the halalu season.

Frank and I got to the spot and Thad was already landing his second, third and fourth halalu for the day.  The small school was positioned in a way where Frank and I couldn’t easily reach it without getting in the way of the small group of fishers so we spent the next hour or so just practicing our casts with our small gear.  Frank was able to dial in his distance and accuracy but I was having trouble casting into the head wind.  In order to get the distance I needed, I had to cast hard but the weight got hung up in the air and my reel overran.  Every 4th cast or so I was having to repack my line on the spool. Not good.  The school eventually swam within range and Frank and I cautiously cast our lures out.

The school was often beyond my reach but once in a while we’d be jigging in an enticing way and feel a weight at the end of our line, and then a pull.  Thad warned us of the fish’s soft lips so we tried to gingerly reel the fish in.  Frank landed the first one and we had a quiet celebration as the other fishers kept their game faces on and cast, jigged and retrieved.  I got my first also, and noticed the other guys were using 1/2 egg weights so I went up to that size.  I could cast a little better but it was still really hard to cast with distance into the wind and not bird nest.

In the meantime the other fishers were catching halalu every few minutes and Thad switched to one of his homemade flies after he landed enough for on the plastic strips to be used as live bait. With his frenetic fast jigging/slow retrieving style, he quickly became the high liner of the day. He even scrapped with a couple papio that took his halalu before his light line parted. I hooked a stronger fish, probably a slightly larger halalu, and my 2lb leader popped at the swivel.

poor little reel will go back into storage scratched up

Tying another leader with the tiny #14 hook in the wind was painfully difficult with my aging eyes!  I tested my knots and broke the leader twice.  And the wind blew the piece of leader out of my hands a few times.  Meanwhile the strong side winds knocked my rod down and my little bait caster slammed hard.   I was on the sidelines for at least half an hr and was seriously considering quitting.  Frank was beginning to add halalu to the bucket and I thought of filming the action but halalu locations are so secretive I decided against that.  I put on a 3/4 oz weight and got back into the action.  With that weight I could reach the school but the half a strip I was using was just catching small halalu that were dumb enough to fall for my faulty presentation.    Frank’s line unspooled in a tangle and he had to start all over again, in the wind.  All told, he and I probably spent half the time tying lines and waiting for the school to come in front of us.

But while I was hating my inability to deal with the fine line, small hooks and inappropriate fishing gear, Frank, true to his ever-positive persona, was embracing this new fishing experience.  Thad had caught enough and let us try his light spinner setup with homemade fly.  I couldn’t get bit but Frank landed a fish on it.

 

 

 

 

 

We ended the day as the bite slowed, with Frank catching about 8, I struggled with 4, and Thad had enough where he was able to add to Frank’s catch and keep enough to feed his family and freeze some for bait.  These are the halalu Frank cleaned, deep fried and sauteed.  He and his wife enjoyed their dinner and they had halalu sashimi the next day.

Thad seasoned his fillets with grated ginger, green onions, lemon and shoyu.  He and his wife ate some and he took a portion over to his parents as a special treat.  He’ll also salt the rest of the halalu and freeze for bait to be used later.  Nothing was wasted, all was enjoyed.

 

 

 

I’m trying to heal my bruised ego and attempt to catch halalu again.  It turned out that the small reel I used was a very poor caster, even with 3/4 oz weight. I’m gonna use a larger, smoother bait caster and a top shot of 4lb test. That reel casts 1/2 oz weights on 15lb test line with ease so I should get the distance I need. It does pull in 25 inches per crank so I may have to slow my retrieve down a bit.   Not sure if the drag and gearing can be forgiving enough for weak line though.  Since 2lb leader got bit but was too fragile for my rough style, and 4lb leader stifled the bite,  I got some 3lb leader, gold hooks and blocks of strips.  The other fishers using strips had custom cut their strips so that they were thinner than the pre-cut ones and about 1.25 inches long.   I’m learning that these little details matter to a fish with excellent eye sight that feeds on small micro organisms at night.

Frank and I have a lot to learn about halalu fishing etiquette and technique, and IF I continue to fish for halalu, I’ll eventually share some how-tos with you all.