Holoholo (Group): What is your favorite goatfish to eat and why?

February 25, 2025 By Scott 2 Comments

The Holoholo writers weighed in. It was very interesting to find how each of the goatfish we have in Hawaii were someone’s favorites, for different reasons.

Kekahi (diver and kayak fisherman. IG: kamakaze_kaster):

I think munu (nicknamed Joe Louis), have the softest meat compared to kumu and moana kali. Kumu and Joes are less commonly hooked than moana kali, but divers can get them at selected spots. I have hooked kumu and joes whipping, dunking and bottom fishing. Even at night.

Merik (shore, boat and throw netter):

The answer is different from person to person. For me personally, I believe that the best eating goatfish has to be the kūmū. With that being said it’s also one of the most elusive, making it a treat whenever one is cooked, steamed, fried, or sashed at the dinner table. Coming close behind has to be the moano ʻukali, which is slightly more common and pretty much just as good eating.

Taste wise they are pretty similar. Kūmū, to me, just seems a bit softer more tender, with the taste being slightly different. Hard to really describe it. It could also be because I don’t get to each as much kūmū so I enjoy it more when I do.

A much more common goatfish that is also a favorite for myself and many others is the ‘oama, caught using a hand pole and best enjoyed whole and deep fried.

Pono (shore fisher, diver, boat fisher):

‘Oama. I like how they are the easiest to prepare and eat! Perfect for people who aren’t used to eating around bones or don’t like eating fish since they taste like McDonald’s fries. I’d take 2lbs of ‘oama over a 2lb goatfish all day.

But if I had to steam something, or cook something special, kūmū trumps every fish, goat or not.

Lawrence (kayak fisher):

I like moano kali because they are aggressive biters and hit the damashi hard. We sashimi or eat ’em the same way we stuff uhu: all the goods – onion, tomatoes, mushrooms, lupchong, green onion, Portuguese sausage, mayonnaise, garlic salt, pepper. Need a sharp knife to prep the small, soft fish.

My second most commonly caught goat is the weke nono / weke ula.

Scott (kayak fisher):

Since I don’t eat cooked fish much, the weke nono, also called weke ula, is my favorite since the clean, non-fishy, white meat is firm enough to eat as sashimi or poke. The fish itself is so beautiful in shape and coloration. It does tend to dry out when cooked so it’s best to eat raw.

Erik (boat fisher):

I prefer the Moano / Moana Kali. The reason is based solely on aesthetics. 😆. Even though I can’t tell the difference and really enjoy the taste/texture and flavor of both Moana Kali and Weke Nono equally, if I had to choose, I prefer the Kali. This I guess, has to do with eating with my eyes first and maybe some to do with how the fish looks coming out of the water. The bright orange on the upper back. The ombre purple from waist to tail. It’s just such a beautiful fish.

A friend who has been able to try all the goats sums them up for us:

For steaming, I think Moana Kali is the best, followed by Joe Louis then Kumu. My father likes the Joe best, then Kali and Kumu last. We’ve steamed all 3 together a number of times with the same results.

I don’t cook weke nono / weke ula as it’s way too dry but the ones over 3lb are good for sashimi. We typically throw back the smaller ones.

Malu (side spot goafish) is very similar to weke nono as it’s a relatively dry fish although less dry than the white weke, red weke and weke nono.

Small moana, like oama are best deep fried crispy.

Holoholo: Finally, I caught a shibi!

February 8, 2025 By Scott 5 Comments

Tobias has previously shared his experiences kayak fishing the Windward side of Oahu but had never caught the elusive yellowfin tuna. Until now.

Tobias Tillemans:

A body of water with clouds and sun rays

AI-generated content may be incorrect.

We launched in the dark and peddled out into gently rolling black ink with stars above and a yellow moon low in the west, shining through some thin clouds. Light shimmered faintly off the water, no sound other than the rhythmic swishing of the fins under my feet and my breathing. I followed Max of the Oahu Pelagic Pirates who knew these waters very well, but the akule bite was slow, and we each got only 1 or 2 before heading further out into a breaking dawn to find opelu, watched silently by birds perched on marine buoys. As night softened into dawn, I turned off my headlamp and put out a bait before taking some time to watch the light rise on Oahu’s north shore, a thin strip of habitable land below towering green hills, windmills, and cloud banks to the east and the taller and drier red Wai’anae Range to the west. It was more than 9 months since I’d been on the water, and I was particularly thankful, but those 20 minutes before the sun breaks the horizon are always the most arresting.

When I started kayak fishing, I had this mythical idea of the yellowfin tuna. It was the most beautiful fish I’d ever seen, the most delicious, and the proudest catch a kayak fisherman could make. As I got better at catching pelagic fish I got to know many other species and to appreciate all of them for their unique character – the sly and powerful ono, or the colorful, acrobatic mahi – and I learned that there are many proud catches besides the yellowfin. Still, though, every time I hooked up offshore there was the question: is this the one? Might I finally get to lay hands on a shibi? I would look for the distinctive ‘tuna headshakes’ and gauge the speed and power of each run. But it never was, and then, almost a year ago, I moved back to the mainland with my family. This was highly likely to be my only day fishing offshore this year. I am forever indebted to Bill Ho, my neighbor in Hau’ula, who met me over his lunch break to loan me an offshore kayak, rods, and everything else I needed to fish through the short visit I had on the island. His love of fishing out of a kayak has been an inspiration to me from the very beginning.

We managed a few opelu in the hour around sunrise, picking them out of fast-moving schools that passed under us. I dropped the akule deep with a 4oz weight on a rubber band and sent a fresh opelu 150’ back on a single 5/0 hook and 40-pound fluoro before we moved out closer to 200’ of water where I picked up another opelu and sent this one out on the deep line, replacing the akule. Occasionally through the first few hours the wind would build before losing heart and flattening out again. Every 20 minutes or so, cruising schools of bait would show up on the fish finder.

The morning just felt fishy. Every so often my top bait would completely bug out and fight for its life, peeling my feather-trigger drag. In these moments, I’d open the bail and lay the line across my finger, ready in an instant to drop the bait weightless and let the predator eat. But none of us were hooking up. The pink undersides of the clouds faded to peach, then white, and the ocean went from a brooding, purplish blue to its resplendent late-morning aqua. I was beginning to get comfortable with the idea of heading back to the marina refreshed and with an empty fish bag.

All of a sudden, I sensed panic in the bait, and draped the line gently across my pointer finger. Then it got hammered. I let the line scream off the open bail for about 10 seconds then locked it down, feeling out a conservative drag setting to slow the fish without risking breaking it off. I endured a jolting, sporadic initial run, and then a second. I’ve broken off too many fish in the past at this moment, misjudging the drag with several hundred feet of line out on a fish whose spirit is not broken. After the second run the fish settled into a deep clockwise spiral with gradually weakening runs and, though I’d not seen the fish, all this behavior had me hopeful this was the one. I decided I’d be fine getting sharked, or popping off, but I was not going to break this fish off. It took maybe half an hour before I finally saw the shimmering yellow radiating up from the fins of the fish rising in spirals towards me.

I removed my pedals so the fish could harmlessly spin under the boat, then waited for a circle close enough to kage (pole spear). In this situation I think the behavior of the fish will often reveal the presence of sharks, but I kept a close eye on the deep. The fish was within maybe 8 feet when it surprised me with another run, peeling off 50’ of line. Don’t break it off. I I worked the fish back up to the boat and, after several close calls, got a good opportunity for the kage. I heard the threading on the kage rod zipper through the fish’s gill plate, and the fish went stiff. I hoisted it into the boat between my feet.

I know now that where I normally fished was a big part of why I’d never landed this fish before. The windward side seems ecologically more suited to smaller tunas like the kawakawa or aku, while the broad bays of the north, and especially west, shores of Oahu are more suited to shibi. I’d fished those shores many times, but I fished so much by myself, peddling out into the darkness looking for bait and marks. I was lucky to be out this day with Max, an awesome guy and excellent fisherman, and I will be forever grateful to him for getting me onto my first shibi.

Holoholo: 40g beveled flatty tungsten jig slays Los Angeles Harbor fish!

October 24, 2024 By Scott 2 Comments

(top to bottom) 60g tungsten jig – repainted, 40g tungsten jig – repainted, 40g non-tungsten JDM jig, 40g Daiwa TG Bait

My buddy RJ, of the Promar – Ahi USA crew that took care of me when I attended the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach, had recently started testing the new Promar Ikara jigs and was really getting into micro jigging.

I had some knicked up tungsten jigs we sell, that I had touched up with glow paint and nail polish, and a couple other JDM jigs I hadn’t used in a while, so I sent them to RJ to compare with the non-tungsten jigs he was fishing.

He had a successful outing with them and agreed to share how the tungsten jigs worked on the saltwater bass of SoCal. Thanks RJ!

RJ Oropeza:
My background: Hi Scott. Being out on the ocean, with our lines in the water is where I always want to be. For me, targeting and landing large Calico and Sand Bass is always an option, but when the weather is good, heading offshore is a must. If it’s not Santa Barbara Island, then Catalina Island is the next best location. Fishing for rockfish when it’s in season, hunting for large yellowtails coming up from the South in the summer, and drifting for Halibut can result in big and memorable catches when offshore. When I am not fishing on the boat, I scratch the itch by surf fishing, and kayak fishing. I am open and enjoy all forms of saltwater fishing. I find the ocean to be my mediation zone, and when I am fishing, I am meditating.

On Saturday, we were able to take the boat out for a couple hours to see if we can catch some keepers inside the Los Angeles Harbor. We left the dock at 11:15am, the skies were slightly overcast, with light wind blowing. The outside temperature was 69 degrees, and there was a slight chop. Our first stop was a spot, near the San Pedro Bay Area, inside the break wall. It took about 5 minutes to arrive to our desired location, we shut the engines off, and prepared the trolling motor for a slow drift.

We could see via the fish finder that there were a few fish sitting on the structure, waiting to be caught. I reached for my Daiwa Harrier rod armed with the 40gram tungsten jig (Blue/White/Silver/Pink) with VMC Techset assists. To keep things stealthy yet somewhat abrasion resistant, I was using 30lb Seaguar Premier as the fluorocarbon leader. It didn’t take me more than 2 minutes to get my line in the water. Before I could feel the jig hit the ocean floor, I was already hooked up to what felt like a nice size bass. I was shocked at how fast it took to catch the first fish of the day. This is always a good sign, when you catch the first fish within 10 minutes of starting out the trip. I had a feeling the day was going to be fun.

With the help of the new jig, we managed to put a few more bass on the deck along with a fighting mackeral. I was able to hook them on the free fall, the retrieve, and on the bounce. It was clear to me that this tungsten jig was very attractive to the bass in the harbor. The predators around could not resist the sexy dance that this lure displayed. The beveled edges create a realistic sharp darting motion, and the weight allows you to launch the lure far enough to have a long retrieve back, giving the angler plenty of time to dance the jig back to the boat. The color scheme, with added glow dots, seemed to be very effective.

On several retrieves, I was able to see fish come near the boat as they chased the jig in hope of a better view. This jig made what could have been a slow day, turn into a fun and productive one. Overall I felt that this jig was a must have for any angler interested in slow pitch jigging. The small and simple design could not be ignored by the fish we were targeting. Thanks again, for your recommendation, as always I appreciate the wisdom that you share. You were right, this jig, “slayed the bass in the harbor“.

I look forward to landing more fish in the future, with this sexy piece of tungsten and will give the other jigs their fair shot in the water.

Aloha Scott! Keep your pole bent, and your line tight.

Editor: You can find the 40g and 60g tungsten jigs, dressed and undressed, in the Store here.

Holoholo: Aim, load, cast, repeat.

September 23, 2024 By Scott 8 Comments

Matthew Ikeda started guest posting for us as a 6th grader. He’s our most prolific poster with close to 50 posts so far, and as his shore fishing knowledge has grown, so has ours. Congratulations Matt, on your many high school accomplishments and may God continue to bless and guide you as you go off to college.

Matt: The sun was well below the horizon, and I had gone three hours casting my lure without even a tug. It was so dark that I had no clue where my cast was going, and only muscle memory told me how to work my lure. I thought about packing up – after going through many “whitewash” trips, you sort of know the feeling when you’re not going to catch a fish. But something told me to stay. After all, this was one of my last chances to catch an Ulua before leaving for college. Catching a shore-based Ulua on a lure had been my goal since I started fishing at nine years old. I was now almost nineteen.

I thought about the real likelihood of an Ulua being around. This summer was one of the slowest I had experienced, with many back-to-back whitewash trips. June, July, and August are generally the best months for fishing in the year, but something was different this year. However, all of my doubts soon vanished.

A few casts later, I heard an explosion of water and felt my rod almost getting yanked out of my hands. I immediately snapped to attention, jerking my rod to set the hook and planted my feet to brace against the fish’s first run. I knew this was the Ulua I was looking for.

The fish ran wildly, reminding me of just how powerful Ulua were. Then it stopped. To my dismay, I felt the dreaded feeling of my leader rubbing on the reef. The fish was stuck and not budging. My heart sank. It would really suck to lose my Ulua this way.

Using my headlamp, I could see the rock my line was wrapped around. I opened my bail and frantically ran further into the surf. After taking a couple of waves to the face, I was able to free the line. I immediately started boosting the fish, and after a few smaller runs, I could see the chrome outline of an Ulua in the water. I knew I was close but I knew I couldn’t rush the fish, not wanting to pull the hooks loose.

I kept steady pressure as the Ulua stubbornly resisted, using its full body to ride the strong current. But it had reached its limit, and I could see just how exhausted the fish was. It gave a few strong kicks before finally coming to the surface just a few feet away. I grabbed the Ulua by the tail and quickly retreated to a safe area. I was stoked.

Looking at the Ulua on the rocks, I couldn’t help but think how amazing of a fish it was. This was a fish that had tormented me over the hundreds of hours I spent learning how to catch it, requiring tens of thousands of casts and many, many fishing trips over the years. I had hooked a few in the past, but every one found a way to get loose. But now it was all over.

However, the action was not over. A couple of days later I was lucky enough to land a Pao pao Ulua while sight fishing on the flats, a true rarity and a fish that I never thought I would even get a shot at catching.

Shortly after, I landed a nice 8.5# white Papio and then another Ulua to cap off the most insane two weeks of fishing I’ve ever experienced – a great way to wrap up my time in Hawaii.

As the first to learn fishing in my family, it was never easy. This Ulua is just one fish that represents a lifelong journey of learning, failing, and trying new things. While fishing has been difficult, I’ve never been alone. I started writing for Scott when I was in sixth grade, and I’ve always been grateful for the people I’ve met and advice I’ve received through this site. Thank you to everyone who has supported my passion for fishing over the years. It’s hard to capture in words how much fishing has meant to me, but I’ll always remember the good times we’ve shared together. Until we meet again🤙.

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”

Holoholo: May – August shore line report

September 13, 2024 By Scott 1 Comment

Merik Chun returns to share how this summer’s bait fish, whipping, shore casting and throw netting season has been. We’re very blessed to get his insight from all the hours he spent on the water.

Merik:

Potentially the most rewarding time of the year for any fisherman. The summer months. This usually ranges from mid-April into May, and can last all the way till August, and as of recently maybe even September.

Throughout these last few months the primary focus was shore fishing. To be specific bait casting and even throwing net (ʻupena). There was definitely a presence of fish, but knowing how to catch them is always the tough part.

The first form of baitfish to show up this year were the nehu, followed by small schools of halalu and sardines. This attracted predators such as papio, kaku, and moi. This summer the main baitfish which I had focused my attention toward was the halalu and sardine piles. I usually target these baitfish by whipping for them, using a light game rod, with a smaller size reel. Using a California style rig with at least 2 arm spans of 2# mono to a small hook with an aqua strip, with the right stroke it was possible to catch these small baitfish. While the halalu in particular are good eating fried whole, I usually just caught enough to free line in hopes of Papio or other predators. The best time of the day I’ve noticed was right as the sun was going down, and that’s where the action came. I managed to get lucky with a few small papios, the occasionally kaku snip, and even an out of season moi, all on live sardine/halalu.

This summer has also proven to be productive in the shore cast category, which was primarily baitcasting with the occasional slide bait. Baitcasting is a popular way to catch a large majority of Hawaii’s nearshore fish, using a long casting rod, and a reel (conventional/spinner) usually spooled with monofilament line. From the beaches to the rocky shores, bait casting has proven to be productive. I managed to get lucky with everything from Oio’s to mu’s and even another out of season moi! While baitcasting, I usually like to fish around the tide changes around 2 hours before and 2 hours after the slack tide. This is when I’ve noticed fish feeding actively consistently, but it’s also a variable which is heavily dependent on location and time of year.

Another focus for myself this year was throwing net (ʻupena kiloi) which is the art of using a cast net to target fish along the shoreline. In Hawaii, there is a legal size requirement for the eye of the net which is 2”. This ensures that smaller fish are able to swim through which would be too small to take home. Knowing the size requirements of your net and the fish you’re after is a must. For the most part, the fish population in the areas I usually try are quite normal. Schools of kala and manini grazing on the reef was a sign of a healthy reef, but were not my main targets. One thing I’ve noticed this year was an influx of uhu and pananu close to the shoreline. This is a fish I haven’t seen much of in the past. Everything from blue and brown pananu, to even red whiptail uhu’s were plentiful in numbers in an area where I haven’t seen them before. They proved difficult to throw on always sitting right out side of throwing range. Though every once in a while when they climb up the reef or a flush of whitewater covers them, I’d get lucky. This was a good sign that the parrotfish population was present in what seemed to be sustainable numbers.

When it comes to throwing artificial lures, I hadn’t gone on as many trips as I would have liked. I would go on the occasional flats trip bringing along a light-game setup with the hopes of hooking into an oio, while really the main goal was to find some fresh bait! Ironically although I wouldn’t have much luck in the bait department, I happened to consistently get lucky with oio strikes. It’s always the case when you go out with a goal in mind, and it happens that you get lucky in some other way shape or form. Whenever I walk the flats with the hopes of targeting an oio, I end up finding tako. I guess that’s why the Hawaiians never speak about what they’re targeting and just keeping it simple by saying that they going go “holoholo”. I was quite surprised that I was hooking into so many oio as during the summer months they usually are a bit harder to come across. In the few trips I had gone on, I managed to get lucky with a handful of strikes, and a few solid fish landed. A fantastic sign that the oio are still actively feeding and are around.

Before the summer months came around, I told myself that I was going to try go on more plugging trips. That never really came to fruition as I only managed to get out and try three times. Although I never landed any fish, I did get action two out of the three trips. These trips were dawn patrol trips which I’d get out to the spot at around 5:00 in the morning before the sun peeks over the mountain. I would work a stretch of grounds where I have gotten action in the past, until around 8:00 where I’d feel like the action had shut down. The first of the three trips came in early June, where the grounds looked fishy, only to find myself cast after cast with no action. I had seen one small omilu in the 5# range and casted at it only to have it ignore my lure and swim off.

14 inch White Papio on Live Sardine (Freeline)

The next two trips came around Mid-August and these trips are where I had noticed an influx in fish activity. As soon as the sun peeked over the horizon, I’d find myself watching omilu in the 10+ pound range following the lure up to my feet. Then no more than five casts later, Hanapaʻa! The strike came following the sweep of my stickbait, and was strong enough to pull me off my feet. I had a hard time keeping the rod up as it stripped line from my reel, but out of all my strikes this was the first where I felt like I had a chance. But to my disappointment with the dense reef structure and intricate ledges it managed to get pinned down and spit the hook.

After the action from that day, I decided to try again two days later. Same plan with similar conditions, get to the spot crack of dawn, and play the rising tide. This time the action came later in the morning around 7am. It’s a type of excitement that you must experience first hand in order to truly appreciate. Being able to witness an ulua chase after your lure. In this case I was able to watch the fish swimming chasing my lure only to take a single swipe at it and miss the hooks completely. Immediately next cast in the same area, I had another black Ulua follow my lure up to the ledge only to turn last second. These two fish were just above rat size around 20-25 pound range, but the excitement was there nonetheless. A few casts later, a pair of proper Omilu around the 15# range followed my lure up to my feet, only to lose interest in my figure eight’s. This amount of action in Mid-August was no surprise. During this time about a week prior, oama schools began appearing at some spots in the area. The past few of years the oama have been making a late summer appearance in around Mid-August to early September, which would make sense on why the omilu seemed to be more plentiful at this time. Soon enough oama and papio action is going to be a part of a Winter report.

The action during these summer months never ceases to amaze. From slinging lead to casting lures, there is always something to do. This year’s summer had been filled with action in every shoreline department. Main thing is that you just get out there and try. Just remember, it’s an amazing gift to be around the ocean, and any catch is simply a bonus. With the winter months ahead and oama still around there is a good chance that the action will continue. Just gotta get out there and go fishing!

Holoholo: I caught a Kagami ulua on a Duo jig I was testing!

September 10, 2024 By Scott Leave a Comment

Editor: I had picked up some Duo Drag Metal Force Semi Long jigs from our local Duo Distributor to try out. If they proved effective, I was gonna order some for the Store. I shared an asymmetric sided 155g pink with glow stripes jig with my friend and occasional kayak partner, Lawrence, who consistently catches fish jigging off his kayak, when the pelagics aren’t biting his live opelu.

Lawrence:

Here’s how it it all went down… I paired the jig with a JI Fishing Co assist hook and dropped it on a school of fish. No immediate bite, but did see a mark on the fish finder and noticed it was chasing my jig on the way up. I let my jig back down to the bottom of the ocean and the fish hit my jig. The fight felt like an ulua and during the fight one of my other live bait poles goes off. I’m double hookup. Focusing on my jig rod, I let my live bait rod fight alone and hoped it could handle the constant pulling. Unfortunately the fish pulled really hard and broke the line.

Refocusing on the jig line, I get to the point that I see color and first thing to my mind is ohh, white ulua. Nothing wrong with white ulua but I’ve caught a few, along with kahalas. Once it got to the surface, I realized it was a Kagami (African Pompano). Quickly grabbing my Kage (Hawaiian Spear), I stabbed it in the gills and brought it on board. Super Stoked to catch this dream fish of mine.

The kagami ended up weighing 11.24 pounds. I liked the Duo Semi Long jig so much I bought another one in 155g and a smaller one in 105g from HI Fish Gear in Ewa Beach!

Here’s the video of the action.

Note (9/29/24): The 155g jig I bought caught a small kawakawa!

Thanks for reading!

Editor: I plan to put my compact tungsten jigs away for a while and fish these larger Duo jigs. I’ll also rig them with BKK or Shout assist hooks and put some in the Store. Stay tuned!

Holoholo: Plugging Report Summer 2024

September 7, 2024 By Scott 4 Comments

Thad, our JDM product expert, breaks down how his papio/ulua season has played out.

Thad: The plugging season at the spots we frequent on Oahu began a little later this summer than in the past couple of years. My fishing buddies Dino, Travis and I devoted a few sessions here and there from early April with the hopes that we would catch the start of the season but to no avail. On a whim, Travis wanted to try plugging a brand new spot in early June and convinced me to skip the flats fishing that day and I’m glad I listened.

We walked out near the edge of the reef and began casting our lures at the crack of dawn. It was still mostly dark with just a slight glow of the sun on the horizon when on my second cast, something came up from the deep to attack the new popper I had ordered from Japan. As it tried and missed three times, I could barely make out the splashing in the dark even though it was only 20 yards from me, but I could hear it. As the lure reached the tip of my rod in an area about shin deep, I kept the popper in the water and swept my rod back and forth to keep it moving with hopes the fish was still around. The ulua came up onto the reef shelf and while swimming sideways in the thin water, grabbed the lure and took off for the deep! It may have been the most exciting eat I’ve ever experienced. Unfortunately, after a hard 5 minute fight, the ulua popped off and got away. Based on the strength of the fish, it was a good sized one and definitely the largest I hooked this year.

I checked my lure and hooks and everything looked ok so I cast it back out and proceeded to show Travis the retrieve style I was using for the first hit when I got another one. This one felt smaller and I quickly brought in a 4lb white papio. After a few pics, the fish was released. I ended the short morning session with another catch and release 4lb white papio before we called it a day. Overall, it was an exciting start to the 2024 season.

The next weekend, Dino and I decided to try a spot on the opposite side of the island from the previous week. I lucked out again and within the first few casts, I felt a tug as the lure was nearing the rocks I was standing on. I set the hooks several times – harder than I did when I lost the first ulua. This fish felt heavy but wasn’t running nearly as hard. As it neared me in the whitewash, I pointed my headlamp towards the area of the fish and I could see that it was a small ulua foul hooked on its side. No wonder it felt heavy. I was able to tag my first ulua of the season with a PIFG tag and safely release it to grow some more.

The next two weekends in late June were spent traveling in Japan with my family and friends. I didn’t do any fishing there and constantly imagined all the ulua swimming around our Oahu shores just waiting to be caught. I returned home on a Saturday in early July, determined to get back out the next morning. My friends and I don’t normally fish the same spots very often and enjoy rotating them or testing new ones so that Sunday, Dino and I decided to try another spot, different from the ones I recently went to. As usual, we met early in the morning before sunrise and started our walk to the spot. It was a dark moon that weekend with small surf and light winds. Excited to be home and fishing again in near perfect conditions, I told Dino I had a very strong feeling one of us would be hooking up.

We were throwing our lures for about half an hour and the sun was just beginning to glow on the horizon when I felt a strong tug in the distance on my second sweep of the cast. To ensure a good hookset, I yanked hard several times. This fish also felt like a good one on the initial strike but I was using a slightly heavier set up than before so I boosted the fish in quickly – so much so that at one point I told Dino I didn’t need help landing it because it might be a papio. When the fish in front of me, I shined my headlamp at it and to my surprise, it was a decent sized ulua. I yelled to Dino that I needed his help after all so he quickly got to the water’s edge, grabbed the ulua’s tail and brought it up on the rocks. What a great feeling to start the season 2 for 3. Unfortunately I forgot my PIFG tags so after taking a few pics, the fish was released tagless.

The rest of July and August was filled with more missed ulua strikes and papio landed without any slow down in the action. It seems the late start to the ulua bite this summer means the action will continue later around Oahu as well.

Holoholo: Urban fishing Honolulu 2024

August 26, 2024 By Scott 14 Comments

I had been asking my friend and Christian brother, Wayne, to share a little about his quick after-work fishing trips in town. Humbly he complied.

Wayne:

According to Wikipedia,
Urban fishing is a type of recreational fishing that takes place in urban areas such as inner cities.

In Honolulu, the main body of water that has public access is the Ala Wai canal.

I’ve been fishing the Ala Wai for about 20 plus years. I started fishing there after work or when waiting for my daughter while she took violin lessons close by. Prior to fishing the Ala Wai, I used to fish along the Eastside shoreline using a bubble float setup which is common in Hawaii to use for “Whipping”.

I had found a magazine at a bookstore in Kahala mall called Shallow Water Fishing. Also known as inshore fishing. The articles in this magazine featured fishing mostly in places like Florida and Texas.

I started reading these articles and started incorporating what they used for lures and adapted them to my fishing style. I started using jigheads with different types of plastics.
Paddle tails, straight tails, curly tails, shrimp etc.

I started using braid as my main line with a fluorocarbon leader
My current set up is a spinning reel 2500 size.
7 feet med power extra fast spinning rod.
10 lb braid with 15 lb fluorocarbon leader.
I usually tie a 1/8 oz jighead and use different types of plastic baits.
I’ve been using this setup for a while now.

I like this set up because it’s fast and easy to set up and get to fishing the Ala Wai.
Especially if you don’t have much time.
I like to go after work.

Sometimes I don’t catch anything, but I get to watch the sun go down, meet interesting people and also I am intrigued by the different birds that inhabit the Ala Wai.

Till next time…….
Happy fishing and God bless,

Wayne

Holoholo: Shoreline Catch Report 7/1/24

July 2, 2024 By Scott 8 Comments

Matthew Ikeda is back with a much needed shoreline catch report and bait update!

I hope you all are doing well. It’s been a while since my last write-up in August. With a busy senior year, I haven’t had as much time to fish as I’d like, but I always keep some time to go fishing. With that being said, let’s get to the catch report.

The O’io bite was on fire for the back end of 2023, all the way into January and February. The winter bite wasn’t slow at all, and I was picking up 2-3 O’io per trip pretty regularly. Unfortunately that all changed around April, when the O’io seemed to vacate the flats. At times, I faced multiple whitewash trips in a row, something that I hadn’t seen since I was first learning how to catch O’io. Several of my best spots had suddenly turned dry, and I couldn’t find the reason no matter how hard I tried. One of the only successful trips I had from April-June was one I ventured all the way out to the breakers, attempting to sneak up on the O’io in the choppy whitewash. I caught 4 that day. I don’t normally fish that close to the breakers, but I figured that I should try since nothing else was working. Perhaps the O’io playing hard-to-get is a result of increased pressure, or some seasonal change that I don’t understand. All I know is that the O’io bite has been much slower than last year at the same time.

Interestingly enough, my best catch of 2024 so far came on a day I probably shouldn’t have been fishing. On that day, I brought my friends and a couple of dunking rods to the beach, hoping to get them on an O’io or two. I also brought a “just in case” rod rigged with a grub and jighead in the event that I had some sight fishing opportunities. Before I had even set up the first dunking pole, I saw a huge O’io swimming in the shallows. I quickly grabbed the “just in case” pole and ran into the water, stalking the fish from a distance. I hadn’t sightfished in a while and I realized that it was my first real chance at a nice fish in months. Luckily, it was a windy day so the splash was muffled when my lure hit the water. The O’io pretty much rushed over to the lure and swallowed it. I was on.

After a pretty tense 10 minute fight, I was able to see that it was pretty darn good for a “welcome back” fish. I never carry a scale on me, but judging from the size, it was probably a double digit fish. I landed the O’io, took a few pictures with my friends, and sent it back on its way. After a few long months of low to no action, I caught a near PB O’io on a trip where I hadn’t even planned to fish. It was high noon, the tide wasn’t great, and I hadn’t even bothered to retie my FG knot from a few trips back. Sometimes fish just seem to have their ways of doing things.

As for everything else, I’ve been doing a bunch of stream bass fishing over the last few months. It’s been a great way to cool down after tennis practice and school, and the bass always seem willing to bite. If you’d like to try sometime, make sure you prepare some sort of defense against mosquitoes. I usually just wear long sleeves and long pants.

I’m hoping that it will be a great summer of fishing as I look to transition into more Papio fishing and maybe even plugging (I really want to get my first shore Ulua before college). It doesn’t seem like the Oama and Halalu are quite in yet, and the Iao seem to be absent from the shorelines. It looks like it will be a late season, just like the last few years. Hopefully that means the Oama and Halalu will stay all the way through October. Wishing you all good luck, have fun, and please stay safe out there!

Holoholo: We’re Deep 7 Bottomfishing now!

January 18, 2024 By Scott Leave a Comment

Holoholo writer Hunter Young has evolved from a shore fisherman to a diver and now a boat fisherman and is still in high school. He’s recently been focused on getting better as a Deep 7 fisherman.

Hunter:

If someone told me 4 years ago that in 4 years I’d be primarily targeting deep bottom fish on my boat, I would probably have asked them “what’s a deep bottom fish?”.

When I first started fishing many, many years ago, I stayed simple, targeting reef fish. During summers I would catch oama and halalu and use them as live bait for papio. During winters I’d baitcast tako legs for oio. Main point being I was a very casual shoreline fisherman, and it remained that way for a while. Throughout the years, I gained knowledge from experience and old timers at the spots.

During the summer of 2020, my dad brought home a small 15ft Mikuni boat. It had an old and beat down outboard which would die out every 5 minutes.

Though I now look back and realize just how sketchy that boat was, at the time I thought that I had just unlocked an entirely new world of fishing. We owned that boat for a little over a year but during that time, I discovered the deep bottom fishery. My first time hearing about the Deep 7 was when I saw one of my friends post a picture on Instagram with a lineup of weird looking yellow striped fish (gindai). I was intrigued by the colors on this fish so I did some research and found out about the Deep 7. I kept researching and the deeper I went the more and more amazed I became. To me, it was absurd that fish could even thrive in waters that deep. From that day on, I made it a mission to learn how to catch these fish.

We were lucky enough to be gifted two Daiwa Tanacom electric reels from a friend of my dad. These electric reels allowed us to explore the deep dark waters 600 ft deep. On our first trip I vividly remember catching a big gindai on my first drop. I was so happy that I kept looking in the cooler and staring at the colors on the fish. I was so happy in fact that I forced my grandma to cook it up that same night I caught it!

Fast forward 3 years and we arrive at the middle of the summer of 2023. During the 3 years that have passed, I learned tons of techniques and information on bottom fishing. Still, I was only catching small fish, like ehu (squirrelfish snapper), kalekale (Von Siebold’s snapper), gindai (Brigham’s snapper). I hadn’t caught anything big yet. This was also around the time that I made my first trip to the infamous Penguin Banks. Funny story, on that first trip to Penguin Banks, I didn’t catch a single bottom fish! Just a bunch of aku.

On my second trip I decided to try a pinnacle that came up to 800 ft from around 3000 ft. I ended that day with a good lineup full of big ehu and hogo (scorpionfish) . My trips remained this way for a while. Catching ehus and hogos, but never really hooking any big fish.

Until one day I decided to try a different rig and change up my bait. It seemed like the trip would be another lineup and ehus and hogos but on my 5th drop my line went slack on the bottom. “What?” I thought to myself, there was no way I could be on bottom because I had brought my rig up 40ft. I pushed the jog lever on my electric reel up to bring in some line. When the slack disappeared and the tension came back my pole tip started going crazy! Then the line from my reel started peeling out. I quickly tightened the drag and stepped back. I waited anxiously on the boat hoping the fish would not come off. When the number on the reel screen read 30ft I still could not see a fish in the water.

As I reeled up the last few feet of line I grabbed my rig and started handlining it up. I was confused because it seemed I had lost my lead and my rig was floating up. Then all of a sudden this big mass of the most beautiful hue of red I have seen in my life appeared out of nowhere. Onaga (longtail snapper)! I quickly reached down and grabbed the gills of the fish pulling it up into the boat. “NO WAY!” I screamed over and over. The onaga ended up weighing just over 12lbs. That was my first experience with the true intensity of deep bottom fishing.

Every trip after that provided me with onaga ranging from 3lbs to my biggest ever 16lbs.

It seems like the closer we get to the winter months. The more onaga are caught and the bigger they are. Around the end of November I had an especially crazy day where the onaga seemed to bite on every drop. I even got a triple onaga on one of my drops!

During one of my trips at Penguin Banks It seemed like the onaga bite had slowed down early, so I decided to take some dead opelu onto the banks in 150-200 ft of water. I hooked up an entire opelu and dropped it down onto some big marks on my gps. As soon as I closed the bail on my reel, I was hooked up! And it was big. As I brought the fish up I saw the silver flash of a big uku. That was my first uku weighing over 10lbs. After that day I devoted some time to learning how to master this, and although I have only dedicated one day to strictly ukus, I managed to get some good sized ones. My biggest one weighing in at 18 lbs.

I’ve learned quite a few things over the past few years but I have 3 tips which I think are the most helpful for people starting to get into bottom fishing. These tips might not work for everyone but in my experience they work for me.

Bait quality matters. Don’t leave your bait out in the sun on the boat and don’t use bait that’s been sitting in your freezer for a year. Fresh bait is always best, and I’ve found bottom fish like bloody baits.
Check tides and current. Bottom fishing in strong currents is like asking for trouble. It’s harder to stay on the spot, easy to tangle lines, and I feel like the fish just don’t bite as good. You can’t control the current but if it’s too strong you might be better off trolling around the area until it calms down.
Rotate spots. I made the mistake of hitting the same spot over and over again and I regret it. You should be giving your spots time to replenish themselves. This will ensure that there are fish there in the future and those fish bite well.

Oh also if you’re getting sharked, move spots! The sharks will keep taking your fish without mercy.

Holoholo: Urban JDM lure testing – Papio, broken rod and Tilapia

August 22, 2023 By Scott 5 Comments

On summer break before his Senior year of high school, Matthew Ikeda accepted my plea to test some of the oldie but goodie JDM whipping lures and give his feedback on an Anetik shirt. I had previously posted about the lures we had tested that day here.

Matthew:

A little while ago, Scott messaged me wanting to find a test spot for some JDM lures. We played around with a few options at first, but not wanting to show any landmarks, we chose a secret-not-so-secret spot that we were sure wouldn’t upset anyone. When Scott picked me up, he gave me an Anetik hoodie to try for the day. The sun was high and scorching by the time we arrived at the spot, so the semi-porous fiber of the shirt felt pretty good. I decided to start off with a Duo Tide Minnow Slim SSR, which was around four inches and in a pearl color. It casted well, despite there being a crosswind and its lack of an internal weight transfer system. In the murky water, the pearl color really stood out and because of its enticing side-to-side action, I felt confident using it.

This spot is extremely dependent on the tide, so I was wondering if the tide was right for the Papio that sometimes run through. I began getting bites from Kaku early on, but there was no sign of the target species. The tide was rising fast, so I was depending on the influx of water to bring the fish into the canal. I got my wish 20 minutes later, when I felt a violent take that nearly ripped the rod out of my hands. I set the hook and let the fish take its first run. With the headshakes, power, and quick movements of the fish, I was pretty sure that I had just hooked a nice Papio. As I brought it closer in, I could see that I was correct. It was a good-sized white Papio (GT), larger than any I had hooked at this spot before. I babied the fight on the way in, unsure of how secure the hooks were, but the Papio eventually got tired. I grabbed the line and pulled it over the wall, landing the fish. Scott took some pictures, recorded a short video, and it was released back into the nasty water.

We fished pretty unsuccessfully for the rest of the time, as the bite went completely dead. We were just wrapping up when I got another bite. I set the hook and my rod crumbled. Shocked, I reeled the fish in with half of a rod, and I was pretty disappointed to see that the fish was just a snagged tilapia. It really sucked because the rod was my go-to O’io rod for the longest time, and there was a lot of sentimental value to it. To break a favorite rod on such a trash fish sucks, but that’s fishing I guess. In all, it was a good trip but the broken rod kind of killed the vibes.

Reviews:

The Anetik Remix Tech long-sleeved shirt had great ventilation and felt soft. I never felt like I was sweating despite the midday sun. It fits my body well and is better at adapting to slightly different sizes than some other brands. It comes with a hoodie and drawstrings if you need to tighten it. One thing that the Anetik shirt does lack is a face covering. Nearly all of my fishing shirts come with a face covering (attached to the shirt) that I can cover my face with. If you need to cover your face while wearing the Anetik hoodie, you will need to buy a separate face buff, either from Anetik or another brand. However, Anetik shirts have some of the softest material I’ve felt while also fitting me perfectly, making it worth the hassle. The sizes tend to be small, so you may need to buy one size larger than usual. For example, I am normally a “large” but I needed an “extra large”. Rating: 9/10, just find a buff to go with it.

The Duo Tide Minnow Slim SSR is an intriguing lure. It has a thin profile that matches a lot of our young baitfish. Some other common lures like Rapala X-Raps have fatter midsections, which I’m not too fond of. It casts well despite not having an internal weight transfer system and moves well in the water without needing too much attention. It dives around 1-2 feet deep. Lighter lures like these are good, but are best suited for harbors, canals, and calm areas without wind and choppy surfaces. In other terms, I wouldn’t use it anywhere with waves and lots of water movement. Lures like these would probably struggle to cast directly against the wind, due to the lack of the weight transfer system. However, when used in the right areas, or casted downwind, it should be very successful. Rating: 8/10, need to use it in a calm area.

Holoholo: DOUBLE – Double Digit Oio!

July 20, 2023 By Scott 6 Comments

Matthew Ikeda, our young, on-the-water intrepid reporter, shares the details of his back-to-back fishes of a lifetime catch.

Matthew: I was in bed when Sean from Nervous Waters Fly Shop asked me if I wanted to tag along with him and Frank to their spot, which I was only vaguely familiar with. I had just got my wisdom teeth removed hours before, so I was in a lot of pain and bleeding quite a bit. While I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able in a day’s time, being able to watch fly fishing masters at work was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss. I accepted the offer and arranged to meet them at the spot.

That morning, I was still bleeding a little bit but most of the pain had subsided, so I figured I was okay, plus I figured the adrenaline of sight fishing would help numb the rest. I met them at the spot and we walked out into the water. I had brought both my fly rod and a spinner rod, but I decided to start off with the spinner as I got used to the spot. We split up pretty far from each other at first. I decided to take a long loop around, wasting 15 minutes just to get in position to cast with the wind into a spot that looked good. I saw a few fish initially, but they didn’t want anything to do with the neon orange grub I was using. I switched to a darker grub that looked more natural, and immediately the fish started to show more interest. I started to feel pretty good about my chances.

Twenty minutes later, I was on my phone changing the music when I saw the outline of a big fish passing just 15 feet in front of me. I quickly put my phone in my bag and flipped an underhand cast in front of it. To my surprise, the O’io rushed the lure, ate, and immediately took off at breakneck speed. Within seconds, half of my line was gone and the fish had almost made it to the ledge, which would make my loss certain if the fish reached it. I started backpedaling and tightened the drag a little, trying to slow the fish in any way. Eventually, it did slow down and I was able to regain some line. But I had a long fight ahead of me.

Because I chose to carry two rods on me, I had to bring the smallest spinning rod I owned (so it fit in my backpack). I’ve used the same rod to catch Halalu before. The rod, a 7’10” light action, is perfect for sight casting accuracy, but that combined with the 12 pound test I chose to run made for a challenging fight. Over the next 40 minutes, the O’io ran in circles, taking line before I would eventually regain it, like a never ending game of tug of war. But the fish eventually got tired and I was able to grab it by the tail, and that’s when I realized how big it was. “Double digits” immediately came to mind as we took some pictures. Sean had a boga grip so we hooked it up, and I was stoked when the scale read right at 10 pounds. We took a couple more pictures before I released it. I took some time to relax and take it all in while Sean and Frank went back to fishing, completely satisfied with the day.

Sean and Frank had started to walk into the wind, and were pretty far away so I decided to follow them. I decided to look in the shallows for some tailing O’io, because I had never hooked a “tailer” before. I saw one pretty quickly and casted at it… but was disappointed when the lure landed right on top of the fish and spooked it, causing a big explosion. I continued on, trying to catch up to the guys. The water started to get very skinny and even though I knew O’io could get up that shallow, I questioned whether it was reasonable.

I was watching Sean, who appeared to be taking a shot at a fish when I spotted a big tail around 30 yards out. It was at a bad angle, directly into the wind, but I decided to stalk the fish. Luckily, some clouds had come in, so I hoped that they would help mask my presence. As I creeped up closer and closer I realized that this was another big fish. Its back was nearly out of the water and it seemed really occupied with digging at a specific patch of seaweed. I made my first cast at it, which was terrible and landed nowhere near, but luckily it didn’t spook the fish. I reeled in the lure quickly, made the adjustment, and casted. This time it was a beautiful line-drive cast, flying just two feet above the water before landing at the perfect distance in front of the fish. I dragged the lure along the bottom, making puffs of sand in an attempt to divert the fish’s attention. The fish jerked and moved suddenly, and then, wagging its tail, it swam over to my lure. I kept dragging the lure, so sure that the fish would spook, just like all the other skinny water tailers I had casted at in the past. But this time there was a small tug, and then a tap-tap-tap. I set the hook hard, and there was a big explosion as the fish took off even faster than the last. Luckily I was all the way on the inside, so the fish would have to spool me if it wanted to get over the ledge. For a little while, I thought it might just do that. But it stopped and started to come back in, much faster than the previous O’io. Within 10 minutes, I had it doing circles right around me. I walked into even shallower water as I tried to beach the fish. The tactic worked and the O’io tired fast, allowing me to grab it. I was shocked. It was another very big O’io and the stoke was high once again.

Frank took pictures of me holding the fish up as he called Sean to get the weight. This time, the fish tipped the boga at 10.5 pounds, making it another double digit O’io to make the day even more special. We took a pretty cool release video and the fish was on its way. Again, I stayed back to rest because I couldn’t really believe what had happened. Sean caught a good sized O’io on the fly, and Frank sightfished two puffers and an eagle ray, so we all ended up catching. We talked story on the way back and then parted ways.

The high didn’t last forever, and when I got home my calves and forearms were cramped and my pain from my wisdom removal reappeared. But the memories of that day will definitely last forever, and it was well worth it to get out there. Catching two double digit O’io on the same day is something I’ll probably never do again. I’d be happy if I caught one a year. It was a crazy day for sure and I suppose the lesson is that you just have to get out there and take some chances. Sometimes, you might just get lucky. My thanks to Sean and Frank for inviting me to tag along. I learned a lot from watching the true masters of the art, and I am very lucky to have that chance. Stay safe, have fun, and good luck out there!

Holoholo: Finding solitude and fish on the Windward side of Oahu

July 6, 2023 By Scott 16 Comments

I met Tobias on the water once, just weeks before his 2 year high school teaching assignment ended. While we didn’t get to team up and fish together, he left this treasure trove of vivid memories for the rest of us to enjoy.

Tobias Tillemans: I grew up in New York and Minnesota and fished obsessively in both places, dunking worms off docks or, later, chasing trout. I had a spell guiding flyfishing in Alaska before I started teaching High School science in Seattle, where I started fishing from a kayak. I’ve done some paddling expeditions in Baja and Alaska, always chasing fish.

A few weeks after I moved to Hawaii, I bought a 2017 Hobie Compass Outback and an old pickup to haul it. I was psyched out of my mind to fish; there is no better way to put it but, though I’ve fished my whole life, I didn’t have a clear grasp of how the ocean or the marine ecosystem behave in Hawaii. I figured I would just have to figure it out. I joined the Oahu Kayak Fishing Club Facebook group, read everything anybody posted, asked some occasional questions, then just fished a lot.

I quickly learned that nobody kayak fishes from where I lived in Hau’ula, on the windward side. In two years of fishing, I never saw another kayak. Occasionally there was a skiff. The weather’s not good, it’s sharky, and there aren’t many shibis, but it was quick and easy for me to launch from the beach. Kayak fishing is only partly about catching fish for me anyway, with the rest being a mix of a desire for solitude, independence, and a connection with some great power that occupies the blue-water ocean and also the mountain ridges of the Hawaiian Islands. Hau’ula is an excellent place for seekers of these other parts of fishing. The dripping wet rainforest backdrop is shot through with basalt cliffs, sliced occasionally by waterfalls, and capped by an ever-changing tapestry of clouds in shades of gray, peach, white and purple. Solitude is found in great abundance. The place has mana, and using a motor to get out there would have diminished the experience for me and the reward of every fish I caught. I also worry about the impact of over-fishing and motor noise, and I can rest easy fishing a self-powered boat.

As a teacher, I had to work from 9 am-4 pm, but if I was quick, I could fish before or after work. I gradually made it further offshore until I was maybe half a mile out, guessing that, with such a productive nearshore ecosystem, I’d easily find predator fish. It didn’t work that way. This part of the ecosystem is just too heavily impacted by overfishing. I was not that excited about this kind of fishing anyway. Outside the reef, a different ecosystem exists that is part of that high mountain and deep ocean spirit, and I hoped to have a brush with it. The elegance, beauty, and power of the pelagic fish are undeniable, and I knew that catching those fish would be a way to commune with the energy I was out there seeking.

My first visit to what I considered proper pelagic fish habitat, about 200’ of water, was spooky, and I didn’t even fish. I just peddled out there and sat for about 10 minutes, wrapping my head around the deafening aloneness of the place, and trying to build a sense of safety when I felt pretty unsafe. The swells rolled under the boat, I watched clouds form and dissipate over the Ko’olauloa range, and I peddled back in. From then on, getting back out there was pretty much all I could think about.

Eventually I started catching bait. I tried for akule in the dark, but those were some of my least safe experiences and, after losing my navigation before sunup on a not-good weather day, I gave up on them. For me, opelu hold some of that deep ocean mana which, for whatever reason, the akule do not. I found that 10 mph winds and 5’ swell were the worst weather forecast I could fish in. Soon I was comfortable offshore by myself, and I found some deeper structure, maybe old buoys or wrecks, and a jigging spot in 300’ that held a lot of 10-15lb papio and kahala.

I watched the birds head offshore in the morning and back in at night. I missed and broke off lots of fish but I caught lots of kawakawa (mackeral tuna). I was getting harassed sometimes by what I later learned were ono, and always by sharks. The sharks and the whales are both part of the beauty of the offshore ecosystem though, and I tried to appreciate them equally. I learned a lot from Bill Ho, Facebook, and YouTube, and was just having an amazing time out there.

In the spring, some aku (skipjack tuna) and mahi-mahi turned up in the mix. The iridescent aku are carved by the ocean from polished aluminum and could beat their tail fast enough in the boat to create a hum, like a mosquito.

The mahi-mahi is part tropical bird: social, prone to flight, and sometimes green, yellow, silver, orange, or blue, depending on its mood.

The weather was always an issue, and sometimes I would be stuck on shore for weeks, but I got amas in the fall of 2022, which extended fishable weather for me up to my tolerance for nausea. I got better at running two lines, one deep and close and the other shallow and 200’ back, turning slow circles to keep them separated in the water. I learned to clear the second line before trying to fight a fish on the first and to give a fish time to eat before setting the hook.

I finally landed an ono one morning in December 2022 before work. It was a little over 40 lbs. It hit at dawn on some structure in 160’ of water, and there was no mistaking what it was. It took half my line in 8 seconds. I played it gently, but I always felt I was on a ticking clock with sharks in that area right up until the fish was on the boat. I got a kage shot on it after about 20 minutes, hoisted it onto the boat, got covered in ono slime, and still had time to make it to 7-11 for more ice before taking a shower and hustling to class.

This spring, I got serious about missing fewer fish. If I can get fish to eat my opelu, I wondered, why are so many of them making off with my bait, my hook, or both? I stopped fishing stingers or wire unless there were ono around and I downsized hooks, figuring this would lead to more confident strikes and less suspicious nibbling. I got picky about how the hook went through the opelu nostrils to keep the gap of the hook open, and changed how and when I set the hook: late and hard. I started to understand the changing daily and seasonal behavior of the opelu, and learned far too late that 10 lb floro catches way more bait. In a kayak, you can carefully study the behavior of bait and predators in a specific spot or piece of structure to learn how they react to bathymetry, currents, tides, and weather. I enjoyed puzzling out this ecology while feeling part of the greater Polynesian ecosystem, verdant and fragile, isolated in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean. I explored new areas and occasionally fished with guys like Bill Ho and Max Reyes.

In June, I sold my truck and boat to move back to the mainland with my wife and two girls, who harbor a deep and abiding desire to live closer to family. Once the kayak was gone the daydreams I would drift into of the sewing-machine twitch of an opelu on a damashi, or the scream of a rod going off, felt raw and painful. I sold the boat as is, right down to the damashis, rubber bands and 5oz weights, rods, 5/0 hooks and wire rigs, but I brought back with me a full toolbox of skills. Now I live on a narrow but 700-foot-deep lake with schooling bait fish that are harassed all day by salmon and a supporting cast of trout species. They seem to set up on shelves on about 100’ of water, heavily influenced by the thermocline. There are no sharks, but also no whales. I’ve seen some guys out there in decked-out Hobies, hunched over their fishfinders. The bird behavior is different, but I can read it with a whole new eye, and I am once again trolling Facebook Marketplace for a kayak and an old pickup with which to haul it.

Holoholo: Epic kayak fishing day

June 23, 2023 By Scott 1 Comment

Oahu Holoholo kayak angler Grant Taura shares his best outing to date. This one just happened to coincide with a kayak tournament.

Grant: Most of the time I have a game plan when I fish. On this particular day, our club Oahu Pelagic Pirates (OPP), which I recently joined, had a mini tournament event. Our club leader, Max Reyes, caught a Kawakawa the week before and it was the only fish that came up. That was the original tournament date. Since it was “merely” a Kawakawa and the only Pelagic that came up that weekend, he graciously gave up the win and the tournament “redo” was planned for the following weekend.

Leading up to any fishing day, there is a fair amount of planning that goes on, starting with weather conditions. Things we factor in are wind speeds, gusts, current, current direction, time current shifts, tides, swell sizes, etc., and more importantly location. Richard Yuen had been doing his research and was stuck on going to this particular location which I wasn’t to thrilled about. The whole week he was pleading his case. He sounded convincing as Richard always does. I reluctantly agreed on the location all the way up to our launch which was at 3:30am. I was still not feeling it. It was a mental struggle for sure.

Our goal is usually to pick up a few Akule (goggle eye) before sun up for live bait just in case we don’t pick any Opelu (scad mackerel), which is our favorite live bait of choice at sunrise. I’ve been finding out that Akule can be just as appealing as a live bait. Three of us, Richard Yuen, Tommy Tran and myself were able to pick up Akule. Game on! At 5am the Akule bite had come to a halt. We started to head to the Opelu “spot”, putting out live akule. Around 5am we heard “hooked up” from Tommy over our radio, which is usually our call out to let each other know that we hooked up to something. Hopefully that something is a fish and not a shark or any other species besides a fish. One thing good when fishing with buddies is that in case you need help, someone is there to help in an emergency or help land a monster fish. Tommy landed a 19lb Shibi after his battle in the dark. What was awesome with this fish was that it was his first Shibi, which is funny because he has landed the elusive Ono and the rare Sailfish from a kayak. Go figure.

Me and Richard, on the other hand made the pedal to the Opelu spot at sun up. Lately the Opelu have been biting prior to sunrise so we like to be on the spot at or before sun up. During this time of the year it can be difficult to pick up Opelu. We have been struggling over the last several weeks. When the Opelu bite time arrived I wasn’t able to grab any in our normal spot. So I headed to a couple of locations where I have seen them before. At one of those spots I was able to pick up a big fat one. Over the last couple of months I have been learning a lot about target areas I should be checking out. Not specifically the location I was fishing but what to look for in the water, under the water, tides, moon etc. Fishing as I have come to know is a lot of luck but you can increase your chances by understanding fish behavior, eating habits, environment etc. It also requires the right equipment, skill and a lot of patience and perseverance.

Taking what I have learned, it was time to test it out on this location. I got out to the area I wanted to try and sure enough at around 7:45am I took a strike. At first I thought it stole my bait, but I could still feel movement in my line like the Opelu was still alive so I set my rod back in my rod holder and then my line took off. I set the hook and the fight was on. I could see the fish on my fish finder but I noticed a mark coming up to it from the bottom, I assumed it was the tax man, I opened my bail and allowed the fish to get away from it. Getting “sharked” or “taxed” can happen from time to time. That seemed to have worked. As I was fighting the fish I could feel tail beats which I learned from watching Devan from his Where’s D-Ahi? YouTube videos. It was likely some sort of Tuna species. I was hoping that it was a Shibi. As I hit my leader and I could see color and it was the target, Shibi. I knew it was probably going to be my biggest Shibi so far by the length of the fight and the weight I could feel when fighting it. I pulled out my pedal drive as it got close. We do that because Shibi and Tuna species tend to go in circles under your kayak and the line can tangle and create havoc and you could possibly end up losing your fish. I got my Kage (spear gaff) ready and when it was in range, I speared, circle gaffed it and pulled into the yak! It ended up being my biggest to date weighing in at 39lbs.

After putting the Shibi on ice, I let out an Akule. Within 10min I took another strike. I brought up a 19lb Shibi. This one only took about 5 min compared to the 16 min for the 39 pounder. It wasn’t as dramatic but still a prize for me. With two Shibis in the bag I decided to start heading towards our launch point slowly trolling a third Akule. After a couple of hours of nothing I decided to start heading in. On the way in I wanted to pass another spot that I thought would have action. By that time I had come closer to Richard and Tommy and within a safe distance where we wouldn’t get tangled. Just as I was pulling nearer to Richard I had seen the signature jump from a Mahi Mahi. Richard was hooked up. I watched him handle that Mahi and watched it do circles around him before landing it. The Mahi Mahi ended up weighing in at 11lbs. Richard was now on the board. Soon after that Richard had landed that Mahi, I took a strike and as I was setting the hook, I heard Tommy say “hooked up” then “double” at the same time Richard “hooked up” The action was insane. I ended up landing my third Shibi weighing in at 25lbs. Unfortunately Tommy had lost both his hook ups and Richard had lost his due to a cut line. The day was over for me as I needed to get the fish on more ice. I only carry 20lbs of ice when I go out.

(L to R) Richard Yuen, Grant Taura, Tommy Tran.

As I was heading I heard Tommy say “hooked up” again. What day we were having. He landed his second Shibi of the day. It weighed in at 12lbs. Epic was the best way to describe the day. Best day on the water fishing for me hands down.

Here’s the video of the 39lb shibi.

Holoholo: Inshore report and Summer prediction

June 8, 2023 By Scott 6 Comments

Our young, on-the-water intrepid reporter, Matthew Ikeda, offers his prediction for the coming Summer.

Matthew: With a potential “El Nino” year coming, there is a real chance for a great summer of fishing. NOAA analytics suggest that the chance for an El Nino year in 2023 is over 90%. The last time such a great fishing year occurred, it was 2015 and I had just begun fishing, so I was not able to appreciate the conditions. Stories from many fishermen tell the tale, however, of an overabundance of predators in shallow waters and an explosion of baitfish. We can only hope that these conditions recur and bless us with the action for which we have waited so long.

For those of you who do not know who I am, I fish from the shore with lures, mainly for Papio and Oio. I am a catch and release fisherman 99% of the time. I try to go out a lot, so I see things that I can write up in an occasional report on this blog. With that being said, let’s get into the early summer report.

Action has been a little sluggish initially, but there have been many good signs that point towards good fishing in July and August. I have whipped for Papio a few times within the last two weeks, and while I’ve only caught a few in the 10 inch range, it is encouraging that those are willing to bite after a very bad winter of Papio fishing. There have been Oama at certain isolated spots for a little while now, although these Oama have already grown kind of big for bait usage. I assume more small Oama will come in with a second wave in the coming weeks.

One spot I know of currently has a massive mixed school of Halalu and Sardines, which might be the largest pile of baitfish I’ve ever seen. Strangely, I haven’t seen very many predators busting the pile. I also know of one other spot with a sardine pile, although not as big. There has been an early arrival of Iao in some shallow water spots, which is a good sign for the flats. It was the big schools of Iao that brought the great action onto the flats in 2015-2016. Although there haven’t been many predators inshore to feast on this abundance of baitfish, it is probably okay because June is not usually peak season. I believe that the predators will discover the baitfish soon and that we have a great Papio season upon us starting in July.

As for the O’io whipping, it has cooled off dramatically. After an amazing January-March, these past few weeks have been rather challenging, and there have been many trips where I barely escaped whitewash with a small O’io at the end. The O’io have generally been skittish and uncooperative, and the ones that I have seen seem to be aware of my presence before they are within casting range. Maybe there has just been too much activity on the flats recently? With all the dunkers, fly fishermen, and people like I, perhaps we have been pressuring the fish way too much.

El Nino brings hurricanes along with the good fishing, and don’t get too caught up in preparing for fishing that you forget to prepare a storm kit. While not guaranteed, it is likely that there will be storms formed, but hopefully they will simply miss the islands. I hope this summer is great for everyone and that there will be more than enough fish to go around. Please “fish pono” and be considerate of others, the ocean, and our finite resources. Stay safe, have fun, and good luck out there!

Holoholo: Huge Omilu speared off Oahu’s North Shore

June 5, 2023 By Scott Leave a Comment

Pono and I started chatting when he purchased a used Trident Ultra kayak similar but longer than mine. I was immediately impressed with how respectful he was, and how knowledgeable he was in things I knew almost nothing about. Hopefully this is just the first of many guest posts he shares with us.

Aloha, my name is Pono Estores and I’m an avid spearfisherman from Waialua, Oʻahu. Besides diving, I love to surf, cook, garden, and dance hula. Iʻm super stoked to have the opportunity to share my first story on this blog after reading it for so many years… Mahalo Scott! This story is of a rough morning dive where I shot a nice-size ʻOmilu. Just a couple of disclaimers first.

1. Although I may do it sometimes, please never dive alone!

2. I apologize in advance for any misinformation shared – I am no professional and may not always be right about things, but I will always share what I currently believe to be true.

With the summertime Oʻahu tradewinds back in full effect, the North Shore of Oʻahu has been experiencing a limited selection of shore-diveable locations. These would be the easily accessible and typically calmer beaches around Haleiwa where my usual target species of uku, mu, and goatfish are less common and/or act more skittishly due to the greater number of divers hitting those areas. In recent dives, I’ve just been three-pronging. I love steamed fish, but fried fish is good too. Most of what I’ve been catching has been going towards a friend’s upcoming baby lūʻau, the rest has been getting fried up for friends and family at home.

This morning, I took a gamble and decided to dive a spot that is borderline un-diveable anytime there are trades blowing. Oʻahu’s heavily pressured, so in order to find the best fish diving, I like to dive where others won’t. My plan was to wake up at 4:30am, leave my house around 5, hike about a mile up-current, jump in, then drift back to where I parked. When I have to dive solo, I like to leave home before my parents get up so they can’t ask where I’m going. They hate when I dive by myself (for good reasons – never dive solo!), and I’d rather them not know when I do, for their sake. I ended up sleeping in and leaving after they went to work, so much for that plan!

By the time I started my trek along the beach, it was about 8:15 am. The sky was partly cloudy, the water was visibly green and full of white caps, and it looked like a moderate NE swell was breaking along several different shallow reefs. Aware of the strong currents in the area, I thought it was best to leave my dive float in the car– instead opting for an easier drift with my kui (fish stringer) attached to my dive belt.

At around 8:40, I threw my old Gopro on my head, picked a few naupaka leaves, and started my usual pre-dive ritual of murmuring Nā ʻAumākua and Pule Hoʻomaikaʻi while scrubbing the inside of my dive lenses with saliva and broken naupaka to keep the glass from fogging. With that, I walked into waist-deep water, slipped on my fins, and was on my way.

Immediately, I could tell that the water clarity was less than ideal. The water was very green and full of particles kicked up by the swell and strong winds. I swam out about 500 yards, and in just 15 feet of water my vision from the surface was restricted to only seeing what was directly below me – I could barely see the bottom and did not want to venture off any deeper

than that. Fortunately, I was right about the direction of the current, and the NE swell was quickly pushing me back toward my parked car.

The first reef structure that I came across was full of life. I took a blind drop and was met by a nice fish pile with a small school of curious Joe Lewis goats (Munu), a large blue whiptail uhu, and many pualu, kala, and toau. I laid on the reef next to a low shelf to see what other curious fish might come in – my right hand grasping my speargun, and my left hand anchoring my body to the reef while the ocean swells above caused strong, undulating surges that I waited out on the seafloor. With the back of my throat, I made a couple of grunting noises, which brought a nice-sized barred papio out from the murk. I ended up taking a nice cheek-meat shot on a munu.

After dispatching my first fish and stringing it on my belt kui, I dropped back to the bottom to see what else was around. Looking over my right shoulder, I noticed a 6-foot monk seal coming in to check me out and it was only my second drop of the day. I do not like seeing monk seals while diving, especially in extremely murky water. I have had aggressive monk seals follow me all the way to shore, ripping at the fish hanging from my dive float. I immediately swam back to the surface and started to leave the area, watching the monk seal swim beneath me; zig-zagging effortlessly through the reef shelves below. I took the munu off my belt and swam away, leaving the fish behind, knowing that I was a visitor in the monk seal’s home.

The NE swell continued to push me back toward my car, and the poor visibility made it extremely difficult to dive. I took several blind drops with no success, drifting along the barren section of reef common across Oʻahu that I like to call “the flats”. Eventually, I came across another structure-y zone, with a small 20-ft deep underwater valley housing a large school of maiko.

On my way down, I noticed the silhouette of an ulua’s tail swimming beneath the valley wall to my left. I dropped with the surge and peeked through a small hollow opening in the reef to see if I could get another look at what I thought I saw. Solitary ulua typically swim away as soon as they notice you, so as soon as I saw that I did not have a clear sight on the fish through the opening, I adjusted my positioning so that I could peek over the reef wall that separated us. While shifting, I banged my gun on the rocks a couple of times because of the surge, I was worried that the sounds might have spooked the fish. However, I got another quick look at the ulua’s tail as it swam back under the ledge; it was doing circles.

I pointed my speargun in the ulua’s direction, readying myself to take a shot in case I decided to harvest the fish. The beautiful part about spearfishing is that you can choose what you take and have the power to decide which fish you want to bring home; if it were a white ulua, I wasn’t going to shoot simply because I didn’t feel like shooting a white ulua. I saw the fish begin to make its way out of the cave, saw that it was an ʻomilu, and quickly aimed my 100cm Seac and pulled the trigger. I wasn’t sure how good my shot was, so I loosened the drag on my reel while swimming back to the surface.

I saw that my shaft did not exit the other side of the fish, so I quickly swam down with my knife in hand to secure the fish. After just a minute of fighting, the ʻomilu was already tired by the time I swam to retrieve it, and it did not fight when I grabbed it by the tail and brought it to the surface. I quickly dispatched the fish, cut its gills to bleed, and made my way to the beach. Luckily, no one was around to see my catch. I hurried back to my car, threw the fish in my trunk, and took it home. The spot will stay under wraps! Hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading. Dive safe.

Glossary:

Shore dive: Diving by swimming out from shore without the use of watercraft

Blind drop: Doing a dive where you do not see the bottom or do not see the target species–just going

Nā ʻAumākua

Na ‘Aumakua mai ka la hiki a ka la kau!
Mai ka ho’oku’i a ka halawai
Na ‘Aumakua ia Kahinakua, ia Kahina’alo
Ia ka’a ‘akau i ka lani
‘O kiha i ka lani
‘Owe i ka lani
Nunulu i ka lani
Kaholo i ka lani
Eia na pulapula a ‘oukou ‘o ka [ʻohana family name]
E malama ‘oukou ia makou
E ulu i ka lani
E ulu i ka honua
E ulu i ka pae’aina o Hawai’i
E ho mai i ka ‘ike
E ho mai i ka ikaika
E ho mai i ke akamai
E ho mai i ka maopopo pono
E ho mai i ka ‘ike papalua
E ho mai i ka mana.‘
Amama ua noa

Ancestors from the rising to the setting sun
From the zenith to the horizon
Ancestors who stand at our back and front
You who stand at our right hand
A breathing in the heavens
An utterance in the heavens
A clear, ringing voice in the heavens
A voice reverberating in the heavens
Here are your descendants of the family[name]
Safeguard us
That we may flourish in the heavens
That we may flourish on earth
That we may flourish in the Hawaiian islands
Grant us knowledge
Grant us strength
Grant us intelligence
Grant us understanding
Grant us insight
Grant us power
The prayer is lifted, it is free.

Holoholo: 2 Uku, 1 Shibi without the help of sonar

March 22, 2023 By Scott 2 Comments

Grant Taura previously shared how he catches akule in the pre-dawn morning off his kayak. Check that out here if you missed it. He’s back to share his best offshore catch to date. Takeaway: Good luck doesn’t just happen on the kayak. You gotta get out early, put in the time and cover a lot of ground!

Grant:

We decided on a 4am launch. Our normal routine is to catch Akule as a backup bait just in case we aren’t able to pick up Opelu at sunrise. Shortly after launching, while powering up my navigation lights and fish finder, I soon realized that my fishing chart was working but my depth chart (sonar) had no signal. It didn’t take long for me to find that the cable connection at the fish finder had failed and could not be repaired at the moment. Being that the depth chart is a vital tool and critical in locating and catching bait, I was tempted to turn around and call it a day. Then I remembered the last time I had issues with my fish finder, I brought in a Shibi and a Kawakawa, the first time I landed two Pelagics in a day. Fishing, like any sport, is all about mindset, perseverance overcoming obstacles in order to be as successful as possible with the situation and circumstances in hand. So, I decided to utilize what I have learned up until this point and go for it. I asked my partner, Roger Tabugadir, to call out the “marks.” That’s what we call when we see potential Akule or Opelu on the fish finder. Good partners can also be huge in your success and this day proved that. Roger called out marks perfectly. I mark my line in my reel in 50ft increments with different color line, so when he called a depth, I dropped my line to that depth according to the color of my line. He was consistently on point with both the Akule and the Opelu. We were both able to pick up enough Akule for friends and family and also enough Opelu to last the day. It actually ended up being way more than what we needed.

We then headed to deeper water. My target was the Uku and any Pelagic that would take the bait. Roger on the other hand, targeted his favorite Nabeta and Pelagics. By using my fishing chart, I was able to kind of determine my depth. Although it wasn’t accurate and I wasn’t able to locate any marks because of my depth chart not working, I was able to still fish the general area and depth by following the fishing chart. Another good tool that I had as a backup was the Navionics app on my phone. I had forgotten about it. Paul Miguel Braga (You Tube Channel: Shallow Water Shibi), who had a later start than our 4 am launch, had suggested I use the app which also shows you your location and fishing charts. Soon after, I hooked up on my poor man’s downrigger. As I was fighting the fish I was trying to determine and identify what I had hooked up to. I could tell it was some kind of Jack or my targeted species Uku, by the head shakes. After reaching my leader and about 20 feet of remaining leader I was able to see that it was my first Uku of the day at 13lbs. Landing an Uku never gets old. I let out “Cheee” bled, took a pic, bagged and iced. I’ve been blessed to have met some awesome fishermen like Devan Inouye ( YouTube Channel: Where’s D-AHI? ) who shared some tips for targeting Uku. I learned that the best way is to gather information from different fishermen who are willing to share tips and find ones that work for you. There are a lot of different ways that will work.

After setting up and dropping the next bait, I cleaned off the deck using my manual bilge pump and had a protein bar.

Time went by, my guess would be another hour and a half, before I took a strike on my Penn 8500 Live Liner reel. After counting thousand one, thousand two….to thousand five, I flipped the live liner to set the hook. I was on, and I could tell it was a tuna by the tail beats and just as I was starting to fight the fish my line had tangled around the bail and at that moment my line had slacked and I could no longer feel the fish and I yelled Ah! as I thought I had lost it. I now focused on untangling my line off of my bail, taking my time to not make it worse. After untangling, I was reeling and taking up slack and my line felt a little heavy like something was still on. I took up the slack and I guess the fish finally realized that it was hooked and took off. It was about a 10min fight until I heard that I had reached my leader, that sound you hear when you go from braid to fluoro.

When it hit about the 20 ft mark, I could see it was tuna but wasn’t able to identify ‘til it got closer. It was a 21 lb Shibi. I removed my drive to prevent the line wrapping around it. Took out my Kage and missed on the first attempt and got um on the second. Did the “cheee”, bled out, bagged and iced. In the meantime, Roger had drifted North and out of my radio range. I didn’t hear all the action that he was having on his side. Paul was in between and was in radio range and heard the action. Unfortunately, Roger’s previous Nabeta spots didn’t produce any Nabeta this day. But he managed to land a nice size Aku. It was time to head in. In one last attempt, we let out one bait and slowly made our way in. I was about to bring my line in because we were in the 50ft depth when I took a strike. With the same feeling I had on my first Uku, I could feel the head shakes. This one took a little under 5 minutes to land. It was an Uku around 8-10 lbs. After putting on ice we headed in and called it the day.

Holoholo: Intro to Plugging from shore and boat

March 15, 2023 By Scott 1 Comment

Merik Chun is now a Sophomore at Kaiser High School. His Boat Jigging tips were so well received that I asked him if he’d explain the sport of “Plugging” to us. Thanks Merik!

Merik: I am a young, avid fisherman and waterman. One of my favorite types of fishing styles, which I will explain to you now, is plugging. I enjoy this type of fishing because it’s fun working the lures in different ways and when you do get a strike it’s one of the most thrilling, exciting experiences in fishing. Especially when you’re targeting larger species, you may not get hit often but when you do, it’s a ton of fun! Here I will introduce you to plugging concepts I have learned over the years and what has worked for me. This is the way I like to do it, others may have a different approach. Take what you want from this if anything, and hopefully it helps you get your first fish plugging!

What is Plugging?

Plugging is the act of throwing a hard body lure out, and reeling it back in, impersonating a wounded baitfish. The main target is usually a predatory fish looking for an easy, struggling meal. The lures people use for plugging may vary in shape, looks, and action. The two main lures people use for plugging are poppers and stickbaits.

Plugging Gear:

Usually, depending on how heavy the plugging setup is, you would want a setup that matches the lures you’re casting.

Reels:

Optimally, a sturdy and rigid reel with a smooth drag system and high gear ratio to pick up slack. This is because in some cases, you will be running heavy drag to prevent fish from running into the reef or over a ledge. A smoother drag helps to control the fish, while rigidity in the reel helps keep balance under load. A higher gear ratios (ex. 5.7:1/6.2:1) are the most common for throwing lures, especially stickbaits, where you need to sweep the lure. This can also help rip a lure over shallow reef structure, or keep tension on a fish running toward you.

Rods: Rods for plugging can vary depending on the setup. A medium heavy action is usually the softest I’d go for most scenarios. Rod length may vary depending on where someone is fishing from and their comfort level.

Usually, a long rod is better if you’re fishing from shore, off the rocks, on the flats, or in the surf (10’-12’) This can help keep the scope of the line higher up over the rocks, as since you’re usually level with the fish. A longer rod may also help get more distance on casts. When plugging from the boat, a shorter rod could be easier with maneuverability and casting as you usually don’t have to cast as far (7’6-9’). There are also plugging rods made specifically for certain lures, with stiffer tips being popper oriented, and softer tips being Stickbait oriented. In between, are all-around rods with stiffness for poppers, while still being soft enough for sweeping sticks.

Main line:

When plugging, braided line is usually the best option since can fit more line on your reel, at a heavier poundage. This helps with casting, and maintaining direct contact to the lure as well as sensitivity, strength and longevity. Typically, good quality Japanese braided line is rated by PE numbers signifying the diameter and breaking strain. For example, for casting 40-80g lures, PE2-3 (30-50#) would work well. While throwing 100-150g lures, PE5-8 could be used (70-90#), and anything up may be heavier. Japanese braided line usually has a smaller diameter with a heavier breaking strain. In some cases, some braids may be limper making them better for casting. I have not noticed a significant difference between the two.

Leader line:

When it comes to leader line, I like to run a shock leader, around 2-3 arm spans (10’-15’) long for throwing lures. In most cases this would leave my FG knot in between my reel and first guide, or first and second guide, which is where I have found there’s the least amount of wind knots. The leader should cater to the size of the setup. For my PE2.5 setup, I run 40#-60# while for my PE5 setup, I run 120#-180#. Just find what works for you, but usually a heavier leader is better if you’re targeting bigger fish in heavy structure. Whatever you can comfortably cast and get distance.

Terminal: When it comes to terminal, I typically like to invest a bit more initially on better quality products, as gear failure such as a bent hook or opened split ring is the last way I’d want to lose a fish. For plugging, I run a swivel, to a split ring, connected to the lure. The hooks are connected via split ring. A good split ring pliers makes life a lot easier if you’re working with split rings a lot.

Lures

Poppers:

Poppers are usually a plug shaped lure with a cupped face at the front. The action of these lures is created by short jerks or long hard jerks with the tip low allowing the lure to displace water and pop, through the cup face. Poppers are made to create a lot of noise and ruckus in the water in hopes of attracting a predatory fish. It impersonates an injured fish or the sound of fish attack a school of fish on the surface. With poppers, I get the most action on short quick jerks, with fish usually hitting on the pause! Faster jerks or Walk The Dog style jerks have also produced. I like to run trebles on both belly and back.

Stickbaits:

Stickbaits are a lot different from poppers. They are almost like a lipless jerkbait that can swim through the water like an escaping or wounded baitfish. Stickbaits come in both floating and sinking variations, with sinking being a lot easier to work. Generally, with any Stickbait, a sweeping motion or straight retrieve has produced the best action. Floating stickbaits can create a splash or bubble trail as they dive down into the water. Generally, you want to leave slack in the sweep so as the nose hits the surface you start on your next sweep. Stickbaits can also be worked on a straight retrieve, fast or slow, jerking motion, Walk The Dog, or ripped across the surface. I usually run belly treble and inline single on the back.

My setups:

The setups I have now are definitely on the pricier side. Many of the ones I have, I have gotten lucky and gotten good deals on them. But remember you don’t need fancy gear to start fishing. I started with an old Penn 550 with an Ugly stick, then switched to a small Daiwa Legalis, to a Penn Pursuit and Daiwa Emcast before making my way up to what I am using now. If you really love this type of fishing, nice gear is mainly for the user’s enjoyment, and you don’t need fancy things to catch fish!

Heavy:

Daiwa Certate 14000 SW
UAM Surf Rod 9’6
Varivas PE5 Avani Casting (78#), 180# Varivas Shock Leader

Medium/Light:

Shimano Twinpower 5000 SW
Zenaq Defi Muthos 100MH
YGK Jigman PE2.5 (45#), 40# Varivas Shock Leader

Disclaimer: This is just my personal take on what I have learned throughout the years plugging and what has worked for me. Others may have different opinions and methods that work for them, but this is what works for me and what I have learned. Hope you can take something away from this!

If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them to the best of my ability, or even if you have any tips or suggestions, I am always happy to learn!

Holoholo: Winter Bones

February 5, 2023 By Scott 2 Comments

Our shore-whipper Matthew is back with a quick update on the o’io whipping action this Winter.

Matthew: Happy New Year! It’s been a while since I last wrote, but I’ve been strictly whipping for O’io recently. The action was surprisingly great for January, which had been my worst month last year. I hooked a couple of very large fish, including one that I could not stop even with very tight drag. The weather has been finicky, with the winds seemingly shifting every few days. One day you might be dealing with a dead wind, glassy conditions, while the next you might be facing nasty 30 mph gusts. There also have been a few days where the wind was blowing from the southwest, which is uncommon and very frustrating for O’io fishermen because it’s a headwind on the flats. There haven’t been many days where sight fishing was suitable, so I’ve been mainly blind casting into areas I know the fish frequent.

I’ve seen several large Oama schools and one Halalu pile, neither of which I have an explanation for. If you know where they are, go capitalize on this odd opportunity. I’m assuming it has some correlation with the abnormal weather but I’ve never seen large Oama schools this early.

On another note, there has been an exponential increase in the number of fishermen targeting O’io with lures. The O’io fishery on the flats seems fragile, so I’m not sure how this will affect the numbers of O’io. If you’re new to flats fishing, please be respectful of the reef, the fish, and other fishermen. O’io are very delicate fish and cannot spend much time outside of the water. Please wet your hands, avoid grabbing by the gills, and try not to remove any of their slimy coating and scales. Lastly, if you’re shooting videos, keep the angle low and try to refrain from exposing spots. The long term effects of “burning” a spot are considerable. Have fun, but not at the expense of others or the reef. Stay safe out there everyone?.

Holoholo: Akule fishing from the Yak

January 23, 2023 By Scott 8 Comments

Grant Taura has has enjoyed fishing throughout his entire life. He’s tried free diving, shoreline whipping, plugging and bait casting and has never really been passionate about any type of fishing until he found his passion in kayak fishing. It’s the hunting and not waiting; it’s also the consistency and versatility of fishing on a kayak that he has found fulfilling. And finally being able to provide fresh fish for his family and friends completes kayak fishing for him.

Grant: What started as Akule fishing in the early morning on the kayak for bait just in case I couldn’t catch Opelu at sunrise for Pelagics, has turned into targeting Akule intentionally. Growing up, we would go Waimea Bay and whip for halalu in the huge schools, and use telescopic poles to catch Akule in Haleiwa Boat Harbor. Halalu fishing back in the early 80’s, as I remember was an intense, fun and adrenaline-rush all in one experience. Memories: Had my line cut by an older, experienced halalu fisherman because I had not casted straight and had not timed my cast properly. Hooking up to a halalu using Aqua strips that came in a block. Watching the the strikes on bait casting rods using halalu -Kawakawa and big Omilus were landed.

Fast forward to 2018. I learned that Akule was not only a summer time fish but available all year round. My good friend, Davis Nakashima, from the Big Island, would take me fishing for Akule for bait off the cliff in Kona. This is when I also realized that they were all not just in one school in the harbor. Over the past year, I’ve learned that Akule is a good choice of live bait for Pelagics as a back up to opelu. Although I haven’t taken any major strikes or landed anything with the Akule it has become one of my favorite target fish to eat simply for the consumption. Akule has been for many years, my all time favorite fried fish to eat. Fortunately with some help, I’ve learned to catch Opelu as my primary live bait and have been blessed with an abundance of Akule to eat and to share with family and friends who also love fried Akule.

Over the years, listening to people and friends who fish on boats, shoreline and now kayaks, I realize the best time to go out and catch Akule is anytime the wind, swell, waves etc allow you to. Any given night or early morning when the conditions are safe is a good time to Akule fish. As long as you can find them, the possibility of you bringing up an Akule for bait or consumption is pretty high. I’ve heard so many stories of the best times to go. When there is a new moon, 3-4 days before or after the new moon, when the moon sets, etc. Although some of it or all of it is true, I found the best time for me to go is when I’m available and the weather conditions are right. As much as I love the hunt, fight and landing of Pelagics, I also find equal and a lot of times more gratification catching Akule. Not only for the sport but for the nostalgia of it. Let’s not forget how good it tastes. Over the past year, I have found myself once again in the hunt for Akule.

Fishing off a kayak is another way I have come to enjoy targeting Akule. This time around it’s even more gratifying because the result of whether you catch or not is dependent on the preparation that goes into fishing off a kayak. Prior to even getting out on the water, the preparation of your equipment is key. Prior to launching, the rigs that I set up consists of two different types of Damashi, namely flies and grubs. I currently take 3 set ups.. Two set ups I bring consists of two different Kakele (fly) that some really good hammah fisherman were gracious enough to share, and one set up is the basic gold hook, red bead and grub. I have five hooks per rig. I keep them in ziplock bags, ready to be changed out quickly. I like to make things simple, because I don’t like to waste time on the water and the main reason why is I’m 51 and everything is blurry so it’s almost impossible to tie things while the kayak is rocking and bobbing. What makes it even harder is being in the dark with only your headlamp for lighting. The use of electronics is essential for safety, navigation and finding your target species. It’s important to have some sort of navigation light on your kayak so boaters can see you, VHF radio, PFD and whistle would be the minimum safety equipment to have on your kayak. With that being said, it’s a good idea to charge batteries and double checking your equipment function. After a few mishaps I almost always test all my electronics at home and prior to launching.

Once on the water the hunt begins. Starting in the shallower depths around 50ft my eyes are focused on looking for colors on my fish finder screen. I tend to stay away from dropping my Damashi to the very bottom as Akule tend to be in the mid to upper column of water. I have caught on the bottom and I’m always excited to catching one off the bottom because it’s not expected. Sometimes I’ll test the very bottom if I can’t find them, the bite is extremely slow or I think it’s Menpachi, which is another favorite. Never disappointed to land reds as we like to call them. Being aware of any changing conditions surrounding you is also really important. Things we look out for is if the wind is picking up, swell sizes, if the current changes direction , the current strengthens etc., When fishing in the dark you barely can see 5-10 feet in front of you especially if you’re fishing a new moon or if the moon sets.

Recently we encountered whale sightings, well I shouldn’t say sightings because we couldn’t see them. Based on past experience you can kind of tell if they are far or near. I base this upon seeing them during the day and hearing them spout and listening to how loud it is when they do this behavior. On one of those outings we were in about 100ft of water and we heard the whale spout. We had three of us out that night. I was more inland and one of my partners was about 50 yards away. As I looked out to where he was, it was pitch black because it was a new moon. I could only see his head lamp. We heard the spout again and determined that the whale was really close based on my partner and my location. He heard the spout come from inland and I heard it come outside of where I was at. At that point we decided to move. We had to move quite a ways before the spout came more distant. I failed to mention that we could also hear clearly the whale slapping its fin or tail. That was way too close for comfort. The bite had come to a halt at that point. We are not sure, but concluded that the whale had something to do with it. We went more inshore, caught Akule here and there but nothing compared to the bite before the whale or whales showed up. I always remind myself that we are the visitors to the ocean and to always, always respect their home as we would want them to respect ours, to give back, take only what we consume and be grateful for the opportunity to share.

Here is a short video of what akulu fishing at night on a kayak looks like.