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Shore and Nearshore fishing is slow in the Spring. This may be why.

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Juvenile moano and moana kali caught in the Spring

Traditionally, shore fishing is best in the Summer and Fall when the bait fish are close to shore and attracting predators. Those predators feed away from the shallows during the other times of the year, so they aren’t seen as often.

But fishing in the deep reef is also slow from Spring to early Summer. Here’s what I have been noticing in past years.

There are less concentrations of fish on the fish finder and underwater camera, and the fish seen and caught are smaller.

Fish spawn in the Winter and Spring and there’s lot of smaller sized fish on the reef. They are quicker than the larger individuals of their species and may be getting to the food first. There’s less plankton available due to the shorter periods of sunlight so the larger fish move deeper so they have a better chance at larger food.

Lower water temp and amount of sunlight may be the triggers that tell the fish to spawn. So it seems like Spring is the period that Nature uses to allow juvenile fish to mature safely, with less chance of being eaten.

What does this mean for our fishing prospects? Either wait ’til Summer or fish where the larger fish are still found.

Tried a new spot for a new goatfish and struck out. But found juvie opakapaka, weke nono and moana kali and the underwater camera revealed why they were there.

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Went north from my normal Windward launch since a friend said there were plentiful munu goatfish, nicknamed Joes, at the end of the reef. Water quality was excellent in 50ft of water and I could see the bottom, so I think the wary Joes could see me too. Only big moano were caught so I went out to the deep sandy area and stumbled upon juvenile opakapaka. They were about 12 inches, measured head to tail, which is the biggest they seem to get before they migrate out to where adult opakapaka live. 10 inch weke ula/weke nono were mixed in with them, too small to keep, and some fish ganged up and broke my 15lb damashi rig so I dropped the CanFish CamX underwater camera rig down to see what they were doing.

Surprisingly, the fish were spread out but a weke nono would always swim up to the rig, get hooked, and then a paka would bite the 2nd hook. Check out the short video.

I then went to my heavy damashi rig with a 6oz Promar Ahi Live Deception jig as the bottom weight, to handle these bruisers.

The paka’s swim bladder would push out when the fish got to the surface, so I just kept 5 paka (limit for Deep Seven species without a commercial license), released the small weke nono, and left them alone.

I paddled a mile south, with the help of my Bixpy motor, back to my normal grounds but it was slow. Only the taape wanted to eat. So I moved shallower on my way in, hoping to find opelu or a good goatfish.

Sure enough, a nice moana kali hit the top damashi hook of the heavy rig with the jig on the bottom, and got foul hooked on the 2nd hook. That beautiful fish saved the day.

I dropped the underwater camera back down and another moana kali was spotted as well as packs of moano and omilu, so it was confirmed that the rocky reef held a lot of predator fish.

Switching back to the heavy damashi rig with the 6oz jig, a big nunu (trumpetfish) hit the jig itself! Man that fish is slimy. I ended up getting the rig snagged and breaking off everything, DOH!, so I went back to the regular damashi rig with 20lb line.

I landed what looked like a wahanui that had its forehead and mouth spray painted with yellow paint. Maybe it was a male fish that was showing mating colors? Anyone ever see this before?

Something slammed the hooks and a 1.5lb omilu came up on the top hook with the rest of the rig busted off. I’m guessing multiple omilu got hooked.

With only the underwater camera rig still intact, I made the trek in.

After more than 7hrs on the water, this is what I ended up with. It was a beautiful, calm day and I was able to confirm some underwater hot spots, so I went home very happy. Here’s what we did with the fish.

I filleted the juvie opakapaka with a sharp, flexible knife. My wife pan fried it and said it was very good but she did have to pick out the pin bones. She liked ’em enough to want to eat more tonight! Next time, I’ll have to pull those out or cut out those pin bones, without wasting much meat.

The other 3 paka were given to a friend who also fried them, whole. Opakapaka, especially when young, is a clean, non-fishy tasting fish since they are eating plankton and critters they find in the sand.

My neighbor Brian has gotten deep frying the nabeta down to an art form. He actually fried this moments after I gave it to him.

The star of the day’s catch was the moana kali. Brian steamed it Chinese style, pulling the fish out of the oven when it reached a core temp of about 115 – 120 degrees, and then let it rise and balance out on the plate to finish.

Fished the New Moon with damashi and underwater camera and brought home fish to share with neighbors

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The New Moon, light wind and small swell was looking epic last week for the Windward side so I had high hopes of finding some really good fish. Well, there ended up being a strong South wind that chopped up the water and the bite wasn’t as good as previous New Moon days.

But I was able to drop the CanFish CamX camera down on the spots that had yielded fish before, and was surprised at what I saw. I launched at 8:30am and landed at 4pm, my longest trip ever, just to bring home enough fish to share.

The camera rig with just one hook below the camera, spooks the wary fish so I made sure I caught a couple opelu, a good size moano (manybar goatfish) and a 1lb 2oz malu (side spot goatfish) on my regular damashi rig before deploying it. Check out the above and underwater views of the malu in the video at the bottom of this post.

Two juvenile omilu circle the camera rig on slightly raised hard bottom

The fish finder marks were not that pronounced, and the bite was relatively slow, so there weren’t a lot of fish recorded but seeing what kind of bottom was holding fish was very interesting to me. In 100ft to 130ft, it was mostly barren, hard packed sand and the areas that had slightly raised rock and coral were holding fish.

An opelu school was over one of the hard bottom spots and I thought they ignored the camera rig’s lure but it turns out they missed the hook!

On the way in, at 3pm, after the solunar period ended, the bite turned on for more large moana and a nabeta, so I was able to fill the catch bag a bit.

Steamed malu
(top to bottom) Moana, nabeta

My neighbor Brian, who is a great cook and provides really detailed descriptions of how the fish turned out, said the malu had good, tasty meat but had smaller pin bones than the moana kali and did dry out a bit when steamed.

He left the scales on the nabeta and scored the flesh in a diamond pattern to enure that the inner meat cooked crispy. The moana had its pin bones removed and the fillets were fried separately from the body. Both fish were very good deep fried, but of course the nabeta was better.

I gave the two remaining moana to another neighbor and his wife who had never eaten moana before. They pan fried it and found it “very good eating” despite having to avoid the small bones.

opelu poke

Lastly, I removed the fillets from the medium and small opelu for a friend. It made less than a fist sized pile of meat but my friend seasoned with shoyu, Hawaiian salt, minced Hawaiian chili pepper and sesame oil and said it had a good taste with good consistency, and wasn’t fishy at all.

The bottom terrain views of this area confirmed why I’m not catching big uku there. Not enough rocks and structure to hold the food they need. Maybe I have to check the actual coral reef that’s in 50ft of water?

Here’s the above and underwater video of the malu.

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

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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):

Munu on a grub
Munu on the night dunk
Moana kali on the jigpara

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):

Kumu from noaa.gov.

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

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.

Moano / Moana photo by Thad

Small moana, like oama are best deep fried crispy. 

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. I bought a JDM Shimano jig rod, saved money and caught some moana kali on it!

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We are Phenix Rods, and Ocean Legacy dealers but the shipping cost for 1 or 2 rods from either of their warehouses in Texas has become prohibitive. A number of friends have been buying JDM rods online from Japanese stores because of the favorable exchange rate, so I looked at the inventory of eBay Japanese stores and found a JDM version of the two 2015 Shimano Game Type J jig rods I have.

The rod is a 2020 version made with a 2-piece design that I don’t believe we ever saw in the US. The current 2021+ version we have here has a redesigned blank in 1-piece frame. Since the 2020 version is discontinued, and shorter to ship, the Japanese eBay seller ships for free. FREE from Japan, unlike $100 from Texas, effectively on sale because of the strength of the dollar.

I had been trying for years to bring in very good, affordable, domestic rods we don’t have in our tackle shops here but I guess I am giving up. There’s a reason why we don’t have a wide variety of rods here. The stores need to be able to easily sell what they ship here, which means the mainstream Ugly Sticks and Penns.

To sweeten the deal, the eBay seller I was watching notified me that he was running a 10% off sale. That sealed it. I ordered the Game Type J B604 which is between the B603 and B605 I have. The “60” stands for “6 ft 0 inches” and the “4” is the rod strength rating. The heaviest rod in the 6ft length is the “5”, and I wanted the “4” do handle a 6oz weight when I damashi fish, and land bigger fish quickly.

The rod arrived from Japan in 4 days! Free and fast!! And, inside the custom made 4ft 9in rectangular box was a $20 coupon for the next purchase from the eBay store. Gotta love the way the Japanese do business.

The top section of the rod slides into the section with the reel seat and rod butt. Putting the joint there doesn’t weaken the rod because the rod flexes higher up the blank. That design actually saves on blank material since the rod butt doesn’t need to be on a continuous 1-piece blank.

I was able to fish the full moon day this week, and the winds were light but 2 opposing swells and rain squalls really bumped up the water. The solunar bite period was supposed to start at 12 noon but the overcast skies and rain got the fish in a feeding mood and the damashi bite was fierce. I popped off a few drag pulling fish before realizing the B604 has a less forgiving tip than the B603 and I needed to lighten the drag a bit. Then a 2lb moana kali and a moana came up together.

Next a 3lb omilu was manhandled by the new rod and released.

3 live opelu were put out and taken, but eventually spit. Seems like the predators are still not big enough to find the hooks on a whole opelu.

The afternoon bite never really took off. I put some opelu skin on the damashi hook and a 1lb moana kali jumped on. It took a little while to unhook, and I tried to release it but it wasn’t looking too good so I kept it.

On my way in I checked the nabeta spots but looks like they moved to a safer neighborhood to avoid the winter swells.

I have mixed feelings about my new JDM jig rod. I absolutely love it and think it was well worth the price, but feel sad that I’m giving up on selling domestic rods in Hawaii.

My neighbor Brian beautifully prepared the larger moana kali for his family, 2 days after it was caught.

The site was down for 3 days

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It wasn’t looking good for a while and I began to think that the site couldn’t be restored. Initially, all the content after March 2023 was missing. I requested that the website hosting company restore the site from backups, but the daily, weekly and monthly backups all brought up errors when they were restored. Finally, I fixed the errors on the Jan 9th monthly restore but almost a month’s data was missing.

I had the hosting company restore the weekly backup of Jan 30, and did some tweaking to get the plugins (additional functions added to the site) to play well. Whew…

This made me realize that the site has been up for 10 years. It started as a way for me to keep my technical skills up, and share some oama / papio catch reports and tips. Along the way, the cost of running a website has gone up significantly because now I need to protect the site from hackers, malware, and pay extra to view usage analytics because the number of daily views passed a threshold. Because of this recent problem with data disappearing, I now have to pay for a premium data backup and restore service I can operate myself. The total cost to run the website safely is close to $1,000 a year. No wonder there aren’t any small time, non-commercial fishing blogs anymore.

The site has been a knowledge base of tips and how-tos, fully supported by Holoholo writers who have filled in the many gaps in my fishing experience. It would be a shame to have this information disappear one day. Maybe I can eventually archive the site to one that becomes static and requires very minimal hosting services?

For now, the proceeds from the licensing of the shark video have helped cover operating costs. Mahalo nui loa for supporting the website over the years.

Reminder: Check the real-time radar map and recent rainfall totals with these links

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Just a reminder, if you want to see the real-time radar map of rain falling over the Hawaiian islands, and/or want to want to see how much rain has recently fallen, check the links below.

Might want to bookmark it so you can find it next time we’re going through a torrential flood.

National Weather Service radar map of Hawaii (pan and zoom to your area of interest)

To confirm how much rain has recently fallen, go to National Weather Service Rainfall Summary page and check the 3hr totals for the areas nearby.

With these tools, you not only see how much rain was falling that instant but also how much rain has fallen recently.

Tried Seaguar, Sufix and Promar Ahi fluorocarbon leader and line. Here’s my review.

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Over the years, I’ve used fluorocarbon as leader for my live bait rigs, and as the material I use to tie damashi/sabiki rigs. I’ve used Seaguar Premier, Seaguar Blue Label, Seaguar Invizx main line and Seaguar Inshore main line. Also used Sufix Invisiline and the new Promar Ahi GT4 leader. There are many other brands of fluorocarbon out there that I haven’t tried but these are my impressions of the fore mentioned.

Fluorocarbon is stiffer, and has less stretch than monofilament, and is less visible to fish because it doesn’t distort light that passes through it, while under water. Line companies sell leader material and castable main line made out of fluorocarbon. Fluorocarbon leader is stiffer, thicker and more abrasion resistant than the castable fluorocarbon main line, and costs more because more material that makes fluorocarbon fluorocarbon is required.

Seaguar

Seaguar makes the best fluorocarbon leader and line we can buy domestically. The parent company is actually Japanese, called Kureha, and the products are made in Japan to exacting standards. With fluorocarbon, thinner diameter is better and that’s what sets Seaguar apart from the rest. The Seaguar fluorocarbon leader and main line is thinner and more supple than the competition, and also more expensive. For the sake of thickness comparison, I’ll use 20lb test specs.

Seaguar Premier leader – 20lb .015 inch diameter, $0.68 per yd (Amazon). This is Seaguar’s 2nd best leader, after their Gold Label. I haven’t tried Gold Label because Premier was excellent and less expensive. It’s thin, supple, has low memory and is strong for its diameter. Very pricey. Good when the fish are line shy.

Seaguar Blue Label leader – 20lb .016 inch diameter. $0.50 per yd (Amazon). This is most commonly used fluorocarbon leader form Seaguar. It’s thicker than Premier and stronger and more abrasion resistant. Less pricey than Premier and recommended for offshore fishing.

Seaguar Inshore line – 20lb .016 inch diameter. $0.17 per yd (Amazon). It’s more supple than the same diameter Blue Label leader, and has less abrasion resistance. It’s quite a bit cheaper than Blue Label because it’s not leader line.

Seaguar Invizix line – 20lb .016 inch diameter. $0.13 per yd (Amazon). This line is meant for use in bait casting reels and fresh water. Even cheaper than Inshore line.

Sufix

Sufix Invisiline Leader – 20lb .017 inch diameter. $0.45 per yd. I’ve used this leader for my live bait leader and my damashi rigs. It’s very stiff and requires care when tying dropper loops but is incredibly abrasion resistant. I was mainly using it because we’re a Sufix dealer but now use the more supple options for damashi rigs.

Promar Ahi

GT4 leader – 20lb .017 inch diameter. $0.41 per yd. Same diameter as Sufix Invisiline but more supple and knots are easier to tie. More similar to Seaguar Inshore in suppleness but may be more abrasion resistant. Just started using it in my damashi rigs and like it for the knot tying ease and lower cost.

My Recommendations

For offshore or shore fishing around rocks, go with fluorocarbon leader and not fluorocarbon line, since you want the utmost abrasion resistance. If you can afford it, go with Seaguar Premier if you need stealth, or Seaguar Blue Label if you want an all-around excellent leader. If you want to save a bit of money, try the new Promar Ahi GT4 leader. If you want a really strong, abrasion resistant leader, go with the Sufix Invisiline.

For lighter applications like whipping inshore, the Seaguar Inshore line is a great, inexpensive option. I’ll keep using it for my damashi rigs until I notice that it breaks off easier than the competition.

North swell died down a bit but dolphins, whales and sharks tried to prevent me from checking the shallow bottom fish.

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A week ago, the shallow bottom fishing was oddly slow and I suspected that the big north swell was the cause. Here’s how that trip went. To verify that, I started at the same area since the swell had slowed down, and the opelu bite was very good to start off. But the kanpachi, nabeta and juvenile opakapaka were still absent.

I trolled a live opelu out to 220ft and it got bitten but not taken by something not large enough to swallow it whole, it seemed.

Then a small pod of 5ft dolphins started playing in front of my kayak, so I left the area because I didn’t want to hook them. I don’t think they were the ones that mouthed my opelu but maybe they were?

I started heading to an area almost 2 miles south that I’ve only fished a few times that has held big opelu, big aha and ulua. I didn’t want to battle an ulua but hooked something as a lowered a weighted, live opelu down that felt heavy with some head shakes. My Phenix Black Diamond Heavy rod with Avet MX Raptor reel in low gear brought the fish in fairly easily and it turned out to be a mid-sized sandbar shark. Sadly, that was the first large fish I battled with the gear since fishing it for more than a year. It was nice to just grind the shark up.

Two small whales were spouting over the area I was headed to, which was a high spot that attracted bait, and luckily they kept moving south before I reached there.

Another live opelu got killed by an aha so I gave up on live baiting and focused on the damashi. I found the big opelu and they bit eagerly, but since I wasn’t gonna use them for bait I moved on to check the bottom fish.

The high (shallow) side of the drop off yielded small moana, small malu (side spot goatfish), hagi etc so I went past where the drop leveled off and found slightly larger fish on the flat areas. 1lb omilu, 1lb uku and 1lb malu.

The previous malu I kept turned out to be incredible steamed so I kept that but couldn’t find anything else to bring home.

My sister steamed the malu for my dad and said it was tender and flaky “melt in the mouth goodness”! I’ve only caught 2 keeper sized malu ever and they are an uncommon catch but are on the list of great eating bottom fish along with uku, yellowspot papio, kagami, weke nono, moana kali and nabeta.

Oio fishing and damashi fishing after the recent big North swells

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A series of North and North West swells large enough to run the Eddie Aikau contest swept through and were still present when we fished the Windward side of Oahu. Waves were wrapping and breaking on exposed outer reefs but the inshore reefs just had stronger than normal currents swirling. Friends found the oio bite to be good for 4lb to 6lb fish, so I was hopeful that the damashi fishing in my regular spots would be productive.

I had brought a 4-3/8 inch, sinking 2-1/4 ounce Duo Blazin 110 in case I had to stay shallow and whip the reef, so instead, I trolled it on the way out to the damashi spot, averaging 3mph. In 10 mins, a very skinny aha was on. I’m convinced this lure with its tight wobble would be deadly whipped for papio, and trolled for pelagics. I’ll try to test this lure in the future. You can learn more about Duo Blazin here.

Out at 140ft, there were non-breaking N swells rolling through, and chop generated from far off squalls. Not dangerous but not calm by any means. The bottom marks present on the last few trips were absent and all that came up were small opakapaka, yellow barbelled goat fish and tons of lizardfish. The target nabeta and kampachi were mysteriously absent. I managed to scrape up 3 opelu off small schools and gave up to see if the fish on the reef were behaving oddly also.

The fish were clustered in 40 to 50ft but a weird assortment of very small moana, hawkfish (not the po’opa’a) and unusual hinalea were caught. I did get lucky with a 1lb moana kali, but couldn’t find anymore since the “rubbish fish” were mobbing the damashi. The wind changed to a cold, offshore blast so I headed in.

Friends later told me that bottomfish often move deeper when large swells roll through so that could explain why the bottomfishing was so slow, with very small fish caught. But the oio fishing was better than expected for this time of year. Maybe the oio moved in shallow to take advantage of the swirling current stirring up critters?

Damashi/sabiki out fished live opelu and jigs but big fish kept breaking off, even with 40lb line! Early Winter shallow bottom report.

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I have been focusing on shallow bottom fishing since I don’t start early enough for productive pelagic fishing. Bottom fishing has less variables since the fish are usually somewhere in the general vicinity but the trick is getting the right ones to bite.

Almost all species of predatorial fish seem to be attracted to small bait imitations moving up and down in unison. Often the morning starts with opelu biting mid-water column, and when that slows, fish near the bottom eagerly hit the damashi rig. Some spots are loaded with taape and small moana. The former I kill and release back to the reef, the latter I release unharmed.

While it’s always fun to feel the bites and bring up fish, unhooking unwanted fish is just time away from catching the desirable fish like uku, yellow spot papio and kagami papio.

This report comprises of the last 2 trips. 1 trip back, a 1.5 lb uku got tail wrapped and hooked multiple times and by the time I unraveled it, it was in bad shape so I had to keep it. While I’ve been trying to get uku here for years, normally I wouldn’t keep one under 2lb.

Then some toau (invasive black tail snapper) started biting, and since their bones are easier to deal with than the small boned taape, I brought them home.

I went out to the 200ft area but could only get a kahala checking out the underwater camera.

On the way in, I checked the nabeta spot with a small piece of aku belly on the bottom damashi hook and something hit harder than a nabeta could and took some drag. I was stunned to see a 2.5lb uku come up, which is still on the small side but the biggest for this greater area that lacks large rocks and caves.

A fat 11 inch moana hit next and joined the catch. All in all, a productive day learning the bottom fish grounds. My neighbor fried the moana and toau fillets tempura-style and said they were amazing. The smaller uku was steamed, and the bigger one was given to a friend who said the sashimi was firm enough and very good despite only being 2.5lb.

CHL Minnows added to store-bought damashi set

The winds dropped again this week and I set out to bottom fish the damashi armed with the 1.5 inch CHL Minnows (the ones with the split fish tail) and some leftover Japanese wormy lures. Since even my 20lb rigs were broken off on the previous trip, I had rigs tied all the way up to 40lb test.

Look at the bait school on the fish finder!

The opelu showed up on the fish finder and bit in the shallows. I filled the bait tube, requiring me to drag the tube around. Although the wind was down there was a strong current running South to North that kept pushing me away from my spots.

I put out a live opelu and landed and released a big kawalea (Heller’s Barracuda). Good eating but like all barracuda, its slime is really stink.

The next opelu was neatly sliced in half but there were small teeth marks also, meaning it probably wasn’t an ono. The following opelu just had small bites taken out so I gave up live baiting and focused on the damashi fishing.

The afternoon bite really turned on, and omilus and bigger jacks kept jumping on the hooks. I released 3 omilu and each of my rigs from 15lb to 40lb eventually get their branch lines cut or light gold hooks broken off by heavy, strong fish. Those brutes didn’t fall for a jig, interestingly enough.

I was feeling a little desperate with nothing but opelu in my fish bag and then I stumbled upon a very small area where a 1.5lb yellow spot came up, followed by a 2lb uku and then a light colored goat fish that turned out to be a large 12 inch malu (side spotted goatfish). Whew, finally got some great eating fish to take home.

It was a lot of work to get these small good eating fish, with so much bycatch (taape, hagi, small moana, lizardfish, etc). I gave the big opelu to a friend at the beach who plans to make lomi opelu out of them, and kept a small one to freeze for bait.

The malu had crabs and some red & white shrimp in its stomach a little bigger than my CHL Minnows, and the yellow spot papio had translucent baby fish just a bit bigger than the minnows. No wonder the small damashi lures were so effective. Maybe really big fish were eating the same small food? I’ll be taking 40lb damashi with longer shanked Gamakatsu hooks next time and hope to see what’s been busting me off!

Here’s a comparison of the yellow spot papio and uku, prepared as sashimi and steamed.

Here’s a comparison of the malu and moana, prepared steamed.

Dropped the CanFish CamX camera down and was amazed at the diversity of life

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I drove to the Windward spot as early as I hoped to, but a rain squall delayed my launch, and the onshore chop slowed me from getting to the grounds nearly 3 miles out. But the brown boobies greeted me as they always do and made a tight circle. When they do that, I find usually bait in the circle and sure enough an opelu bit on the first drop even though it was close to 9am. Scattered, feeding opelu appeared on the fish finder.

For the next hour opelu bit along with lai, small opakapaka and lizard fish if I dropped too deep. I stuffed 8 opelu in my bait tube, a record for me I think. I weighed one down with a sliding tungsten weight and took it deeper and then onto the shallow ledge but it only got pulled off by a small aha, I’m guessing. I put another opelu on and the same thing happened. Nothing was big enough to swallow the opelu and get properly hooked by one of the 2 hooks.

So I went back out to the bait spot and the bait marks were gone. The only thing that came up were lizardfish. The afternoon solunar bite was supposed to be starting but the fish weren’t cooperating. Since the fish finder wasn’t helping, I attached a 20lb leader 2-hook damashi rig to the CanFish CamX underwater camera, attached that to my heavy jig rod, and dropped it over what looked like small patches of structure. Occasionally I’d hook a small opakakpaka or lizardfish, but the action was really slow.

After dropping a bunch of times on what I hoped were areas of small structure, I went to the sandy area where nabeta have bit in the past and dropped the camera down with some opelu meat. I felt tugs through the stiff rod but the fish were just pulling off the bait. I was really hoping the culprits were caught on camera.

When I got home and looked at what was recorded, I was astounded at how many species were on that small structure I initially dropped on. There were small patches of rubble holding some type of short seaweed. And those spots were packed with fish.

The sandy area I had my bait yanked off did indeed have nabeta. This video captures one coming out from under the sand to grab at the bait. And I didn’t bring up any nabeta so maybe they are always there but I often can’t hook them?

The CanFish CamX may prove invaluable for aiding us in determining if fish are around, even when we aren’t getting bites. My friend Shea on the Big Island has used the discontinued GoFish cam attached to his live bait trolling rig to see how many ono have sniffed his bait and turned away.

If you’re interested in purchasing a CanFish CamX, lemme know. I’ll be putting together an order for friends. Please contact me through the Contact page.

1) Did I catch a Kona Kampachi type of kahala. 2) How did my small kahala get worms? Life cycle of worms explained in simple terms.

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In Hawaiian waters, we have two species of kahalas or amberjacks. The better known one is the greater amberjack, which is the larger species. The smaller, slightly less encountered one is the almaco jack, which is being farm raised in Kona under the name “kampachi“. Both are actually good eating but because of ciguatera accumulation and abundance of parasitical worms, they are normally released.

I’ve never caught small kahala until this year, and recently kept a 14 incher to see if it was too small to have worms. Sadly, it had quite a few 1 inch long, off-white worms about the diameter of round dental floss I was able to pull out from the spinal cavity. The fact that they could be removed so easily made them suspect, and probably not part of the fish’s nervous system. Disappointed, I did a quick internet check and found this on the website ncfishes.com, about the lifecycle of the Amberjack Tapeworm.

It’s pretty creepy actually. Sharks are host to adult tapeworms. The sharks poop out the eggs of the worms which develop into a very small, young form of a tape worm on the ocean floor, that are then consumed by crustaceans. The tape worm then grows into its next life stage, still very small, and is intact in the crustacean when it’s consumed by a small fish. The small fish is then consumed by an amberjack and the tape worm develops further, into the “spaghetti worm” stage. Finally, when a shark eats the amberjack, does the tape worm fully mature in the shark, lay egg and the life cycle starts again.

I think the 1 inch tape worms I found in the 14 inch kahala were waiting to grow larger and thicker as the kahala grew. If they overwhelmed the kahala, the host fish would die and so would they. Kinda like how viruses work.

Credit: gulfcouncil.org

I had kept the 14 inch kahala because it fit the description of an almaco jack. It had a deep, flat body, and its jaw ended before its eye started. It also had a tall dorsal fin. See the chart above from gulfcouncil.org. It was gross to find worms but omilu and white papio have worms too, and this kampachi wasn’t fishy tasting like omilu and white papio. No wonder they are farm raising the almaco.

I’m gonna try to get another small almaco to see if it has worms, and will cook it up again! Not brave enough to eat it raw though.

Some of the new gear worked well and some didn’t

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In case you were wondering how the test products were working, here’s the quick rundown.

DUDS

The VMC Octopus Live Bait hooks didn’t seem to hook fish any better when used on a damashi/sabiki rig, and were harder to quickly unhook from the fish. I did like the how the bent-back eye of the hook made the hook hang straight when tied with a snell, but the offset angle of the point didn’t release from the fish easily.

The scented 13 Fishing soft plastics weren’t any more effective than the Completely Hooked Lures minnows I normally use, and were more expensive.

STUDS

The flexible Rapala Fish Pro 6 inch Fillet Knife has performed really well, especially on soft fleshed fish. Such an improvement over my thicker, stiffer knives.

NOT TESTED YET

Haven’t used the 13 Fishing Concept Z SLD reel yet. Need to throw some plugs for papio or kaku while they are still close to shore.

I have used the Phenix 6’6″ Black Diamond Heavy boat rod and 6′ PE 2-4 Megalodan jig rod, but haven’t fought anything significant on either. I do like the lightness and strength so far, though.

I’ll drop a Duo Drag Metal Force Semi Long jig on the Megalodan jig rod.

And to add to my backlog of products to test, I purchased a Chasing Can Fish Lure underwater camera since the GoFish camera is discontinued. It has an external on/off switch, full 1080p and more than 2 hr of battery time. I’ve used it once so far and the ease of use and clarity was a big upgrade to the GoFish. If the camera turns out to be a winnah, I plan to become a dealer and sell it at our usual killer prices.

This was taken in 50ft of water and hasn’t been photo edited at all. I wasn’t able to drop on fish in the deeper water, but water clarity at 130ft was clearer than this shot.

I caught the monster that was grabbing my opelu and rocking me. So we smoked it!

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For years now, when I put my bait and jigs down near the bottom at a certain ledge on the Windward side, something would grab it and rock me but when I pulled to break off the snag, the feeling was stretchy before the hook tore free. The weird thing was I always got my leader and hooks back without any nicks. I suspected it was a tako but no one believed me. The next likely suspect was a roi, which I’ve caught there a few times in slack conditions.

On this outing last week, it was too calm in the morning with very little wind and not much of a ripple on the surface. The bottom fish weren’t at the normal spots and nothing wanted the fresh opelu I trolled out to 300ft and back into 70ft, covering 2 square miles. Finally, after 12pm, a ball of bait showed up under the kayak and 2 opelu came up. I put one out on the unweighted “flat line” and an aha immediately pestered and killed it. Since the opelu was still intact, I put it down on a weighted line and before it reached the bottom something grabbed it. Luckily I was holding the rod so I could wrest the creature away from the rocks and a tako popped up!

I’ve never kept a tako and wasn’t sure how to dispatch it. I ended up putting it on the deck of the yak and stabbing it between the eyes with the big brainer I use. It eventually lost its color but had leaked out chocolate brown ink all over the yak. I put it in my fish bag and wondered how I’d process it.

By now it was 1pm and I had been struggling to find biting fish since 9am. I went back out to the dependable damashi spot and marks began to appear. I hooked something strong with headshakes and was surprised to land a 14inch almaco jack, a type of Kahala, that is farm raised under the name “Kona Kampachi“. I kept it, hoping it was too young to be infested with worms, like most kahala are. My 15lb damashi got busted off on the next drop by a strong running fish so I put on a store bought rig with fish skin flies and 25lb branch lines. I couldn’t hook anymore almaco jacks but suddenly the opelu and small halalu started biting the damashi. I can only attribute that frenzy to the solar lunar bite period turning on.

It was later than I had expected to stay out so I had to leave the fish biting. The tako’s ink was all over my gear and fish bag but surprisingly didn’t smell too bad and cleaned up fairly easily.

My family felt sorry for the tako and didn’t want to eat it after watching various octopus documentaries showing how smart they are, so my neighbor accepted the task of cleaning and smoking it. He’ll do a guest post showing how to easily turn a raw tako into a delicious meal. For now these photos of the resulting, super ono smoked tako will have to do.

I cleaned the little almaco and there were off-white, roundish 1-inch strands about the diameter of dental floss embedded in the spinal column that I could pull out. Assuming they were juvenile tape worms, I was pretty grossed out. I quickly filleted the fish for practice since I had never cleaned a kahala before and was surprised the fillet was darker than a yellow spot papio, which the thick skin and small scales resembled. I considered dumping the fillets but decided to check them carefully for worms and have my sister pan fry them for me dad.

I was stunned when my picky dad said “it’s a good fish” and my sister said the skin crisped on the bottom of the pan and separated from the meat which had turned white. She said it was one of the best tasting fish she has pan fried. Who would have thought!

So a very slow outing resulted in identifying 2 very sustainable food sources, tako and almaco jack. I’ll try to do another post on the lifecycle of amberjack (kahala) tape worms. It’s a bit gross but explains why almost all kahala have worms.

Holoholo: May – August shore line report

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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. 

11 inch Moi on Tako light baitcasting

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. 

3.5lb Mu on Tako baitcasting

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: Plugging Report Summer 2024

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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.            

Refinished some paint peeled jigs with the supplies I had. Looks way better. Hopefully the fish think so too.

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I have a growing pile of jigs whose paint peeled from either fish teeth, or initially lousy paint jobs. Some of the lousy painted jigs were tungsten samples I was given to provide an idea of what the jig shape would look like. Others were just cheaply finished store bought jigs that weren’t sealed properly. The tungsten jigs I ended up ordering have held up to a lot of abuse and haven’t peeled, but some ended up with teeth marks.

Seemed like a waste to not fish these lures since they were structurally sound so I used marker pens to color in the missing paint, but since those marks came off easily, I decided to “clear coat” the jigs. Some of the jigs lacked any glow effect, so I added some spots of Glow-On paint purchased from Amazon. I learned on the first attempt that the glow paint is really thick and can’t be brushed. It’s better dabbed on with a small wooden stick especially since that paint is pretty expensive at $14 for 2.3 ml.

I didn’t have proper “lure sealing” clear coat so I just used some Gorilla 5 Minute Epoxy and painted over the colored jigs. My first attempt at brushing the epoxy on came out ok.

But I did another batch the next day and the epoxy hardened too quickly after the initial jig, making it difficult to apply the thick solution evenly on the remaining jigs. The above jigs had another coat of epoxy to smooth things out but that batch was thickening on the last 2 jigs and never cured hard so I had to sand off the epoxy and recoat. Ugh. A $10 handheld uv lamp (Saviland) from Amazon was used to light up the glow paint.

Gorilla Epoxy, Saviland UV lamp and Glow-On paint

Gorilla Epoxy is “water resistant” not waterproof but after I soaked a finished jig in freshwater for a few hours, the epoxy seal seemed fine.

The jigs are now color fast and the added glow should make the jigs stand out more in the dark depths. I would think that epoxy would be a suitable clear coat for wooden and plastic hard body lures too. Will let you know if the jigs catch fish and hold up to the saltwater abuse.

Yellow Spot Papio (Island Jack) and Weke Nono (Pfluger’s Goatfish) – how are they raw?

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Yellow spot papio, also called Island Jack, can be caught in waist deep water on the flats and thus may be more commonly caught than weke nono / weke ‘ula or Pfluger’s goatfish which is normally encountered in water deeper than 100ft.

Yellow spot papio are considered about the best eating of the papio we have in Hawaii, only possibly surpassed by kagami papio or African pompano. Yellow spot initially may look like omilu (bluefin trevally) in the water because they both have blue colored fins and opaque blueish sides, but on closer examination, yellow spot papio have the yellow spots they are known for, as well as thicker skin with tiny scales and a downturned mouth equipped to suck up crustaceans. Their diet of shrimp and crab are the reason for their light tasting, non-fishy, slightly fatty flesh.

Weke nono are a beautiful red goatfish with white stripes, when alive, that aren’t generally as well respected as kumu, munu and moana kali because weke nono have flesh that tends to get a little dry when cooked.

But weke nono make great sashimi, especially when over 2lb and prepared properly. Their diet is similar to yellow spot papio, feeding on shrimps and crabs. Since their flesh, like all goatfish, is on the soft side, icing the fish overnight and then dry aging the fillets for a day or so really help to tighten up the meat.

Yellow spot has a softer meat than most papio but are still firmer than weke nono because they have more muscle fiber/tendons. Both fish have a very “clean” taste.

Neither yellow spot nor weke nono sashimi got fishy after 3 days but the weke nono was beginning to soften further. Yellow spot sashimi “feels” more like you’d expect of raw fish, whereas weke nono have a softer less “connected” feel. Both are excellent in my very humble opinion!

NOAA Fisheries is looking to improve the way they manage uku (green jobfish) by researching how congregations are related across the Hawaiian Islands. Here’s how you can participate.

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NOAA Fisheries is doing a study to determine how the different geographical “populations” of uku are related because that affects how they can effectively manage the fish stocks. For example, if there are genetically distinct sub-groups, that will influence their approach in promoting sustainable management of the species.

They are asking fishermen to submit small fin clips with catch location so they can dna test the samples to determine if the Hawaiian Islands uku are all the same genetically, or are unique in some ways. They will be collecting the samples up to the Spring of 2026.

If you would like to help with this effort you can request self-addressed fin clip kits so you have one on hand when you clean your next uku. A clip from any fin, as small as 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch will do. If you end up catching an uku but don’t have the fin clip kit, you can freeze the fin clip, request the kit, and then mail the clip to NOAA.

We were asked to help get the word out. Here’s the official flyer with instructions on how to request fin clip kits.