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BKK Hooks – Small bait hook, wide gapped jig head, offshore live bait hook, treble hook and assist hook. How did they work out?

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BKK Hooks are designed in Japan and manufactured to exacting standards in China. They are known for making very strong, sharp, long lasting hooks that meet specific fishing needs. They were tested by our various Holoholo reviewers. Here’s how they performed.

Red Octopus Beak

Tested as damashi/sabiki fly hooks for akule and opelu.

Product Description: The offset hook point provides much more contact with the fish’s mouth, resulting in a better hook-up rate.

Additionally, the red coating increases the concealment of the hook (matching the color of the bait used) and also guarantees great saltwater corrosion resistance.

Results: Akule and opelu flies were made with these. They kept their point and didn’t rust after 5 uses. Recommended.

Silent Chaser EWG Round Head

Tested as jig hook for oio whipping on the flats.

Product Description: The BKK Silent Chaser 1X EWG is a versatile round-head offset jighead featuring a wire jig hook with an Extra Wide Gap round bend, super sharp needle point and SS nano coating to enhance penetration when fishing with very light gear.

Predominantly used in finesse approaches close to the bottom, the Silent Chaser 1X EWG is designed for stealthier presentations and to be snag proof. Size range goes from size 1 to 4/0 for Texas rigging a wide array of soft lures.

Results: Multiple large oio were landed whereas other premium brand jig hooks bent open. Recommended.

Beastly Cat

Tested as rear live bait hook for offshore fishing.

Product Description: Designed with a thick wire, it features BKK’s signature Hand Ground hook point technology boasting an excellent penetration capability, being able to penetrate through hard bony jaws and reducing the overall weight of the hook structure.

The Super-Slide coating additionally minimizes piercing resistance and provides an instant and deep hook up.

Results: Used as an offshore live bait hook. More positive hooksets than other hooks used but corroded and lost its point after 1 use. Not recommended.

Raptor Z treble hooks

Tested as replacement hooks for plugs and poppers.

Product Description: The BKK-RAPTOR-Z incorporates BKK’s latest manufacturing technologies, being engineered to hook strong and aggressive “monster” fish and stay hooked to the very end.

Thanks to BKK’s Hand ground technology and Bright Tin coating, it is equipped with ultimate impaling power, being able to penetrate even the hardest bony jaws and superior corrosion resistance.

BKK’s Slim Ring Technology further allows for an easier attachment of split rings.

Results: Multiple ulua have been landed on these. The treble hooks don’t open up under intense pressure. Recommended.

Sea Ranger+ assist hooks

Tested as assist hooks on micro jigs.

Product Description: Developed to tackle big fish using a small jig.

Comes pre-tied with BKK high quality solid core assist cord, which is very robust yet retains its softness. Shimmering and glowing fibers increase the attractiveness of the jig, triggering more strikes.

It features a heavy gauge providing excellent strength to the hook and BKK’s Hand Ground hook point technology lightening the weight of the hook, providing an outstanding penetration performance. Additionally, the U-spade Slip Lock feature keeps the assist line securely in place.

Last but not least, the bright tin coating ensures sharp hooks in saltwater environment, preventing saltwater corrosion.

Results: Glow tinsel attracted small and large fish; hooks stayed sharp and corrosion free after countless uses. Never tangled on the jig. Recommended.

We didn’t sell these hooks in the Store except for the Sea Ranger+ assist hooks. Please let us know via the Contact Page if you’d like us to special order a box of hooks for you.

Last year’s tiger shark incident will be on Shark Week this week!

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The shark attack happened last May and didn’t make it into Discovery Channel’s Shark Week last year but it will be part of the “Caught! When Sharks Attack” episode this week. It will air Thursday July 11th at 6PM Hawaii Time, 9PM ET and PT. I haven’t seen the episode yet so I don’t know anything about the show but if it never streams, this will be the only chance to watch it. Just FYI.

Holoholo: Shoreline Catch Report 7/1/24

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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!

Tested the new gear out West, should have kept the wild caught Kampachi!

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With no break in the trade winds, and gear to test, I grudgingly headed to the Westside. Not my favorite destination since it gets fished a lot and the traffic going home can be brutal in the afternoon. But with school out for the summer, the early morning drive was smooth sailing. I was meeting Lawrence on the water and he already had an 19lb ono in his fish bag before I had even left home!

He had gotten some akule before the sun came up, and the opelu didn’t bite for him so I knew I would have a hard time catching bait. My game plan was just to learn the shallow bottom fish grounds and hopefully catch some keeper sized good eating fish on the damashi and small jig.

I started with new red VMC offset Octopus hooks and 13 Fishing soft plastics infused with amino acids/protein, along with my standby CHL Minnows. I liked the way the Octopus hook hung straight down on the branch line because of the bend near the eye of the hook but was leery about the offset hook deep hooking the fish.

Found some fish marks near the bottom but nothing bit the baits for a long time. Began to wonder if the 13 Fishing plastic was scaring the fish!

Then I felt small fish hitting the lures and coming off, and eventually deep hooked a small nabeta that was hard to unhook. I was not loving the new hooks and the 13 Fishing soft plastic wasn’t getting bit any better than the CHL Minnows. The bite continued to be slow and I landed a kawalea (Heller’s barracuda) whose buddies broke off the other hooks so I changed to a 15lb damashi rig with the normal gold Maruto MZ hooks.

Lawrence was far away, out of radio range, so he called me on my cell to tell me he was hooked up to something BIG and was getting towed out to sea. 25 minutes into the fight, he was about to get spooled so he tightened his drag and the fish broke off. He ended up in 700ft of water and cranked up the Newport 300 motor on his Hobie Outback to get back in. He believes it was a legit ahi (yellowfin over 100lb) that he couldn’t stop on his Avet LX Raptor.

I stumbled upon a keeper nabeta and tried to get more to make a meal but failed. Then my damashi rig got mauled and I brought up an odd looking small kahala. I had a feeling it was an almaco jack, the fish they farm in Kona and call Kampachi, and thought about keeping it but let the 1lb fish go.

At home I looked up how to tell the difference between an almaco and greater amberjack. The almaco’s eyes are further back than the end of the jaw, whereas the greater amberjack’s eye are right above the end of its jaw. This was an almaco.

I figured I’d hook a bunch on the tungsten jig but as I swung the jig back to cast, it hit my paddle and the reel backlashed badly. Somehow I sliced my thumb in the process and by the time I got a band aid on to stop the bleeding I lost the school. 🙁

Lawrence met me and we headed in. The paddle back in was short and uneventful but dealing with the sloped sandy beach was brutal. The asphalt pavement was so hot I got burnt through my surf booties. You gotta be rugged to survive on this side of the island!

This was my 3rd time on the Westside and I still haven’t figured it out. There definitely are big fish if you have live bait, and shallow bottom fish if you get them when they are feeding, or have better bait than I did. I’ll give the VMC Octopus hooks and 13 Fishing lures another chance over hungrier fish before giving up on them. Traffic going home was much better than when I had done that during school season.

With only 1 nabeta I didn’t want to deal with deep frying the fish on a propane stove so I ended up scaling, gutting and removing the center bone so my sister could steam it for my dad. Her cats made quick work of the meat left on that bone. I wasn’t used to how flexible the Rapala Fish Pro fillet knife was so I had to learn to trust that it could actually cut through the bone. It was nice that the thin blade allowed me to cut so close to the bone and not waste meat. Finally, one of the new products worked as hoped!

New gear from Rapala – VMC – 13 Fishing!

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Who doesn’t love receiving new fishing gear in the mail?

13 Fishing, the innovative young company that produces affordable, paradigm breaking products for the open minded fisherman, joined the Rapala family of companies last year. That meant I could get dealer pricing on their second generation Concept Z SLD bearing-less bait casting reel with an external sliding braking system. Since 2018, I had been fishing the original Concept Z reel inshore for small game and loved how easy it was to throw light lures, so I wanted to try the improved version with external brake adjustments and stronger gearing. Figured it would be a great reel for friends new to level wind bait casting to try out.

Rapala ships to Hawaii via UPS 2-day so shipping cost is really expensive. To spread the cost around I added a Rapala Fish Pro 6 inch Fillet Knife since I didn’t have a thin, flexible blade to cut sashimi. I had struggled to slice the weke nono from the last trip with my thicker, stiff blade since the the weke nono flesh is soft.

To round out the order I added VMC Octopus Live Bait hooks to try as red damashi hooks, and a set of 13 Fishing’s soft plastic ice fishing lures to mimic plankton. I exclusively use Completely Hooked Lures Minnows in the 1.5 inch size and they catch just about everything on the damashi, but wanted to see what the 13 Fishing critters infused with amino acids and proteins would attract.

Check back to hear how the new toys perform.

6/26/24: Here’s how the new gear performed the first time out.

The conditions came together for an Epic shallow bottom fishing bite! (Story and video)

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I’ve been correlating Solar Lunar bite times with my catches and the action has seemed to be much better during those periods. Last week, the New Moon fell on a rare June light wind day and I planned to fish the 12:00pm to 2:30pm major bite time to see how good it could be.

The water was so calm at 9am that the bite was initially slow on the damashi rigged with Completely Hooked Lures Minnows but I landed a chunky toau (blacktail snapper) and some baby uku before getting the rig got busted up. I was surprised to bring up an opelu in the blind and moved up from the 12lb damashi rig to 15lb, and trolled the live opelu with a 2oz weight out to 220ft.

Something took the opelu and pulled line for about 20 seconds before releasing the bait. What came back was from a horror movie; a headless opelu stripped of its skin, hooked on the rear hook.

What could suck the head and skin off and not get hooked? Since the remains looked like a skinned opelu fillet, I dropped it back down and something slurped it up and eventually rocked me.

The frozen akule I put down was ignored, so I dropped the 15lb damashi rig on a good mark in 200ft. It got picked up and busted off so I upgraded to the heaviest rig I had, a 25lb rig. At that point the major bite period was starting so I dropped that 3 hook rig down with high hopes and something heavy and strong for the light jig rod pulled some drag and bent the rod. What came up was a 3.5lb white papio and 2 fat taape (blueline snapper). The bite slowed in the deep and I wanted to see how good the shallow bite at 100ft was, so I made my way back in.

The 25lb damashi rig wasn’t scaring off the fish, and an uku and weke nono aka weke ula came up together on one drop. But even that damashi rig got busted off.

Here’s some highlights of the damashi action.

Since bigger fish were hitting, I tied a 60g green/gold jig to what normally is a damashi setup and dropped it to the bottom. A couple lifts and bam, a spirited weke nono was on. As long as I was dropping on an “active mark” (a sonar mark indicating moving predator fish), the jig got bit. The fish were still biting at 3pm and it was hard to leave the best jig bite I’ve experienced but I still had 2.5 miles to travel so I cranked up my Bixpy motor and headed in.

Here’s some highlights of the jig action. Major bite time on a New Moon is legit!

Live rainfall radar map and recent rainfall totals for Hawaii

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Yesterday, I was hoping to fish the Windward side of Oahu today and wanted to know how brown the water was gonna be after recent rains. It was completely dry on the south side of Oahu and Weather Underground wasn’t predicting much rain for the Windward side but a friend gave me the first hand report that Kamehameha Hwy at Waikane was flooded and cars were being turned around. He had to go the Mililani – Haleiwa – Kahuku way to get to Laie.

He sent me this link to the National Weather Service radar map of Hawaii (pan and zoom to your area of interest) and I could see that side of the island was getting pounded.

Click for updated rainfall totals

To confirm how much rain actually fell, I went to National Weather Service Rainfall Summary page and checked the 3hr totals for the areas nearby. With these tools I could not only see how much rain was falling that instant but how much rain had fallen recently.

These sites will be helpful as we brace for the next round of out of season torrential rains.

Why is it so hard to get a quality rod in Hawaii?

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If you’ve gone to your local tackle shop with a certain rod in mind, chances are you didn’t find it in stock. Maybe you had to settle for what they had, or had them order a rod for you, and then the rod broke during normal use. So you took the broken rod back to the shop you bought it from, only to be told that you have to contact the manufacturer to have it replaced under warranty. Then you find out you have to pay shipping to send the broken rod to the mainland, which could cost more than $25.

There’s so many issues to unpack here.

I get it, our local shops don’t have a lot of space to display rods, and shipping the rods here from the mainland costs a lot of money. They have to bring in the types of rods that would sell the easiest, which often means lower priced rods.

What if you wanna try a premium rod but don’t see it in the stores? Have you been able to order the rod online and was the final price reasonable?

A few friends have snapped rods at a rate that seemed higher than years’ past. Maybe quality control has gone down in certain brands? Kayak anglers put a lot of stress on their gear, but a friend broke 2 St Croix Rift jig rods in two successive trips and didn’t appear to do anything out of the norm.

Holoholo guest poster Matthew broke a Major Craft N-One whipping rod on a tilapia!

Major Craft Crostage

And another friend broke a Major Craft Crostage whipping rod after buying it in a local shop and testing the spline at home!

These rod issues are a pet peeve of mine. I’ve been on a mission to vet rod brands and bring in quality rods to sell to the local crew. I started with St Croix (the St Croix Rift rods that snapped were not purchased from me!), but the company became so unresponsive that I could never fill an order. So I moved onto Phenix Rods and really liked the two kayak live bait rods I have been testing, but Phenix was bought out by a larger company and they moved operations from Southern California to TX. Shipping to Hawaii nearly doubled and they were initially bogged down in the transition but have been responsive to requests again.

So I tried United Composites, the well respected, Made In The USA, rod blank company out of Huntington Beach, CA and they miraculously accepted me as a dealer. They are well known for making very strong, sensitive, light rods for specific needs, and would be a good source if you plug for big fish, shore cast for ulua, troll for pelagics or live bait fish. There’s a 7ft boat rod that looks like it would work well as a kayak or jet ski live bait rod that I will be trying soon!

My rep at Phenix Rods moved from Phenix to Ocean’s Legacy, which is an Australian brand and makes durable rods for the Aussie land based and boat based plugger and jigger. Their rods aren’t as thin and light as the Japanese rods, but they are less expensive and handle stress better. Ocean’s Legacy ships their products out of Texas for the US market and there’s a few reasonably priced jigging rods I’m hoping to test soon.

No wonder the local shops can’t bring in a variety of brands. So few of the quality rod makers are filling orders. I sure hope I can secure a dependable source of very good rods at reasonable prices that fit our unique needs in Hawaii.

Why did the tiger shark ram my kayak? This video shows what happened right before and shortly after the “attack”.

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There has been a lot of speculation as to why a tiger shark would ram a kayak so hard, with no cautious sniffing around at all. Some believed fish blood or bait had attracted the shark. Others believed the shark was attracted to my foot in the water, or the floating paddle.

Hopefully this follow up video answers most questions surrounding the incident that happened about 11 months ago.

We are a Phenix Rod dealer! Anyone interested in trying these premium rods?

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Update: 4/24/24: Phenix Rods was purchased by a larger company and the factory has been moved from California to Texas so the shipping cost to Hawaii has increased. We’re currently working with Phenix to bring more rods in. Stay tuned.

We’ve been a Phenix Rod online dealer for half a year now and I’ve been trying to verify that the rods are as good as I’ve been hearing from the bass, trout and salt water guys. Been using a 7ft Heavy and a 7ft Extra Heavy live bait rod on the kayak and they performed well so far, but haven’t gotten really big fish to stress test them. I do like the lightness, sensitivity, components and durability of both rods.

Here’s a short video of the first day using the Black Diamond Heavy rod.

Phenix sells finished freshwater, saltwater, and travel rods in spinning and casting models, as well as the blanks of each. They are known to be very light in weight, yet strong in backbone, and are less expensive than the comparable high end brands.

Phenix offers a lifetime warranty on the rods that is basically this: If you break the rod, you send the pieces back to Phenix in California, and pay a bit more than 50% of the cost of the rod to have a replacement shipped back to you. That’s better than a lot of rod manufacturers these days.

These are just a few of the products the Hawaii angler may be interested in:

Black Diamond Surf – 2 piece Spinning rods 9ft to 14ft

View details on Phenix website.

Redeye Travel Saltwater Spinning rods – 3 piece, 7ft 6in, rated 15lb – 40lb and 30lb – 80lb.

View details on Phenix website.

Megalodan Jigging rods

Spinning: 5ft 6in PE 4-8 to 6ft PE 6-10

View details on Phenix website.

Casting: 5ft 6in PE 2-4 to 6ft PE 6-10.

View details on Phenix website.

Shipping of the rods from TX to HI is pretty expensive so I plan to order a batch of rods at a time. If you’re interested in trying any of the premium rods you see on their website, I’ll drop the price to make it worth your while. Please get in touch through the contact page.

Mahalo!

Hawaii will continue to have power outages. You may wanna be prepared with rechargeable lights and fans.

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HECO’s less than reliable service has gotten worse since the Maui Wildfires. We were somewhat prepared with a bunch of standard lanterns (alkaline batteries removed), and some compact LED rechargeable lanterns, and headlamps that were fully charged. When the power went out at night, I found it a little humbug to load the alkaline batteries into the lanterns, and the one that we had been using occasionally had corroded because the Duracell batteries leaked. Even with fresh D size alkaline batteries, the lanterns put out glary light with dead spots.

The led compact lanterns, in comparison, had been holding a full charge, lit the area in an even, non-glary way, and just needed to be topped off after the power came on.

To navigate in the dark, I wore a compact led rechargeable headlamp that also doubled as a flashlight, throwing a wide, consistent beam of light.

Rechargeable lanterns and headlamps cost more than alkaline powered versions, but put out a more useable light in a smaller profile and have excellent warranties. Their batteries last for days on low power. In the long run, they will cost less than the alkaline versions and are better for the environment.

For those muggy times when the power goes out and our electric powered fans and air conditioners won’t work, we have a couple Dewalt rechargeable fans that run on the Dewalt power tool battery, lasting for hours at low speed.

It gives me peace of mind to know we can get through the next power outage safely and comfortably.

Note: We don’t sell lanterns, headlamps or fans and are not compensated in any way for mentioning these products.

4 years ago I was given a few Ledlenser lanterns and headlamps to test, and since then, have bought more from their website to give as gifts when ledlenserusa.com run their 50% off sales. The Fenix brand of led rechargeable lights is more readily available in Hawaii. Both brands make excellent lights.

Video: See how damashi fishing was affected by weather and solar-lunar influence

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Recently fished the same area 3 times in different weather and solar-lunar conditions as I had mentioned in this post. The fish bit really well in the afternoon on the first 2 trips because of weather and solar-lunar effects, and only the “rubbish fish” bit on the 3rd outing because the water was too calm and clear.

Here’s a short video of the damashi/sabiki fishing to support this.

0:04 1st time – 2pm, slightly overcast with Major Bite period. The target fish (uku, moana kali, yellowspot papio) I had been looking for bit, but they were small.

1:11 2nd time, 2pm, dark skies with heavy rain, no bite period. Every drop of the damashi during the rain storm got bit, even by akule (goggle eye) that normally don’t bite during the day.

1:49 3rd time – 11am, very calm and clear, no bite period. Too calm, only the “rubbish fish” bit.

Fish bite way better in the dark, rainy conditions than on calm, clear days

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For boat, kayak and even from shore, calm days with little swell are much more comfortable to fish. But those days are often extremely slow.

As an unplanned experiment, I kayak fished the same area 3 times. The first was overcast and a little choppy; second time had cross swell and a rain storm chased me off the water. The third time was glass calm with no swell all day.

On the first outing I stumbled upon biting fish in the early afternoon that happened to coincide with the solar – lunar bite time. The bite was surprisingly good and a 25lb ulua landed on the light jig rod ended the day.

The second outing was a little slower because it wasn’t during a good solar – lunar period but when the rain storm rolled in the fishing got really good. Akule, opelu and lai were hunkered down in relatively shallow water and biting on every drop of the damashi. Unhooking the lai slowed me down and I left when it got too cold to fish. Akule normally don’t bite during the day and must’ve thought it was night time!

The third time was so pleasant to fish. Easy to paddle, no current to push me off the spots but only the less desirable fish like taape, moana and hawk fish bit well.

I slow trolled a bite size opelu out to 200ft and back to the shallows with no interest from predators. Bait stealers eventually ripped it apart at 100ft and a big kawalea took a frozen opelu later.

The water surface looks like a mirror in this photo!

I had to work really hard to catch some nabeta to salvage the trip, chumming around and baiting my damashi rig with opelu skin.

So why do fish bite better on the darker days with more chop on the water? It seems like prey fish such as opelu and akule feel safer when they’re harder to be spotted by larger fish, and the predatory fish feel they can ambush prey fish better when it’s not as easy to see them approach. So on the calm, bright days, you’ll see the smaller fish on the food chain moving around carefree, while the larger fish are taking naps some where.

What should you do to help generate a bite? Chum around to start a feeding frenzy and use the freshest bait possible.

Uku, moana kali, yellow spot, 25lb ulua on damashi and 60g tungsten jig – I’ve been doing it wrong before!

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I’ve been looking for uku and great tasting goat fish (moana kali and weke nono) on the Windward side for years now and kept coming up empty. Ended up changing my jigging setup and the area I searched, and the results were astounding. There’s a video of the action at the end of this post.

There seems to be uku (green jobfish) all over the South and West sides of Oahu. I’ve dedicated hours dragging live and dead opelu all over the Windward side dropoffs and no uku have bitten. Apparently the grounds I was fishing were sloping sandy areas, not rocky rubble the uku preferred.

The patchy reef areas did hold a lot of bait and reef fish, and I’ve hooked a few ulua and kahala jigging before, so the few times I took a break from bait fishing to test the compact tungsten jig, I did so on a rod designed for heavier jigs. Hadn’t been getting much action with that approach. I decided to give the 40g and 60g tungsten jigs the best possible presentation, so I switched to a light action Shimano Trevala rod paired with a Shimano Curado 300EJ bait casting reel with 25lb fluorocarbon leader. To hedge my bets, I used BKK assist hooks with glow in the dark fibers.

I started the morning catching a couple medium sized opelu, put them down on a weighted rig and slow trolled them over the 90ft ledge for 4 hrs. No uku showed up, only bait stealers. Out of frustration, and running out of fishing time, I headed to a slightly deeper but flatter reef structure I hadn’t fished before.

A cluster of reef fish showed on the fish finder, so I dropped the damashi down and a hard pulling fish responded. It felt like a papio and I was stoked to see a yellow spot papio come up. Since they feed on bottom dwelling crustaceans, they have a much cleaner, sweeter taste than their lookalike cousin, the omilu (bluefin trevally).

The next drop hooked a fish that pulled drag also, and I was looking to load up on yellow spot papio but it was a small moana kali. If it were a pound larger I would have been tempted to keep it.

Then the elusive uku bit the damashi but it was much too small also. The moana kali and uku did give me hope that larger versions would be nearby.

On the next drop a small omilu and a taape (blueline snapper) came up, then the action slowed so I moved shallower to a 90ft spot on my maps Capt Erik had given me years ago.

Taape first came up on the damashi and then hard pulls resulted in hooks broken off. I went up from the 12lb damashi rig to a 15lb rig and felt a small fish get hooked that was eaten by a larger fish. That rig had its hooks bitten off too so it was finally a great time to drop the 40g tungsten jig. Unfortunately the drift was too fast for that jig to fall quickly to the bottom.

I switched to a blue/silver 60g tungsten jig and hooked a kawalea on the first drop. That was probably what was cutting off my damashi hooks. I didn’t want it stinking up my fish bag so it was released. The next two drops of the jig yielded large, brown hagi. I’ve never experienced such a hot damashi and jig bite like this.

The next jig fish was a thick moano (manybar goatfish) proving the 2.5 inch jig mimicked small bait. It’s known to have tasty, soft flesh but small bones but I kept it hoping the bones would be big enough to avoid.

The bite slowed at this shallower spot and it was almost 2pm so I made a pass back to the deeper spot, on the way in. Hoping to hook a bigger yellow spot papio or uku with the jig, I dropped it down and the line went limp. I reeled up and the jig was cut off with no tug at all! What the heck was happening in the middle of this calm day?!

I had one more jig, a green/gold 60g tungsten jig that had produced before, and put it on. Dropped that down, slow pitched it a couple of times and the line surged angrily. Right away I knew it was a pretty big ulua (GT) and didn’t know if the light jig rod with only 25lb leader would hold. I tried to pump the fish up when it wasn’t running, and was surprised how much backbone the parabolic jig rod had. Offshore kayak guys like heavy action jig rods to fish for pelagics and I always thought they’d have too soft a tip, but I now understand how the soft tip is forgiving for the seated kayak angler.

I was just praying I’d be able to get a photo of the fish with the jig in its mouth and after a tense 20 minute battle, using the Bixpy motor to chase it down, it was on the surface. I tried to slide it onto the kayak to unhook it but the leader broke at the jig and the fish flopped in the water. It had barotrauma and couldn’t swim down, but was swimming in circles and was hard to tail grab it. Finally I was able to loop its tail with my gaff and pull it on board. I removed the jig and pushed it deep in the water. The fish finder showed it making its way slowly back down. Crazy such a large fish ate a 2.5 inch jig.

So why was the damashi and jig bite so good? Here’s my theory:

  • The relatively flat reef had enough structure to hold an assortment of fish.
  • The hot action perfectly aligned with the solunar major bite time for that day.
  • The soft plastic lures on the damashi and the small tungsten jig mimicked shrimp and small fish.
  • The 60g jig fell and bounced more enticingly on the light rod with light line better than it did on the heavy action rod with 40lb leader.

Everything came perfectly together that day. I’ll be back soon to see if it was a one-off.

This is what I brought home. The moana did turn out to still have small bones and the yellowspot papio made really good non-fishy, slightly firm sashimi with an oily feel.

The tungsten jigs and BKK assist hooks can be found in the Sinking section of the Store.

Here’s some of the jigging action.

PE rating, Spectra, Dyneema demystified. What’s the difference and what’s the best to use for each application?

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Guys here popping and plugging and even jigging refer to their braided line as PE. West Coasters call their braid Spectra. You even hear the word Dyneema occasionally. Do they mean the same thing? What is the best line for your application?

Here’s a quick read to get that all sorted out.

Technically all braid is made from PE (polyethylene). Both Spectra and Dyneema are made from PE and Spectra filaments are usually thicker and more robust, while Dyneema filaments are thinner. Line companies use different number of strands (4, 8, 12 or 16) and line coatings which affect the roundness and castability of the braided lines.

Spectra is what the West Coasters call their braid because the first braid they used (Izorline, Tufline, PowerPro) was made from the trademarked name Spectra.

Dyneema is used by the high end Japanese companies to make thin, higher strand line. Dyneema is generally cheaper than Spectra per strand so lower end line companies using Dyneema put out inferior braid.

PE Scale pertains to the thickness of braided lines not breaking strength. When we Westerners were first exposed to this new form of rating braided line, we did a simple conversion from PE thickness to max breaking strength. For example PE5 = 50lb max breaking strength. Well it turns out that is inaccurate. Some brands of a certain thickness of braid will test lower than other brands of the same thickness.

So keeping this short and simple, what’s the best braid to use for your application?

Braided line thickness and breaking strength are what you should be concerned about. If you just want an all around braid for your reel, focus on matching the breaking strength of the line to your rod/reel. If you want to maximize castability, get a thinner diameter line, but if you need abrasion resistance, you have to factor that in also. Thicker braid is more abrasion resistant than thinner braid.

The higher end braided lines from Japan try to marry thin diameter with high breaking strength and decent abrasion resistance.

What braided line do you use?

2023 Wrap-up – Shoreline to Boat (Oahu)

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2023 was better overall than 2022 but fell a bit short of expectations. A weak El Nino did warm up the water in the late Spring but faded, and it was a windier than normal year. Overall water temps didn’t get that high and there were less fishable offshore days than the previous years. Thanks to the Holoholo writers for summarizing their season.

Shoreline:

Oama:

Some spots were very good and consistent, holding oama through September. Other spots that normally hold large schools were dry. The oama came in late July and left by October, which is the typical timeframe. Overall, an 8 out of 10. Papio weren’t hitting the piles much though.

Halalu:

It was a very good halalu season on Oahu. The regular spots held fish for a long time despite getting pounded. Papio were seen and some caught near the halalu piles.

Oio Flats Jigging:

Matthew:

The O’io fishing this year has been great in general. Unlike previous years, I chose to completely forego the summer Papio run and instead focus on only flats fishing for O’io. It got a little tough this year with the presence of many new anglers on the flats, but spot rotation is something that I’ve found extremely valuable. Rotating between four or five spots has kept each one fresh for the next time I fish it. I never fish the same spot twice in a row. With the increase in pressure, I’ve hardly seen any fish in the shallows, instead being forced to go to deeper water in search of those smart fish. 

This summer showed a really impressive number of O’io, but most of them were smaller fish (under 4 pounds). This winter has been very cold and while the numbers of O’io have decreased exponentially, the quality of fish has also increased exponentially. Recently I’ve been fishing for most of the trip without a nibble but depending on that one 5lb+ fish to come around. I haven’t had much numbers, but nearly all of my fish in the past month have been over 5 pounds. For example, I went through the entirety of August, September, and October without catching a single Oio over 5 pounds, although I was catching more numbers in smaller fish. I’ve also shifted my strategy from “stay in one area you’re really confident in” to “cover as much ground as you possibly can” recently. They’re still out there, you just gotta hope for the best sometimes. Good luck🤙

Fly Fishing:

Jason: The year overall was a fairly productive one, with all of our usual flats producing bonefish, along with the occasional 10-12” omilu (a trophy on our flats).  By October, the action started to taper off, but this is perfectly normal for those of us hunting roundjaw o’io on the flats (versus the deeper water sharp jaw variety). Looking back at my catch logs for myself and friends (aka our group text string) I’d say our numbers were pretty much right around our averages, however we did focus a bit more on the windward side of the island this year than years past.  This is partly due to the Navy’s closure of a popular flat, which remains closed as of this writing, and partly because exploring new waters is part of the fun in fishing!  

Plugging/Whipping:

Thad: I dedicated more time during the summer of 2023 to throwing plugs instead of bubble/fly, so my papio catches were down.  Did that mean I caught more of the bigger predators like the elusive ulua than in the past?  Nope.  But my fishing partner Dino had a year to remember with his back-to-back big ulua on consecutive days.  I did have in increase in big strikes so the opportunities were there but I suffered from the rubbah hook/bent hook curse so I caught less fish overall.  The plugging action picks up around the summer months but the timing is a little different every year.  The 2023 action seemed to start a little earlier than the year before.  Whipping the flats for oio was more productive for me this year as we’ve been able to dial in some new spots.  People say the winter months are better for oio but to me they seem to bite equally year-round.  Hopefully the oio action will continue through 2024 and I’ll be able to make the summer plugging strikes stick.

Dino:

2023 has been a really weird year as far as fishing goes. It was really up and down for me. I accomplished what I feel I will never be able to accomplish again. I hit uluas on back to back days in July.  A white ulua in the 35 ish pound range and an omilu in the 22 pound range. Lost another one at landing some time after. The oio action on the flats has been hit or miss. Some days it’s good. Some days it’s dead as can be.

The Summer was good and the plugging really slowed in the Winter so I’ve been doing flats fishing for oio which has been a little bit of hit and miss for me. Picking one up here and there.

Hoping that 2024 can bring some good action for the bigger shoreline game. Gathering and prepping the plugging gear as we speak.

Nearshore:

Kayak Fishers (West and Northsides of Oahu): Largest shibi (yellowfin tuna under 100lb) of the season were caught in the Spring, along with mahi. Summer to early Fall were consistent for shibi and mahi. Aku popped up in the early Fall. Ono were caught in early late Fall. Bite has slowed in Winter but there are still pelagics to be caught if you’re in the right place with a lively opelu. Uku seems to be available year round.

Scott: (Windward side kayak) Slow ’til March when aku schools moved in shallow. Then the wind blew ’til October. When the weather finally allowed offshore kayaking, the small shibi and small mahi were in shallow but that only lasted a few weeks, water temp was 79 degrees. In December the temp dropped to 74 degrees and the pelagics were scarce. Currently, nehu bait balls are getting pounded by small kawakawa and opelu from below, and birds from above. North swell often shutting down exposed spots.

Dive:

Kayak diving

Pono: Didn’t get a ton of diving in this year due to having a busier than normal schedule and a windier than normal summer (my usual dive season). However, the few outings that I were able to go on were very productive! I had a lot of fun down-sizing my speargun, kayak diving, and trying new recipes. Diving deeper has shown me that Oahu still get fish if you know where to look! I think there were more nearshore pelagics in the Fall compared to other times of the year, we were seeing shibi and kawakawa on reef dives.

Boat:

Erik: 2023 brought two new boats into our fishing experiences, a 21’ Force and a 17’ Boston Whaler.  The year started steady and progressively got better with October being our best month.  We are blessed to have landed Ahis in both boats this year and have caught enough fish to share with friends and family.

Offshore fishing is still good but the wind and high surf have been limiting factors.

We look forward to more fishing adventures in 2024 and hope to see more of our fishing family out in the ocean.

Black Friday Sale – Ends Nov 27th

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We’ve never really run a Black Friday sale because most of the products in the Store are already discounted. So don’t miss the crazy pricing on:

  • JDM whipping lures not sold in the US
  • Tungsten Jigs
  • Sufix 832 braid
  • Anetik Performance Attire

Black Friday Sale is over but we really believe you will love these products so they are priced at or close to the Black Friday pricing.

October: Light wind, big opelu and small pelagics eating tiny baitfish

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It had been windy since Mid-May but the wind finally dropped and just about every week of October was fishable. Big and medium sized opelu have been catchable during the day but the pelagics have been puny. Schools of rat mahi and baby kawakawa/aku were chasing small flying fish and nehu. Historically, September is the best kayak fishing month for us since the bigger pelagics are still around and the wind normally is light enough to get out but we missed out on that.

Last week I paddled out to my go-to Windward spot on a sheet glass morning and was shocked to see a school of mahi making circles around me where I caught a mahi on the last trip. I casted a tungsten jig ahead of them, and they checked it out but weren’t fooled so I put a year old frozen opelu on and trolled around for a while with no love.

The opelu were scarce, probably because they were spooked by the marauding mahi, and I finally caught a medium sized one. Not wanting to waste it on the rat mahi, I caught a 6 inch kawalea (Heller’s barracuda) and put that out on the new Phenix Black Diamond XHeavy rod and Avet MX Raptor rig where the rat mahi had been circling. It got picked up! The fish made some jumps but came in easy in high gear, and as I was getting ready to land it, it pulled the hook. I had accidentally set the lever drag too high and the stiff rod didn’t have much play I’m thinking. Ugh.

Then all the bait on the bottom included the juvenile kawalea disappeared. I’m thinking the mahi got a taste for kawalea and raided them. Ended the day having a rat mahi grab my medium sized live opelu and fail to swallow it and I bagged a lone nabeta.

Not wanting to waste anymore time on puny mahi, I checked another Windward spot this week with high hopes. I hadn’t fished it since April and was expecting it to be loaded with bait and pelagics. Wrong. I couldn’t find bait balls in the shallow spot that was previously loaded, and had to go out to 300ft before stumbling upon a huge mark stretching from 150ft to 200ft. Hoping to hook opelu at 150ft, I was surprised when a big opelu hit just 30ft down. I picked up two more 12 inch opelu and released a number of hard pulling 14 inch kawakawa. I put one of the opelu out on the Phenix Black Diamond XHeavy rod / Avet MX Raptor and a bird school popped up about 50yd away. I towed the opelu over to the bird school expecting some kind of tuna to slam the bait but nothing took it. All I could see of the bird school were scales sinking out that were much larger than opelu scales.

Since nothing wanted the big opelu and I had two more in the bait tube, I drifted over a deep reef and expected an ulua or kahala to slam that bait. Nada. There was nothing significant on the fish finder either. So odd to be so dead. More than an hour of dragging that live opelu over the reef didn’t yield a sniff. So I headed in to a shallow bait spot I hadn’t checked earlier and bait was balled up tightly. Caught 3 perfect 8 inch opelu and swapped out the big opelu that was still alive. Then small pelagics started busting on bait so I towed my small opelu over and it got pulled and scraped but alas, the predator couldn’t swallow it.

To salvage the trip I tried to find some nabeta but like last week, could only catch one. When I cleaned the opelu I was surprised to find them full of 2 inch silver fish. I had no idea opelu preyed on bait schools too. So the bait ball I saw 200ft down was small baitfish and the opelu and the kawakawa were above the bait, attacking them! No wonder my bigger opelu were getting ignored. I gotta try again with smaller lures and the smallest opelu I can catch.

3 New VMC hooks for lighter line applications you need to know about

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We’ve mentioned some outstanding VMC hooks in the past that are strong, sharp and inexpensive. This was a review of the 6X Tournament hooks often used for bottom fishing, and the 4X treble hooks used to replace weak hook on plugs, and to be used as a trailer for papio.

The VMC 4X Inline hook has also been a mainstay for replacing dangerous treble hooks on plugs, and being the trailing hook on dead bait.

But we recently discovered some new purpose built hooks that have replaced other more expensive brand’s specialty hooks for lighter line applications. You can find all these hooks in the Store here, in very limited supply and on sale.

VMC 1X Tournament Circle Hook

The Owner Tournament Mutu Light Circle Hook has been very popular for use when the bite gets difficult and guys have to downsize their line and hook size. VMC has a 1X (normal strength) Tournament Circle Hook that is almost identical in shape, gap and sharpness. It’s much cheaper though. The 4/0 Mutu Light is $3.49/5 hooks. The 3/0 VMC Tournament Circle, almost exactly the same dimensions as the 4/0 Mutu Light, is $4.99/12 hooks MSRP. We sell them for less. These hooks are only rated to about 25lb of pressure so don’t use them in big fish applications.

VMC Techset Tandem Assist

These light in weight, chemically sharpened hooks with reflective tinsel flutter enticingly and often the hooks themselves are targeted. The short length fits the small tungsten jigs very well. These are rated to 130lb but that seems generous.

VMC 1X O’Shaughnessy Live Bait

1X short shank hook is forged with Hi Carbon Steel to be corrosion resistant. Chemically sharpened. Another light line application hook to use when the bite gets tight.

Mid-Sept: Have the Oama and Halalu seasons peaked? Maybe not.

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Halalu. Photo by Jon S.

This has been the best oama season since maybe 2017? They came in by early August and kept coming in. A friend reported that the oama fishers have thinned but the oama are biting really well in the evening with papio hitting the piles.

Halalu came in thick in some spots and bit like crazy. They were so close in a few not-so-secret places, that a straight pole with bait was enough to fill a bucket. That appears to have peaked, but they are still around.

The bigger 5 to 8lb papio were seen and caught early in the season, and now the the 1 to 3 lb papio are hitting the piles. Fish around the piles with oama or whipping lures before the season ends. Who knows if next year will be as good as this year?