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Spring 2022 Shore to Boat Fishing Report and Summer Forecast

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The guys quickly summarize how fishing has been in the Spring, and what they expect in the next few months. Spring is normally a slow time before the bite picks up in the late Summer/Fall so it’s interesting to see how the different fisheries have performed.

Matt, Oahu whipper: The Papio fishing has been pretty good as of late, and the O’io action has been great since March. It’s sometimes frustrating to see crowds of fishers in my usual spots, but I’ve been moving to other areas and exploring new grounds. I was rewarded for my trouble two weeks ago with a three-hour O’io blitz in which I caught nine fish ranging from one to eight pounds.

Since late March, I’ve caught more O’io than I caught in all of last year but there’s signs that the action will start to slow down. While I wasn’t able to get out this weekend, there were multiple reports that the usual spots were completely dry. Perhaps the action has to get worse before it gets better again.

However, the Papio action seems to have picked up recently, with a bunch of my friends being able to land some nice fish. There are one or two spots with Halalu in right now, and just a few more with Oama, so try to get in on the Papio action while you still can. We can hope that this first wave will be refreshed by the usual June-July run, but it is uncertain. Good luck out there and tight lines!

Jeremy, shore jigger:

(click to enlarge)

Every year, I like to set a fishing goal for myself.  This year, I’m really trying to get an ulua on a jig on a lighter setup (PE2 mainline or less), so I’ve spent a lot of time this year primarily focusing on this tactic.  

The year started strong with some massive strikes that couldn’t be stopped.  But, from around March till May, the action was relatively slow.  Some of our usual spots that used to be pretty consistent, have been fairly quiet and only a few fish caught here and there.  So we did some exploring and have found a couple new spots that have been pretty hot.  We’ve found some schools of papio up to the 3# range, so hopefully that’s a good sign for the upcoming summer months.

If you’ve never tried jigging from shore, it can be really fun, but get expensive in a hurry.  Besides the obvious challenges of possibly getting stuck on the reef, knot getting caught on your guides and snapping your line on the cast, you also have the risk of getting cutoff a lot.  In just the past few weeks, I’ve lost about a $100 worth of jigs from fish cutting me off on the reef. 

But, I love jigging since it allows you to work the entire water column and you will take strikes at any and every depth.  Sometimes the strike will be when the jig is falling or right when it hits bottom, or it could be at the very surface.  You just never know and that’s the best part about it.  Just be ready for that sudden tug and hopefully luck is on your side.  Good luck to everyone.  Hopefully it’ll be a HOT summer.

Shea, Big Island offshore kayaker: In April, ono and mahi were biting. Opelu was somewhat plentiful. In May the opelu was hit or miss. The pelagic bite really slowed. Hoping the bite picks up soon but realistically Fall is the peak season.

BJ, Oahu night whipper:

Whipping at night has been productive since the beginning of the year. The menpachi and aholehole have been good sized, biting well, and have been around in high numbers. Papio are also coming up occasionally. Night fishing should continue to be effective throughout the summer and into the early fall, especially as the presence of bait fish fill the shoreline. 

Scott, Oahu offshore kayaker:

Wind limited the number of fishable days in the last 2 months and the bite was still slow when guys could get out. Opelu has been sighted recently but they aren’t biting well. Kawakawa and small mahi mahi have been the most common catch. Ono have recently been landed.

This is the NOAA water temperature graph of inshore Kaneohe Bay last year, from May through December. Because of the placement of the sensor, the recorded temps are higher than the deeper areas of the bay. Temps rose before the end of May, to 83.5 deg F which was actually the peak for the year. That may explain why the offshore kayak fishing picked up before June and remained somewhat consistent until the water temps really dropped off in November, falling to 74 degrees. By the end of November, the bite really slowed down. Since this year is a La Nina year like last year, the water temps may follow the same pattern so I’m expecting the bite to pick up soon as the water warms!

Erik, inshore and offshore Oahu boater: Bite seems to be picking up offshore. A lot of guys have been getting ahi recently. We’ve found smaller cane-size mahi (5-8lb) nearer and aku piles further out. The opelu bite was good in the mid-morning but the size of opelu was on smaller side. Overall the bite seems to be picking up and should hit its stride in the Summer.

Holoholo: A Fly Fisherman’s Perspective on 2022 So Far

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I’ve asked Jason, our in-the-water fly fishing reporter, to fill us in on how the Spring has been, and what the near-term outlook may be. You can check him out on IG at commonmango82.

Jason Tsurumaki: For reference, I mostly fish the east Oahu flats and employ a mix of bombing (blind casting) and sight casting, which I personally feel is the most productive approach to these deeper, reefier fisheries.  Because I do not strictly sight fish (like the majority of fly fisher’s targeting o’io), I tend to pick up all sorts of interesting bycatches which can act as a barometer for the overall nearshore fishing picture.  

Looking back at my catch log, east Oahu was pretty hot from the start of the year up until about mid April.   We are unsure what caused the slow down, but speculate it’s a combination of increased fishing pressure (from both fly and regular fisherman) and more activity in the water overall due in part to reopening.  Those familiar with these spots know they are easy to access and frequented by every waterperson under the sun including fishermen, divers, surfers, SUP boarders, windsurfers, kite boarders, and in recent years, foilboarders.  We believe the fish are still around but have become more wary and less likely to come onto the flat and feed aggressively.  

Outside of the fly fishing world, I am not sure how many folks are familiar with the concept of “educated fish.”  In short, the belief is that as more fish are caught (and subsequently released), the population gradually learns to either not go after strange pieces of fur or plastic, or to simply avoid an area altogether.  The degree to which this actually occurs is debatable, however.  There are certainly other factors, many of which cannot be easily accounted for.

We’ve recently pivoted to another south shore spot and have seen modest success, but time will tell if this holds.  In the meantime, we will intermittently check out the east side spots, to see if things perk up again.  Sometimes locating the fish can feel like a game of whack-a-mole.  

One last thing worth mentioning is we haven’t “bycaught” too many papio yet this year, I would say far fewer than most years.  So not sure if this is a bad sign or not for all the papio whippers out there.  Although readers do need to keep in mind that we normally fish on the flat, well inside of the breakers.   As always, your mileage may vary. 

If pressed for a near-term outlook, I’d say the current La Nina cycle will keep fishing on the slower side.

Good luck folks, and have fun! 

Holoholo: Whipping at Night for Menpachi and Āholehole

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Aloha! My name is BJ Hosaka, and I have been an avid reader of the Hawaii Nearshore Fishing blog since I was a freshman in high school. The types of fishing I enjoy doing are: whipping at night for red fish, dunking for oio on the flats, dunking at night for small game, and live baiting oama for papio. I enjoy writing and wanted to share some of what I have learned during my fishing journey. Growing up when I was learning how to fish, I did not have anyone in my life to teach me. One of the ways that I learned how to fish was through this blog (Scott and the other fisherman who have shared their stories and tips). I hope is to do the same and bless others through the sport of fishing.

Over the past couple of years, I have been blessed with the opportunity to fish at night for ʻāholehole and menpachi with a friend of mine, whom I met through my girlfriend’s family. He has been whipping at night since he was a young kid. He has refined and perfected his technique, learning over the years how to consistently catch fish.  In this guest post, I’d like to share with you some of the information, tips, and techniques that I have learned from him.

Here are some key factors and tips to keep in mind when whipping for menpachi/ ʻāholehole at night:

Find Structure: Menpachi, ʻāholehole, and ‘āweoweo are cave fish. They hide in boulders, ledges, and under rocks during the day and come out at night to feed.  Fish where there is a lot of structure: healthy reefs, boulders, break walls, rocks with sand pockets. Even if you don’t necessarily see them during the day, they might be there at night.

Track the tide and moon phase: The moon and tides play a significant role in how and when night fish feed. Generally, we will fish on a rising tide near the new and full moon. However, some spots may only be productive on a full moon, some are productive only on a dark moon, and others may be productive during both. The tide is similar; some spots may be good at low tide while others may be productive at high tide (or anything in between). It is important to track your catches and see when the fish bite best.

Finding the strike zone: ʻāholehole and menpachi tend to feed in the mid- to upper-water column when fishing from shore. To be in the most productive zone, figure out how to get your bait in their strike zone. If the water is shallow, you may want to use a bubble float or light hammer bomb to fish where they are actively feeding and to prevent getting your line stuck. If the water is deeper, you can use a heavier hammer bomb, golf ball, or lead in order to fish the mid-water column.

Choosing the right lure: With the plethora of lures and bait out there (e.g., flies, grubs, worms, and strips), it can be hard to choose the right lures to use. Although night fish will bite anything when hungry, if you want to consistently catch fish, it can be helpful to present a lure that matches what they are actively feeding on. Here’s a tip: ʻāholehole and menpachi feed on small shrimp, plankton, worms, and small crustaceans. Do your best to find a lure that looks similar to these. While red fish and ʻāholehole will bite non-glow lures, we have found our best luck with small lures that glow.

Using Bait: We often bring bait as back up when lures aren’t effective. We have caught menpachi on aku belly, shrimp, sand turtles, ika, cut ʻōpelu, and cut akule; but will rarely hook ʻāholehole with bait.

Hook size/ Leader line/ Leader length: We generally will use MZ hooks sizes 10-14. We tend to get more bites on smaller hooks, especially from ʻāholehole. For the leader line, we’ll use anything between a 4 and 10 lb test fluorocarbon. Similar to smaller hooks, lighter line will generally produce the most bites, especially in heavily fished areas. We run a long leader (9-11’), but you can use whatever you are most comfortable with to cast.

Surf (Tip for ʻāholehole): ʻāholehole like the surge. They are generally found in the areas where waves tend to break and areas with some surge/whitewater.

Slow Retrieval: For ʻāholehole and red fish, we use a very slow retrieval (reeling as slowly as we can). I’ve been taught that the lure or bait should slowly glide through the water, giving ample opportunity for the fish to strike as night fish will generally feed on slow moving prey. 

Time of year: Because the presence of bait is steady year-round, menpachi and ʻāholehole can consistently be caught throughout the year.

Night Fishing Safely: Fish with a partner at night and be aware of your surroundings. Bring a headlight with extra batteries, tabis if fishing in reefy/rocky areas, and always check the weather before you head out.

-BJ

Shibi Ahi – Kawakawa – Aku and Yellowfin – Big Eye taste comparison

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As someone new to catching and eating the various tuna available in Hawaii, I had many questions about fish identification and taste comparison, and asked our panel of experts who catch and eat a lot of these. Thank you Capt Darren, Capt Erik, Shea and Take’s Seafood.

Yellowfin
Big eye

Most of us less-exposed to the fish caught off local boats call any yellowfin tuna an “ahi”. It turns out that “ahi” refers to yellowfin and big eye tuna over 100lb. Fish under 100lb are called shibi. Big eye tuna are plumper, with larger eyes since they generally live in deeper, colder water, making them fattier and tastier than yellow fin. In fact, big eye is much preferred to yellow fin despite the flesh being not as firm as yellowfin ahi. Sashimi aficionados say big eye has a delicate sweet taste, and yellow fin can be slightly bitter.

Aku is skipjack tuna, the type of tuna most commonly canned. It has the most *flavor* of all the tunas, which some people love; others find the iron taste off putting. Otaru is the name for aku larger than say, 20lb, and some fish lovers say otaru makes the best tasting sashimi of all the tunas because of the high fat content. Otaru become less “irony” and more fatty as they get bigger. Aku can reach 40lbs here but most are 5 to 25lb.

Kawakawa is called bonita or mackerel tuna in other parts of the world. Similar in taste to aku, it too gets better tasting when it reaches 20lb or so. The state record is 33lb.

Aku and kawakawa don’t get a lot of respect from the non-local anglers and eaters because they are bloody tasting and soft if not handled properly and commonly used as bait on the mainland. Ideally they should be bled well after braining them, and iced on the boat and overnight before cleaning. That will result in firm filets that have a shelf life of 2 to 3 days. The larger fish are fattier because they need the fat stores to prepare to spawn. 20lb fish are 2/3 of their max weight. A 2/3 grown yellowfin tuna is close to 200lb!

Photo by Shea

Shibi Ahi have a much better rep than aku and kawakawa, but the guys who have eaten the 3 tunas say that small yellowfin are kind of bland and don’t begin to have more flavor until they pass the 50lb to 70lb mark. For guys not wanting that hint of iron though, shibi ahi is the best because of its mild taste. It’s definitely the brightest looking with its yellow stripe, fins, tail and blue/black contrast.

We kayakers don’t get a shot at big eye, and even aku are usually out of range. Kawakawa come in the closest and can be caught inside of 100ft. They also aren’t that wary of hooks, line and badly presented baits. Shibi ahi are in range of the kayaks, often caught from 120ft to 300ft, but are sharp eyed and rarely fall for a bait on wire leader.

Hope this clears up some confusion with the similar looking and often misrepresented Hawaii tunas. Please let me know if anything else should be added.

Holoholo: The Heartbreak of Buying the Wrong JDM Reel

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Kawika Chee is an ultralight JDM obsessive who loves when random people message him about anything related to light tackle. He takes a light hearted yet educational stab at clarifying some of the mystique of JDM reel specs.

Kawika:

When it comes to labeling reels and lines, Japan and the United States are still at war.  Thousands of stateside anglers have been burned by the disparate language and rating system used on the Japanese market  – but instead of counting up these various and sundry disasters, I will focus on the case of angler we will call “N. C.” and his 700 dollar JDM reel/line buy gone wrong.  After all, a single bad purchase is a tragedy – a thousand; a mere statistic.

N.C. is a highly experienced offshore fisherman and gear fanatic with two 100+ ulua on his resume – and with respect to this purchase, this turned out to be a bad thing.  The over-confidence from a lifetime of handling prize fish, fast rods and faster women blinded him to the mistakes he would eventually make.  But he was not up against an easy task – when I look over our conversations, I count 39 texts discussing prospective JDM buys – and this was also in consultation with a local JDM-only gear dealer and the most knowledgeable Japanese-speaking angler I know.  The fact that this tragic buy could happen after so much discussion speaks to the difficulty of parsing the constellation of options the Japanese market presents.  This does not even consider the difficulty of getting a Japanese reel serviced, as Shimano America will not touch them.

N.C. wanted a high-end 3000 size Shimano reel that almost no one else on-island would have.  Though this article takes a joking – perhaps even abusive – stance toward the man, he does get style points for choosing the JDM Shimano Excense.  Placed between the Stella and the Twin Power in price point, this all-black beauty has garnered an excellent reputation in its short time on the market – especially among Japanese sea bass fishermen for which the reel was purpose-built.  NC ordered the 3000 MHG model, intending to use it with 10lb test Daiwa J-braid (PE 1.5).  He assumed that the spool would have the same capacity as American 3k spools. Unfortunately, “M” stands for Medium depth spool – by which they mean “stupid shallow” – less than 140 yards of line.

The Jet-black JDM Shimano Excense c3000 MHG pairs beautifully with the utilitarian look of this shocking white PE 1.5 (comparable to J-braid #10) Unfortunately, it’s medium-depth spool (the “M” in “ MHG” will hold less than 140 yards of it

We are at risk of making bad JDM reel buys for two main reasons: A JDM reel of a particular size will often come in a large variety of different sub-models which differ from each other in spool depth and speed of retrieve (gear ratio).  Now this is critically important: the names of the reels come in this form: (model name)(model generation) (body size)(size) (spool depth)(gear ratio).  So, a Shimano Soare 3000 of the XR generation (generations are named arbitrarily to distinguish older and newer models) with a compact body, high gear ratio, super shallow spool would be the “Soare XR c3000 SSHG”.  The complexity of this naming system is a peek into the Japanese mind and a reminder that there is a very fine line between genius and madness.

On spool depth, Shimano Japan reels come in Super Super Shallow (SSS), Super Shallow (SS), Shallow (S), Medium (M – and still very shallow for our purposes) and Deep (indicated by the absence of any spool notation).  The Japanese seem to prefer shallower spools for most light applications for several reasons – one is that you don’t need as much expensive Japanese braid to fill it.  Another is that casting distance is improved by larger spool sizes due to reduced friction as line comes off the spool.  The last is that as line comes off the spool during a fight the drag tension increases due to the reduced diameter of the coil of line on the spool – large diameter shallow reels do not have as much of a problem with that.  

These spool depth disparities are HUGE.  For example, a 1000 deep spool will accommodate more line than a 2500 shallow. In an extreme case, the 500s spool will accommodate only 90 yards of 2lb fluorocarbon – and an American 500 may hold 190 yards.  To my knowledge, all Shimano light reel spools in the US are equivalent to the Japanese deep spool – but in Japan, deep spools are not even available in reel sizes under 3000.  This all necessitates that you get a sense of PE line diameter so that you can be sure you will have enough capacity for your purposes – we will discuss this later in this article.

All new light Shimano reels above 1000 size in the US come in two relatively high gear ratios – HG (high gear) or XG (extremely high gear).  However, to these options Shimano Japan adds Power Gear (PG – very low/slow) and a regular gear ratio (no notation – but between HG and XG). It is worth noting that very large American Shimano offshore reels do have PG options for cranking in the toughest pelagics.

In what I regard as an almost criminal move, some Shimano reels even come in a high-end and lower-end version – different reels entirely; the lower-end model often distinguished by the letters “bb”. 

This spool capacity confusion also happened in part because NC was not conversant in the most consistent and useful measure of braided line – “PE rating, which is the standard in Japan and the best stat to read to determine the true diameter, and, by extension, strength of Japanese braid.  PE stands for “Polyethylene” which refers to braid.  To get a sense of numbers using a familiar braid which is actually rated in PE, Daiwa J-braid 6,8, and 10 are labeled as PE 0.6, 1.0, and 1.5 respectively.  Most American market braids, including Shimano’s own Power Pro, are not labeled in PE, and seem to be rated in strength arbitrarily.  If NC had known about PE and had read the capacity of the MHG in PE rating, this could have been avoided entirely.

To complicate this further, when JDM braids list their strength in pounds, they generally use a different metric than pound test – max breaking strength – which is often used internationally including in Europe.  This rating is often double what we may expect from the line if rated in pound test – a JDM braid labeled as 8lb breaking strength may only be as strong as what we would expect from an American braid labeled at 4 pound test.

These two lines, labeled for sale on the Japan/international market and the US market, respectively, are actually the exact same product.  Note that the JDM box gives a weight of 19 pounds while the US version lists 8 pounds.  This demonstrates that “pound test” in American lines and “max breaking strength” in Japanese lines are not comparable.

So deep is this confusion that my favorite local store stopped selling JDM Major Craft Dangan Braid because frustrated customers were breaking the tiny lines they expected to be much stronger.  Spiderwire is one of the few American braids labeled in both pound test and max breaking strength, for example, four and fourteen.  This confusion led Nick to purchase 8lb max strength PE 0.4 – what we may estimate at about 4lb test for a 3000 size reel paired with a rod capable of throwing 1 1/4 ounces!

NC had finally found a line small enough to fit 240 yards onto the JDM “shallow” spool of the Twin Power c2000SHG. Unfortunately this PE 0.25 is also approximately 1/4 the strength of PowerPro 5lb test, and without the stretch and abrasion resistance of Mono, the future looks bleak for this already sad man.

Up to this point I have concealed NCs identity to avoid shaming him.  But my anger at him has built during the writing of this article and justice demands that I reveal that he is Nicolas Keoki Chang of 1322 Kinau St Unit 2,  Social Security *** ** 4772.  As much as teasing as there has been so far, this is written out of concern and care.  Given the price of JDM reels and the difficulty of servicing and returning them, it’s really more important than usual to take pay close attention when parsing this information before clicking.  Or, you could take best overall approach and the one I stick to myself – just don’t buy them at all.

Eastside: Calm conditions again but damashi fish didn’t bite well, was it the slack tide?

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January had at least one day of light wind every week; which was unusual but appreciated. So with the swell down, I returned to my Eastside spot I hit the previous week, hoping 3-day old opelu would entice the big fish to bite. What I found was the big fish were absent again, and the damashi bite was very slow.

I trolled a dead opelu out to 280ft and back into the reef dropoff, for no bites. The baby opakapaka, about 9 inches, did jump on the damashi CHL Minnows but luckily decompressed so all could be sent back down. The normally annoying lizardfish and pesky reef rubbish fish didn’t bite, and I had to drift the opelu in areas I usually don’t fish, only to hook a pinktail hagi, and a huge roi that fell off the hook before I could kill it.

The hagi and roi were on a reef with less current and a higher water temp. Basically dead water with junk fish. The fish that hit the damashi last week were in an area with a lot of moving current and cooler water, but, with the tide being pretty flat, there wasn’t much to get those fish going.

So it appears that winter cold water + calm conditions + slack tide = lousy fishing. This applies to shore fishing also. Predator fish stage in areas of turbulence and current where they can ambush unsuspecting prey. Guess I have to pick a day with a big tidal swing if I want to catch something on these calm Winter days.

Holoholo: Offshore Kayak Fishing on Hawaii Island – A Summary of 2021

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Shea has provided us with some great posts this year and we requested he summarize his first year of offshore kayak fishing. The sheer poundage of fish he caught is astounding. He provides tackle tips, a monthly almanac of how the weather changed and what types of fish bit. Check out his YouTube channel, Affordable Wahoo, for action packed, superbly narrated videos.

Shea: After buying a secondhand kayak and watching YouTube videos of guys and gals kayak fishing offshore in Hawaii for pelagic predators like ahi, mahimahi, and ono, I was intrigued but not quite ready to take the leap straight into the blue. I spent all of 2020 fishing within the confines of the Hilo Breakwater for papio, lai, opelu, and akule. In January 2021, I was reunited with a childhood friend who also had a kayak and wanted to get it into action fishing. After a shakedown trip in Hilo Bay catching papio, he suggested we go for it and make the leap into offshore fishing. Eleven months later, I’m still learning something new every trip. However, over the past few months, the catches have been much more consistent. Here’s a monthly summary of the journey thus far:

February:

Got a secondhand Hobie Revolution 13 from a friend on Craigslist. Did a shakedown maiden voyage in Hilo Bay light jigging for papio, then a short offshore trip on the west side catching reef fish.

March:

First dedicated pelagic trip on the NW side. Landed first decent fish offshore, a 15 lb Uku (Green Jobfish), then lost the biggest shibi ahi I’ve hooked to date right at the side of the kayak. Upgraded my gear the next day to a Penn Spinfisher VI 8500 with 65 lb braid and 40lb fluorocarbon topshot. Very next trip out of South Kona, landed first pelagic, a 21 lb shibi ahi at Keahou Bay. Lost a ton of fish to cutoffs (probably ono), so I rigged up 40 lb braided wire stinger rigs for next time. Lucky thing too, because the next trip out of South Kona, I hooked was a 65 lb Sailfish that would certainly have cut fluorocarbon leader with its bill.

April:

The weather and surf finally started looking good on the east side of the island, so we started exploring the grounds. We discovered some reliable opelu grounds and managed to hook into some decent sized Kawakawa (Mackerel Tuna) and smaller shibi (Yellowfin Tuna). At this point, I was still having trouble getting solid hookups on fish once they ate the live opelu. I must have lost twice as many fish as I landed just because I was letting fish swim around with the bait way too long before tightening the drag during the strike.

May:

The big kawakawa continued to bite, along with some nice sized uku. Later in the month, I got my first decent sized shibi, a 30 pounder. I made the change from braided 40 lb wire to single strand stainless brown 44 lb and it seemed to increase strikes on wire, at the cost of having to change the rigs out when they got kinked. At this point, I getting a better idea of when to tighten down on the drag, though I still lost a few strikes from what I think were ono…

June:

Got a mixed bag of large kawakawa and decent sized shibis. Rainbow runners started showing up in large schools and stealing baits as well as sabiki rigs. Finding opelu was difficult at times, with schools being far and few between. Often when we did find them, they wouldn’t bite. We did, however, have some of the calmest waves and wind that I’ve ever seen.  

July:

The opelu became very scarce on the east side, so I resorted to vertical jigging for rainbow runner, kahala, and ulua most of the time. I must have lost over $100 worth of jigs to unstoppable reef donkeys. When we could find live bait, sharks and kaku (Great Barracuda) would often take them before a pelagic could. The kawakawa seemed to disappear as well. We did make it out to the leeward side once and I landed my best shibi to date, a 41 pounder.

August:

Shibis continued to bite on the west side, while the onos finally seemed to come out in force on the east. I landed my first ono, my PB uku, and a decent shibi all in a couple hours on one trip. At this point, I began running wire rigs pretty much all the time. With so many ono around, the fluorocarbon leader would get snipped almost immediately. The smaller shibis didn’t seem to care, but the larger ones seemed to shy away from the wire rigs.

One key change to my strategy was to set my drag to ~4 lbs when running a wire stinger. Up to this point, I was setting my drag as light as it could go to let the fish run and hopefully swallow the bait. I ended up losing every ono strike because they’d either swallow the entire wire rig and cut my line, or the hook wouldn’t set in the fish’s bony mouth. The tension on the strike with even just ~4 lbs drag seems to be enough to get a decent hookup. It also helps keep the ono from swallowing and chopping the entire wire rig above the swivel.

September:

Large schools of mahimahi in the 10-15 lb range showed up in force on the west side. Opelu were very plentiful and it wasn’t uncommon to have more than 10 baits within an hour of fishing at dawn. I landed my first mahimahi (three of them) on the same trip. When the weather permitted, we headed out on the east side and akule were easy to find in the dark. These made excellent bait for both ono and shibis. At the end of the month I managed to land my PB 41 lb ono and a few mahimahi on the same trip. The bite was truly on fire no matter where we went it seemed. Bird piles and surface boils were a frequent sight, usually around midday.  

October:

The mahimahi continued to bite really well, with large schools offering chances at hooking two or even three in a row at times. The mahis were also getting larger, ranging in size from 15 – 25 lbs. We often saw large schools of flying fish getting struck on the surface, as well as the occasional school of small aku jumping out of the water. Trolling live or dead baits near these schools often yielded mahimahi or ono.

I made the switch to Knot2Kinky titanium wire leader and didn’t regret it. It has the stealthier presentation of single-strand wire, with the benefit of being somewhat kink-resistant. This means you can potentially reuse the same rig after multiple strikes.  

November:

The mahimahi bite suddenly slowed down dramatically. Large schools of flying fish and small aku were no longer an everyday occurrence. Instead, large schools of rainbow runner seemed to infest the waters. While the mahi strikes were rare, when they did bite they would either be very small or very large. Shibi and ono continued to bite, though less frequently. Near the end of the month, high winds and rainstorms started becoming more prevalent, and unpredictable thunderstorms started rolling in. The opelu on the NW side also became much more difficult to find and catch at times, making for tough fishing some days.

December:

Heavy rains, big surf, high winds, thunderstorms shut down the windward side of the island most of the month. Even the leeward side had its share of bad weather. We fished in good weather windows on the SW side of the island and managed to have some of the best fishing of the year. I pulled off my first shibi + mahi + ono combo in one trip, and the 37 lb bull mahi was my new PB.  

Finally caught a Southside fish: Catch, spike, bleed, ice, clean and cook

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The last 2 trips to the Southside had big bites but no fish landed. I went out last week to see if I could land what had been cutting and busting me off. It was the calmest of all the previous trips and the fish really didn’t want to bite for the first few hours. Nothing on damashi, nothing hooked on the dead opelu, just a lot of small boats coming way to close to me and spooking the already spooked fish.

Finally my bait got yanked hard, a bit of line pulled, and the opelu was gone. I dropped another opelu down, kept the drag Avet SX Raptor’s lever drag loose and put on the clicker. Immediate hard tugs, then hookup! A very jerky, spastic battle ensued which led me to believe it was an uku down there, and sure enough a nice one came to color. It had swallowed the rear titanium-wired stinger hook, and was already bleeding.

It’s been 6 months since I caught a good sized uku, so I was stoked to get one and break my bolo streak. I spiked it in the brain, bled it over the side, and put it on ice cubes and Arctic Ice in the fish bag. The rest of my subsequent baits were stolen on this too calm day so I eventually went in.

Since I had “cooked” some recent fish in the fish bag before putting them on ice, I iced the fish well on the short drive home, and buried the 6lb fish overnight in 40lb of ice cubes and Arctic Ice.

The next day the cooler was a chilly 34 degrees. The bottom shelf of my fridge, in comparison, is about 37 degrees because we open the door too often.

The fish was very fresh and drained of blood when I cleaned it more than 24 hrs after capture. Icing it firmed up the flesh so it was easy to filet and I decided to leave the rib meat on since the fish had so little bloody areas. It was a male in pre-spawn with those waxy fatty pieces in the stomach cavity, which translates to an oilier (in a good way) taste.

My neighbor loved the light, delicate flavor of the uku sashimi, in comparison to the kawakawa he had tried earlier, and fried the uku bones with salt, smoked paprika, garlic and corn starch. Man that looks good yeah?

It’s humbug to have enough ice to properly cool down a fish but totally worth it when you produce optimal tasting filets with a long shelf life.

Composite Late Fall Fishing Report – Zero feet to 300ft

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Last year we did our first composite Fall report and it’s interesting to see how 2021 compares to the mostly dreadful 2020. The contributing writers who didn’t submit a summary this year haven’t been able to fish the Fall sufficiently.

Jeremy, flats whipper and fly fisher:

After a decent fall last year, this year’s September catch report has been comparatively slow.  Topwater papio action was almost non-existent and fishing on the flats wasn’t very successful, so had to change tactics just to try to get bites again.  Switching it up to egg lead and curly tails or jigs helped save me from getting white-washed more than a few times.  Using the small curly tails work really good if you just want to get some kind of action.  Everything will bite those.  Hinaleas are your best friend when you’re just trying to get any bites, LOL.  

But, halfway through October, the action has been a lot more consistent.  Been working the jigs and flats hard, and have been landing some decent fish.  Working deeper in the water column has been the most successful.  Surprisingly, have been able to still find some decent sized papios around.  O’ios have been on the smaller side, but bites have picked up again.  

Matthew, shoreline whipper and fly maker:

So… The weather is starting to get a little nasty, it’s getting colder, and the bite has dried up in many places. Yep, winter is here. It seemed like just a few weeks ago when the fish inshore were plentiful. Now, many may be asking themselves, “Is there really much, if anything, out there?”. There have certainly been a few days where I found myself wondering the same thing. There have certainly been a few days where it felt like I was casting into a void. And there have certainly been a few days where all I wanted to do was go home and take a long shower because of how cold it is out there. 

Now that the Oama and Halalu runs have pretty much concluded, the number of Papio and other predators that are inshore has understandably decreased. The red-hot action of the summer is now just a memory. Even the number of big Oio on the flats has decreased, and most of the catch is now just rats. Catching a five pounder would be considered fortunate. Some spots that I used to frequent have gone eerily quiet. In fact, all but one of my Oio spots have gone dead. Fortunately for me, that one spot is consistently producing fish, but it is frustrating to know that other spots have turned into dead zones. When fly fishing (sight fishing) at one of those now “dead zones”, I only spotted four Oio in a couple of hours. That number, considering the amount of time spent, should be much higher. All four of those fish were extremely skittish and didn’t let me get anywhere near them. 

There is still some hope to cling onto, as there are some spots that have some sort of bait still around. There are a few spots with small schools of sardines and perhaps some small schools of Oama scattered around the island. If you can find one of those spots, you can probably assume that there will be a predator that is feasting on the now rare opportunity. 

Alongside the small glimmers of hope for bait populations, there is one other positive thing that comes with Winter: the surf on the south shore has finally calmed down a bit. While surfers may not see it the same way, it does make fishing on the rocks a whole lot safer and comfortable. Still, use caution if you are fishing a more exposed spot. 

Shore jigging is an option that you can use when the bite is cold in the shallows, as the fish in those areas appear to be present year round. Uku, goats, and other bottom fish could await if you find the right spot. However, note that jigging is a costly hobby. Losing braid and jigs to the reef slowly adds up over time. It is also demoralizing to break your line every time you get hung up, knowing you just lost another jig. Additionally, retying your FG knot is extremely annoying. 

Overall, it’s getting a lot slower. Sometimes you won’t catch fish, and that’s a fact that you need to accept even if it sucks. But the joy of the sport isn’t always in catching a fish. If you can find happiness in the process, you’re well set on your way to enjoying your trips, even in winter. If catching fish is of utmost importance to you, perhaps try other alternatives. Freshwater fishing is a year round option that will always be there for you. Flats fishing can be boring at times, but it is effective year-round. Whatever you choose, stay safe and most importantly, have fun! 

Good luck! -Matt

Scott, offshore kayak fisher: Another La Nina started this Fall and surprising (to me at least), the water temps haven’t dropped too quickly. We’ve had 5 weeks of at least one day of light wind, so the kayak fleet have been out pulling on pelagics and other deep water exotics before Old Man Winter shuts down the action. Opelu is getting a little easier to catch for the dawn patrol (not me), and the opelu in the market is the perfect size although at an all time high price. Very calm wind days have been easy on the body but hard to find biting fish without the right bait. Jigging has been slow unless the water is rougher or bait is getting attacked.

Recommended steps to preserve your fish so it can be safely eaten raw

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In Hawaii, we like to eat our fish raw if possible, as sashimi or poke. But if your fish isn’t super fresh, and bled properly, it might taste fishy/bloody, and worst case, make you sick.

Whether you’re dunking off the beach, or fishing off a boat, here’s what you want to do to make your catch as ono as possible. Thanks to the Coach Haru, Capt Darren, Capt Erik and Kelly for the tips below.

  • Bring the fish in as quickly as possible. The fish builds up lactic acid as it struggles to get free, and that lactic acid spoils the meat.
  • Spike the fish in the brain to stop sending stress signals out to the fish’s body. Stress causes undesirable chemical changes which affect the taste. The fish will stop squirming when dead but the heart will still pump for a while.
  • Cut or pull the gills to bleed the fish. Blood makes the meat spoil quicker. You want to reach the gills that are connected to the fish’s main artery. Usually that’s the gill closest to the spine. The heart will still pump blood out. Hold the fish by the tail, or leave in a bucket, until the gills are light pink and no longer red.
  • Big, bloody fish like ahi should be gutted to prevent the fish from “cooking” from the inside out. After gutting the large fish, stuff its cavity with ice to cool down the meat.
  • If possible, perform “ike jime” by running a wire down the spinal cord to stop the nerves from firing and sending stress signals.
  • Ideally you want to “brine” the fish in icy, salt water. Fresh water, with chlorine does bad things to the fish so that’s to be avoided. If you don’t have the means to saltwater brine the fish, try to surround the fish with ice cubes so as much surface area of the fish is encased.
  • If your fish is still in great shape when you get home, you can leave the fish overnight in a salty brine, or wrap tightly in a plastic bag in a fresh water brine, to really get the core temperature down. If the fish is small enough to fit in your fridge, you can wrap it tightly in a plastic bag and place in the lowest area of your your fridge. You can clean the fish the following day as specified in the next step.
  • If your fish wasn’t iced well, and possibly “cooked”, you need to clean it as soon as possible. Remove the guts and all the blood meat. Wipe the filets with a paper towel and try not to expose them to fresh water. Wrap the clean filets in paper towel, then in a snug plastic bag and store in the bottom of your fridge. The paper towel will pull blood and moisture off the filets. Change the wrappings every day.
  • “Aging” the fish in the fridge will bring out the good flavors and extract the fishy-ness. Certain fish are very firm initially, ahi for example, and need to age for a few days in order to be soft enough to feel good in the mouth. Uku is needs at least two days to soften also. Softer fish like goat fish can be consumed sooner. White meat, non-bloody fish will last a lot longer than red meat fish. As a test you can sample a small piece of the filet everyday to see how it changes.
  • If the fish has a slimy, slightly smelly coating when you prepare it for serving, you can rinse it quickly in a bowl of freshwater, salt and lemon. Don’t do this unless necessary, however, since you will rinse off the taste too!

I recently caught fish larger than the usual “pan fryahs”, on humid days, and didn’t have enough ice in my fish bag, and in the cooler overnight. See the impact this had on the fish below. The guys scolded me and I’m making big changes to better care for my kayak-caught fish.

This kagami ulua “cooked” in the fish bag because it wasn’t encased in ice on a humid day. The flesh should be translucent, not whitish/opaque. It tasted fine but was firmer than it should have been.

This kawakawa “burned/cooked” in the fish bag because there wasn’t enough ice to bring down the hot, bloody fish’s temperature.

This piece was discarded but the other filets were fine, cooked. We didn’t chance eating it raw.

These rainbow runner (kamanu) filets ripped while cleaning because the fish wasn’t iced well enough overnight and didn’t firm up.

The fish tasted fine but would have kept longer and presented better if it were cared for properly.

Pro tips on how to catch fish in really calm water – shore to boat

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The winds backed down this weekend making for really glassy conditions. While that sounds likes a great time to fish, usually the fish don’t bite well because they’re on high alert since predators including us, can see them better.

Here’s what the Pros did this weekend to score:

Shoreline

Dino caught this chucking a jig in the early morning

Ambush predators like papio stage their attack in whitewash, current, and poor visibility water. If you can find spots like that there may be an ambusher hiding.

Thad caught this oio with a tiny weighted jig

Oio are feeding on crustaceans even in flat calm conditions. If you can sneak up and dunk a bait or jig/fly, you can still catch. Just be aware that sounds travel further in the flat calm.

Dive

Fish and tako are still around doing their thing, so this is a great time to dive. Just be extra stealthy with the fish.

Kayak

This uku just couldn’t resist an opelu dragged in front of his nose

The kayak brigade was out trolling live opelu and most found the fishing to be slow. It seems like the offshore predator fish take a break when their prey can see them coming. Bottom fishing with live or very fresh bait can still get something tasty to bite. Look for good marks on your fish finder and keep trying.

Boat

Trolling lures in calm seas never seems to be productive, according to the more successful captains. If you can catch live bait and slow troll them, you will have a much better chance of success. Or head to the bottom fish spots that normally aren’t fishable, but still use as fresh a bait as you can get.

2021 Oama Season – *** Check for Oama updates ***

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This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is oama-9-25-17.jpg

Well the 2020 oama season was a bust, as was the nearshore fishing and life in general. Looks like the 2021 oama season hasn’t really started yet, and it’s already the middle of August.

*** Update (11/6/21): While the inshore water temp this summer was cooler than the “good” oama years, the fall water temps haven’t cooled drastically, so there’s actually new oama coming into Oahu’s north and windward beaches. Papio are still being caught off the shore too. Not sure if this is because a new La Nina started, but this not-so-cold water has extended the luke warm oama season.

*** Update (10/12/21): Still got some catchable oama if you find the right school at the right tide/time. There’s also still some papio inshore. Get chance!

*** Update (9/27/21): On Oahu, it seems that the oama didn’t go into the traditional South Shore spots as much as they normally do, and instead went up on the Eastside. There’s some papio hitting those oama, so get both while you can. The wind and water temps are dropping so we’re definitely in a Fall pattern, heading into Winter.

*** Update (9/7/21): There were reports this Labor Day Weekend of oama schools numbering in the low hundreds biting sporadically. Not sure if the papio are still inshore looking for oama, but only one way to find out.

*** Update (8/31/21): There’s a glimmer of hope! Some folks have reported catching a few tiny oama off small piles. Maybe the major wave of oama is beginning to come ashore, a month late.

*** Update (8/26/21): No schools of oama found to be biting baits yet. Not looking good for the oama season at all.

*** Update (8/17/21): The catchable oama mentioned a few days ago became less catchable and ran from the anglers. The schools haven’t really settled down yet in most places. ***

*** Update (8/14/21): A few of the traditional spots reported catchable oama this weekend. Maybe there’s hope for the season after all! ***

Here’s how the past years have gone:

  • 2014 – Normal start and stayed a little longer than expected. Arrived in late June and was mostly gone by October.  El Nino began late this year and water began to warm up.
  • 2015 – Season started late and ended late. Oama came in late July and stayed at some places past December. El Nino in full effect.
  • 2016 – Season started late and ended late. Oama came in late July and stayed through November. El Nino ended this year and water began to cool.
  • 2017 – Normal start and slightly late ending. Oama came in late June and began to leave in October, at most places. La Nina brought a lot of rain.
  • 2018 – Season started in late July, ended in the fall and wasn’t particularly long or good. La Nina was thought to have ended before the Summer and could be blamed for the late start.
  • 2019 – Season started late and fizzled. Weak La Nina effect continues to affect the fishing.
  • 2020 – Blame the La Nina? Blame the Covid pandemic crowds playing in the water? It was the worst oama and papio season in recent memory.

Sorry for the bleak prediction but it’s looking like a terrible oama season unless they come in late and strong. With NOAA’s announcement of another La Nina winter, that’s unlikely. The silver lining is the halalu piles in the traditional places that are drawing large papio in the early morning hours.

Holoholo: C-Tug kayak cart has numerous usability issues

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Despite so many positive reviews online, Guy ran into the following problems trying to get his Hobie Compass to the water and back, through sand.

Black plastic bucket cut open and shaped to conform the hull of Guy’s Compass

Guy: I read so many good reviews about the C-Tug kayak cart with beach wheels and really wanted to like it. Unfortunately it hasn’t performed as expected. The cart’s flat pads don’t cradle rounded hulls well. The cart’s straps slip off the kayak if the wheels hit any obstacle and the cart has to be repositioned. I had to add a cradle made out of a plastic bucket, to hold the C-Tug in place.

Sand in tire tread after being sprayed with water

I attached and detached the wheels under water and sand got into the plastic parts. Sand remained on the inside of the wheels despite traveling over a hard surface.

It was difficult to clean off without water. Sand gets stuck in the tire tread and probably cuts into it.

Wheel’s hub is scoured from sand stuck on axle

Sand got inside the axle and scratched up both the inside of the wheel and the axle itself.

Plastic axle scoured by sand

Sorry that my first Holoholo post isn’t more upbeat but I just wanted the kayak community to know that my experience hasn’t been as good as was expected.

2021 Early Inshore Season Predictors

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C&R May 2021 by Matthew

Early last year, even before the Covid shutdowns sent folks recreating in nearshore waters in droves, we noticed that the inshore bite was slower than normal and bait fish were absent. 2020 turned out to be one of the lousiest fishing years in recent memory and fruit crops like mango were lacking also. We at Hawaii Nearshore Fishing believe that was primarily due to the affect of the La Nina weather phenomena, which cooled the ocean water temps and changed the direction of ocean and wind currents.

Good news is the effects of La Nina should be dissipating very soon, and we expect this year to be a transition year to normalcy. Fruit trees seem to have more flowers than normal, leading to more fruit. Already, more early season papio have been caught than last year.

We don’t expect the oama / papio season to be as epic at the 2015 and 2015 El Nino years but we do expect fishing to be better than last year. Stay tuned for a more in depth oama prediction as indicators become clearer.

-scott

Holoholo: Papio not biting? Go chase oio!

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Jeremy and Matthew have been whipping with small lures for oio this Winter and Spring while waiting for the papio action to heat back up, and all-season fly fisher Jason shares some helpful tips that cross over to spin fishing for oio.

Jeremy:

When the papio bite is slow, I switch it up and target o’io.  Fishing for o’io with lures is challenging, but it’s all worth it when you finally hook up.  Nothing beats that first screaming run.  I primarily like to use light spinning gear, but if the winds cooperate, I do also attempt to use the fly rod, which is a completely different challenge, LOL.  For the spinning setup, I like to use 9’-10’ rods rated up to 1oz.  For the reel, I’m currently using a Shimano Stradic 5K filled with around 300 yards of 15# braid and attached to that is 15# fluoro leader. 

Big o’ios can rip out a ton of line, so using a reel that has a high capacity will greatly reduce your chances of getting spooled.  There’s nothing worse than getting spooled and having all that line stuck all over the reef (Do NOT let yourself get spooled if you can help it).  And as always, I highly suggest catch and release.  O’io are great sportfish that put up excellent fights that all fishermen dream about.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could experience that every single time instead of only once in a while?  Just something to think about…

Matthew:

Lately the Papio action has been pretty dead, except for a few exceptions. Even the Lai and Kaku haven’t been playing recently, and it is probably the worst Papio fishing I’ve seen in a while. The only time I was able to catch was on the north shore at the break of dawn, which was a nice trip, with a 16” papio and a 12” papio.

But since the south shore has been completely dead for Papio, I’ve taken the opportunity to learn how to catch Oio whipping with lures, or more specifically, grubs. I’ve learned a significant amount in the past two months or so, but I’m still nowhere near the level of some real hammahs out there, who catch a few Oio per trip without problem. Whipping for Oio is a lot harder than fishing for them with bait, you have to trick the Oio into biting a fake imitation of a shrimp or crab.

Oio, in my opinion, are the spookiest fish in Hawaii. Do something wrong and you can see them take off towards the deep as fast as a bullet. Cast too close to one, it spooks off. Stumble on the reef and cause a small commotion, any Oio within 40 feet is gone. I think that the spookiness of the Oio in shallow water was the most frustrating thing that I had to deal with at first. I’m used to using noisy and big lures to catch Papio. The Papio is a very angry and aggressive fish, and the more noise and commotion you make, the better chance you have of hooking one. The Papio will rush towards any splashes on the surface. The Oio is the complete opposite. Make any sudden movements or cast wrong and you miss your shot. Papio will also take multiple shots at a lure sometimes. With Oio, you only have one shot. The most frustrating thing is when you see a tailing Oio and start making your way toward it, but then it spooks away even though you did absolutely nothing wrong. I still don’t have the patience to actively target tailing Oio, so I’ve resorted to blind casting in slightly deeper water (2.5 – 4 feet deep). I understand though, that it gets even harder, in fly fishing for Oio. Fly fishing for Oio is a serious art and I have great respect for fly fishermen who target Oio. It’s something that I might consider trying to learn, but much later. 

I was able to land four Oio in the past month, by sheer dumb luck. The biggest one being 23.5” and pushing seven pounds, and three smaller ones all being around four pounds. Whipping for Oio is especially addictive because you can actually feel their first run, whereas when you’re dunking, the heavy rod and sand/rock spike takes most of the first run away from the fish. 

Anyways, it’s slow right now, so don’t worry if you’re not catching. You’re not the only one. Try something different, go for light game, smaller papio. Try topwater lures for Kaku. Try using bait in deeper water. If what you’re doing right now is not working, consider trying something different until summer. Good luck out there??.

Jason:

O’io (bonefish) are one of the fly fishing world’s most revered sportfish, renowned both for their fighting prowess and skittish disposition.  But one of their more overlooked qualities, in my humble opinion, is that they are available year-round.  Unlike those targeting papio, I usually continue to see action, even through the cold, wet winter months.  That doesn’t mean things don’t get more difficult.  When the water gets colder, the fish often aren’t as plentiful in the shallows, and cloudy conditions can make sight fishing tough to near-impossible.  For those new to chasing bones on the fly here are few simple tips to increase your odds during the winter months.

1) Be willing to blind cast.  
I know for many, “bombing” (as it’s referred to by Hawaii fly fishermen) can be a tough sell.  I know of a few sight casting purists who will refuse to blind cast, out of principle.  There are others who simply think it isn’t worth the effort.  “Why waste time and energy casting if you don’t see any fish around?”    If you’re like me and enjoy the casting almost as much as the catching, this is a no-brainer!  When the clouds show up, and high tide blows out the flat, you can just stand there staring at glare on the surface, or pack it in… or you can throw out a few blind casts, and you just might get lucky!  If nothing else, you’ll get in some good casting practice, and for me, it’s simply relaxing!  

2)  When in doubt, wade out.  
When you aren’t seeing many fish in shallow, there is a decent chance they’re all hanging out near the outer edges of the reef, where the water is deeper, there is more wave action, and they feel safer.  I find this to especially be the case in spots where there is a lot of nearshore activity from swimmers, divers or other fishermen.  Bonefish hate people!   You do need pretty good eyes to spot them out here, but in my experience at least, you’re far more likely to get an eat way out here.   And if you can’t see them, see tip  #1! 

3) Successful blind casting isn’t entirely blind.
While I never pass up the opportunity to take a shot at a fish that I see, as mentioned above, I tend to prefer bombing with a switch rod because I find it more relaxing.   Some folks I know don’t understand how it’s possible to consistently catch fish this way, but I believe the key (in addition to possessing stupid levels of persistance) is “targeted” blind casting.   I’ve found over the years that I catch more fish when I am targeting areas I have previously seen fish in, either on a lower tide, or when the light conditions were better.   As you spend more time sight fishing, and seeing fish, you will start to recognize the type of terrain that just looks fishy.  I will often target areas with a bit of wave action, where the bottom is a mix of rock and seaweed (not just in the sand pockets), or areas along the edges of channels or near on-ramps to the flat.  I will also never bomb in waters shallow enough to sight fish in, as this is a recipe to spook everything within casting radius!  As you wade out, you should also hit some of deeper sand pockets along the way as these can hold fish even on a lower tide.

4) Move!
Whether sight-casting or blind casting, there are countless times where I’ve hooked a fish just minutes after moving to a new spot.  Whether this is simply dumb luck or not, is tough to tell, but I tend to believe that if you aren’t seeing fish, or aren’t getting bites, it can often pay to move.  The more water you cover, the greater your odds of finding fish.
Well, that’s all folks!  Bonefishing during the winter is really not much more complicated than that, at least for how I like to catch them!  Good luck, and remember, he who has the most fun wins!

Holoholo: Boat jigging tips from a young, committed angler

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With the water so cool now, the offshore pelagic bite has slowed. But bottom fishing and jigging is always productive if you can find the fish. We asked Merik to share his hard-earned boat jigging knowledge with us.

Merik I am an 8th grader in Honolulu HI and an avid fisherman inshore and offshore. In fact I love anything to do with the ocean. One of my favorite types of fishing is vertical jigging, from shore or on a boat. I mainly jig off a boat and it’s one of my favorite things to do.

Uku caught in 100ft of water on Majorcraft Live Bait 60g

Overview

There are a lot of factors that come into play while jigging. Depending on what species you’re targeting, the action and style of your jig will reflect that. There are two main types of jigging that can be done, slow pitch jigging and fast jigging. Certain species like biting a certain style of jig and the way it is worked. Slow pitch jigging represents a dying bait fish, while fast jigging represents a fleeing bait fish. When jigging, especially offshore, the way you work your jig based off the fish you’re targeting and the conditions can depict the amount of fish that hit your jig. Just know that there are no rules that are set in stone while jigging and the main thing is that you enjoy doing it so feel free to bend those rules.

Jig Choice

Jig choice is quite important when jigging. The depth, current, structure, and setup can lead to what jig would be best for that situation. Slow fall jigs for example, you want to fish in places with less current, because the slow fall jig flutters on the way down and sways side to side, so when on the boat your jig will drift and will end up having a wider scope and will be more horizontal to the boat. Jigs more geared towards fast pitch jigging you can fish in high current scenarios, and where the drift is moving so that you can get your jig down to the bottom. I have noticed that the fish much more prefer the jig when it stands in a more vertical position rather than a horizontal position. The more vertical you are also increases the falling action on a jig which gives you a higher percent chance of a hit on the fall. Required weight can also depict what your jig of choice is, heavier jigs in deeper and high current scenarios are the likeliest of choice. But if you are willing to stay over your jig, then you can use smaller jigs. I have dropped 60g jigs down 300ft, but the main thing is that you stay over your jig. I typically use 40g jigs in anything 30-100ft, 60-130g jigs in anything 100-250ft, 150-250 in anything 250-600ft and anything more I would go 400g+. But those are not rules and you can drop a 40g jig down 250ft if you want to. I personally just don’t have the patience.

Types of Jigs

Kahala caught in 550ft of water on Majorcraft 180g

There are a few main types of jigs that you have to choose from. There are long jigs, short jigs, flat fall jigs, casting jigs, slow fall jigs, butterfly jigs, and the different in them lies in the shape. Long jigs are normally long as the name mention and they are usually weighted evenly sometimes with a bit more weight on one side. Straight fall is where the jig is completely even on all sides so that it flutters down side ways. You also have casting jigs and fast fall jigs which are much more weighted on one side which give them a straight down fall action or when shore jigging a father casting distance. Lastly are slow fall jigs and butterfly jigs which are designed to flutter on the way down. This is done by having them be unevenly weighted so that they flutter side to side on the fall. Some brands that I liked and used before are Major Craft, Shimano butterfly, Duo International, and Maria. Yet there are many other jigs out there and they all will do the job. I have noticed the way you work the jig makes the entire difference rather than color. 

Working the Jigs

Moana Kali caught in 140ft of water on Majorcraft Live Bait jig 60g
Nabeta caught on Ahi USA Assault 60g jig in 100ft of water

Working the jigs is the most important part in jigging and what I believe is the biggest factor to enticing a fish to bite. Like I mentioned, there are both slow fall and fast fall jigs. Slow pitch jigging with slow fall jigs are completely different from fast jigging. You are keeping your jig close to the bottom, and pitching it up and letting it flutter down. That is supposed to represent a dying bait fish. Fast jigging you want to work faster obviously, simultating a fleeing bait fish. For both I think it is very important to have a small time to pause so that it lets the jig fall. No matter how fast you’re jigging, give your jig time to stop and flutter down, even if it is for a split second because that is when you will most likely get hit. Certain species prefer certain actions. Ulua, omilu, kahala and most Trevally species prefer a fast moving jig as well as all species of tuna, kaku, and Awa Awa. Other species like yellow spots, uku and goats prefer a mid range type of action where your giving it time to fall, yet still pitching the jig at a moderately fast pace. Lastly, for slow pitch I noticed a lot of times you would get fish like nabeta, nunu peke, kagami and hagi. You can still catch all those species with all types of actions. It’s just that I have gotten the most bites from those fish on those types of action. 

Setup

The setup for jigging can vary, but honestly you don’t need those fancy jigging rods like Ocea, Fcl and Zenaq to catch fish. It may help get you more bites and it will be easier to work the jigs, but really they aren’t necessary. The main thing rod wise is that you want something that is easy for you to use and preferably light in weight. 

Ulua caught on Shimano Butterfly 140g jig in 125 ft of water

Reel wise, a nice solid reel should do the job and it should be able to fit a sufficient amount of line and the lighter it is, the easier it is on your arm. But it isn’t the most important factor when jigging. I think that capacity is more important than weight of the line when jigging. You want at least 200 yds on your reel because you may be thinking that a 60lb Ulua isn’t gonna bit a 40g jig, but it has happened to us micro jigging with a 2500 size reel and they are impossible to stop. And if you hook a pelagic jigging, which can happen, capacity will help you land the fish. I would say minimum for boat jigging is PE 1.5 and the maximum is PE 5. You can go higher but the thicker your line is, the harder time it will have cutting through the water. You want thin line so that your line can slice through the water and get to the bottom faster. I usually connect it to mono leader with an FG knot but that’s just because that reel doubles as my whipping and casting reel. But you can use PR knots, GT knot, Albright knot, or whatever knot you find reliable and low profile. I don’t use fluoro because it’s so abrasion resistant, most knots can’t cinch down enough. The weight of your mono is your choice. I do 25lb mono for a PE 1.5 setup, and 60lb mono for a PE 3 setup

Conclusion 

Jigging has quite a lot of factors that come into play, and it may seem like a lot to take in. But 5 years ago when I was first introduced to jigging, watching the guys hand-line jig at the buoys, I didn’t know anything. Me and my dad tried jigging for 5lb aku with a 9/0 penn and a spreader bar (we didn’t catch anything). The main thing is to have fun, and be committed. The more you jig the more you will get a good stroke down and you will then get more bites. The main thing that kept me going was that I was having fun doing it and it was addicting, especially when you got the strike. I didn’t know about any of this when I was jigging at that time, I was doing anykine, but I was catching. There are no rules to jigging, but the main thing is that you enjoy doing it. If I got one hit every trip I was successful. So main thing is that you stay committed and have fun doing it and eventually the bites will come.

Composite Fall fishing report , zero to 350ft!

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If you were wondering if things improved after the lousy summer season, here’s the Team report from shoreline to boat:

Jeremy, flats whipper and fly fisher: After a really slow summer, I had high hopes for good action in September, as it’s been a prime month year after year. This year was no exception. Papio and o’io bites were good, along with the opening of moi season, accounted for my best month so far this year. But as we neared the ending of October, action has died down quite a bit. With winter approaching, catch numbers will drop, so it wasn’t unexpected that bites have dropped, but it still disappointing when you go home whitewashed sometimes, LOL. How has everyone else fared this fall?

Matthew, shoreline whipper and fly maker: It’s been a very slow September-October for me, months that in previous years have been great for me. The fishing has been very inconsistent (at least on my part), and I wasn’t able to find any pattern (tides or conditions) in the few catches I made except for “right place at the right time”. 

Since I am a fly tyer that is eager to test my new colors, I have been strictly whipping with bubble + fly at a few spots. The Papio bite has been odd this year, ending earlier than normal. Being on the south shore of Oahu definitely doesn’t make the bite any better, but perhaps other sides of the island are seeing similar trends, just less drastic. However, a bunch are still out there, and if you’re lucky, you may be able to catch one. I was able to pick off a few Papio at one of my spots, most of them in the early morning. The only thing similar with all of the catches is that they were caught on smaller flies, around ¾” shorter than my normal flies (a significant amount for a fly). Perhaps the Papio are keying in on smaller, easier to catch prey? The colors that worked for me this month the most were Oama and Hinalea patterned flies, to match the most common baitfish at my spot. One of the Papio that I was forced to keep because it swallowed the fly had a hinalea the exact size of my fly and a small manini in the stomach. 

I have been seeing less activity in the water, such as baitfish fleeing from a predator, less schools of baitfish along the shoreline, and less follows and boils on my flies. It could mean the bite is turning cold, but it’s no reason to give up. 

It may be a good time to focus on other types of fishing, such as fishing for “easier to catch” edible fish, such as Moana, Toau, Taape, or Weke. Kaku fishing on the flats with topwater lures is a fun, year-round event that I enjoy, but not something I’ll turn to yet. Oio fishing on the flats has also been inconsistent, with some of the guys getting great results one day, with nothing the next. While the fishing may be slow, I’ll keep plugging away at my spots until I catch something. For all of you like-minded whippers, keep at it, the time will come soon. 

Dino: “Well, another whitewash morning” I say to Thad as we walk back to our cars. This is a saying that was becoming more and more common during the peak summer months. I didn’t know what was going going on? Corona virus perhaps? Cutting my nails at night? Who knows…

Things changed as October arrived. I started picking up some small paps here and there. Noting to write home about, but hey at least I was getting some kind of action. I mainly fish town and north shore for the most part. Action was good at the north shore spots where the Halalu were coming in. Good sized Lai were caught and friends picking some nice sized awa’awa. I’m primarily a whipper these days. Hardly ever using bait anymore. That being said, bubble fly is my main technique. Picked up a nice sized omilu on the town side during a dawn patrol session, weighing 4 pounds. The sun was barey coming up when it hit. The Kanakē fly by my good friend Jourdan Kua’ana of Lawai’a Flies has been really productive for me. It’s what I was using when the 4 pounder hit.

October has been pretty good considering the peak summer months has been really slow for me.

Be safe, have fun!

Jason, fly fisher and on-the-water reporter: It’s certainly been a Fall (and year) like no other.  Looking back at my logs, I see that I’ve hooked at least one bone on all 4 of my fall trips, and friends have also been consistently hooking fish. 

I will note that I have seen far fewer bonefish in shallow this year – a direct result, I believe, of the pandemic-spurred increase in nearshore ocean activity.  I have also heard that other flats around the island have been a bit slow this year, but suspect these reports are coming from hardened sight-fishermen who simply aren’t seeing as many fish.  

I personally believe the fish are still around, they’re just staying farther from shore, or are hanging out in the deeper channels of the flat where they feel safe from the swimmers, SUP boarders, spearfishermen, whippers, fly fishermen, throw netters, windsurers, kite boarders, foil boarders…. well you get the picture!  It’s a “circus” out there, as my friend Rich likes to say, haha.   If you can come away with a fish, you definitely beat the odds.  Either that, or fish the weekdays (might as well, you can’t really go anywhere for vacation this year).  I personally enjoy blind casting for bonefish with my two-handed rods, so I am pretty well-adapted to catching bonefish that don’t want to be seen.

Another thing I’ve noticed, is there seems to be fewer reef fish in general on the flats, and the oama have never really made an appearance (at least in these parts).  I am not sure if this is also related to the general increase in activity, or maybe just an increase in folks harvesting them (legally and illegally).  I know there’s got to be more of that going on this year, thanks in part to our current economic conditions.

My suspicion is that things will begin to fall off soon (pun intended), but for now, I’ll keep shooting until I miss! 

Kelly, SUP inshore troller: Fishing has been slow, mo betta go surf!

Scott, offshore kayak fisher: Fall is normally a great time to offshore fish because there are more light wind days, the water temp cools a bit, inviting pelagics to come closer to shore again, and opelu become more catchable than they are in the summer. But recently, the kayak hammahs have been reporting slow pelagic fishing despite catching a tank full of opelu. My uku spots have only held bait stealers. Not sure where the bigger fish moved to. Bottom fishing for goats and nabeta is still productive, and the big jacks are still willing to take jigs. Hope the target fish are targetable soon!

Erik, small boat fisher: Nearshore bite has been good for us this season.  As the winds died down and the seas calmed, it presented more opportunities to fish.  Calm nights have brought a good menpachi/aweoweo bite in late September and akule bite was good earlier October with larger size akule showing up.  Bigger schools of opelu have also been seen and caught and the better bite times are at dawn and dusk.  Pelagics are seen more regularly closer to shore and ono and mahi are coming in to feed on the bait.  We’ve not had to go further than 350′ for the ono and mahi, and live-baiting seems to be the best way to get them.  We’ve gotten all the pelagics on lures so far and plungers/slant-faced along with deep-diving lures are what’s been working for us. 

Can fish see colors? If so, what lure color should I use?

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Can fish really see colors? Can they see the ultra life-like finish some high end lures sport? Should I change my surface lure color when the light is low? When dropping jigs deep, what are the best colors to use?

These are some of the questions lure chuckers ask. Over the years we’ve been given conflicting information. Sport Fishing Magazine ran an article in their June 2019 issue that is also on their website. “How and What Fish See” written by Doug Olander. The article answers these questions and I’ll summarize the info in a manner you and I can hopefully remember. All the photos in this post were taken from the Sport Fishing Magazine website

Do fish see colors?

Yes. Shallow water fish can see all the colors. Deep water fish living in low light aren’t able to see as many colors because colors are darkened and muted down there.

Do surface fish see the ultra life-like finish on my high end lure?

It’s believed that fish with large eyes in clear water can detect those subtle design patterns but whether their fish brains can process all that info has been heavily debated.

What’s the best color to use near the surface in clear conditions?

44 fishing experts were asked this question. The experts overwhelmingly said white or a white pattern.

What’s the best color to use in murky conditions or low light?

White, or white pattern, again was the color of choice, followed by chartreuse.

What do my surface lures look like when viewed from below?

Against a bright sky, all lures will look dark! No wonder top water experts say color isn’t as important and swimming action.

What do my lures look like in murky water?

Whites, yellows and greens are retained. Blues and darker colors turn to black the soonest.

The lures on the right are in 70ft of water. Reds are the first to darken.

What colors are retained in the deep?

Red tones are the first to go, in low light, deep water. Blue tones will be retained the deepest, green tones the next deepest, the others will fade to black sooner.

What do fish see in the deep when I retrieve my jig?

Deep water fish feeding in low light aren’t able to distinguish colors much but are geared to see slight movements against the background light. While they can see and feel jigs moving quickly, they can also see jigs slowly retrieved in a repetitive, predictable fashion. That could by why “slow pitching” off the bottom, then speed jigging higher in the water column is an effective strategy.

What’s the takeaway from all of this?

Lure action is more important that lure color pattern but whites and white patterns show up the best in clear and low visibility conditions. When deep jigging, choose whites, blues and greens and present an action that makes your lure the most noticeable since the fish may be straining to see it.

Replacing stock treble hooks with VMC 4X hooks

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I’ve been whipping the Shimano Shallow Assassin for the last few months, and it’s never been bolo’d. Since I’ve been been fishing shallow water, most of the fish have been kaku, and Shallow Assassin’s plastic body is nicked up but still water tight. On the last outing, in rough water, the only thing that bit was a medium sized nunu (trumpetfish), and I released the slimy buggah by holding the treble hook shank with Rapala 8.5″ stainless steel pliers and shook off the fish.

That hook opened up so it was time to replace it. The lure’s stock hooks are Owner 2X Size 5 treble hooks. They are thin and very sharp but a strong fish could bend them with the right leverage. Owner makes an excellent 4X treble hook but it’s 3 times more expensive than VMC’s 4X treble.

For reference, the Shallow Assassin is 4 inches long

The VMC #4 – 4X hook was about the same gap size as the Owner #5 – 2X, but heavier because it was made thicker and stronger.

Fearing that heavier hooks would affect the nimble swimming action of the Shallow Assassin, I put on the smaller VMC #6 – 4X hooks instead and floated the lure in salt water to make sure it was still horizontally buoyant. I was able to reuse the stock split rings to ensure that no additional weight was added and that the hooks swung freely in lure’s eyelets. Since the split rings were small, I had to use a small-medium split ring pliers to change the hooks and made sure I didn’t stretch the ring out where it wouldn’t retain its original tight coil.

We’ve brought in the Perma Steel and the Red VMC 4X hooks because we couldn’t find the sizes we needed locally. Here’s a review the team did on the 4X treble hooks last year.

The old gear tether has corroded but the Rapala stainless steel pliers don’t have a speck of corrosion on them

We’re also selling the spring loaded 8.5′ stainless steel long nose pliers. I’ve gotten tired of my carbon steel pliers rusting and staining the gear it touches. Been using the stainless steel pliers for a season now with no corrosion whatsoever.

Please check out the new items in the Store. Use the coupon code “ADDON” to subtract $1 off the shipping cost of each terminal tackle item (hooks, swivels, etc).

Hawaiian Fish Name Translations

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These are the English names of the more commonly encountered nearshore fish we’ve mentioned on this website. We’ll continue to update this list as needed.

  • aha – houndfish or needlefish. Viewed as a pest because it scratches up baits and lures.
  • ahi – Yellowfin tuna or bluefin tuna over 100lb. Under 100lb it’s called “shibi”.
  • aholehole – Hawaiian flagtail. A flat, silver sided fish that grow up in brackish estuaries and lives in reef crevasses as an adult.
  • aku – Skipjack tuna.
  • akule – Bigeye scad. In the mackeral family. Grown version of halalu.
  • ‘ala’ihi – Various squirrelfish.
  • ‘ama’ama – Native Hawaiian striped mullet.
  • awa – Milkfish. Herbivore sometimes confused with the smaller awa aua.
  • awa aua / awa awa – Hawaiian ladyfish.
  • aweoweo – Bigeye. Has big eyes because it’s a nocturnal fish. One of the “red fish”, along with menpachi.
  • halalu – Juvenile bigeye scad.
  • hinalea – The lowly wrasse family, known for being slimy and easily caught. Most aren’t very tasty but the nabeta (Japanese name) is part of this family of fish.
  • kahala – Greater amberjack.
  • kagami papio/ulua – African pompano. Has a flat, shiny body that resembles a mirror. “Kagami” is Japanese for mirror. Considered a rare, delicious catch.
  • kala – Bluespine unicornfish.
  • kaku – Great barracuda. Stinky, toothy fish that is actually pretty tasty.
  • kawakawa – Mackeral tuna.
  • kawelea – Heller’s barracuda (deeper water version). Milder tasting than kaku.
  • kole – Gold ring surgeonfish. Prized for how it tastes fried/grilled, but has been implicated in ciquatera poisoning episodes.
  • kumu – Whitesaddle goatfish. Considered the best eating for all the goatfish, followed closely by moana kali.
  • laenihi – Peacock wrasse, razor fish, more commonly referred to the Japanese name “nabeta’. Arguably the best eating nearshore fish. Fried whole with scales on to a golden brown.
  • lai – Leatherback. Makes great sashimi and the dried skin can be used in lures.
  • mahi mahi – Dolphinfish, dorado.
  • manini – Convict tang.
  • mamo – Hawaiian sergeant.
  • menpachi –
  • moana – Manybar goatfish.
  • moana kali – Blue goatfish. Very beautiful and delicious to steam fish. Now it’s more common that the highly prized, easier to catch, kumu.
  • moi – Pacific threadfin. One of the best fish to steam. Was reserved for Hawaiian royalty.
  • mu – Bigeye emperor, a type of snapper with human-like molars.
  • munu – Island goatfish. A stouter goatfish, ranked in the top 4 of best eating.
  • nohu – Scorpionfish. Has deadly spines but is good eating.
  • nunu – Trumpetfish.
  • oama – Juvenile goatfish. Oama bring the nearshore predators into the shallows, within reach of anglers.
  • oio – Bonefish.
  • omilu – Bluefin trevally. Most common papio.
  • opelu – Mackeral scad. Everything in the deep eats this fish.
  • opelu kala – Sleek unicornfish that lacks the horn.
  • palani – Eyestripe surgeonfish.
  • pananu / ponuhunuhu – Star eyed parrotfish.
  • pao’o pa’o – Golden trevally.
  • papio – Juvenile (under 10 lbs) in the trevally family.
  • poo’paa – Stocky hawkfish. Nicknamed “rock fish” because it perches on rocks and waits for food to pass by.
  • puhi – Various moray eels.
  • roi – Peacock grouper. Invasive. Implicated in ciquatera poisoning episodes.
  • shibi – yellowfin tuna or bluefin tuna under 100lb.
  • taape – Blue-lined snapper. Invasive.
  • toau – Blacktail snapper. Invasive.
  • uhu – Parrotfish.
  • uku – Gray snapper, blue green jobfish. Tastes similar to opakapaka, maybe a touch fishier, because it lives in shallower water.
  • ulua – Jack fish over 10 lbs. Usually ulua are mature giant trevally since that’s the largest of the related species.
  • uouoa – Native mullet, smaller than ‘ama’ama and not striped.
  • u’u – Soldierfish. Also called menpachi.
  • weke – The common “white weke” or square spot goatfish. Most oama seen are of this type.
  • weke nono / weke moelua – Pflueger’s goatfish. The bigger, striped, deeper water red weke.
  • weke ula – Literally means red goatfish. This is the shallow water weke that looks like the “white” weke but is nocturnal and can turn reddish. It is a little thicker than the white weke but doesn’t seem to get as long.
  • white papio – Juvenile giant trevally under 10 lbs.