Hawaii Nearshore Fishing

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Coach Haru: Love/hate relationship lure fishing for ono

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I love to catch Ono and hate them also. I lost so many lures by them. Of course it’s a part of game but…..   usually ono fights very hard in the beginning then slows down in the end. Once I see the ono near surface, ono is pretty much done. Easier than Mahi or ahi even bigger Kawakawa, they fight even on surface. When I fight hard then suddenly lose the tension of line, what? @#$%! Ono cut the line! That feeling is very bad. $20 jig, leader, assist hooks sometime cut PE line sucks. It’s not fun to tie PE and leader on yak. 

I lost one of front assist hook. It had 150lb coated braid. I can feel when I lose one hook during fight. I thought I lost this ono but thank god, tail assist hooks snagged on his bod,y that saved it. Here are some tips for fishing for ono. My friends use a foot to 2 ft long wire leader connected to leader but I snapped connection many times when fighting fish. Also I catch much less than without wire leader. Maybe distracts jig action??? So I use thin wire assist hooks. 

There are many kinds of wire hooks, plastic coated, outside is braid line, inside has wire. I don’t use short or small jig, too easy to lose. Because jig fits in Ono’s mouth then tooth touches leader. Most of time I caught ono when jig falling. When line gets slack ono run over the leader or PE main line, lose without notice. Especially PE is not strong against sharp objects. Jigging is basically vertical fishing. Way up with jigging is not the only way to catch fish, letting the jig fall down to the bottom also catch fish. Jig is falling to imitate wounded bait. Center balanced jig stays sideway position when line is slack, but no tension no feeling. Ono cuts line without notice., When line gets tension, jig’s head goes up to be diagonal or vertical. Need technique to keep the jig sideway with line tension. As soon as fish bites, set the hook hard and never slack the line. About tail hooks, when jig is sideways, it is 50/50 chance fish attack head or tail. Also back up hooks. Like I had ono break one of front assist hook line, the other was slightly hooked on lip but tail hook hooked on behind gill to save the fish. Long center weighted jig goes sideways well and also fall more slowly so jig can stay in water more longer than fast sink rear weighted jigs. Ono bites mid section and with long jig will not reach to the leader. So have length of assist hook line(maybe wire) longer at least 1/3 of jig length or an half. 

I get bite at between from 100-250ft drop off. But always bite at mid range and a few feet below surface. I’ve never caught on surface lures like poppers and minnows. Always a little deeper. Seem to me they always hang out with Kawakawa and sharks. Kawakawa hit surface lure all the time. Even though, I still drop the jig to the bottom. Because not only ono I look for when falling, pay attention to depth, colored PE remember the color when hit the jig on the bottom. So stop the jig at the right color depth, when you feel the fish on the jig set the hook. Also fast retrieve is good too. That case fish bite on the tail go jig, want to have good but smaller hooks.  Time to go near shore fishing. Aloha

Opelu only attracted sharks so we dropped down to jigs and damashi to find the fish

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Been hearing of ono caught within kayak range on the South Shore so Guy and I went out to the deep to hunt for opelu. Couldn’t find any biters and headed inside 100ft dragging a frozen opelu. Something tapped the bait, then took off on a few sustained runs. I was hopeful but when it slowed and felt heavy, my heart sank. I dropped the Avet SX Raptor into low gear and 20 mins later a 6 ft plus sandbar shark was cut free.

Reef fish were showing from 90ft to 75ft (counting backwards since the drift was toward shore) on the sonar so I broke out the 60gm tungsten jig and hooked something that felt really jerky. A small yellow spot papio came up that spit the jig just as I was about to lift it into the yak.

Guy hooked a yellow spot on a 20lb fluoro dropper rig to add to the nabeta he caught earlier and we worked the area for a while but the bite was really slow. I hooked another yellow spot on the jig that stayed on, and this one was about 10.5″ FL. Nothing else wanted to bite the jig, and my half pieces of opelu were getting yanked off my bait rig armed with big hooks so I put a slice of opelu on the assist hooks of the tungsten jig. Hookup! Something pulled drag and began to do the circles that deepwater fish do. Uku! Small, at 2 to 3 lbs but a fun fight and great size to steam whole.

Guy managed to hook a hagi on a jig and then the bite completely went dead, so we retraced our track to head in. Guy saw some bait balls near the bottom in 100ft of water and I dropped my home made damashi rig with 10lb fluoro and special opelu flies that Robert had tied up for me a couple years ago. Instant hookup and a small kawalea (Heller’s Barracuda) came up but the other damashi hook was cut off.

I dropped the 60gm tungsten jig down and it didn’t get a sniff. Rebaited the solo damashi hook with a CHL Minnow, found the school again, dropped down and hooked another kawalea. Next drop the deep water cuda bit me off and that was it for me. Guy’s dropper rig with 20lb test, geared for the big fish that broke off on previous trips, may have been too heavy for the kawalea this day. They only wanted Robert’s lucky flies.

I gave the uku, yellow spot and one kawalea to my church friend who previously liked the moana I had given her but said the small bones were a little tricky to deal with. The bones on these fish are much easier to locate and remove, and all three are great tasting white meat fish. She steamed the uku whole for her family, fried the yellow spot and is contemplating what to do with the kawalea. 🙂

Coach Haru: Rigging jigs Japanese-style

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A greatly under looked component to jigging is the way the assist hooks are assembled and attached.

Coach Haru:

This is my hook system for the compact tungsten jig.  Blade on jig is super popular in Japan now. It works to imitate tail of fish to swim more realistically. Flashes and spins to appeal. In murky water, fish might not see jig but see blade, blade itself is smaller than jig so if fish attracted to smaller bait it works good. It is popular now because these days there are less jerking jigs. In the beginning of jigging, we used heavy rod and reel, heavy line and jig (like diamond jig) and needed big muscle. Development of jigging focused on light gear. Rod, reel, line, jig, even hooks are going to super light because industries are more marketing jigging fishing for women and children. As well style of fishing. Regular jigging needs a lot of techniques. One pitch jerk, short jerk,  half jerk, long jerk, slow jerk, fast jerk and in Japan each spot has own jerk, Jakajaka maki, Tsushima jerk, Tanabe jerk, Haru’s jerk, etc. But for beginners like women and children, required high skill need to catch fish will keep them away, so industries have developed swimming jigs. Swimming jigs just needs reeling. Jig wiggles and flashes to attract fish. So jig makers took idea from bass fishing to use a blade. It works very well. When nobody have bite the only bladed jig gets bite very often.    

Hirauchi hook is flattened hooks to shine to imitate shirasu ( baby sardine). It creates scene of small jig is biting shirasu, predators see the small fish is vulnerable.  Hirauchi hook Idea is come from making Udon, soba  noodle also famous Japanese swords.  This Hirauchi hook has been developed to use in sabiki and fishing for isagi (chicken grunt). Flattened hook catches water to dance, shines to attract fish. I use for Halalu and other similar size of fish. My friend who owns charter business in Oahu uses Hirauchi hooks for catching opelu. He does not use any flies or plastic worms just those hooks. And he catches a lot. I think he uses gold color. Most people in Japan use regular assist hook. Because Hirauchi is not strong as regular hooks. So its not good for aiming a large fish like pelagic fish. Also edges on hooks make bigger holes that hooks come off easer. Hirauchi is good for not so big fish. The first priority of assist hook is light and strong then appearance is the second. Like ulua, kahala, Ojisan (goat fish) and bottom fish like opaka, onaga suck bait create turbulence that hooks must be light to go into inside mouth. Light hooks the key of it. In Japan,  Hamachi is the most common jigging target. Most assist hook are designed for Hamachi jigging. Here in Hawaii, targeting for ulua better to use light hooks, for pelagic like Ono or Ahi, strength is the priority. 


Fly assist hook. The green tungsten jig in first picture has a fly hook. I use a squid skirt for assist hook, sometimes use it for trail hook like inchiku. The idea is to make fish think artificial jig is eating or chasing plankton or small squid. Often target fish eat very small bait like small baby squid, shrimp, and others. When fish bite, I can feel, fish aimed fly assist hooks or jigs. Most of time, fish nibble during jig falls, fish is aiming fly. Or sometimes doesn’t feel any bites but fish on, that’s another fly hook bite.  When catch Ulua or Kahala, check where the hook on mouth. Assist hook was hooked on lips not inside mouth shows fish didn’t attacked jig. If those fish attacked jig, they suck the jig into mouth it must be deep as length of assist hook or whole jig into mouth. While jigging, and fish attacked violently, the fish attacked jig.

Coach Haru: Right handed people should use a right handed bait caster

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Coach Haru explains why right handed people should use right handled bait casting reels, and why he takes both a spinning reel and bait casting reel on his kayak. Very good tips, pay attention! 🙂

Coach Haru: I don’t like too many stuff on yak.  I usually carry 2 rods. I don’t fish with dead or live bait.  So I don’t need a rod for catching bait. Reason I don’t fish with bait, when fish bite bait, many time they swallow deep so that fish’s survival chance is less than lure fishing. I only take fish for my friends and myself. Others gotta go back to sea. I don’t even like treble hook much. I clip barb to make barbless or use single hooks on plugs too.  

On the photo below, bait cast reel is left handle model but every other bait cast reels that I have are right handle model. Basically bait cast is made to crank with right handle for right hand stance. Editor’s Note” Coach Haru is a striking coach. 🙂

Many people who cast with right hand stance use left handle model because no need to change grip when reeling. Bait cast reel is made to cast with handle side is top because weight of reel is designed to cast easy and far. If handle side is down and cast with right hand stance, it’s not good as the other way. Manufacturers designed it that way. Left handed people should have left handle, right handed for right handle. People say not convenient for switch hands every time cast, but cast grip and reel grip are different.  

Casting grip.  The hook on the rod is between first and middle fingers. Thumb is on the spool to control backlash. 

Reeling grip. The hook on the rod is between ring and pinky, thumb on the reel not on the spool. Some right handed people use left handle model because don’t like to switch hands but cast less and grip gotta change anyway. When fight big fish,  fight fish with spinning rod is pull up and reel. Bait cast is reel vs fish straight reel without pull with rod. Especially bait cast rod is soft to make precise jig action.

Slow jigging is good with bait cast. But off shore jigging are vertical fishing so no need to cast no need to switch. I use right handle because I have used right handle bait cast so many years that easier for me. Also I switch to spinner with left handle when one arm gets tired. 

Usually I take 2 rods. Right handle bait cast with metal jig.  Left handle spinning reel with right bait casting rod with plug. I set spinning in right pole holder, bait cast on left holder. Go to the destination, I troll with the plug, when I get the point or found fish in fish finder, stop and drop jig with bait cast. While jigging if I see boil on surface, switch to spinning cast the plug to the boil. When I go to next spot, troll plug again.   I put left handle spinning rod in right side of holder. And right handle bait cast in left side, because location of handle. Pick the rod with right hand, reel with left hand. Cast with spinning rod, the other rod is in left side that can cast without the other rod in the way. Left handed people should do opposite. 

Coach Haru: Testing the little tungsten jig

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Coach Haru was able to give the compact 60gm tungsten jigs a solid test off his kayak just outside of Hilo Bay.

Coach Haru: This jig can swim, fall fast, cast far, and has less water resistance. When windy day from shore, or even against wind, small heavy bullet-like-jig flies very far. I use 10”6 jigging rod with PE 30LB, 5000 high gear spinning reel and can cast almost 100 yard.

“Match the bait” is key word for searching the best bait for the fishing. Often see a boil on the surface, cast a lure but fish don’t take. It might be the issue of size of bait they are feeding.  Need to find out what fish are eating by knowing each season what kind bait come to near shore. I gut the first fish I catch to see what is in fish’s stomach. Often the lure used is the same size of bait found in the fish. So if fish is not interested in the lure you’re using, change size to small like this tungsten jig.

I like 60g and 80g because they are not heavy and designed to cut the air to fly fast and far. Off kayak and boat, if used vertically, the jig drops very fast. Less water resistance that’s good for strong current or double current. When you see fish in the fish finder, jig can reach the fish zone fast. 60g can reach 300ft, 80g can go deeper depending on current.   For shore casting, on the first cast reel straight in as soon as hit the surface with rod tip up like 11o’clock position. It makes the jig to skip on surface like surface plug. I caught many Kawakawa (sumagatsuo) that way. A couple times try on surface , then next is straight reel in midrange, and next is start from bottom. If there no bite then change to jerking or mix with fast, slow, stop and go, short jerk, long jerk, slow jerk.    For shore cast with this tungsten 60g, I use 10”6 spinning rod and  reel 5000SW, colored PE 30LB( 8X), 40lb fluorocarbon leader 4ft-8ft depend on place. For kayak,  6”6 medium type bait cast rod and high gear bait cast reel, colored PE 40lb, 30LB fluorocarbon 15ft.  

I tuned up the demo jig Scott gave me. Changed eyes to red. Red eyes imitate wounded bait, 2 front hooks are Hirauchi (flattened metal) to shine those hooks. Blue assist line matches to the color of fish make it invisible in water. The rear blade is very popular in Japan now. Many makers make it now. What it does is imitate tail section. If the jig doesn’t wiggle well when straight reel in, this blade makes it to act like it’s swimming. Also blade is shinning more than jig so in murky water the blade shows up better. I thinks that fish takes the blade because it is small bait separate from jig. Rear hook is hirauchi hook too. I use Daiwa snap. It’s easy to change jigs, this small and thin snap has 75lb strength. But I don’t use deeper range and bigger jig over 100g I use solid ring and split ring.

This dobe papio must have thought the jig and blade was a tasty bait fish!

The other style tungsten jig I added a treble hook and blade to the rear and a single assist hook to the front. This white papio liked that look!

Added some of my favorite lures to the Store

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The lure inventory has been depleted and I’m looking for new manufacturers to partner with. In the meantime, here are a few of the lures that have worked well for us. You’ll find a sample of each in the Store.

Jigs

Capt Erik introduced me to these inexpensive but effective semi-slow pitch jigs back in 2016. In that report, I referred to the jig as the “pinkish, silvery 30 g (1.05 oz) Japanese micro jig”. You can read how effective there were for Capt Erik that day.

These JDM Xesta Afterburners are casting jigs, meant to be retrieved diagonally. They’ve caught numerous inshore fish, kawakawa and even the ono Frank caught trolling one. Here’s that incredible story.

These shore jigging lures were purchased at the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach back in 2019 before Major Craft Jigparas became so accessible in Hawaii. Very effective, beautifully crafted, reasonably priced jigs.

Shimano’s Flat Fall jig introduced the US to slow pitch jigging. We’ve caught everything from jacks to pelagics on these. Great zig zag fluttering action and superb hardware.

Shimano’s Coltsniper was introduced a bit later as a casting and vertical jig, shaped to imitate small slender bait fish. Affordable and very versatile.

Sinking Lipped Plugs

The Zetz F-Lead was my secret weapon for whipping off the kayak for submerged white papio in the Bay. 90mm and almost an ounce in weight, it was easy to cast from a seated position and would sink down to the depths of the schooling fish. Check out how good it worked in this report. I refer to this killer as the “heavy lipped swimmer”.

The Ima Gyodo Heavy Surfer is a similarly compact, heavy plug with a shorter lip that swims more like a fish shaped, lipped jig. Very popular in Japan for shore whipping over non-snaggy terrain.

Both of these would be great casting from shore into deeper water.

Compact Tungsten jigs have slayed nearshore and offshore!

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Top to Bottom: 60gm, 60gm, 80gm, 100gm

Last summer I requested some Tungsten jigs from two jig manufacturers , and was sent a batch of 60gm test models from the first company. A few months later the second company sent a couple 80gm and 100gm models. Both sets were painted but lacking the tough clear coat to make them puncture proof, and some were eye-less. I had a feeling they’d work, purely due to their small size, and resemblance to tiny bait fish.

The 60gm jigs came through just about every time I tried them off the kayak, catching fish as small as moana, and as large as ulua and kahala. They were so easy to fish because they got down to the bottom quickly, even in current, and didn’t have much resistance as I jigged them back up. As a control, I switched back to a lead jig of the same weight in the middle of a hot bite, and didn’t get a single hit.

These are some jacks that went wild for the compact jigs.

Wanted to see what these jigs could do in the hands of a jigging pro, so I passed a couple of the little 60gm jigs to Capt Erik. One day at the buoys the pelagics were showing on the sonar but not taking trolled lures. Capt Erik and his dad started with larger lead jigs that had caught fish in the past, but those jigs were ignored. So they dropped the little 60gm jig down and KABLAM! Shibi and aku fought over them and the guys had to stop fishing and drive away because they caught enough for their ohana. The tuna had tiny bait fish in their stomachs and the jigs had perfectly matched the hatch.

Thanks for making this video Capt Erik!

Tried the 80gm and 100gm jigs a couple times off the kayak and like them because they are heavier and get down faster when I’m fishing deep but I haven’t landed anything on them yet. I broke off two ulua and unbuttoned what felt like a small uku. These bigger jigs don’t look as eye catching as the 60gm jigs from the first company, but they still hooked fish. All this has convinced me that compact jigs dropped on hungry fish will get bit!

I ordered a small batch of 80gm and 100gm jigs from the first company with a few 60gm jigs thrown into the order. The production finish, with glow in the dark stripes exceeded my expectations. Almost too beautiful to fish, and coated with a tough sealant. I’m selling these at “friends and family” pricing to guys that catch fish and take great pictures. 🙂

Stay tuned to hear how effective those jigs are, from cliff, kayak and boat. Mahalo.

Update: Check out how well the tungsten jigs worked for Coach Haru here!

Winter kayak bottom fish scouting trip

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Normally, the Fall is the best time to kayak fish the deep. The winds drop, there’s spots with small waves, and the water is still warm enough to keep the preds close to shore. Not this year. The water temps were lower all year compared to the previous warm water El Nino years, and the bite was slow.

There was a calm day last week that was too good to pass up, and I invited a friend with a new Hobie Compass to join me on the East Side. Guy has fished inshore on his pedal yak but hadn’t gone offshore since he didn’t have a fish finder and was still getting accustomed to fishing from a seated position.

The shallower nabeta spots were barren so we kept going deeper til we started getting deep water lizardfish. That at least told us we were over sand. Finally we both caught a nabeta each, and then it was non-stop lizards and little porcupine fish. After bouncing our lead for a couple of hours, we finally gave up and headed to the deep reefy area.

I began marking reef fish near the bottom at about 270ft, but the first one that came up was a chunky taape. On the next drop something heavy hit the little CHL Minnow and pulled drag off my reel. Felt good to finally hook something of size and I had the drag a little too tight for the 15lb Hayabusa damashi set and the line broke off at the top swivel. On a previous trip I battled what I think was a ray on the damashi for a long time so I thought the damashi line was strong enough to handle medium tension.

By this time Guy wasn’t feeling too good because it turns out he normally takes seasickness meds but couldn’t find any Dramamine that morning and was using those pressure wrist bands. Don’t try them alone – they don’t work that well!!!

After rigging up another damashi set with 15lb branches and 20lb main line, I hooked another strong, surging fish that broke the branch line off! Guess that was a sign to break out the prototype 100gm tungsten jig I received from a second tungsten company. The jig is only 3.5 inches long, simply shaped and wasn’t coated with a protective clear layer but boy did it get to the bottom quickly.

After getting bitten by the ulua and the shark

On the second drop I hooked what felt like a small ulua. Guy was watching me and listening to my running commentary. Hopefully I wasn’t making him feel worse. I wanted to land the ulua to show him how effective deep jigging was, but within 20 seconds my rod tip started jerking erratically. Sure enough my fish got sharked and I had to fight the shark for about a minute. Luckily I got the jig back when the shark bit through the assist cord.

Guy decided to troll rather than bob around and bottom fish, and slowly made his way in pulling a kastmaster. I tried really hard to land something on the jig but the commotion the shark caused must’ve spooked the other preds. When Guy reached the inshore water he got such a strong hit he had trouble getting the rod out of the rod holder. He fought it long enough to feel its power but it got off. He guesses it was about a 4lb papio. That woke him up and cleared his head! He changed his sinking kastmaster to a floating Yozuri Crystal Minnow and continued to head in. Within a few seconds he hooked another screamer that jumped like a mini marlin!

The aha fought much harder than he expected and when he got it boat side he saw that it was foul hooked near its back fin. It later taped out, nose to fork of tail at 37 inches, which is a pretty good sized fish.

The next day Guy fileted, skinned and deboned the aha, making beautiful clean fish sticks.

He fried the nabeta the way Coach Haru taught me: salt and pepper, coat with corn starch, fry to a golden brown, take out to cool and fry again so the skin and scales are crunchy.

Judging from this photo I’d say his family loved their first experience eating nabeta.

Takeaway: The water temp was 76 degrees, a little cooler than normal for December. The nabeta were deeper than they were in the summer, and hard to find. Bait and preds were still on the deep reef, concentrated in small areas. The compact tungsten jigs continue to get bit by big fish, usually within the first 2 or 3 drops.

Holoholo: First mahi ever!

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Middle schooler Hunter has gone from shore fisher to diver and now boater in just a couple of years. He shares his first mahi mahi experience.

Hunter:

It was a calm light wind day and I had high hopes of what the ocean would provide on this beautiful morning. Me and my dad headed out to the east side to do some diving and fishing. The boat ramp was packed but luckily we found a stall quickly. Heading out we admired the glassy water and we watched it turn from a harbor green to a deep dark blue.

We dropped down our jigs in 300ft of water and waited for it to hit the bottom. As soon as I closed my bail and stated reeling I immediately get weight on my line. I watched in amazement as I brought up a baby opakapaka. It was a bit small but since we were so deep the fish had pressurized on the way up so we would either keep it or throw it back to let it die. We decided to keep it to experience a small opakapaka’s taste.

We kept jigging and sending down ika and catching larger and smaller opakapaka. Luckily we were able to release most of the smaller ones as they had not “thrown up their stomachs”, and swam away totally fine. An hour went by and I was reeling up an opakapaka. It reached the surface but suddenly fell off the hook. It had died on the way up so we started trying to grab it and swing our boat around when suddenly we heard a splash and saw our opakapaka was no longer there. Assuming it had come back to life we moved on but as I looked away I saw the vibrant blue flash of a school of mahimahi.

With my heart and mind racing I quickly threw out a Yozuri Crystal Minnow. First cast, only 3 followers which didn’t dare to bite the lure. Second cast the whole school was trailing my lure. Finally on the third cast a big splash covered my lure and my reel started screaming like I’ve never heard it scream before. I was on.

It was an effortless fight to say the least. It may have run fast but it had tired out faster than any other fish I’ve seen. We had no gaff so we three pronged it in the head.

After securing the fish we headed in calling it a day not having enough ice to keep the fish fresh. We took it home and filleted it. I am looking forward to enjoying this fish!

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.

Coach Haru: Tips to make you a successful jigger

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With kayak and boat jigging getting really popular in Hawaii, Coach Haru has provided some simple tips to keep in mind while scouring the depths for something strong pulling and delicious.

Coach Haru: Most of time fish bite the jig during the fall. Angler feel fish bite during the jerk but really fish take a jig when jig is suspended or the moment of the fall. Japanese fisherman say “making MA” which means, make timing. Jerking or reeling makes moment of suspend or fall to let fish have a chance to take a jig. Toothy pelagic fish attack jig during reeling or jerking up. They bite tail so need hooks on tail of jig. Jigs made to fall straight down, fast, are tail weighted jig. Purpose is to use on windy day for casting. Long distance cast.

From boat or yak, strong current makes it hard to reach the bottom. I use only center balance jigs from yak because I don’t have to cast far. If there’s strong current, I pedal my Hobie to keep against current while jig is falling or use I use a sea anchor. Falling is more important than reeling up. Basic of fishing is how long can keep bait including lures in the water. As long as jig falls, chances of bite is great.

You have to feel how the jig is moving in the water. Any lure fishing angler has to know how it works. If no mental image of lure action, hard to make MA. Artificial bait won’t move by themselves. All about anglers skill. Fish is not too stupid. They know when is the best time to attack bait. When bait are wounded and not be able to get away. Angler who can perform wounded weak bait will hanapa’a.

Fast action and slow action: Slow action for appearance. For example there is a bait ball boiling. Cast a lure into the ball. Lure must be more appealing to the fish since it’s competing against huge group of real bait. Slow or suspend the jig to show the lure. As soon as you leave the ball, reel fast to perform bait running away. Imagine if I am a fish, what attracts me is easy meal. I think humans are the same way. Easy $$$ is best of all!

Another compact tungsten jig taken by big fish!

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I’ve been kayak fishing the Windward side for kau kau fish (goats, lai, nabeta, small uku etc) but wasn’t finding opelu, bigger uku, or pelagics. When the wind and surf dropped on the South side I went back to check my old spots. Those spots were overrun with small fish who pulled my frozen opelu off without getting hooked.

After going through more than 20 pieces (I ended up cutting the opelu in half), I gave up and put a live moana out. 10 mins later the fish got hit and a scrappy 2lb omilu came up, in 70ft of water. I’ve never caught an uku on a live moana despite its reputation as “uku candy”. I let the omilu go (you’re welcome Matt), and went 1 mile downwind to a spot I’ve hooked ulua on jigs, but lost them. Here’s the report when an ulua busted me off.

Squiggly horizontal lines started showing up about 20ft off the bottom so I dropped the pink 60gm tungsten jig down. I didn’t expect a huge fish since the jig is only 2.5″ but it got slammed by a fish at full speed, and the fish pulled tight drag off my reel smoothly. Right as I was reaching to turn the GoPro on, the line when slack. What came up was the curly cue “pig tail” of my 40lb flouro leader where it was attached to the Tactical Angler Power Clip. I had tied a Uni knot to that clip 2 trips ago on the water and maybe I didn’t cinch it down tight enough?

The SW wind picked up and I was now more than a 2 miles downwind from my launch/landing. There were still 4 out of 6 battery levels left on the Bixpy jet motor and I ran it at less than half speed and paddled along. 2 battery levels remained when I touched sand. Whew.

I have one more of those pink tungsten jigs in that prototype shape. This was the last time that particular jig was photographed, landing a lai on an earlier trip. I was working with an established international tungsten company to design affordable compact jigs to sell in the Store. They sent me a small set to try out and the jigs have gotten bit on every trip, from moana, lai, to ulua and kahala, but the company suddenly went MIA. I’m bummed because these were the best jigs I’ve ever fished. I’m now working with a second company to get their jigs in, and hoping they don’t disappear on me.

Thad, our resident JDM expert and whipping technician, suggests I use 8 wraps with the uni knot instead of the 5 I’ve been tying. I’ll definitely give that a shot!

Small tungsten jig outfished bait and a normal jig!

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We were blessed with light wind this week so I was out on the windward side again, working on my damashi skills and doing more tungsten jig testing. Even though the big tide was rising, there wasn’t much current so it was easy to pan around, mark fish, then drop on them.

I started out looking for opelu, couldn’t find any, so I went past 100ft to a depth Capt Erik told me to check. Sure enough there were marks along that depth contour and my first weke nono (Pflueger’s goatfish) came up. I was stoked to find one, but since it was a little one I let it go. Drifted off that mark and must’ve been over sand because a nabeta came up next. Then it was non-stop deepwater lizardfish so I put one on my bait rod and dropped it down. Nothing touched it. Hmmm…

I took off the lizardfish and put a previously thawed and refrozen opelu on, and motored out to 200ft and back into 150ft with no love. Grabbed the jig rod with the 2.5″ 2oz tungsten weight and dropped down. Boink! A lizardfish grabbed it! Caught another lizard after that and decided to get off the sand and head in for the zone I had action on the last trip.

So the little jig was gobbled up the pesky lizardfish but could it attract a much bigger predator? I was over some spread out marks and was hopeful since that jig has been hit on every third drop or so, and kablam! Something strong and heavy yanked the rod tip down and was peeling out line. Now this was a decent fish and I really wanted to see what had hit the jig. A few minutes later a 15lb class kahala was expelling bubbles near the surface. My first kayak kahala on a jig, and a really fun fight on the Shimano Game Type J XHeavy rod and gold Trinidad 14 reel.

I motored/paddled back to that spot, and 2 drops later a stronger fish pulled line in long spurts. It shook its head so I assumed it was a bigger kahala but it turned out to be a GT that had just made ulua status. I had to tighten my drag further than I had with the kahala, and was surprised how much stronger the ulua was. I would say that the ulua fought harder initially but the kahala pulled more steadily. I couldn’t believe how the little jig, just 2.5 inches long, was causing these bigger fish to frenzy. I released the mini ulua also.

So now my confidence was super high and I dropped the jig again, and on the way down something swam off with it. This was an even stronger fighting fish and I tightened the drag as much as I dared. The runs were spurty and I could feel twanging on the line. Then there was less resistance and I cranked hard for a few seconds, came tight again and whatever was on the line at that point surged for the bottom and then the mainline cut. Either the fish was swimming towards the surface when the line felt slack, or I was reeling up a fish head that then got finished off by a shark. And the shark took my lucky blue jig whose eyes I painted with nail polish. 🙂

I put on a center weighted 100gm lead jig, found the mark again and… nada. I never got a bite again. Was it because the jig was too big or did the fish move off? The tide was reaching the slack high but I think the little magic Tunsten jig would have gotten bit some more. I just have a few of those left and look forward to trying them again!

Here’s what the fish looked like swimming off. Not the most graceful release of the kahala butat least he didn’t have any problems will a full air bladder keeping him on the surface.

Motorized kayak damashi and jigging action!

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The wind forecast finally dropped to fishable conditions. It promised a 10mph East wind directly onshore on the Eastside, and a 15mph North East wind coming down the mountains on the south side. So I headed East and had the launch and water to myself due to the social gathering restrictions.

The wind felt like 12 mph heading straight into it but I could push through with the help of my Bixpy motor mounted on my rudder. It was 2.5 miles out to the 130ft spot I hoped held opelu but no schools showed up on my oldie but goodie Garmin Echomap 44CV. I paddled around with the motor assisting me, at about 3mph, as I scanned around for bottom marks.

The first scattered mark, slightly off the bottom, produced a lai which I kept for a buddy who makes flies out of the skin. Next up was a surprise nabeta which must have been in a sand patch I didn’t know was there.

Then I went deeper, all the way out to 180ft but didn’t see anything good and my frozen opelu went untouched. The wind brought me back in, and I started exploring the shallower water. A very active mark showed up on the bottom so I used the motor to hold me in place against the current and dropped the 2-hook damashi rigged with CHL Minnows. As soon as I lifted it off the bottom the pole arched and line pulled off the reel! I was trying to remember how heavy the branch line on the damashi was, and was hoping it was at least 10lb test. The fish battled me all the way up, on the light drag, and I was surprised to see an uku that later was weighed 2lb 10oz. The other branch line was broken off so maybe two uku hit the rig. I had been searching for uku in this area in the past and never expected to catch them on a damashi!

When I checked my opelu it was gone and the 2oz tungsten bullet weight I was testing had teeth marks on it! Man, that was a crazy frenzy.

With the bite this hot and my damashi rig only having one hook now, I switched to my jigging setup rigged with a 2 oz, 2.75 inch prototype tungsten jig I’ve been hoping to test. I couldn’t find that mark despite having set a “Man Over Board” on the GPS so I searched around the area.

Found another good mark in 90ft, dropped the jig on it and “kapow!”. A good fighting fish jerked the tip, pulled a bit of line and gave a good account of itself. The compact jig had fallen like shot and must’ve hit the omilu on the head, haha.

I had another jig shape to test so I switched and went hunting for a good mark again.

Dropped the second tungsten jig on the mark and “whammo”, hooked up! This fish wasn’t taking line but still felt fun. A nice moana came up. Both the omilu and moana were released. I was stoked to see how well the tungsten jigs worked.

I moved off the spot and only saw scattered marks on the fish finder so I went back to the damashi, with 3 hooks this time. By now it was midday at the top of the big King Tide and the current went slack. Fish didn’t bite for a while but then it picked up with a smaller uku and omilu. I released those and the misc reef fish that were keeping me busy.

When small, brown hagi started coming up it was time to head for home. I ran the motor at a 3/4 speed and the battery died about a half mile from my landing. Running between 1/4 and 3/4 speed for 6 hrs drained the battery. Now I know and will keep more juice in the tank just in case.

Without the assistance of the Bixpy I couldn’t safely do the 7 mile round trip, and wouldn’t have been able to stay over marks while I dropped on them. Thank you Bixpy!

Stay tuned for more testing of the compact tungsten jigs. Even though they are only 2 oz (60 gm) they fall like a 3 oz (90 gm) jig because of their compact shape.

Coach Haru: Japanese Jigging Tips – Part #4

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More Japanese jigging pearls of wisdom from Coach Haru!

Coach Haru: There are 3 type of signs of bait fish in fish finder. The elongated shape on the left shows bait isn’t being threatened. Maybe no predators around. Drop a jig on it but you might not get a bite at all.

Center one is looks very balled up. They got security alert, must stay closer together. Often predators you’ll see predators on the fish finder. Best time to drop a jig. Jig moves different from other real bait. Jig is falling through bait, fall out of the group, predator’s instinct kicks in.

And last one on the right, they got attacked. Bait are spreading all over mix with bigger fish in. It’s harder to get attention from predators because they are very busy chasing real bait. Artificial bait can not win against real ones. So see this round ball, drop jig now.

Assist hook rigging depends on type of jig. For example, center weighted jig’s purpose is to fall longer, sideways. Chance of fish biting the head or tail is 50 – 50. Ideal to put on both sides. But line attached to the head so eventually line gets tension head lift up so no need equal size hook on the end. Bigger on head, smaller on tail. Long center weight jig, I put 2 hooks on each. Make sure both hooks don’t hook each other. Tail weighted jig like early Shimano butterfly jig should not put on tail. They are not good swimming jig, so no need.

Tail weighted jig made for swimming, fast retrieve jig can have treble hook on tail because head and rear balance don’t matter. Slow pitch jig like flat jig needs to have both on both ends. And must have light cord on assist hooks. They must not obstruct action of the flat jig. Also light hooks like titanium.

I used to catch Ono with assist hook made with thin wire leader with treble hook tied with metal crimp.  It worked good. Toothy fish like Ono, ahi, mahi, kaku, they bite bait not suck to swallow like Ulua or kahala. Need shorter assist hooks. Best is 1/3 the length of the jig. Ulua, kahala, others like Moana, weke, those are suck the bait in to mouth, need longer assist hook to make sure hooks go into their mouth deeper. Most of fish attack head of bait because chasing from behind bait is much difficult for them. Their target is the eyes. That’s why all those lures have eyes and very realistic eyes.

Rear weighted jig: 
For shore jigging, casting distance is the most important. Long cast has more chance of a bite. Especially, when there is a bait boil, you want to reach to the boil.

Rear weight jig stays in water longer, showing jig to fish longer. Can search wider area. When cast it, heavy tail goes first, stays good form to fly. For off shore jigging, it can reach deeper water fast. When you see bait ball in the fish finder, rear weight jig can reach the bait ball fast and it falls almost straight that aiming at the target accurately.  Also rear weight jig shakes tail like swimming but depend on shape (cut to make edges). Rear weight jig is not good for long jerk or slow jerk. It doesn’t stay in the water flat or side stance, it falls straight. Fast jerk or retrieve is better. I use a rear weight jig with spinning reel, stiffer rod(tip) to control the jig. On medium current, off shore, I use 60g for 100ft.  150g for 200ft, 200G for 300ft.

Coach Haru: Japanese jigging tips – Part III

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Coach Haru has so much jigging wisdom, these tips have been broken into multiple posts. Lot of wisdom here for beginning and advanced jiggers!

Shimano Flat Fall, second from the top, is a slow pitch jigs. The rest can be jigged fast, or retrieved to “swim” back to the boat

Coach Haru: Most of Major Craft Jigpara are made for retrieve in high speed. That’s why they have treble hooks in the end. High speed retrieve, fish chase and attack from behind, treble hook wiggle like tail. Assist hooks on tail is for slow jigs. Long or flat slow center balanced jig falls slowly with side way. Some jig has eyes on the tail too. When I go out with boat, I have 3 rods. One is casting rod with spinning reel (Shimano Twin Power 12000) PE 80lb main line, leader 100lb, I have bait reel (Shimano Ocea Jigger) PE 60lb main line, leader 40lb. For slow jig and long center balanced jig. Fast jigging (Daiwa Saltiga 8000), PE60lb main line, leader 80lb. Jig 250lb-300g, jig for 100 fathom or more depth.

I like to use lighter gear because fun to fight, make me thrilled, also when I defeat the fight, fish won’t spool out whole line,  just snap leader or take lures. I found so many long mono line in water in Hawaii. Can you imagine that marlin spool out 500 yard line. Line killed so many marine animals. For me, fishing is game like boxing. Boxing is not street fight. Boxing is game. Needs lots techniques, strategy and have to practice. I’m an MMA coach but my favorite style is boxing. When my plan works, that is satisfaction. 

Lumica 120gm (4 oz) jig used as the sabiki weight, no hooks

There are many jig sabiki in the market. There are from super light to heavy. When fish are not biting lures , use smaller jig like a compact tungsten jig. If still fish are not biting, I use jig as the weight on a sabiki. Size of flies on sabiki is are an inch or less, leader on fly is 15lb to 30lb. There is Nomase( live bait fishing) sabiki which can keep the bait fish on sabiki continue to fish not detach the bait from fly. The leader of fly is longer than normal sabiki so bait can swim better.  Use a jig instead of lead weight. Prefer swimming jig but not long center weighted jig since that can tangle line and flies easy.   Daiwa TG bait or Jigpara are good. I don’t put hooks on jig because I don’t wanna lose the jig, especially the expensive TG Bait. Also, I put 2 flies out more than that. I had tried home made jig sabiki had 4 flies; Kawakawa hit it more than one, I lost entire set up so I use just 2 flies. Also it’s shorter that easier to use from Kayak. Jig is swimming jig, when reel it, jig wiggles makes flies dance good. Here is a Japanese video of a jig used as the sabiki weight. He has assists hooks on his jig and catches bait on the jig too!

Editor’s note: There are underwater videos taken in Japan, of fish reacting to various objects jigged on the bottom. Haru refers to those videos below.

Now you know when fish bite. When the jig is suspended the moment or starts to fall, that’s the moment the fish bite. But fisherman feels fish bite on the way up. But fish already bit the jig. Fish doesn’t feel the hooks because the moment, jig has no tension. That’s why need to set the hook hard. When fish bite the jig, fish face down so hit hard, pull hard, fight hard. Reeling tairaba, fish is face up to chase it so when fish bite, no need to set hook because line has tension, face is face up, easier fight and no need to set the hook. Plugs as well. Reeling plugs on surface, fish comes from under, face is up to take the plug is easier than jig is taken by fish face is down. 

For jig fishing, gotta find the fish first. You must show the lure.  Important is to make sure the lure is in fish’s sight. Most of the time you drop a jig to the bottom. You can see your line and bottom on fish finder, you gotta feel the bottom with the jig. Is it sand or rocks or artificial reef or wrecked ship? What ever it is, you gotta feel it to identify exactly where your jig at. Gotta put a jig in fish’s sight. Sometimes jigging catch fish out feeding time. Bait fishermen not catching , but jigging fishermen catch. Because jig can make reaction bite. Agitate fish. Make them piss off so they wanna attack. Most of toothy fish react aggressively. It’s reaction bite. Jig must drop on fish. Very important for fish to see jig. It has no smell or sign of life, fish will not come to jig from far. If there is no fish on fish finder, I don’t jig.

Coach Haru: Japanese jigging tips – Part II

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Coach Haru is a well known and well respected MMA striking coach. He’s been effectively jigging off his kayak in Hawaii using techniques learned in Japan and would like share his insight with us.  We’re super blessed to have a jigging sensei share such hard earned knowledge. Coach Haru feels that jigging can be very effective when done correctly, and the assist hooks allow for the safe release of fish you don’t want to take home. He loves the challenge of using lures only to capture his prey. Currently he’s in Japan and hopes to return to HI when the quarantine lifts.

Coach Haru: Tairaba (see previous post) is 100 years old. Started in Nagasaki Kyushu and Tokushima Shikoku. It was just round lead with a hook and put shrimp on to catch Tai (red snapper). But shrimp became expensive so commercial fisherman started to use plastic instead.  

There is a Japanese proverb “catch Tai with a shrimp”, back then red snapper was not high end fish. Shrimp was more valuable and expensive.

It was in March, 5 min from my house in Kobe, I got a Buri (wild hamachi) with the 40g halalu color.

New style jig has a flasher plate in the tail. Bass shop sells those plate. Putting it on the tail of jig is popular right now. This is by Hayabusa Jack eye Maki Maki.( reel it reel it). It can cast very far then just retrieve it fast and stop and go. In the morning, most of predators on the surface casing bait, then sun comes up, they go down. Cast it when jig hit the water, fast retrieve and stop for the moment then go again for a couple times. If there is not bite then drop a jig to mid range. Still not bite then drop to the bottom. Just reel it fast.

Now retrieve jig instead jig up and down is popular because easier and anybody can do, not get tired for fishing all day long. Especially from kayak, sit down to fish has less angle than stand up to jig. When stand up most of time tip of pole is down. Jig up to straight but sit on kayak, pole points straight and jig up. When fish bite and have to set the hook, there is not much angle to set the hook hard because tip of rod is already up. Miss fish more than fish from stand up. That’s why retrieve lure is better for kayak fish. I had a Hobie Pro Angler that allowed me to stand up to fish on the kayak just like boat. But changed to Hobie Revo 13, it was harder and lost fish a lot because fish wasn’t hooked well by short angle of rod position. 

There are many jig sabiki in market. There are from super light to heavy. When fish are not biting lures, use smaller like tungsten then still fish are not biting, I use jig sabiki. Size of flies on sabiki is are an inch or less, leader on fly is 15lb to 30lb. There is Nomase (live bait fishing) sabiki which can keep the bait fish on sabiki continue to fish not detach the bait from fly. The leader of fly is longer than normal sabiki that bait can swim better.  Use a jig instead leads. Prefer swimming jig but not long center waited jig can tangle line and flies easy.   TG bait or Jigpara are good. I don’t put hooks on jig because I dont wanna lose especially TG bait. Also I put 2 flies out more than that. I had tried home made jig sabiki had 4 flies, Kawakawa hit it more than one, I lost entire set up so I use just 2 flies. Also it’s shorter that easier to use from Kayak. Jig is swimming jig, when reel it, jig wiggles makes flies dance good. I will post a picture when I make my own jig sabiki. 

Coach Haru: Japanese style jigging tips – Part I

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Coach Haru is a well known and well respected MMA striking coach. He’s been effectively jigging off his kayak in Hawaii using techniques learned in Japan and would like share his insight with us.  We’re super blessed to have a jigging sensei share such hard earned knowledge. Coach Haru feels that jigging can be very effective when done correctly, and the assist hooks allow for the safe release of fish you don’t want to take home. He loves the challenge of using lures only to capture his prey. Currently he’s in Japan and hopes to return to HI when the quarantine lifts.

Coach Haru:

Tairaba by Daiwa Baylover

These are the most popular lures in Japan now.

Tairaba style jig is good from kayak. Drop it and reel it, no need action, just reel it even fish bite still just reel it. No need to set hook, just reel. The easiest jigging style from yak. Long time ago, Shimano released Lucanus modified Tairaba but didn’t sell well. In Japan, Tairaba is very popular because no need technique just reel it. It is good for bottomfish like uku, opakapaka, onaga, roi, even pelagic fish. But use smaller hooks that big fish can break easy and it’s not cheap.

Tairaba Japanese video 1: https://youtu.be/MDkTPu0Sq2w

Tairaba Japanese video 2: https://youtu.be/j_rvnPYU0rk

You can use a baitcaster with Tairaba, no need to impart action, just reel.

Metal vibration by Big Backer

Set Upper diving minnow by Daiwa

These jigs, metal vibration, and diving minnow can fly so far. Can cast almost 100 yard. I wanna take them to Big Island for shore fishing someday.

Also popular is squid skirt. 3, 4 inch skirt under Tairaba or simply put a weight (1/2 or 1oz) in the head, drop it down to the bottom and just reel it up.

Color of lure is very important. Blue or natural fish color for sunny, daylight with clear water. Silver, glow color, zebra glow for dawn time. Pink for cloudy sky, gold with red or gold with green for murky water.

Usually Hawaii has sunny and clear water, I like to use blue, blue pink, sometimes pink. Deep water I use glow or zebra glow. West side I had good time with gold green. Daiwa sells TG Bait. People call it as bait not lure. It is made with tungsten that’s heavier than lead. Small silhouette than the same weight lure so when fish hesitate to bite bigger lure it works and goes deeper because of small size.

Slow pitch is hard with strong current or windy day. Center balance, long jig is fine when line goes diagonal or even side way by strong current but flat slow jig is hard make action right because it spins.

Jigs like Major Craft Jigpara that are made to swim is good for that. Because just reel it makes jig swim. I used Jigpara cast off kayak. As soon as hit water reel fast as I can. Caught kawakawa, ono, kaku, when I went to buoy caught so many aku and shibi.

In Japan use jig like metal blade. Cast and reel not jig. Many companies making jig to swim.

More gems from Haru to come soon!

Everything wanted to eat before the storm!

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Last week, the wind dropped right before a significant rain storm was expected. The fishing conditions weren’t ideal though. The tide was falling to a negative low, and it was just a few days after the full moon. Usually the slack low tide means sharks and ulua, but I couldn’t pass up the safe kayaking conditions.

The 8am sun was partially blocked by the gray clouds so it looked like dawn. I was hoping the fish thought the same. My first drop of the store bought damashi meant for opelu got hit by something much stronger. The small gold hooks bend easily so I kept the drag a little loose and just wanted to see what hit the tiny fly in 75ft of water. What finally showed was a brightly lit omilu. Proof that omilu do frequent the deep structure areas when there aren’t bait fish to draw them into the shallows.

I kept trying for opelu but the bait balls were small and moved too quickly. There was some type of bait fish on the surface getting hit by birds and dolphins but I couldn’t catch up to them. With no live opelu, I paddled out to 110 ft and lowered a frozen 9 inch opelu down. Before it reached the bottom something yanked at it before running off with the bait. The fish pulled the rod tip under water a few times in a very spastic fashion and fought very jerkily. I’ve fought bigger fish in the last 4 trips with nothing landed so I was cautiously hopeful this was an uku. Was stoked to see one but surprised how small it was compared to hard it pulled. Small oio are the same way. They pull as hard as they can and wear out.

Buoyed by the instant bite I dropped another opelu down and it sat for about 20 secs before something started tasting it. Then the line took off and soon it became apparent the sharks had arrived. I tried to bust if off but it took a long time to do so and the braid parted high up. Next 3 baits were eaten within 30 seconds and were sharks too. The sharks felt like they were smaller than the normal ones but still a pain to bring to the surface.

After losing time and tackle I switched to the Daiwa tungsten jig that hooked ulua before, and had a hit that didn’t stick. My arms were worn out by then from fighting sharks so I went in.

wahanui

I had dropped the GoPro down once, in the area where I hooked the omilu (about 75ft) and looked at the video at home. At least 3 wahanui and a toau swam up to the camera as it reached the bottom and there were the eerie sounds of whales in the background.

I kept the omilu and the small uku because I hadn’t kept fish for a long time and we wanted safe, Covid-19 free fish to eat. Both fish weighed 2.1 lbs and the omilu had a 5 inch fat red oama in its stomach.

Negative low tide, big moon, yet everything wanted to feed before the storm. I’ve never experienced a bite like that before. I just gotta figure out how to stay away from the sharks.

Goose egg but lessons learned kayak fishing the deep

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My last 3 deep water kayak trips resulted in no fish landed, but each one is bringing me closer to success, I hope. Trip 1: Wind was light initially so I explored some new grounds further from my launch/landing spot; found some suspended bait schools and saw big fish marks under the schools but the wind came up and I had to paddle back to my normal grounds. By then the current was too hard to stay on the spot so I came in.

Trip 2: Fished with our new fishing partner Robert back on the grounds where he helped me catch my first ono. Here’s that ono write up if you missed it. He’s been patiently trying to teach me how to catch opelu, and we found the school suspended in 250ft of water but again I couldn’t hook any.

Catching opelu so far down is difficult because the school isn’t staying in one place and the kayak drifts with the wind and current. There are also sub-surface currents taking our rigs for a ride. The guys on Hobies can pedal themselves to stay over the school but on a paddle kayak, the best I can do is paddle up current, drop down and try to reach the school as I drift over it.

Robert caught about 9 big opelu and I thought I finally caught one but it came up yellow. I guess it’s easy to hit the taape school since they’re hovering over structure, not swimming back and forth like opelu.

Even heavy jigging in 300ft of water has proven to be more difficult than expected. Like opelu schools, the areas holding preds are a small target to hit. In the past, I’ve jigged off boats in shallower water and was able to get down with jigs that weighed 100gm (3.5 oz) or less. Turns out kayaks drift faster than boats and you need more weight to reach the bottom quickly.

Robert hooked an 8lb kahala on a 120gm jig in 270ft of water speed-jigging that he was able to target with his fish finder. I tried to do the same with an 80gm jig that took too long to get down, so I went up to a Shimano Flat Side 112gm jig and still didn’t connect. And I got tired speed jigging so deep!

When we trolled the live opelu Robert had caught, we got picked up and dropped by fish that hardly left a mark on the bait. A 23lb shibi (ahi under 100lb) was caught in that area, so we’re thinking our big opelu was getting hit by the shibi but not chewed long enough for the fish to find the hooks.

Mangled damashi rig

Trip 3: Winds were light so I was able to return to the new spot I discovered on Trip 1. Found what looked to be opelu in water 200ft deep, but after trying for a while, my damashi rig got mangled. Hooks ripped off and lead weight taken! I figured, if the fish wanna eat a piece of lead, they might wanna eat a jig.

I had brought heavier jigs with me this time, figuring they’d reach the bottom without “scoping out” too far. I started with the 100gm Daiwa Tungsten jig (top in photo) thinking it would look like a reef fish because of its small profile, and still fall quick enough. On the first drop it got picked up and what felt like a good size jack (ulua or kahala) ran with it for a few seconds before the hook pulled. That was the first real fish I had felt in 3 outings! I was stoked the jig worked and I was able to entice the fish with the slow pitch “lift, drop and crank” method.

I paddled back to the area I had hooked up and there were thick marks on the bottom. Dropped down again, cranked up a bit off the bottom, then slow pitched twice and got picked up. The fish pulled line easily and since it was near the bottom I had to really tighten my drag. I was using a Shimano Game Type J medium-heavy rod, not expecting to fight big kahala and ulua, and was over-matched. The rod’s soft, parabolic bend couldn’t put the brakes on the fish and the line parted less than 15 seconds into the fight. Pretty sure it was an ulua because the kahala I’ve hooked in the past run more steadily and not as angrily. This one felt like it was really trying to bust me off. Here’s what it looked like.

I couldn’t hook anything else with my other jigs and my damashi rig got destroyed again so I tried to salvage the trip by catching an uku. By now it was past noon and the tide had peaked. Not the best time to bottom fish. My first spot came up empty and I paddled against the current to a spot that has yielded uku and sharks in the past. Dropped down a 10 inch frozen opelu, held the rod and waited. Tap, tap, tap…tap, tap, tap…tap, tap, tap. When I checked the bait it was gone. I don’t think hage can pull the opelu off both hooks so I was hoping it was a bait stealing uku. Dropped another whole bait down and the taps started again. Then line pulled out for about 3 seconds, then stopped. Arrgh… an uku had grabbed the middle of the big bait and swum off and got away without feeling the hooks.

I tried dropping the front half of a big opelu down and got yanked but the bite didn’t set. So I put down the back half of the opelu. Thump, thump… and it felt like the fish ran into a cave. Then the cave moved slowly at first, than at a constant speed. I either hooked a submarine or a huge shark. I tightened the drag hoping to pull the hook out or bust off but the creature steadily pulled me from 115 ft deep to 170 ft. I was tired from paddling around for more than 5.5 hrs at this point so I did everything I could to break free, then made the bolo paddle of shame to shore.

I had bought a few of those Daiwa tungsten jigs on eBay in different weights when they fell out of favor a few yrs ago and people were selling them at half the retail price. I just checked and they are are now selling at way more than retail price. I guess someone figured out a small, dense jig falls fast and looks like a tasty morsel. I had fished the 80gm version at the Penguin Banks a couple of yrs ago and caught a big white papio on it. I guess GTs like its action?

Those 3 trips were a lot of time and effort spent to catch nothing but I did learn some new spots holding fish, reminded that slow pitching saves energy and attracts fish, and uku bite even during the slow times if you drop a bait right on them.

Hope I actually land a fish next time.