Shh… What the shoreline tungsten jig fishers don’t want you to know.

May 28, 2024 By Scott 2 Comments

About fifty 40g and 60g compact tungsten jigs were sold or given out in the last 2 years to the early adopters. My kayak friends said that the jigs were catching all sorts of fish, but I hadn’t heard back from the boaters and shore jiggers.

Recently, a shore jigging friend placed another order of both the 40g and 60g jigs so I asked him how they had been working. He was initially secretive but said the small, heavy jigs have worked very well when the papio/ulua and other inshore predators were chasing small baitfish.

He fished this past weekend, using the BKK Sea Ranger Plus assist hooks as shown above, and caught and released 2 papio on Saturday but a shark took the next one along with the 40g jig. He switched to a 60g jig and caught and released another papio before the bite slowed.

He fished again on Sunday and caught a few moano but no papio. He reported that his hookup ratio with the BKK assists was excellent.

He offered a bit more hard earned wisdom: the small jigs cut through the wind well and out cast bait and every other lure he could use. There have been times when the small jig have outfished live oama, since the small size looks like nehu/iao and the assist hooks don’t easily snag the reef.

He shore whips with a 10ft JDM rod, Shimano Twin Power 4K, and 15lb braid. He’s landed ulua this way and is trying for his next one. I’d credit him for the amazing photos but he’s trying to do his thing on the down low. 🙂

So I think it’s safe to assume that the other jiggers are quietly catching fish with the heavy micro jigs and they don’t want the word to get out.

You can find the jigs and assist hooks in the Store by clicking this link. Sorry, we only ship to US addresses. Mahalo!

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

April 3, 2024 By Scott 2 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

View details on Phenix website.

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

View details on Phenix website.

Megalodan Jigging rods

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

View details on Phenix website.

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

View details on Phenix website.

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

Mahalo!

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

January 30, 2024 By Scott Leave a Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s some of the jigging action.

A few micro 40g and 60g tungsten jigs are now in the Store, along with Little Jack gold blade flashers!

September 29, 2022 By Scott 2 Comments

After a year and a half of product testing, the micro 40g and 60g tungsten jigs are finally in the Store. To make them even more enticing, gold flutter blades from the Japanese maker Little Jack are also being sold.

Why did it takes so long? Well, 2020 and 2021 were actually lousy fishing years, not just because of Covid but probably because of the effects of La Nina. We’re still in a La Nina but fishing has picked up considerably. Oama are still flooding the islands and nearshore preds are being caught.

Because of the less than ideal fishing, jigging wasn’t on the top of mind of the lure testers but each had great catches before either losing their jig to a fish or the reef. There were no complaints about the jigs whatsoever.

The Little Jack gold blades are highly sought after jig attractants not sold in the US. When added to the rear hook of a jig, they make the jig look like it has a a small bait fish is following a larger bait fish. The blades are just shy of 1.5 inches.

Blades are often attached behind rear treble hooks so when the predator tries to eat the blade, thinking it’s eating a smaller fish, it ends up eating the treble hook also.

40g and 60g tungsten jigs in both the blue/silver and green/gold colors, and the 3-pack of Little Jack gold blades are being currently sold at introductory pricing. There are only 5 of each size and color combination (20 total jigs) and 5 3-packs of gold blades to start. Pricing will increase after this initial batch is sold out. Comparable tungsten jigs sell for much more.

60g tungsten jigs continue to catch the premier fish

September 14, 2022 By Scott Leave a Comment

Just wanted to share what two of our jig testers caught the past week.

Grant, who starts off in the dark on the Westside, targeting akule before the opelu bite turns on, hooked 4 menpachi papio / pake papio / sasa / bigeye trevally on the green&yellow 60g jig on his last 2 trips. Even though he wasn’t purposefully charging the glow jig, it must have picked up enough juice to stand out. Menpachi papio make really good, dark meat sashimi and he shared his catch with coworkers.

Terry was fishing the blue&silver in 30ft off a reef channel on the Windward side with his Temple Reef Elevate 2.0 jigging rod and Siegler SGN reel, just using the rod tip to bounce the jig off the bottom, when he hooked something with strong head shakes. He assumed it was a good sized white papio and was surprised to see stripes and a yellow tint. He bled the pao’pao (golden trevally) on the yak, and it weighed 5.5lb on shore. It made, by far, the best tasting papio sashimi he’s ever had. Pao’pao are very hard to catch on lures and most often speared as they come over the edge of the reef.

And by the way, Terry is rocking the Anetik Shade Socks that prevent sunburnt legs and are easy to put on and take off at the beach. We have a few left in the Store in size Medium and Large.

I bet the smaller 40g size would be even more effective on these jacks that are targeting small baits. Problem is, none of the testers have that smaller size. I gotta get those jigs to them soon.

Sorry I haven’t put the jigs in the Store yet. Since they are a new product I really wanted to make sure they would perform as expected. and decide on a fair selling price. Tungsten jigs are very expensive.

At this point, the little jigs have proven to fool even the smartest, tastiest fish.

Wondering how the testing of the 40g and 60g tungsten micro jigs is going?

August 12, 2022 By Scott 3 Comments

Small metal jigs have gotten popular with the shore whippers, kayak and boat fishers due to their versatility. No other type of lure can be casted so far and fished the entire water column.

The jigs made of lead and steel, shaped to imitate a fleeing, dying fish, definitely produce and are usually reasonably priced.

But there are times when you want the densest/heaviest jig in the smallest size available, to cast as far as you can, from shore, or sink as fast as you can while drifting on a kayak or boat. That’s when you need a jig made out of tungsten, which is almost twice as dense as lead. That means a lead jig of the same weight as a tungsten jig would be almost twice the size.

We first tested tungsten jigs in the 80g and 100g size and offered a few in the Store to see how they’d sell. Click this link to see what they looked like.

Since they sold so well (there’s a few 100g jigs left), we ordered smaller 40g and 60g tungsten jigs for the shore jiggers and kayakers targeting fish that want a smaller bait. A few guys have been testing them for almost a year now but I hadn’t gotten much feedback so I was concerned that they were duds.

Top row: Blue/Silver, bottom row: Green/Yellow

**Some examples of how to dress the jigs**

Instead I found out the kayakers were getting wreaked by fish too big for their small hooks (the jigs are 2.5″ and 2.75″ long), and the shore jiggers were quietly catching fish on the micro jigs. I haven’t jigged much in the last year and only have a picture of a small uku, but luckily Grant shot this video of a beautiful yellowspot papio he landed on a 60g tungsten jig. Thanks Grant!

Non-tungsten jigs definitely catch fish but when the preds are focused on tiny baits like oama and nehu, it’s good to have the micro jigs handy. The jigs have proven to glow for a long time and be scratch resistant so we’ll put them on sale in the Store soon. Just wanted to ensure we were providing a great product at a fair price. Stay tuned!

Update 2/5/24. Dropped the 60g tungsten jig over some good marks. Check out what happened!

Spring 2022 Shore to Boat Fishing Report and Summer Forecast

June 7, 2022 By Scott 4 Comments

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.

Sufix 832 has been restocked, 8lb to 40lb

October 7, 2021 By Scott Leave a Comment

Sufix 832, arguably the best braid you can buy in the U.S., is always out of stock in the summer. It’s finally available from the supplier, so we have a good assortment of pound tests and colors, at our regular very low prices but not many of each. Click here to get yours before it sells out.

Compact tungsten jigs in 80g and 100g sizes available in the Store!

September 3, 2021 By Scott Leave a Comment

We had been tested two shapes and four sizes of tungsten jigs from a reputable tungsten manufacturer, to make sure the jigs’ structural integrity held up and caught fish. Since the jigs performed well, we brought in a production batch of one shape to test further, striped with glow material to stand out in the depths.

The clear coat protected the paint from sharp teeth and snaggy reef, and the stripes glowed longer than most glow jigs. And, they continued to catch fish when the predators were keyed on very small baits.

This uku was stealing my frozen opelu off my bait rig so I put an opelu chunk on the jig’s rear hook and gottem!

I’ve even put small pieces of bait on the assist hooks and bottom fished to catch fish that were stealing the my larger baits!

We have a few of these production jigs left in the 80g (2.75″) and 100g (3″) sizes that we are now selling in the Store.

A large batch of 40g and 60g jigs in the second shape, perfect for shore jigging, and mimicking tiny baits just arrived. Soon to be placed in the Store and a fish’s mouth!

Caught the kawas (kawakawa and kawalea) and nothing went to waste

August 21, 2021 By Scott Leave a Comment

The rain squalls and wind took a break on the Windward side so I was finally able to take Terry out on his Scupper Pro to explore the deep. He had guided me on my inaugural Westside kayak outing a couple weeks before. The deepest he had previously gone on the Windward side was about 130ft and that’s where we started dropping the damashi in hopes of finding nabeta. All I could manage was a puny skinny nabeta I released. An opakapaka pup of about 8 inches came up next and I tried depressurizing it so it could go back down but it floated so I had to keep it. Then the deep water lizardfish swarmed us.

We kept going deeper in hopes of finding the opelu piles. Terry put down a lizard fish as live bait and took a big strike that managed to come off his hooks. That gave me the idea to drop down a twice frozen opelu while hunting for the bait schools and after a while my reel went off! After a spirited, jerky fight a very round kawakawa came up that had taken both hooks so far down I had to cut the leader. I brained it to calm it down, and bled it over the side until the runoff ran light pink. The kayak cockpit looked like a crime scene and took a while to wash off.

Terry headed into the shallow ledge to damashi for reef fish, and I tried to find more pelagics. Sure enough my multitasking skills tripped me up. My damashi rig snagged my bait rig and as I tried to clear the mess I wrapped the bait rig line around my rudder. So I headed into the shallows to look for Terry. I couldn’t raise him on the VHF radio even though I could hear other kayakers 2 miles away, and turns out his radio wasn’t receiving properly. I finally reached him when I was a half mile away. This drove home the point to test your safety equipment and make sure all are in proper working order. Had I needed help Terry wouldn’t have heard me and I would have had to call the Coast Guard or nearby boaters. Terry has since been in touch with the radio vendor to trouble shoot the range problem.

Terry had been catching small and medium moana on his damashi and had one out as bait. I joined him, and found good marks on the deep end of the ledge, as I drifted shallow. Small weke nono and moana climbed on but nothing big so I reset my drift and went over a better mark with bigger fish. Dropped the 60gm tungsten jig with glow spinner blade, which makes the jig look like it has a fluttering tail, and made contact with something that yanked a lot but couldn’t pull drag.

Up came a Heller’s Barracuda (kawalea or kawelea, depending how exact you want to be) that tried its darndest to either throw the jig or bite through the leader.

Nothing bit Terry’s live moana and we had been out for 5 hrs and still had a couple miles to paddle in (paddle and motor in, in my case), so we set a comfortable pace and let the trade winds help us. It was so nice not to have disorganized following seas to worry about.

The damashi bite was better than it had been the last few trips. Dunno if that was because the water had warmed or if we were just able to fish more effectively in the calm water. Some odd ball fish landed were baby kaku, small trumpet fish, baby porcupine fish and some mystery fish that busted our light leaders.

I picked up some ice on the way home and left the kawakawa and kawalea packed in a cooler over night. When I cleaned the fish the next day, they were in great condition. The kawakawa weighed 10lbs after being bled the day before, but was fat because it had eggs and a belly full of decomposing small fish of various species. One looked like an oama that hadn’t made it in from the deep yet. That’s a good sign, maybe the oama are making their way in now.

Kawakawa has a bad rap as a bloody tasting fish, but if bled well, cleaned properly and wrapped in paper towels to remove more blood, the flesh has a great consistency and more taste than small yellowfin tuna. There’s also so many usable parts. The kawakawa was shared as follows: center bone for my neighbor to deep fry, fillets with dark meat removed for a friend to eat raw, eggs for my oama buddy to palu, belly strips went into the freezer to be used as bottom fishing baits, and the bloody scraps went to my sister’s cats. I also prepped the opakapaka pup and kawalea for my neighbor to steam.

Jigs, Jigs, Jigs

July 12, 2021 By Scott 2 Comments

This is what I currently take out on the kayak. All but 3 are tungsten jigs, from 20gm up to 100gm. Jigging is my third option after damashi and bait fishing, so I haven’t had a recent catch on them but when the fish marks on the sonar are active, or the damashi rig gets destroyed, almost certainly the jig will get bit.

(top to bottom) 80gm 2.5″ and 100gm 2.75″ tungsten jigs

The more compact, non-elongated jigs above could easily be fished from shore, if you were casting into deep enough water. A flutter blade makes the jig look even more alive when retrieving diagonally.

We’re finding that the specific jigs work best when they match what the predators are feeding on. When they’re on inshore bait fish and krill the small tungsten jigs work really well.

(top to bottom) Williamson Benthos 100gm, Little Jack 100gm lead jigs

According to Big Island kayak fishers Haru and Shea, when the deeper water fish are chasing opelu, the longer, slender jigs get nailed, and the jig length helps keep toothy fish like ono from biting off the leader.

These two are my only long, opelu looking jigs. The bottom one from Little Jack (JDM) really looks like an opelu (please zoom into the picture), and the top one from Williamson has bevels that are supposed to make it fall and swim enticingly.

Looking at these jigs is making me want to move jigging up to a higher priority! What do you guys think about these jigs? Good shape” Good colors? All but the top two have already hooked fish. Hooked doesn’t equal landing though, when the hookee is an angry ulua.

Holoholo: Live Bait and Vertical Jigs = Mixed Bag

June 11, 2021 By Scott Leave a Comment

Shea started kayak fishing 3 yrs ago, briefly on an Ocean Kayak Scupper Pro, soon after, moving up to an Ocean Kayak Prowler 15. He built his safety awareness in the confines of Hilo Bay, unintentionally flipping the Scupper Pro twice and found the Prowler 15 to be a much more stable fishing platform. He has only been fishing offshore for 3 months, mainly on a 2015 Hobie Revolution 13, but attributes his rapid success to the years of learning how to catch live opelu outside the bay as well as hours of watching kayak fishing videos on YouTube and receiving tips from the kayak fishing community. He fishes on the Big Island with Coach Haru when their schedules match up. I asked Shea if he wouldn’t mind sharing his most recent outing with us. Here’s his recap, with video of the day on the bottom of this post.

Shea: The surf on Hawaii Island’s east side was flat – 1 foot and winds were forecasted light and variable all through Memorial Day, so my friend and I decided to launch at 4:30 AM. We reached the fishing grounds just as the horizon was lighting up and started searching for opelu to use as live bait. It didn’t take long before we started marking large bait balls feeding 25-50 feet down, and I dropped my home made sabiki rig baited with HiPerformance Lures “fish sticks” and managed to pick up 6 baits before the sun was even up. On previous trips, I had only caught 1-2 opelu after hours of trying, so things were off to a much better start than usual! We moved out into deeper water and passed over huge bait balls that weren’t biting, so I decided to drop an 80g jig that Haru had given me on a previous trip. Within the first 10 cranks of the very first drop, I hooked into a fish that doubled my Tsunami Trophy jigging rod and peeled the 40lb braid from my Penn Slammer III 5500 in long, powerful runs. It didn’t take long for what I’m pretty sure was a good sized Ulua to find some structure to cut me off on.

I tied on a 120g Jigpara Slowfall and dropped again, immediately hooking into something that felt much smaller. It turned out to be a 2-3 lb Uku, and I decided to let it go to and put out my first live opelu on a wire stinger rig in the hopes that some predators might be hanging around the bait schools.

I let out ~100 feet of line and set the drag on my Penn Spinfisher VI 8500 as light as it could go to mimic the “liveliner” function on other reels. After 45 minutes or so of no action in spite of many promising marks on the fish finder and a couple drowned baits, I decided to switch to straight 40lb fluorocarbon leader and hooked another live one through the nostrils with a 5/0 Gamakatsu Live Bait hook. I was still free-spooling this bait out when line started flying off way faster than I knew an Opelu could take it. I gave it about 5 seconds before clicking the bail over and tightening the drag down to set the hook. After a few good runs and a heavy pull that made me think I had a shibi, the fish started giving in and spiraled up to the surface. I was surprised to see a chunky 19-lb Kawakawa float up on its side. I sent out another live bait, then dispatched and bled the fish for ~10 minutes.

Just after stowing the fish in my fishbag, I noticed some promising marks on the bottom ~170 feet down, so I dropped the jig and pulled up a 4-5 lb omilu. After taking a couple pictures, I tossed him back to hopefully become a reef donkey someday.

As I was dragging my bait back up to the ledge, I felt the telltale tugs of something grabbing my opelu and quickly flipped the bail open. After a few seconds of letting line fly off the spool, I closed the bail and tightened down again and the first run of this fish was much faster and longer than the kawakawa’s had been. After five minutes or so of tug-of-war, I got my first view of the fish ~50 feet down and briefly saw the sickled outline of a shibi before it took off on a run straight down. Another five minutes of pumping and cranking later, the shibi was exhausted and surfaced, giving me a chance to hit it with my home made kage gaff. Not wanting to take any chances, I sank my handheld hook gaff into the fish as well and pulled it aboard. This was definitely my largest shibi so far, weighing in later at 29-lbs. I brained and bled the fish out and stowed it in a Hobie fishbag behind my seat.

At this point I had what I thought were two live baits left in the tube, so I gave one to my friend who had just lost his last bait to what we believe was an ono. I tied on a wire rig hoping to use my last bait to try for an ono, but the last bait had a busted lip from my damashi and had drowned. I sent it to the bottom on a 4 oz bank sinker, hoping for a shot at a bigger uku instead. After drifting around for a while, my rod bent over slowly as if I was hung up on the bottom. As I pulled the rod out of the holder, line started ripping off the reel and after a seven minute battle, a small ulua came up to the surface. Not the uku I was hoping for, but it was a nice fight. With two fish already in the bag, I decided to release this fish after taking some pictures.

After previously fishing the windward side in 6-foot swell and pouring rain and being unable to catch more than one or two baits, this trip really stands apart and will probably stay with me for some time. It’s not often that the east side is calm as a lake, so I feel super lucky that we got this break in the weather. I gave away most of the fish to my friends and family and made sashimi, tataki, and poke with the remainder over the course of the following week. The kawakawa meat aged especially well and still tasted great even six days later.

-Shea

Check out the video:

Coach Haru: Love/hate relationship lure fishing for ono

May 15, 2021 By Scott 3 Comments

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

May 2, 2021 By Scott 2 Comments

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

April 16, 2021 By Scott 3 Comments

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

April 9, 2021 By Scott Leave a Comment

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

April 1, 2021 By Scott 2 Comments

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

March 30, 2021 By Scott Leave a Comment

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!

March 8, 2021 By Scott 4 Comments

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

December 29, 2020 By Scott 1 Comment

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.