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

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Juvenile moano and moana kali caught in the Spring

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Steamed malu
(top to bottom) Moana, nabeta

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

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

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

opelu poke

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Holoholo: Finally, I caught a shibi!

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Tobias has previously shared his experiences kayak fishing the Windward side of Oahu but had never caught the elusive yellowfin tuna. Until now.

Tobias Tillemans:

A body of water with clouds and sun rays AI-generated content may be incorrect.

We launched in the dark and peddled out into gently rolling black ink with stars above and a yellow moon low in the west, shining through some thin clouds. Light shimmered faintly off the water, no sound other than the rhythmic swishing of the fins under my feet and my breathing. I followed Max of the Oahu Pelagic Pirates who knew these waters very well, but the akule bite was slow, and we each got only 1 or 2 before heading further out into a breaking dawn to find opelu, watched silently by birds perched on marine buoys. As night softened into dawn, I turned off my headlamp and put out a bait before taking some time to watch the light rise on Oahu’s north shore, a thin strip of habitable land below towering green hills, windmills, and cloud banks to the east and the taller and drier red Wai’anae Range to the west. It was more than 9 months since I’d been on the water, and I was particularly thankful, but those 20 minutes before the sun breaks the horizon are always the most arresting.

When I started kayak fishing, I had this mythical idea of the yellowfin tuna. It was the most beautiful fish I’d ever seen, the most delicious, and the proudest catch a kayak fisherman could make. As I got better at catching pelagic fish I got to know many other species and to appreciate all of them for their unique character – the sly and powerful ono, or the colorful, acrobatic mahi – and I learned that there are many proud catches besides the yellowfin. Still, though, every time I hooked up offshore there was the question: is this the one? Might I finally get to lay hands on a shibi? I would look for the distinctive ‘tuna headshakes’ and gauge the speed and power of each run. But it never was, and then, almost a year ago, I moved back to the mainland with my family. This was highly likely to be my only day fishing offshore this year. I am forever indebted to Bill Ho, my neighbor in Hau’ula, who met me over his lunch break to loan me an offshore kayak, rods, and everything else I needed to fish through the short visit I had on the island. His love of fishing out of a kayak has been an inspiration to me from the very beginning.

We managed a few opelu in the hour around sunrise, picking them out of fast-moving schools that passed under us. I dropped the akule deep with a 4oz weight on a rubber band and sent a fresh opelu 150’ back on a single 5/0 hook and 40-pound fluoro before we moved out closer to 200’ of water where I picked up another opelu and sent this one out on the deep line, replacing the akule. Occasionally through the first few hours the wind would build before losing heart and flattening out again. Every 20 minutes or so, cruising schools of bait would show up on the fish finder.

The morning just felt fishy. Every so often my top bait would completely bug out and fight for its life, peeling my feather-trigger drag. In these moments, I’d open the bail and lay the line across my finger, ready in an instant to drop the bait weightless and let the predator eat. But none of us were hooking up. The pink undersides of the clouds faded to peach, then white, and the ocean went from a brooding, purplish blue to its resplendent late-morning aqua. I was beginning to get comfortable with the idea of heading back to the marina refreshed and with an empty fish bag.

All of a sudden, I sensed panic in the bait, and draped the line gently across my pointer finger. Then it got hammered. I let the line scream off the open bail for about 10 seconds then locked it down, feeling out a conservative drag setting to slow the fish without risking breaking it off. I endured a jolting, sporadic initial run, and then a second. I’ve broken off too many fish in the past at this moment, misjudging the drag with several hundred feet of line out on a fish whose spirit is not broken. After the second run the fish settled into a deep clockwise spiral with gradually weakening runs and, though I’d not seen the fish, all this behavior had me hopeful this was the one. I decided I’d be fine getting sharked, or popping off, but I was not going to break this fish off. It took maybe half an hour before I finally saw the shimmering yellow radiating up from the fins of the fish rising in spirals towards me.

I removed my pedals so the fish could harmlessly spin under the boat, then waited for a circle close enough to kage (pole spear). In this situation I think the behavior of the fish will often reveal the presence of sharks, but I kept a close eye on the deep. The fish was within maybe 8 feet when it surprised me with another run, peeling off 50’ of line. Don’t break it off. I I worked the fish back up to the boat and, after several close calls, got a good opportunity for the kage. I heard the threading on the kage rod zipper through the fish’s gill plate, and the fish went stiff. I hoisted it into the boat between my feet.

I know now that where I normally fished was a big part of why I’d never landed this fish before. The windward side seems ecologically more suited to smaller tunas like the kawakawa or aku, while the broad bays of the north, and especially west, shores of Oahu are more suited to shibi. I’d fished those shores many times, but I fished so much by myself, peddling out into the darkness looking for bait and marks. I was lucky to be out this day with Max, an awesome guy and excellent fisherman, and I will be forever grateful to him for getting me onto my first shibi.

Went back to where the shark attacked in 2023, under eerily similar conditions

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I had been avoiding the area the shark rammed my kayak back in May 2023, partly because it was an area I don’t fish, and partly because I didn’t want to relive the experience. I had fished areas around it so it was time to do another check of the area. What made the outing even spookier was that it was flat calm like the shark attack day. I couldn’t find any partners to go with me, so I promised I’d keep my feet in the kayak, and have a Sharkbanz device on my right ankle for the rare times I had to put my feet over the side.

I started off at the opelu spot, a mile from the danger zone, and the school showed up on the fish finder. A fairly big one bit on the first drop and came up scratched up from something that tried to grab it. Oddly enough, that was the biggest opelu I caught all day, and the smaller ones didn’t get grabbed. After 5 were chilling in my footwell I decided not to use them as live bait, and instead dispatched them and put them in the fish bag. I had not had a hookup on live opelu for the last few trips, just bite marks from small predators, so I didn’t want to hassle of trolling a live bait while mining the bottom with the damashi rig.

Talk about a greasy calm, mirror-like surface

Next, I headed a mile north to the shark zone. I kept my eyes on a swivel and no sharks were spotted so I started damashi fishing. Fish bit in the areas with good sonar marks but they were either undesirables (hagi, hawkfish, trumpetfish) or too small (weke nono).

I considered keeping the bigger moano/moana but a lot of my friends aren’t fans of the small bones.

I took a break from the damashi action and dropped the Carolina rig with 2 tungsten weights knocking against each other. It got bit right away but sadly was a slimey nunu (trumpetfish). And look. More than halfway through the trip I realized I forgot to put the Sharkbanz on my right ankle!

I caught another random opelu one the way back to the first opelu spot, but that school had moved on. So it was time to crank up the Bixpy motor and head in through the flat water. I’m trying to figure out if the good bottom fish didn’t bite because the water was1) too calm, 2) the slow Winter season, or 3) the place is junk.

This was all I brought home, but I did get home shark-free. Note the bite marks on the largest opelu. My friend’s wife who loves fresh fish will prepare them like she does saba.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Malu (side spot goatfish) compared to Moano/Moana (manybar goatfish) steamed

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Malu (Sidespot Goatfish)

Malu are less commonly caught than the ubiquitous moano/moana and I’ve actually only caught them on the Windward side of Oahu but at one time, they were caught all over. They are pink and white, with a black squarish spot in the middle of the body, hence the name side spot goatfish. They have a large head head like a moano, but a slimmer body like a white weke.

Moano have a stockier body than the malu and an 11 inch fork length individual is considered a big one. They have soft, flaky meat. Moano are usually steamed or fried, but have a lot of small bones so you have to be careful picking through the meat.

The 12 inch fork length malu I recently caught was steamed, and when we checked to see if it was cooked through, we found the uncooked flesh to be firm and mostly free of pin bones. When fully, the meat turned white, unlike the opaque meat of the moana. It was less fishy than moana and much easier to eat since there weren’t a lot of free floating bones. The meat melted in your mouth like moana does. Definitely worth keeping if they are large enough to steam.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CHL Minnows added to store-bought damashi set

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

Look at the bait school on the fish finder!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We split up, friend went shallow for oio, I went after opelu. Kayak fishing during a rain storm.

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I had been under the weather and missed a few light wind days. I needed a calm, safe day to ease back into offshore kayak fishing. Guy, who I last fished with more than 1.5 yrs ago, and hadn’t kayaked since, wanted an easy day to make sure his equipment and body still worked. There looked like some rain but light wind on the Windward side on a rare day our schedules aligned so we made the plan that he would stay inshore and troll for papio, and dunk for oio. I would head out to the bait spot and try to catch opelu and other bottom dwellers on the damashi rig.

We drove through heavy rain and ponding water but our destination just had moderate showers. The wind was light as we launched but half a mile out, I began to get hit with increasingly stronger onshore wind and chop, 15mph with higher gusts. It was a slow slog to push through all that, taking much longer than normal. 2 miles from shore, I lost radio contact with Guy probably due to all the showers and mist.

Fish bite well on overcast, rainy days and I had high expectations. I turned on my old GoPro Session 4 I had mounted to the bow of the kayak, to share a view of what it looks like when I’m trying to catch opelu on the damashi rig. Sure enough, the opelu were in the mid-water column and hit all 3 of my hooks. If I could stay on top of the school and drop on them, they’d bite. You’ll be able to see the action on the video below.

The fish like foul weather but me, not so much. I was socked in and couldn’t see land, and the swirling currents kept spinning me around. I had to use my fish finder’s compass to figure out which direction I was drifting. It was so choppy and swirly I almost got sick, and had to do all I could to clear my head.

I really wanted to stay and bottom fish with the damashi but I had live opelu after all, so I put one out with a sliding weight and paddled around the area for a bit. Eventually that line got tangled with my damashi line since I was spinning around so much. When I checked the bait, it had been pulled off. I gave up on live baiting and focused on catching stuff on the bottom. I dropped the camera rig on good marks but didn’t hook anything. Was really hoping to capture some interesting footage.

Occasionally Guy and I were able to hear each other for a garbled sentence or two so we both knew the other was ok. I think my old vhf radio was at fault and probably doesn’t have the range it did when it was new. It sounded like the papio trolling was slow inshore.

I was leaving the bait area at 2pm and ran across some really good marks. So I dropped the damashi down again and a strong fish busted off a branch line but a nice lai (leather jacket) came up. I hate handling lai because its dorsal and anal fins have venom, but figured Guy could eat it and use the skin to make lures, so I snipped the offending spines and kept it.

The next couple of drops yielded opelu so I tried to catch as many as I could (see the video) but eventually other fish like lizardfish and the yellow barbelled goat fish hit the damashi baits. Even nabeta were in the feeding frenzy.

I ended up with 18 opelu for the day, my best so far.

Oio #1
Oio #2

I started to head in and got in radio range of Guy. He said he was anchoring in shallow water and using some freezer burnt tako (octopus strips), and caught a small oio. As I got closer to him he landed an even bigger oio that fought like a white papio, with a lot of head shakes. Nice!!

Guy said the shallow inshore waters were eerily still with steam coming off the surface. Such a contrast from the conditions I experienced. Here’s the video.

Guy’s family wanted raw fish dishes, so he sashimi’d the lai, made lomi out of the oio (2.5lb and 4lb) and made a simple poke (inamona, salt, dried shrimp) out of the opelu.

He’s drying the lai skin to make lures.

Another friend’s wife Mayumi is from Japan and would eat fish everyday if she could. They don’t buy whole, local fish so I wanted to see what she thought of opelu and nabeta.

She deep fried the nabeta enough to eat the skin and scales but not the bones. She said the opelu tasted very similar to the saba (mackerel) she eats in Japan and really appreciated both fish.

I vacuum sealed the smaller opelu and froze them for bait. In hindsight I wish I had caught more since so many people enjoy eating opelu.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Holoholo: I caught a Kagami ulua on a Duo jig I was testing!

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Editor: I had picked up some Duo Drag Metal Force Semi Long jigs from our local Duo Distributor to try out. If they proved effective, I was gonna order some for the Store. I shared an asymmetric sided 155g pink with glow stripes jig with my friend and occasional kayak partner, Lawrence, who consistently catches fish jigging off his kayak, when the pelagics aren’t biting his live opelu.

Lawrence:

Here’s how it it all went down… I paired the jig with a JI Fishing Co assist hook and dropped it on a school of fish. No immediate bite, but did see a mark on the fish finder and noticed it was chasing my jig on the way up. I let my jig back down to the bottom of the ocean and the fish hit my jig. The fight felt like an ulua and during the fight one of my other live bait poles goes off. I’m double hookup. Focusing on my jig rod, I let my live bait rod fight alone and hoped it could handle the constant pulling. Unfortunately the fish pulled really hard and broke the line.

Refocusing on the jig line, I get to the point that I see color and first thing to my mind is ohh, white ulua. Nothing wrong with white ulua but I’ve caught a few, along with kahalas. Once it got to the surface, I realized it was a Kagami (African Pompano). Quickly grabbing my Kage (Hawaiian Spear), I stabbed it in the gills and brought it on board. Super Stoked to catch this dream fish of mine.

The kagami ended up weighing 11.24 pounds. I liked the Duo Semi Long jig so much I bought another one in 155g and a smaller one in 105g from HI Fish Gear in Ewa Beach!

Here’s the video of the action.

Note (9/29/24): The 155g jig I bought caught a small kawakawa!

Thanks for reading!

Editor: I plan to put my compact tungsten jigs away for a while and fish these larger Duo jigs. I’ll also rig them with BKK or Shout assist hooks and put some in the Store. Stay tuned!

First good fish on the Westside jumped in the yak, 4 trip slump is over! Catch and clean.

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I’ve fished the Westside 4 times and never done well, but with the Windward side too windy, and traffic light because school is out, I had fished twice recently and the only thing I brought home was a lonely nabeta. Meanwhile friends who launch in the dark and target the pelagic species had been getting shibi (yellowfin tuna under 100lb), ono and uku. School is starting up next week so this was possibly my last Westside trip this year.

The major solunar bite was happening in the mid-morning and it was slightly overcast so that gave me hope that the normally wary bottom fish would be more active. But the bite never materialized until after the major bite time was over. I had gone deeper to find less cautious fish and something finally bit the damashi rig and felt a little heavy coming up. I was stoked to see a thick nabeta and hoped to catch a few more but that didn’t happen.

Instead, I got bitten off and re-rigged with a 25lb store-bought damashi set, adding a Completely Hooked Lures Minnow to the damashi fly. This combination has been effective with the tackle busters at this spot. The fish skin wings and tassled thread must make the CHL Minnow look like a larger creature.

I hooked something near the bottom that bent the soft jig rod and took drag! It pulled in spurts, and circled but didn’t feel like the jacks that had broken me off the 2 previous trips. I was ecstatic to see my biggest weke ula / weke nono on the kayak but the fight wasn’t over as it slipped out of my hands and jumped in the kayak with the second damashi hook dangerously flying in tandem. See the hilarious video below.

Another cut off followed, then the deep bite slowed so I went in a bit to check a depth a friend recommended. Sure enough I hooked a smaller, keeper weke nono. It started to drizzle and the offshore winds gusted to 20mph so I cranked up the Bixpy motor and made my way in, dropping the damashi on enticing marks.

Something bit at the 100ft mark that surprised me. A daytime menpachi that must’ve thought night time was coming!

I was grateful that the distance to deep water on the Westside is very close compared to the Windside because I was battling strong offshores and choppy seas to get in.

The large weke nono was just under 2.5lb and the smaller one was just under 1.5lb The nabeta was 0.75lb. Weke nono is a little dry when cooked so it’s best eaten as sashimi or poke and very underated in my opinion. Because the weke nono primarily eat shrimp and crab, their flesh is clean and sweet tasting, on the soft side but not mushy.

This is the fillets of the 1.5lb weke nono. The bones and head were cooked Japanese style in shoyu, sugar, ginger and water.

It helps to chill the weke nono in ice for day or so before cutting to firm up the meat, and then wrapping the fillet in paper towels in the fridge for another day or so to remove moisture . The Rapala Fish Pro 6 inch Fillet Knife made slicing the soft-ish flesh a breeze.

My neighbor Brian artfully sliced and presented the 2.5lb weke nono.

And here’s the short video of the weke nono jumping above the kayak.

2 more Phenix Rods to try! 6’6″ Black Diamond Heavy boat rod and 6′ PE 2-4 Megalodan jig rod.

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I had purchased two “live bait” style rods from Phenix Rods last year, as a dealer and liked their lightness and build quality. Shipping of those two rods from California to Hawaii was about $50. Since then, Phenix Rods was purchased by the outdoor company GSM Outdoors, and moved to Texas. The new company worked out some kinks and is back to servicing their dealers so I ordered two more rods to see how the shipping experience would be. This time, shipping via FedEx costs $86 and took 8 days.

I got the 6ft 6in Black Diamond Heavy rod since the 7ft Extra Heavy version is a little too stiff for the 10 – 15lb fish I’m mostly catching, which caused me to pull some hooks on jumping fish. Angler error did play a role. 🙂 The shorter length is easier to work with from the seated position of the kayak. Most offshore kayak guys use rods 6ft 6in or shorter and I’ve been stubbornly using longer rods and losing leverage on bigger fish.

The Avet MX Raptor pairs nicely with the new Black Diamond Heavy rod.

The Megalodan jig rod series has a lot of backbone and guys in SoCal use the larger rod sizes for big bluefin. The one I ordered is rated for PE 2 – 4 (about 30lb braid) and 100g – 200g jigs.

Game Type J on top, Megalodan on the bottom.

Compared to the Shimano Game Type J rod I have that’s rated for even heavier jigs, the Megalodan is stiffer in the tip and has a thicker blank. The Game Type J has a more sensitive feel whereas the Megalodan feels much more robust like it could take the rigors of kayak jigging.

Megalodan on top, Game Type J on bottom.

The Megalodan, with the long EVA foregrip is really made to battle big fish.

After giving both new rods a good shake out, I’ll let you know how they performed and whether I recommend them.

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

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

Red Octopus Beak

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

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

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

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

Silent Chaser EWG Round Head

Tested as jig hook for oio whipping on the flats.

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

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

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

Beastly Cat

Tested as rear live bait hook for offshore fishing.

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

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

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

Raptor Z treble hooks

Tested as replacement hooks for plugs and poppers.

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

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

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

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

Sea Ranger+ assist hooks

Tested as assist hooks on micro jigs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New gear from Rapala – VMC – 13 Fishing!

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

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

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

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

Check back to hear how the new toys perform.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here’s some highlights of the damashi action.

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

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

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

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Jig and BKK assist streamers glow

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!

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

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

There’s so many issues to unpack here.

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

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

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

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

Major Craft Crostage

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

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

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

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

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