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Fished in the rain. Was wet with rolly swells and the fish didn’t like it as much as I expected. Worked hard to get some kau kau.

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This past week’ there was a forecast for light wind and rain, and then slightly stronger wind and no rain the following day. I picked the light wind and rain since fish have usually bitten well on the dark rainy days. Didn’t work out that way. I felt queasy from the chaotic rolling swells and the fishing was slow except for certain periods of the tide. Here’s the short recap.

I wore a light rain jacket all day under my PFD and since it was mostly dark and overcast, I didn’t overheat. Starting off on the bottom of a big rising tide, I expected the fish to chew like they did on the previous trip but that didn’t happen. I caught a nice 2lb yellow spot papio early, and then didn’t get anything good as I went deeper.

At 180ft, on a friend’s mark, I saw a small bait ball near the bottom and actually brought up a big opelu. Opelu has been scarce over the last few trips because they are spawning and not balled up in the shallows. I put the opelu out with a sliding 2.5 oz tungsten weight, and dropped the damashi down again. Something, probably a big papio, broke me off. Then the opelu got hit and I fought the fish for more than 5 second before the 2 hooks pulled. It ran smoothly like a pelagic, but that might be wishful thinking. I couldn’t catch anymore opelu, and had been feeling lousy in the rolling chop, so I started hitting the shallower damashi spots to find calmer water.

In about 150ft, at a spot I had caught a small uku previously on live opelu, I hooked something that pulled line and busted me off on 20lb damashi. I dropped a jig down but they didn’t want to hit anything bigger, so I kept working shallower. The normal productive spots weren’t holding and I was getting a little concerned with only the yellowspot in the bag. Inside 100ft I brought up an invasive toau (blacktail snapper) and a lai (leatherback), which I kept for a friend. I don’t like handling lai because of its venomous spines but carefully clipped them off after I had brained it. Friends tell me big lai makes good sashimi, and toau is good fried.

A small uku paired with a baby nunu came up next so I moved further inside.

Still didn’t have the fish I was hoping for, but then got lucky/blessed as I returned to the mark the yellowspot was at in the morning.

Two moana kali came up on the damashi followed by a slightly larger one. Whew, finally got enough kau kau for friends. Sorry for the rain on the camera lens.

I checked some other areas on the way in, and they were all void of good fish. Pretty slow day but got enough to share and didn’t fully get sick!

My friend Jon from the Big Island was back so he was able to compare yellow spot papio to omilu sashimi, and steam another moana kali after I took a fillet of each fish off for my dad to enjoy.

Jon’s sashimi cuts

One batch of the yellowspot sashimi was garnished with a thin coat of sesame oil and alae salt, then dipped in Chinese mustard and shoyu. The other batch was left plain. Jon found the yellowspot sashimi to be softer than omilu, non-fishy, and delicious. It reminded him of the California yellowtail we both chased in our years up in SoCal.

Jon’s steamed moana kali

The moana kali was steamed and then topped with shoyu, oyster sauce, peanut oil and garlic. He found it moist with soft, flaky meat.

What my dad got was simpler in presentation and taste but to his liking. 🙂

I’m waiting on photos from my friends’ fish prep, hint, hint.

New non-tungsten jigs in the Store, in time for Summer! Intro Pricing!!

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With the Nearshore bite already ramping up, I realized I’d better start putting the non-tungsten jigs up in the Store. We haven’t been able to test each style – size – color combination yet, but every jig cast from shore and dropped from the kayak got bit. Our boat tester hasn’t been able to drop the heavy 180g and 240g rear weighted jigs to the depths yet.

The price of raw tungsten made it economically unfeasible to order more jigs, so I picked some jig shapes that resembled our bait fish, and had them painted to resemble oama, nehu and opelu. We’ll initially keep the price down so you folks can try these jigs and if a fish takes them, it won’t hurt as much. They are priced lower than any other jig you’ll find, and much lower than casting lures.

Paint eventually peeled from sharp teeth, but that’s to be expected with lead jigs. The coating is more resistant on the more expensive tungsten jigs because tungsten is so much harder a metal than lead.

You can find the jigs here. I’ll eventually add the full inventory of styles – sizes – colors and get them all tested.

Papios mugged the damashi so I kept ’em and friends ate ’em! Catch & Cook.

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Last fished in January. February to mid-March was too windy, late March into mid-April was plagued with 3 Kona Lows and brown water. Finally got out last week after almost 11 weeks of dry dock. Kayak fished with a friend, Bill, I had been trying to sync up with for a few years. We started at the bottom of the tide with the tide peaking in the late afternoon. It was really calm, so I didn’t expect a good bottomfish bite.

Bill, ever the optimist, said “you never know until you go”, and that he often gets his pelagic bites at the bottom of the tide. He met a new friend on the way out who gave him some left over live akule, so Bill took them out deep to entice the big fish. I wanted to check the shallow bottom spots on the way out with the trusty damashi / sabiki rig. I couldn’t find opelu but a surprise nabeta came up adjacent to the reef. That was followed up by a beautiful moana kali.

Bill radio’d in that he caught a yellow spot papio and a keeper uku so I left the shallows and went to my 120ft spot. I hooked a 4lb omilu on the 2.25″ CHL Sprat soft plastic, which was unusual. I wanted to catch fish for some good friends visiting from the Big Island, and had promised another friend fish, so I kept the omilu. Normally I release them so they can give the shore guys a go.

I moved deeper, hitting spots I had caught yellow spots and uku, and a hard fighting white papio came up on the damashi. A friend from church really likes the crunch of white papio sashimi so I kept this one also.

Since papios were coming up on spots I normally don’t catch them, I dropped a jig down on a known ulua/kahala deep spot, thinking something else might be home. The 120g Chubby jig got hit on the 2nd drop. It was a 10lb plus kahala and was released.

Since it was so calm and I wasn’t finding the target fish, I decided to check a spot a friend did well at, and traveled half a mile further south than I had ever fished. I didn’t have the mark saved on my fish finder but I did save it on my Navionics phone app, so I used that to get to the area. I marked what looked like a bait ball down deep but when I dropped the damashi, I hooked another white papio, that was getting close to ulua size.

I kept this one for a friend who lives in the area and finds creative ways to eat papio and ulua. I was so over catching these brutish jacks. Or so I thought. Next drop was an even bigger fish I couldn’t land. I went back to the shallows to find some tasty goat fish but couldn’t even pull that off. I got bit off by toothy fish and my Bixpy battery was getting low.

Meanwhile Bill was about a half mile further out and he found a nabeta, and then another good sized yellow spot. I thought of heading back out but could see my battery draining so I headed in. The battery died about 3/4 mile from the launch and I had to paddle unassisted. Good thing I wasn’t further out.

So after not fishing for so long, it turned out to be a very nice day with steady action. Bill got all the good bottom fish and I got my line stretched by jacks, but it was just so enjoyable to be on the water with such a nice guy.

Here’s the video of the action if you haven’t seen it in the previous post.

My friend Jon from the Big Island, who worked as a Tamashiro Market fish cutter in high school, and enjoyed making great tasting seafood dishes for us, deep fried the nabeta and topped it with garlic crunchy oil.

He let the omilu rest and on Day 3, fried the omilu skin, then he fried the papio fillet with salt, pepper and flour, garnished with tartar sauce, saving some for sashimi. I didn’t know the sashimi would have that nice pink coloration. He said it was mild and a little crisp since it was only 3 days out of the water.

The moana kali was steamed with ginger, garlic, chinese parsley, shiitake mushrooms, sesame oil, mirin and sprinkled with red alae salt. After it was done steaming, he drizzled hot peanut oil and garlic over it. To top it off, he spooned a mixture of oyster sauce and shoyu over the fish. The fish was on the small side, so it flaked off into small pieces and loose bones had to be carefully removed.

I suspected those papio were staging to spawn but none had mature gonads. What was also odd was their stomachs were empty. I wonder why there were so many around, hitting such small lures? Maybe all the runoff caused shrimps and crustaceans to fill the deep reef?

Is this a sign that a good papio/ulua season is about to start?

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Resumed kayak fishing after an almost 3 month hiatus. A more detailed report to follow. Started at the bottom of the low tide and fished into the big rising tide. Was very surprised to hook omilu to 4lb and white papio past 10lb that broke me off, all on 1.5″ to 2.25″ Completely Hooked Lures soft plastics fished on 15lb to 25lb damashi rigs.

I’ve never had so many papio hit the damashi, and those big fish seemed to have pushed the reef fish away from my productive spots. Maybe the papio are staging to spawn inshore soon, and are waiting for the halalu and oama to arrive? Could be an epic inshore season!

Here’s a video showing how the fish consistently got larger as the day went on.

Very calm, glassy day yet the small bottom fish bit, unlike the previous trip. Keeper bottom fish didn’t though. Here’s what I think happened.

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Last week I fished a calm day on the Windward side that had chaotic lumpy cross swells and the fishing was extremely slow except for opelu biting all day. This week, the wind and the swells died down, and the water was so clear that divers on jet skis were racing out to check the spots normally undiveable.

I didn’t expect the bottom fish to bite well but they did. The big, desirable keepers were smart enough to stay away, though. Big opelu bit all day again. Here’s the quick recap.

I got out to my first spot and hooked a solo opelu. I lost the school after securing it, so I put it out on a weighted line and went deeper looking for bottom fish. The undesirables bit – big taape, nunu (trumpetfish), hagi, moana so I moved further out. I was able to catch more opelu but the opelu out on the weighted line only got its stomach removed.

On the way to the deep ulua / kahala jigging spot at 200ft I came across some good marks and dropped down. A juvenile uku came up on the damashi so I released it and dropped again, hoping for a much larger version. Something hit the damashi and pulled drag, and after maybe 30 seconds it broke off the 25lb hook line. It didn’t feel like an ulua or kahala so I was intrigued.

I put on a 30lb damashi rig, the heaviest I carry, and dropped again.

A juvenile uku and a juvenile weke nono came up. The right species, just not the right size.

Two large opelu, normally line shy, came up on the 30lb rig with large Completely Hooked Lures Sprats. On the next drop I felt the tail beats of opelu and then the line surged down. I fought what I believe was a shark for less than a minute and the hook line cut, but an opelu came up on the top hook.

I put the live opelu out again on the weighted rig but it didn’t get touched. The bite shut down and all I had in the fish bag were fairly large opelu. I checked my shallow bottom fish spots on the way in, and the small undesirables bit. Nothing good like keeper weke nono, yellow spot papio, moana kali.

At the shallow reef shelf on the way in, I dropped down the damashi as a 4th Quarter – Hail Mary attempt and hooked a malu (single spot goatfish). They don’t get too big, and they have very clean, flaky meat, so this one was added to the fish bag.

Summary: The big opelu bit again, predators weren’t balling them up, and the small bottom fish bit in the calm conditions but the smarter, larger bottom fish didn’t. I’m guessing, since the conditions were so calm, the food chain wasn’t activated. And am also guessing that the cross swells during the previous trip just scattered the bottom fish and didn’t set up feeding lanes.

This separate cooking post details how the opelu were smoked, and how the malu was lightly pan-fried. Both came out winnahs!

Good moon phase, light wind but lumpy cross swells. Opelu bit but pelagics and bottom fish didn’t. Why was that?

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I fished 2 days after the New Moon on the Windward side, which should have been a productive moon phase/tide, and the wind was under 8mph mostly, but there was a weird lumpy rolling East swell and occasional lumps from other directions. With all the surface disturbance, and over cast skies, I would have expected the bite to be phenomenal for bottom fish.

Opelu were at the first stop of the morning, they bit well, and I loaded up with 5. When I dropped the damashi deeper for the good goatfish, there wasn’t much action, which was unusual for the morning. I checked a few more spots before heading deeper to troll the opelu, and they were void too. Nothing hit the live opelu until I dropped it, with a 2.5oz tungsten sliding weight, to the bottom at 150ft.

I hooked something that pulled line initially but came up, which was a good sign. Near that spot was where ulua were wrecking me on the previous trip. Turned out to be a 2lb uku which surprised me because it tried to eat a 10 inch opelu, and punched over its weight class.

Hoping I found the uku honey hole, I dropped another live opelu down and a bigger fish thumped it. The fish pulled line and surged so I was expected a good sized uku, but instead it was a 10lb kahala, probably an almaco/kampachi. I thought about keeping it, but it probably had spaghetti worms and a slight chance of ciguatera so I released it.

Not wanting to battle any more kahala or ulua, I paddled away from the area with another opelu out and ended up over the small opakapaka / weke nono sandy grounds.

I found some but they were too small to keep so I headed back to the shallow bottom fish spots I had checked in the morning.

The bottom fish bite was still extremely slow, with only a few taape, nunu (trumpetfish) and moana hitting. Those are the species that always seem to bite when the better fish don’t. But, big opelu still bit, along with a 1lb kawakawa that came up tail wrapped.

I’m still trying to figure out what caused the fish to have lockjaw, and can only surmise that the larger North swell that rolled through a few days prior moved the food chain out, and the cross swells that day were making things uncomfortable for the fish down there.

Targeted larger fish on the Windward side. Found some that put the hurt on me, and a couple that went home in the fish bag.

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I am grateful for the fish caught out of the Westside on the previous two trips that went to holiday parties, but wanted to catch fish larger than 3lbs. My plan was to use larger soft plastic lures from Completely Hooked Lures, to deter the smaller fish from biting, and drag live opelu around to find a stray mahi mahi or kawakawa. If that failed, I’d drop the 120g tungsten knife jig down in deeper water since I have yet to land a fish on it.

I have been using the Sprat (top lure) and it catches everything including large opelu, but still attracts smaller moana and smaller taape. The Gobie and Grub have thicker profiles so hopefully that are too much of a meal for small fish. That funny little lure on the bottom is a prototype that Landon of Completely Hooked Lures sent over with my order, to try on picky opelu.

I took out a damashi rod rigged for opelu with a CHL Minnow (smaller version of the Sprat) and the prototype little lure on 15lb. I had a second damashi rod rigged with Sprats, Gobies and Grubs for the larger fish, on 25lb.

At the first stop where I normally target moana kali, there were opelu bait balls around and sure enough the lighter damashi rig brought up opelu on both the Minnow and the little lure. The opelu bite was good and by the time I had 6 in my bait tube, there wasn’t anything else good on the bottom. So I headed over to a slightly deeper spot that has held small uku, and big jacks. On the way over, in what I think is a flat hard bottom, was a layer of something right off the bottom. I dropped the larger damashi rig down and a 2lb omilu came up. That was very unusual, finding omilu not on a rocky reef. I released it and caught another omilu right after. Not wanting to be catching hard fighting fish I have to release, I moved on to the uku/ulua spot, but just caught the rubbish fish (trumpetfish and taape) that bite when the conditions are too calm.

So I put a live opelu out with a sliding tungsten bullet weight in front of it, and towed it out a mile. Something took chunks of it behind its head and killed it but was too small to take the hooks. I put another one out and something else took chunks in the stomach area. Odd that those fish didn’t chip away at the entire fish but that was an indication that pelagics weren’t in that specific area.

I reached a spot in 180ft where kahala have hit jigs in the past, and I dropped the mangled opelu down to the bottom. Sure enough something strong grabbed it, and my drag’s strike setting wasn’t strong enough to stop it from rocking me. Assuming there were more kahalas around I dropped down the 120g tungsten knife jig. It took 45 seconds to reach the bottom, and I could barely feel any resistance jigging it back up. On the 4th drop it got hammered and I had the drag set very tight so I wouldn’t get rocked. The fish was so strong and the jig rod’s butt dug into my side. I was huffing and puffing but couldn’t stop to rest because the fish would then turn its head and swim down to rock me. After less than 3 minutes, which felt like 10 mins, a white ulua (GT) surfaced. I had let it depressurize about 20ft below the surface so it was able to swim down fine. Here’s the truncated video of that battle. If you’re interested in purchasing the 120g and 180g tungsten knife jigs, you can find them in the Store here. They’re pricey because they are tungsten, but they won’t tire you out until something big hits it.

I rested up a bit after that jig battle, and motored back to that big fish spot and dropped another chunk of fresh opelu on the bait rod, with the strike setting set higher. Sure enough another fish hit it and I was in for another grueling battle. A slightly bigger ulua came up that I released. Convinced there was nothing else down there but strong fish I didn’t want to fight, I put another live opelu out and headed back to shallower uku spot. Up to this point I just had opelu in my bait tube and nothing in my fish bag.

Finally, I landed a decent sized yellow spot papio after going through moana and big taape.

It took a while to catch a second yellow spot, right after a big opelu was hooked on the big damashi rig, and it was time to head in.

So I struck out with the live bait but the larger damashi lures did seem to attract larger fish, and I was finally able to fish deep enough to catch something on the 120g tungsten knife jig. Pretty good fishing despite very calm conditions and a junk moon phase.

The yellow spot ended up weighing 2lb and 2lb 10oz after being bled, and both were males developing sperm. Maybe all those papio were on the bottom getting ready for a spawn?

My neighbor Brian turned the larger yellow spot papio into something almost too beautiful eat.

Wanted New Year’s fish, Westside shallow bottom provided again!

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I was hoping to catch fish to give for New Year’s. Was too windy anywhere else, and school was still out, making the drive manageable, so Westside was the only viable option. Westside surprisingly provided tasty goats on the previous trip so I was cautiously optimistic.

Friends told me to go deeper forlarger weke nono, and further south for jig action so that was the plan but I stopped at a pretty reliable 170ft spot on the way out and a yellow spot papio, less than 2lb, came up on the damashi rig with Completely Hooked Lures (CHL) soft plastics.

On the next drop I hooked an even stronger papio but this one had brighter blue fins so I released it. I left biting fish to keep going south and deep.

A few spots later, a 1.5lb weke nono hit the CHL Arrow. Then things really slowed for the next hour as I checked the 240ft depth, then kept going south.

I finally stumbled on some nabeta. The first was small, but the small ones are the best eating because their meat is soft, and they deep fry nicely without requiring a lot of oil. The 2nd was a fairly thick one.

Only caught and released another omilu on the south end of this trip, and made my way back. Another 1.5 weke nono was caught, and as I was getting close to the launch I checked that first 170ft spot as the rain and wind picked up. Something that felt like an omilu slammed the damashi rig but I was stoked to see a good sized yellow spot come up.

Though the fish were on the small side, Westside provided again, for 3 different families. What’s interesting is that there aren’t the small, pesky fish that slow me down on the Windward side. Maybe I need to use larger soft plastics on the Windward side to deter those moana, taape, small puffers, lizardfish, etc? And I still need to find the larger weke nono that reside in Westside deeper water.

1st day of testing the new lead jigs. Wow they work!!!

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The wind was projected to be light for a period of 6 days but I waited for a day with a small N swell and better solar – lunar bite periods. I picked the day before the Full Moon to fish the Windward side and it paid off big time. My plan was to get some fish on the new jigs, and also get a pelagic on live opelu. Kind of a big ask since I rarely get either.

Tungsten on left, lead on right, both 60g

The bite period was supposed to be from 10 to 12:30pm and I was at the first spot at 9:15. It was a shallow 60ft spot that has produced reef fish on the damashi before, so I dropped the 60g Chubby jig painted like a fully lit up oama, hoping the length was small enough for the reef fish, since it was the same length as the 60g tungsten jig that had worked incredibly well in the past.

The Chubby reached the bottom and I jigged it up a few cranks and was shocked when it got slammed.

I was more stunned when I saw two moana kali come up, 1 on each hook! The moana kali ended up weighing 1lb 3oz and 2lb 5oz. You can see the actual strike in this video. I was so excited when they hit, I turned off the camera forgetting it was already on, but luckily I took photos and a short video with my phone after they were landed.

I caught some opelu for bait and dragged em around, and out to 200ft when I saw some some life on the sounder. Dropped the 120g flat sided asymmetric jig painted up like a silver/blue bait fish and got hit immediately. The fish rubbed the jig off on the reef and came unbuttoned, so I dropped again. It got hit after quite a few cranks off the bottom and a smallish kahala (greater amberjack) came up. Man those fish pull hard initially. The video below captures the hookup and landing. I ended up hooking 4 fish and landing 2. Since they weren’t almaco jacks (kampachi) I let them go, not wanting to see their worms.

So far the live opelu, cruising on the surface, didn’t get any attention. I paddled back in to test a 3rd jig.

This one was the 100g Nehu with the curvy spine. It only caught taape, probably because it was a little long for the fish in the 100ft zone.

With the jigging goal accomplished, I focused on using the damashi to catch good eating fish. The bite remained good despite it being so calm, which I attribute to the good solunar effect.

I got busted off on the 20lb damashi set by a heavy fish, and moved up to the 25lb damashi set. Landed two yellow spot papios, which make excellent sashimi, and some big opelu that weren’t line shy. The bite slowed at 2pm and I kept dropping the damashi on the way in but didn’t catch any more keepers.

It was the best action I’ve ever had on the kayak although nothing hit the live opelu besides a small aha that perforated it a bit.

The new lead jigs definitely work when dropped on good marks. They did sustain some bite marks/paint peeling, from all the teeth encountered, but held up pretty well overall.

The jigs are going out to the lure testers. I only had 5 of each of the 10 sizes/colors flown in via air mail, with the rest coming by boat. Almost half of the 50 jigs have been claimed. Please contact me if you’re interested in trying them at the Lure Testing pricing. Mahalo.

All the jigs are described here.

New JDM quality jigs are in. Highly effective, custom painted for Hawaiian waters, and very reasonably priced. 60g to 240g. Testers wanted.

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All jigs have a subtle glow accent

Been trying to procure lures that will catch fish from shore and from boats/kayaks, and be cheap enough where it won’t hurt too much when a fish swims away with it. Lead jigs fit that bill and I had a batch painted in our favorite inshore and offshore colors. Some are designed to cast well and have an erratic retrieve from shore. Others are very compact in shape so they sink as quickly as possible, yet can be made to dance on the retrieve. The jigs look almost too beautiful to fish, but the paint job is very durable so you should be able to admire their looks trip after trip.

We plan to sell these JDM quality jigs at a much lower price than you could find elsewhere. We are in the process of testing/catching fish on the new jigs. Please Contact us if you want to purchase a few at Lure Tester pricing. Check out the 360 degree videos below.

60g Jigs

60g Nehu Wiggle

100g to 120g Jigs

100g Beveled Asymmetric painted like an oama
100g Chubby painted like an oama
120g Beveled Asymmetric in Blue & Silver

190g to 240g Jigs

190g rear weighted Cherry Bomb

Here’s how the first day of jig testing went.

My Pelagic dog luck continues! Short POV video included.

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Previous to my recent shibi and kawakawa catch, I hadn’t caught pelagics (migratory offshore fish) in 2 years. Because of that recent success, I planned to drag live opelu out to the deep at my favorite Windward spot to see if the late Fall pelagics were still around.

It was another too calm day between windy days, and the fish weren’t interested in the damashi. I finally found some happy opelu that jumped on the damashi hooks and took one out past 250ft, weighted down with a 2oz tungsten bullet weight. Nothing bothered it, and the damashi fishing in the deep was nonexistent, so I paddled back in to try to salvage the trip by catching good eating reef fish.

I’m not good at keeping the trolling line out of my rudder mounted motor while damashi fishing, so I reeled the live opelu up and kept it just at the surface a couple feet from the kayak. The damashi fishing in the 100ft range was slow but I did release a 2lb omilu, and stumbled upon a 1.5lb yellow spot papio, which is the 2nd best eating jack after the kagami.

I couldn’t find any more yellow spots, and I was shocked to hear my live bait reel’s clicker go off in a jerky manner. Then I saw a small mahi mahi jumping about 30ft away from me. Because the line’s “belly” took a while to catch up to where the jumping fish was, I wasn’t sure if that was my fish.

The fish jumped 4 times in rapid succession and didn’t look that big, but took line off the reel in spurts. I kept the drag moderately tight so it wouldn’t rip off. He fought over his weight class but came up worn out and docile.

I was stoked to catch a mahi, and carefully bled it, and chilled it on the kayak. Put out another live opelu on the weighted rig, and it was hit by a very strong fish that ran off a lot of line. I was convinced I hooked a nice shibi ahi but ended up with a 30lb ulua that was released. Bought ice on the way home to keep the mahi as cold as possible overnight.

Here’s a short video of the mahi fight as I experienced it in the kayak seat.

Yellow spot papio sashimi. Photo by Brian

My neighbor Brian and his family love yellow spot papio sashimi because it’s so clean but also a little oily tasting. They mopped the plate.

Better looking mahi cuts

The mahi weighed in at just under 7lb and I able to get a little over half of that in fillet yield. These are the nicer, more presentable cuts. The less than perfect ones went to my family. The mild, firm meat was enjoyed raw and pan fried by all.

Pan fried in butter, topped with furikake and ponzu, by Brian

Don’t know how much longer my pelagic lucky streak will last but I am checking the wind forecast a few times a day in hopes there will be another break in the weather.

Caught my first shibi ahi ever, and a kawakawa to boot! Totally unexpected.

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It’s been 2 years since I caught a pelagic (migratory fish like tunas, mahi, ono, etc) and I had kinda given up on trying after so many recent attempts where my live opelu were just dog boned (grabbed in the center and eventually let go) by fish not big enough to swallow the 10 inch bait.

I’ve been perfectly happy using my 3-hook damashi (sabiki) rig and dropping jigs when the sabiki rig was broken off by big fish.

But in last week’s short window of light to moderate south wind on the Windward side, I went back to the area I had recently fished, hoping to get more kagami papio and uku. (Here’s the kagami post, and here’s the uku post from the last 2 trips). The tide was flat and the unusual south wind may have put the fish off their feed. Sonar marks weren’t very good and the big damashi strikes were absent. The only good species I caught was a small yellowspot papio that I considered keeping but was really too small to get much meat out of.

I checked some other spots on the slow return to shore and caught an opelu, by accident. I kept it alive in my footwell but it was beginning to weaken so I put it out with a sliding 2 oz tungsten weight to get it down near the bottom. Eventually an aha (needlefish) left pin pricks all over its body and it was near death as I pulled up to a usually productive opelu spot. I was gonna change out that dying opelu with one I had just caught, but figured the opelu would just get finished by another aha.

The opelu weren’t there and neither were the normally present bottom fish but suddenly my reel started screaming like I’ve only heard once before, when an ono hit on the South Shore. Ono had been caught in the last few days within a few miles, but this strong running fish dove deep and out, and took line in surges. Even though I had never caught a shibi (yellowfin tuna under 100lb), I strongly suspected it was one since friends have caught them there in the early hours in the past.

I had my drag set slightly looser than normal because I didn’t want to lose this fish. It pulled me in a semi circle near some structure and stayed down 50ft until I finally broke it’s spirit. After about a 7 min stressful fight, I could see yellow sickles and fins! Spearing it with my kage gaff was a blooper reel as I kept missing the kill shot and ended up inadvertently bleeding it by the throat.

It looked huge to me as I strained to get it on board. I (over) estimated 25lb, and it was a struggle to safely put it in the fish bag behind me, with so much slippery blood all over the place. I have to learn how to do that without sitting side saddle and putting my feet in the water!

The remaining opelu had died because the water in the footwell was thick with the shibi’s blood. Not expecting any more action, I put that out on the weighted rig and 2 minutes later it went off! This fish felt smaller than the first and I fought it with a higher drag setting. It turned out to be a kawakawa that was foul hooked on its belly!

Since it came up upside down, I just grabbed it by the tail and lifted it into my yak. More blood in the deck! The south wind had gone up over 15mph at this point and I didn’t want to risk flipping over as I tried to make room for this fish in the full fish bag, so I paddled in ’til the wind was calmer before bagging it.

I could not believe my good fortune. After trying for years to catch a shibi, which are known to only be fooled in low light and stealthy rigs, I caught one with a perforated opelu on a weight, then followed that up with a kawakawa hooked in the belly. One theory shared by a passing jet skier with live opelu, is that the water clarity was bad in areas these fish were normally caught, and they moved down to where I was, to be able to see the bait. These were the first fish to test the Phenix Black Diamond Rod and Avet MX Raptor combo, and the combo said “is that all ya got?”.

shibi (top), kawakawa (bottom)

The 18lb 12oz shibi was easier to clean and fillet than the 13lb kawakawa, because the shibi was a little firmer and had more defined sections to quarter. It also had a lot less blood meat to remove. God is good!

shibi
kawakawa

Windward side kayak: Lots of juvie fish released, jig taken, weke ula and kagami mauled by big fish!

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Hadn’t fished the Windward side since April, and Tropical Storm Henriette was blocking the trade winds for a couple of days this week. I had to wait out the high swell it generated, so I launched late – 10:30am. It took an hour to reach the opelu spot, paddling through the moderate chop. Couldn’t find any opelu and the began fishing the bottom with damashi/sabiki for anything big enough and good enough to eat.

8 inch opakapaka and 10 inch weke nono (weke ula) were released. Then I fought something that steadily pulled drag and stopped. Turned out a weke nono was picked up sideways, mauled and dropped after about a 10 second run. The tooth pattern isn’t of aha (needlefish), barracuda or shark, which would have torn the soft fish. I thought of putting a live bait down but I wanted to keep looking for better fish with the damashi.

At 2:30pm, after 3 hrs of sifting through miscellaneous small fish, I made the decision to paddle a mile south since the wind was still calm. Bigger fish showed up on the fish finder and kawalea (Heller’s barracuda) were coming up on the damashi. I dropped down the Duo Metal Force 120g jig on 40lb fluoro with a teaser and caught a little hawkfish on the jig. 🙂 A kawalea then bit the teaser, and on the next drop the jig and teaser were bitten off instantly! Guess that’s the downside of using a bite-sized heavy jig. It can fit in big fish’s mouth.

Went back to the 20lb damashi rig with Completely Hooked Lures “Sprats” and hooked two 10 inch uku on successive drops. Every drop of the damashi was getting bit but still nothing large enough to keep.

Then I hooked something on the damashi rig that pulled line. Finally a bigger fish hopefully worth keeping. After a 3 minute battle from 100ft down, a shiny papio glimmered below the surface of the water. Could that be the rare kagami papio (African Pompano)? It was!! No wonder it fought so hard, using its flat side as resistance.

They are very thin bodied fish so I don’t consider keeping them until they’re over 7lb and losing their long streamers, but something attacked the fish on the way up and left deep gashes near the anal fin. I decided to keep this delicious fish and kage’d (spear gaff) it to secure it.

What a wild spot, with predators attacking such a large fish! I tried catching more fish but couldn’t find the hot spot again and it was 4:30pm, well past the time I normally paddle in. Sadly, I had to leave the best action I had all day. Even with the wind at my back, it took an 75 minutes to get in.

On land, I examined the kagami papio more closely and it appears that a fish grabbed it near its anal fin and ripped thru the thin skin. The wound was pretty deep and I felt justified in keeping the 4lb kagami.

I got more than a pound and a half of clean, firm fillets off it that will be incredible raw after dry aging for more than 4 days.

It was great to finally find larger, hungry fish and I’ll need another calm day to reach that wild spot again.

I was kayak fishing while the Tsunami was a few hours from reaching Hawaii! Here’s a quick recap of what happened.

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I fished between the New Moon and Full Moon, and the bite was incredibly slow. I went out as deep as 300ft, and covered 5 miles in 6 hrs and barely marked fish on the fish finder. For the 3rd trip in a row, I got a Hail Mary fish as I was heading in, to put in my empty fish bag. A strong pulling yellow spot papio hit the damashi on the same 100ft reef and came up dusky colored like a kahala. When I reached land, a siren sounded and I was informed that a tsunami watch had started. That transitioned to an actual tsunami warning and I left Waianae for town at 4pm and crawled through traffic, with 4 stalled cars, multiple emergency vehicles and 1 accident along with way, reaching home at 6pm. Turns out town started evacuating at 3pm so the town traffic wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

The underwater camera showed that the hagi (trigger fish) and small moana were still around on the bottom, but the desirable predators were absent. Notice how blues and green tints show up well at 170ft but the red of the moano in the center-left looks dark with a white spot. Maybe they felt the initial earthquake reverberations and decided not to come in to feed, instead finding a safe place to ride out the tsunami?

The 2lb yellow spot was still dark colored in death. Maybe it was under duress because of the unusual activity in the ocean? I gave the yellow spot to a friend and he said it was “excellent” as sashimi.

Westside damashi: Bite is improving? Broke off some good fish and got another Hail Mary weke nono to save the day.

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Click to enlarge

Fished the New Moon day, a week before the Russian Tsunami threatened Hawaii, and reached the 100ft spot at about 9am at the bottom of the tide. The Solunar bite was supposed to pick up at noon so I didn’t expect much but it was wide open for small yellow spot papio. Released one, kept the next one when bigger fish busted off the rest of the damashi rig.

Dropped down the compact 120g Duo Metal Force jig with a Completely Hooked Lures (CHL) Sprat teaser on 40lb test. The marauders didn’t hit the jig but other fish like lai (leatherskin queenfish) and nunu (trumpetfish) hit the teaser.

By the time I went back to the 20lb damashi rig, the yellow spot school was gone. This was the best morning bite I’ve experienced in the last 3 trips so my expectations rose but the bite slowed down. The wind flipped to a 10 – 17mph NW direction as it often does by 11am and I pushed out a little deeper to a normally productive spot. Besides hooking and breaking off something good on the 20lb rig, nothing else but moana and taape came up. I moved up to the 25lb damashi rig with only the lone yellow spot papio in my fish bag. The solunar bite time came and went.

At 2pm, things were looking bleak so I stopped off at the 100ft spot on the way in and kind of drifted with the damashi rig on the bottom. I was shocked when something strong pulled line and I kept whispering “please stay on, please stay on“. The hard fighting fish turned out to be a much appreciated weke nono / weke ula that saved the day. The same exact thing had happened the last time I fished this spot. Thank you Jesus! I tried for more but at this point the King Tide was over 2ft and the fish weren’t liking the surge.

Click to enlarge

The stomach contents of the weke nono revealed why it hit the 2.25 inch CHL Sprat lure. It had just eaten two baby lizardfish.

I put down a freshly painted damashi lead to see if that would attract more fish but instead the lead ended up with slices in it. (I forgot to take a photo of the slices before I painted over them.) Maybe a fish broke its teeth trying to bite it?

That makes me think that the fish are hitting the jigs but are too small to swallow the assist hooks.

Looks like I have to go deeper to find larger fish.

Click to enlarge

The yellow spot papio weighed 1lb and the weke nono was 2lb 10oz and 16 inches, which may be my PB. It made very clean sashimi for the family.

With visible plankton in the water and 80 degree temps, I’m hopeful that the fishing will continue to get better through December.

Avet MX Raptor and LX Raptor long term reviews. Needs minimal maintenance but it does rust if you neglect it.

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Avet reel frames are precision machined from marine-grade aluminum in 1 continuous piece, and have stainless steel parts, but do need *common sense* reel maintenance. The reels are compact and light weight, yet capable of landing large fish.

I asked 2 customers to share their long-term experience, and end with my story of what happens if you don’t clean them for 2 years straight. While the 3 of us are kayak fishermen, the reels would also do well from shore or on boats.

Lawrence – Oahu kayak fisherman

The Avet LX Raptor is my favorite kayaking conventional reel. In my opinion, the size is just right and not too bulky. My setup line capacity holds 2000′ (667 yd) of 65 pound power pro Depth-Hunter braid and 25′ yards of 50 pound fluorocarbon leader line. The drag is very precise and the lever drag makes it a highlight to swing into fight drag. The 2 speed option is great, I normally fish with the high speed retrieve, however battling a 118 pound Marlin, and stubborn ulua, the low gear made the fight much easier. I’ve self service the LX Raptor with no problems. In summary, I definitely recommend the Avet LX Raptor to any kayak fisherman.

Oahu kayak fisherman who has been using 2 LX Raptors for 3 years:

This is just my personal opinion, but the LX, HX and HXW Raptor 2-speeds, partnered with custom Rainshadow acid wrap rods are hands down, the best reels for offshore kayak fishing because of their size, weight, and line capacity. The Raptors are easy to self-service, and I have replaced bearings after hard use.

Scott – How I abused my MX Raptor and regretted it:

Sadly, I am the example of how not to take care of your Avet reel. I have been using the smallest Raptor, the SX Raptor, and when I clean it after a year’s use, there’s usually very little salt crystals and corrosion. I started using the next size up, the MX Raptor about 2 years ago. I’d take it out on my kayak with my other reels and almost never use it because I didn’t put out a live bait. It got splashed on and I just rinsed it off, but I kept the drag pretty tight, and it turns out, the drag assembly didn’t have a chance to air out.

I recently felt the drag “binding” and when I opened the reel up, there was salt and some corrosion under the drag lever and stack.

The drag washer was actually rusting because the drag plate had been stuck on it for so long. The binding I was feeling when cranking the reel was actually the rust particles on the drag washer!

I cleaned the plate and washer off with Corrosion Block and the binding sensation went away, but am ordering replacements for them. The corrosion came off the other parts after cleaning with Corrosion Block, so my negligence didn’t have lasting effect.

Lesson learned: Back off your drag after washing the reel down, and open it up and clean it if you dunk it badly. At the minimum, service it once a year and it will last forever.

If you’re interested in ordering an Avet reel, please contact me through the Contact Page. Shipping the reels from California are increasingly more expensive so we try to order in bulk. Mahalo.

Hail Mary catches on a slow day of kayak fishing – Underwater Video

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It’s been too windy to fish anywhere else, so a friend and I went back to the Westside on the New Moon, hoping to pull some fish up from the depths. He was paddling without aid of a motor and the unexpected strong winds generated from rain squalls kept him within a safe distance of our launch.

I checked out some recommended grounds 2 miles away but only taape and small moano were interested in the damashi (sabiki) rig. The 120g tungsten knife jig did work as an attractant on my jigging setup, when the teaser lure hooked a small weke ula / weke nono, but nothing hit the jig itself.

The wind and rain increased and my friend decided it was not worth the battering, and went in. I moved closer to the launch but was stubbornly trying to catch something good to take home. In the peak of the downpour, at 150ft, a menpachi came up. They normally only feed at night, but this is the 2nd time I’ve caught one in heavy rain in this area. It was big enough to keep and gave me hope for more.

There was a small area that was marking fish but I couldn’t stay over it in the wind so I eventually gave up and moved within half a mile of shore. I baited one of my hooks and a pink tail triggerfish (hagi) immediately jumped on. After catching and releasing 5 more stinky hagi I decided to drop down the underwater CanFish CamX camera with 2 soft plastic lures, and added some fish skin on the bottom hook.

I was shocked when something actually pulled drag, after not hooking anything that large all day. I was hoping it was an uku (green jobfish) since I was fishing over a reef, but instead of good sized weke ula / weke nono came up. Finally something my family could enjoy!

I dropped the camera rig down again, hoping lightning would strike twice. Nothing else bit and I decided I should be happy with God have given me, so I went in. When I looked at the underwater footage at home, I was stunned to see 2 weke nono and an omilu check out the rig, with one of the weke nono gulping down the lure. On the next camera drop, a blue/gray nabeta swam by. I would so surprised to see such desirable fish a half mile from shore.

Here’s the underwater video, with my in-the-kayak view also.

One fish, two fish, red fish…

The weke nono weighed almost 2.5lb and the fillets were so clean. We ate it raw as sashimi and poke, and it was still non-fishy and firm 5 days later. The menpachi, first I’ve ever cleaned, was good shoyu/sugar Japanese style.

Holoholo: Bucket list fish – marlin on 40lb leader, on the kayak!

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Lawrence, who previously wrote about his first kagami ulua he caught on a Duo jig, shares the long battle he had with a 100 plus marlin he hooked on a spinning setup. @DSfishingHI is his YouTube channel.

Lawrence:

I met Elliott at the harbor at around 3:30am and out of the blue he said “let’s go buoy?” Looked at my poles and said to him “I only have 40# and 50# test but I can take a chance”.

Akule was slow but managed to pickup about 10 pieces. Rigged up 3 top (surface) lines with akule (1 long, 1 medium, and 1 downrigger.)

Off we go into the deep, sun at this point has risen but still behind the mountains. At 5:35am, only quarter way to the buoy, my medium-distant pole gets active as my bait gets nervous. 

Looking back, I see a splash, then a silhouette of a Marlin. I radio to Elliott “We got action, It’s a Marlin!”

This Marlin starts doing some aerial acrobatic maneuvers at this point, while skipping on the water straight towards me, and I felt like I was in danger with its long sharp bill heading my direction. Although thankfully, it veered off looking like a giant rock that I would skip on the oceans surface as a kid. It also made a sudden direction change which gave me some exciting adrenaline. First visual contact, I estimated this fish to be approximately 100 pounds on my 40 pound fluorocarbon shock leader with 43 pound test wire leader paired with a Penn Spinfisher 8500 LL. It then dives into the depths where we battle it out. 40 pound test against a 100+ pound fish, I only could baby it, let it tire out, and set my mind for the long haul ahead of me.

The first hour was filled with consistently playing a game of tug or war. I then managed to get it within 20 feet of the kayak 4 times. Thinking it was tiring out and this game could come to an end. However it suddenly starts taking line and doing more somersaults. This is the type of action I crave for as a fisherman.

Furthermore, this fight continues now at hours 2 to 3 as this marlin would pull line down to 150′, plateau then I could turn its head and gain roughly 100 feet back. We would do this about 35 times. Marlin is putting up a good fight and I’m showing persistence.

Just after the 3 hour mark I noticed a trend where the Marlin would dive deep. It’s here I was able to get it closer to the kayak. A few more dives and reel ups I got it up next to the kayak, grabbed my kage and speared it, thinking I had the Marlin secured. Oh no not yet, it decides to do some last kicks and slips off my kage. A minute or 2 of it barely swinging and bleeding out profusely I managed to get a holding kage stab. 

In my 1.5 years of kayak fishing I carried a short baseball bad and finally for the first time I used it to hit against the Marlin’s head and put it out of it’s misery.

Also for the first time I used my custom gaff matching with my kage, made from Reef Candy Lures. I gaffed the bottom jaw and secured it to the front rail of my kayak with 550 paracord and also tied the tail to back rail.

At this moment I realized I landed a 112 pound striped Marlin on 40 pound test, enduring a 3.5hr fight. I can glady say I caught a Marlin, a fish of a lifetime from a kayak. Check that off the bucket list.

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.