Easier way to car rack my yak

October 18, 2017 By Scott 2 Comments

I’ve been racking my 15 yr old Scupper Pro on my 18 yr old Subaru Legacy Outback (they didn’t make actual Outbacks back then). Like the yak and car, my body isn’t getting any younger. The Scupper Pro is 14′ 9″ and close to 60lbs wet, which is light compared to modern fishing kayaks, but getting harder to hoist onto the rack after paddling for 4 hrs.

Turns out Thule makes a sliding pad and cradle system so old paddlers don’t have to clean and press their yaks. You put a protective mat on the back of your car, lean the bow of yak on the mat with the stern on the ground and push the yak onto the rear pads that swivel and allow the yak hull to slide through. The two front cradles are set to hug the hull snugly. Resting the yak on the back of the car really takes the pressure off a stiff back.

Found the discontinued version of the Thule Glide and Set system on eBay and a cosmetic blem version of the Thule Waterslide mat on Amazon at great prices and the system really did make racking and unracking a breeze. Hopefully I’ve added 10 more years to my kayak fishing career. As added bonuses, the yak sits more securely when strapped onto the rack, and I can open the hatchback while the yak is on the raised pad.

Live oama came through, I didn’t…

October 12, 2017 By Scott 2 Comments

The waves were 1 – 3 ft and the wind speed was about 8 – 10 mph on the Eastside, but the water was textured with some rolling swells past the reef. Conditions weren’t as clean as the last two times we fished there but it was still doable.

Frank and I took 8 oama each that were caught 2 weeks previously and pampered in my tubs. They had lost a bit of weight but were still chunky and irresistible looking.

On the way out we saw a monk seal flipping around near the turtles in the channel. That was a rare sight and hopefully indicated a lot of sea life. We headed in the direction I had fished the last time, staying safely away from the back of the waves and going from the dropoff at 40 ft onto the reef shelf. At 20 ft the fish finder showed fish on the bottom and I got a strike on the 1st live oama at 17 ft but it eventually shook off. Frank got a strike a few seconds after mine and landed his. My on-the-water shots were from my hat cam so I didn’t capture any of his action.

While Frank and I were in close proximity talking, I got a strike and my line had to be hand lined by Frank initially. He expertly cleared the line and gave me room to land the omilu. I didn’t plan to put my feet in the water to tag a fish so I bagged it. With a fish each, the pressure was off for us.

We continued down wind and I got a strong hit on my 3rd oama but I was too relaxed in my retrieval and it found some rocks. I could feel it running through the rocks and couldn’t pull it out. I gave it slack, it ran some more but never came out of that hole. It was really hard to break off the 25lb fluoro leader from the kayak. I re-rigged and tightened my drag, vowing not to be rocked again. All this action was within the first 30 mins but after we paddled into a deep sandy channel the bites stopped. U-turning around to head upwind to where we had come from, I got an odd nibble in 40ft of water.

I tightened the line and a fish rocketed out of the water. Awa awa!! I have been trying to catch one all year and was stoked. But it jumped again and was gone. The hooks pulled because my drag was so tight – arrrggggghhhh! Before I had a chance to react Frank got a pull, an awa awa leaped out of the water and it too shook the hook. Excited but bummed, we headed back against the wind and again, when we entered the 20 ft ledge I got a hit. The hook got stuck in my net when I landed the omilu and as I tried to free it I drifted ominously close to the back of the waves. I scampered away, cut the hook off the line and re-tied my rig. Frank radio’d in that he was going up the line to where he had success the last two outings.

He skirted the back of the waves, getting pushed a couple of times, while I stayed in deeper water and didn’t get another bite. The wind picked up to 12 – 15 mph and I headed for the safety of the inner reef. The tide had been dropping and the bite really slowed. Frank’s persistence paid off with another omilu on a halalu and a long trumpetfish on a live oama that was so bright yellow it spooked him.

Live oama proved to be irresistible on the first 1/3 of the falling tide but I “farmed” 3 of my 5 strikes. Hope we get another shot at awa awa before the year is up. Here I am with our combined catch before Frank cleaned them on the beach.

Live oama is still King but frozen halalu got the big strikes

October 5, 2017 By Scott 3 Comments

The early morning forecast was for light winds and small waves on the Eastside so Frank and I launched our watercraft and put out the thick live oama, Kelly and I caught last week. Frank headed down the coast, staying just behind the breaking waves, and I used my fish finder to survey the deeper reef behind the surf line. We kept in touch via waterproof walkie-talkie.

The tide was just beginning to rise so the bite was slow until it reached the bottom third. My line got stuck a few times and I was able to pull out the snag and retain my double hooks but was missing the oama. Finally it felt like a fish was on but the fight felt odd. A 10 inch yellow spot papio was hooked on the front hook and an 11.5 inch omilu was on the back hook. Gotta love the sticky sharp Gamakatsu Live Bait hooks. The yellow spot was probably trying to turn and swallow the big oama when the omilu got hooked trying to steal it from him. They’re doing their best synchronized swimming routine here.

I decided to try to tag them if I could them back in the water in good shape. Tagging one papio in the narrow quarters of my Scupper Pro is hard, two was quite a challenge, but the snag-free floating Promar net helped a lot. While I was tagging the second papio, Frank got a hit that pulled his live oama off.

Frank then landed an omilu on the live oama and a huge roi on frozen halalu, battling him for a long time. Then Frank and I both had our live bait pulled into the rocks or cut off our leader. Kelly paddled out to join us and I gave him the live bait bucket with the 7th live oama. I had one on my line and had used 5 to only catch those 2 papio I tagged. Not a very efficient use of the live bait. Kelly advised me to paddle up the coast towards the channel that’s fed brackish water, and he headed down towards Frank. They can safely fish much closer to the waves on their SUPs than I can, so they often fish together.

Kelly immediately caught an omilu on the outer reef and called Frank over. Frank converted his last 3 live oama to 2 lb plus omilu and then they both used halalu for some omilu caught and missed.

Going towards the stream outflow was the right call for me. There were weird plankton and maybe jellyfish blooms (I got a series of small stings on my ankles) and schools of larger bait fish being boiled on. I free spooled the last oama down and it was picked up before it reached the bottom. The fish felt pretty decent but ended up holing up in the rocks. I could feel it still on but couldn’t free it and eventually broke it off.

I hooked a frozen halalu in the nose and butt and let line out. Something tugged in rapid jerks and pulled it off. I put another on and this time it stuck… line screamed off the reel. You can guess what the fish was before you see it landed in this video. I followed it up with a small omilu on a halalu that I kept for the parents.

Trolling baits near the bottom was working really well so I wanted to see if I could drop a frozen baitfish down on my whipping setup and work it back. This failed miserably. The fish either missed the single, front hook or the bait fell apart after a few casts. At this point I realized I somehow knocked my walkie talkie in the water and it had floated away. I paddled back to the channel we had gone out of and waited for Frank and Kelly to see me since they were probably searching for me. Frank turned the into the channel and hooked and landed his biggest omilu, and Kelly missed two smaller omilu inside the break. Good, safe fishing day with the boys.

Here’s Frank’s catch. Look how big the roi is. With the understanding that roi isn’t that much more of a cig risk than papio, Frank filleted the roi and steamed it Chinese style. Said it was super ono. The omilu he shared with kupuna neighbors who rarely get to eat fresh fish.

Let me know what you think of videos. I’m still learning the basics of video editing, with a lot of help from Erik (@fishoahu) who has some killer action videos on Instagram.

We found papio that wanted to bite!

September 13, 2017 By Scott 2 Comments

By all accounts, this summer season has been the best in recent memory for oama and halalu. Both species came in early and are still around in big numbers. Theories for their respective abundance are: 1) previous oama seasons have been very good and the increase in adult weke led to another good spawn 2) akule grow faster and spawn better during rainy years and the last few years have been rainier than those previous.

Whatever the reason for such a great bait season, it’s actually been hard to catch papio lately because they’ve had so much bait to choose from. Kelly had been scouting some grounds on his SUP and invited Frank and me for a dawn patrol outing at one of his productive spots recommended by Erik, our nearshore boat friend. It’s been great to share knowledge in our little fishing hui.

I don’t think I’ve ever arrived at a fishing spot while it was still dark. Early mornings are not my thing but Kelly had a mid morning appointment so dawn it was. The water was sheet glass calm and stayed that way until about 10:30.

In the too-early morning stumble I forgot to take my pack of frozen oama, so I bummed 3 frozen halalu and 5 frozen oama off Kelly and Frank. The guys paddled off on their SUPs and I kept in touch with Frank via waterproof walkie talkie. They were trolling with a small weight on their line and I was using a floater. Kelly hooked up first, followed by Frank. I followed their trolling paths inside the break yet nothing hit my oama. Kelly missed another fish while retrieving his line and suggested I whip instead of trolling high up in the water column on such a clear visibility day. The guys went out through a large deep channel to fish outside the break but I opted to fish the edge of the channel itself, carefully eyeing the small surf wash over the reef shelf.

Frank reported via walkie talkie that he landed his second papio so I knew they were hooking up. I left the floating oama out and rigged the second rod with a sliding weight to drag an oama near the bottom. Something pulled it off and on the next cast I hooked a poopa’a. Well at least that was more action than I got with the floated oama. Frank called in his 3rd papio and I asked what he was using. Halalu! I dug around and pulled out a 6 inch halalu. It was big for the size of Gamakatsu Live Bait hook I was using but I was too lazy to re-rig. I cast it out and as it was settling to the bottom the line moved. Finally, a real fish. Started cranking it in and remembered to turn on the GoPro cap cam. Drifted into my trolling line so I kept the fish on a short leash as I reached for the net. You can see the trolling line in the video. Cardinal mistake, keeping its head out of the water so it could shake the poorly placed hook. Well, at least I had video proof I *caught* a decent fish. I figured I solved the bait secret and looked for another halalu. The last two were pretty beat up with their stomachs oozing stuff but I tried ’em anyway.

Next cast, still in the channel, I hooked something… arrggh, turned out to be a roi. But the halalu bait was on the outside of the fish so I tried to net it before the halalu fell off. Kept it too high in the water again and you can see the halalu sink to the bottom. I stabbed the roi deeply with a knife and sent it back to join the halalu.

I only had one more beat up halalu left so I changed to a larger Gamakatsu Live Bait hook. I like them when just using one hook behind a bullet sinker because their shank is short so the bait fish is butted close to the sinker. I put on a nice looking oama and some kind of shiny papio followed it back to the boat. It kind of looked like a small kagami, but it didn’t commit. Some other fish hit the oama and jumped out of the water but didn’t hook up either. Tired of missing fish, I rigged the last halalu and something, roi I’m sure, pulled it into the rocks. Just then Kelly was making his way in. He said he and Frank found a hot spot past the waves and the bite was really good on the trolled halalu.

I could see Frank paddling in towards me, then start fighting a fish just outside the break. He called me via walkie talkie to report his largest SUP caught fish. The 19 inch omilu was still alive with really dark coloration like it had swum out of a cave. Frank had used his last halalu, a pretty large one that was missing its tail. Man, the fish really wanted halalu at this spot.

Frank was trolling a small lai and I followed behind casting a 1 oz sinking swimming lure. With all the action the boys had I braced to have the rod wrenched from my hands. The lure cast well, swam pretty well, but nothing hit it. Hmm… I swapped it out with a sinking lipped lure that worked on big white papio in the past. Nada. Frank’s lai got pulled off and he put on an oama. I switched to a small tungsten jig. Maybe the dawn witching hour was over, it was past 10am at this point and nothing was interested in our baits. As we paddled in, Frank got bit on his trolled oama near the side of the channel I had fished in the morning. He landed an omilu and missed another 2 before we called it a day.

Maybe it was due to the extremely clear visibility and proximity to a halalu school nearby that caused the predators to strongly prefer halalu baits over oama and show no interest in my lures. Frank had his best day SUP fishing, ending with 6 omilu from 13 to 19 inches, and one lai. I took a mercy papio from him, and he dropped fish off with his daughter on the way home. After proving to be a halalu prodigy, he’s now dominating the SUP trolling scene. Kelly did very well also in the short time he was there and was an excellent host.

Tide, moon phase, time of day, bait, water clarity, location, season – what’s most important?!!

August 4, 2017 By Scott 6 Comments

There were some calm wind days this week so I decided to yak fish a spot I hadn’t since last season. I had missed the early start on the first day because my oama had a major die off in one of the tubs and I had to scramble to try to save the remaining live ones. Took some of them out to troll mid-morning at the top third of the tide. The moon was already more than half full and water clarity was ok at the deep drop off.

Floating debris signaled the slack peak tide. The fish finder detected a lot of bait fish near the surface. The head-hooked live oama were pulled off or the barely hooked predators shook off quickly. Two bigger fish cut me off on the edge of the sharp reef. Very slow bite with live oama, figured the mid-morning start was to blame. The only thing I hooked, at the end of the session, was this table boss.

Figuring the evening bite would be much better, Frank and I hit the same spot two days later at about 3pm. This time the tide was dropping from the high tide and water clarity was poor. Bait fish were detected all around, near the drop off and well into the deep channels but nothing hit the dead oama that had died in my tubs. We paddled away from the shoreline drop off to find cleaner water, and clarity improved but there weren’t a lot of bait holding near the papa edges. Frank did have a strike that pulled on his dead oama a few times, eventually pulling it off without getting hooked. Looked like a small omilu that hits from the tail-side and yanks. I didn’t get a single strike.

Was the oama too stink from partially decomposing in the tubs? Did the fish only want live oama? Was the moon too big, just 4 days before the full moon? Was the falling tide bad even though it coincided with darkening sky? Maybe there’s too much bait so close by that the fish don’t need to check out a hooked bait? What conditions do you guys like to fish?

It sure seems like Screamer Season is over for us. The big strikes that surprised us at the start of the “season” are a distant memory.

Find the bait, then find the elusive white papio school?

July 28, 2017 By Scott 3 Comments

Frank and I have been chasing reports of schools of white papio marauding bait in the deep channels but we’ve always been a paddle or two behind. Bolo-ing on the last mid-morning search, we decided to try the evening bite. Conditions were challenging, with gusts over 20 mph and rain threatening.

Not much was showing on my portable fish finder’s screen so we pushed through the wind to get to the spot we were told held the whites. Fish appeared to be a few feet above the bottom on the protected side of the papa but nothing wanted to take our live oama offering. As we waited for the 5pm witching hour to wake the fish, the steady wind blew me closer to shore. There were pockets of fish hovering near the bottom that I assumed were white papio waiting for the evening frenzy.

Suddenly fish began to show up on the “sidefinder” view of the fish finder, indicating fish near the surface directly in front of my kayak. My Huminbird Fishin Buddy’s display is almost toy-like but I’ve come to learn that when fish are spotted near the surface like that, they are bait fish spread out on the surface over a sandy bottom. I paddled my kayak’s bow like a hammerhead shark surveying side to side until I could also mark fish below me. Suspended fish are either bait schools thick in the water colum or white papio stacked up under the bait fish.

When I took this photo, the surface bait fish weren’t showing up in the sidefinder view on the left of the screen, but the composite view of what I had passed over indicated bait fish thick under me. Despite all this bait, nothing took the live oama I was deep trolling behind me.

Remembering I had brought a jigging rod in hopes that we’d be sitting over a school of whites, I clipped on a 3/4 oz, 2 inch compact tungsten jig and dropped it down but wasn’t surprised when nothing took it. Out of boredom, I cast it out and jigged it back as I watched the fish finder’s screen. Something was pulling back! It felt like a fish but the Shimano Type J rod and Tranx 400 easily controlled it.

When I brought it in view I thought it was a 4 foot gray shark but it turned out to be a 12 inch white with 3 other whites following it. Guess I had been watching too much Shark Week.

Stoked that the compact little jig had worked on the school of whites, I tried to whistle Frank to get his attention but the wind blew the sound inland, not out to him.

Paddling into the headwind as efficiently as possible, the trolling rig went off! I was stunned to land a 12.75 inch omilu on the oama a few feet from where the white had bit. I left the bait out of the water this time and finally made it out to Frank. By the time we made it back in, the whites and the bait fish were gone! Nothing showed on the fish finder and nothing hit our bait. Ugh… I really had hoped Frank and I would finally experience a white papio frenzy.

We headed back to our launch spot and stopped at the spot Frank lost a screamer. The fish finder’s screen was blank so we spread out and slowly paddled in. I took a blind strike near the reef edge and had to put the rod in the holder 3 times and paddle back into the channel before landing a 14 inch white.

What was interesting about these 3 fish were their stomach contents. The 12 inch white was stuffed with small opae despite being around the bait school. The 12.75 inch omilu was full of inch and a half nehu, which looked very similar in length and profile to the tungsten jig. The 14 inch white had a small mantis shrimp and a flat, whitish piece of cartilage stretching its stomach. All were well fed and none appeared to have any oama in their bellies. No wonder our oama baits have been ignored.

Ever the team player, Frank was happy for the catches and new understanding gained but agreed we need to improve communication on the water. He suggested looking into 2-way radios like the offshore kayak guys use. Do you guys have any recommendations?

The yak fishing conditions finally came together, or did they?

July 25, 2017 By Scott 3 Comments

deep trolling oama

The trades finally died down, blocked by the remnants of Tropical Storm Fernanda. The moon was small the night before, and Frank and I launched at the bottom of a big tidal swing. It was overcast, with thunderstorms threatening nearby. I was concerned the water might be too flat, but there was enough chop to make the predators feel comfortable. A very reliable source had found the school of white papio hitting bait that morning, and gave us the location.

All that raised our expectations even though we tried hard not to count our screamers before they hatched.

We paddled straight for the area where the whites had bitten that morning, and the fish finder didn’t mark much bait or larger fish along the way. After about 30 mins of circling the spot, something pulled drag but by the time I cleared the line it jumped off. I saw the splash in the corner of my eye, and so did Frank, maybe a poorly hooked, small awa awa? That was the last good strike we registered.

For the next 3.5 hrs we checked all the likely and unlikely spots and got some weak strikes that pulled at our baits but didn’t stick. On the way in, the area that was reported to have the white papio school had a lot of bait fish near the surface. That bait wasn’t there when we first came through.

So what caused this bolo on a day that seemed to have everything lined up for epic fishing? The whites may have attacked the bait fish early in the morning and dispersed them, or chased them inside where we didn’t check. That I can understand. But what happened to the omilu, awa awa and aha that are normally around the reef channels during the daytime hours? Did the big King tide cause too much tidal current so they hunkered down in a calmer area? We’re beginning to realize the big tidal swings don’t bode well for our deep channel fishing. Or did the fish feel the low pressure of the thunderstorms nearby?

Always get chance when you have live oama…

July 13, 2017 By Scott 2 Comments

peaceful paddle out

Screamah addiction lured Frank and me back to a deep water channel that came up empty the last two times we fished it. Erik had been consistently hooking big papio and ulua with poppers off his small boat, and I stubbornly felt we could get something big to bite our live oama offering.

We launched in absolutely beautiful, glassy conditions and glided to the general area. Hope began to fade as I scanned the fish finder’s blank screen. No bait fish near the surface and no white papio below. Our live oama went on a tour of the likely looking reef drop offs and channels for the next 4 hrs. Maybe the water was too calm and clear? The wind began to pick up, and the tide surged, yet the only things grabbing my oama were reef outcrops and a fat puffer fish. I got stuck 4 times, trolling over shallow water out of desperation, and the puffer was hooked so solidly in its lower lip that I cut off the hook. I was out of trolling rigs, and even bummed one off Frank, so I had to use my 20 lb fluoro main line to make a 2-hook trolling leader.

water has begun to bump up a bit

Frank got stuck a couple times also, but had devised an anchor system for his SUP and could retie his rigs while staying in place on the papa. Brilliant! I drifted a lot while retying rigs because I didn’t want to create an anchor trolley system for my kayak. Frank continues to improve his fishing processes and had built a “rack-a-yak” washing station for me to clean my yak off when we land. Maybe he can help me build the anchor trolley!

We were sun burnt, tired and really disappointed. Besides an omilu that Frank lost right at the net, we didn’t have anything to show for our efforts. We positioned ourselves to let the current push us in, and as we entered shallow, murky water, I took the fish finder’s transducer out of the water that was marking bait near the surface and Frank pulled up his live oama. Even though I had never caught anything this close to shore, in such silty water, I left my oama in the water out of complete desperation. Then the ratchet went off. The sound was faster than I would hear from a snag so it was actually a fish! I got the rod out of the holder, felt a few surges and the fish came off. Ugh… Frank was too far away to hear the ratchet but did hear me yell “HOOKUP!!”. He paddled over as I put the transducer back in the water. 5 feet deep and so silty we couldn’t see more than 2 feet down. He quickly deployed his live oama and I put a new one on and retraced my route.

“HOOKUP!!” Couldn’t believe I hooked something else and was overly excited. I’m so used to saying “hookup” instead of “hanapa’a” after fishing so many years in SoCal, I guess.

Expected a white papio hunting in the very silty water yet it was a fat 1.5 lb omilu that took the back hook down in it’s gullet. The fish bled during the hook extraction process so I kept it. After Frank took this photo, he trolled the inside and when I tracked him down he was landing a similar sized omilu. The fish finder said 3 feet!

We trolled the shallows some more but the bait fish were gone and so were the omilu. I guess God wanted us to each catch a fish and spare us the bolo head.

everything is strapped to Frank or his board for easy transport to and from the launch point

Erik fished shallow water on his bigger boat, and Kelly fished inside the break on his SUP. Both said the bite was very slow. We’re thinking it was because the moon was still so big and the clear night skies let the fish feed at night.

And Frank and I learned that as long as you have live oama in the water, you always have a chance.

Live oama vs big moon and gusty trades

July 10, 2017 By Scott Leave a Comment

The winds were forecast to be blowing 15 – 20 mph and the moon was just shy of full. Not the most promising of fishing conditions but I had some early season oama that were beginning to get skinny in captivity. Kelly invited me to his partially wind shielded SUP fishing spot. The winds were still gusty at times but we managed to slow troll the oama. Kelly let his oama swim unencumbered while I kept mine off the rocks with a floater.

Kelly inched close to the waves and was rewarded with the first fish, a scrappy omilu between a pound and 2 pounds. I was leery of being dumped in my Scupper Pro and played it safe for a while, finally finding a stretch of reef that yielded a bunch of 1.25 lb omilu without pummeling me with waves. I hadn’t brought my tags so all were released.

Fishing closer to harms way, Kelly had a much more diverse hit list: omilu, kaku, trumpet fish and an aha that screamed his drag. The bite was much slower than normal for Kelly, but the live oama overcame the adverse conditions. He even got bit on frozen oama when the livies ran out.

This was my first outing with live oama this season. I was hoping for a screamah but settled for a pretty consistent bite in the protected waters. Still dreaming of the screamahs…

Converting “finding” to “catching”

June 20, 2017 By Scott 1 Comment

Frank and I checked a protected, deeper water spot I hadn’t fished all season. In previous years, the white papio and awa awa would be hitting non-oama bait schools before oama arrive on shore. The plan was for me to locate the bait and predators with the portable fish finder mounted on my yak, and for Frank to bring ’em up for viewing with frozen oama. Once Frank identified the predators I’d try hooking them with a sinking lure.

A few minutes into our launch a large fish symbol appeared on the fish finder, 5 ft off the bottom. Anything suspended above the bottom is a potential predator and sure enough Frank hooked up on his 1 yr old frozen oama he slow trolled in mid-water. The fish battled hard, up and down, and Frank was able to land the first white of the day. I cast out a heavy sinking swimmer that worked well the first time I tried it, but hadn’t worked since. Nothing. Frank baited up with another frozen oama, retraced his route and was on again. This one shook off before he could see it.

The bite stopped so we ventured out into the 12 – 15 mph head wind for a mile and a half or so but there were no bait balls and no bites. I put on a 2 yr old frozen oama and we let the wind blow us back towards our launch point. As we got neared our destination my line felt like it snagged the reef edge. I yanked and pulled and a scuffed up 11 inch omilu came up! It might’ve been pulling a little line off my whipping reel (no ratchet) and I might’ve been dragging it for a while. It was tired but managed to swim back down.

We neared the channel where Frank had his earlier strikes. I checked the opposite edge that had held awa awa in the past after seeing small bait marks on the fish finder but nothing took my oama. When I paddled over to Frank, he smiled and exclaimed “I had a screammmmmmaahhhhhh”. Something hit his oama and made 2 or 3 very strong runs straight down, against his tight drag. Unfortunately the hooks pulled and I wasn’t able to witness the biggest fish he’s battled so far. He asked if he should have run a looser drag but that’s risky too since a big fish could find the reef edge, or take a lot of line in a few seconds. I think I’ve read that 1/3 of the breaking capacity of the line is a good amount of drag to run. ‘Course we go by feel, and don’t pull line off with a scale, but it’s good to remember not to run too tight a drag unless the grounds are really snaggy.

Frank baited up with another frozen oama and circled the area that had been so productive for him. I paddled through a channel closer to shore and my light whipping rod bent over like I had snagged the reef. Line peeled out smoothly so I realized I was actually on a fish. This fish fought up and down like Frank’s and felt bigger than it actually was because of my lighter action rod and small reel. It later measured 14 inches (FL) and was headed for my family’s dinner. I baited up again, paddled over to Frank and we trolled the stretch side by side.

the top fish is only 1/2 inch shorter than the bottom fish but looks a lot smaller due to camera angle

Fish showed up in the same area on the fish finder just as they did when we started the day, suspended off the bottom. Frank had to tell me I hooked up again because my rod was bending from the tip but I couldn’t tell without the sound of a ratchet. The fish felt pretty big but ended up 13.5 inches (FL). While it was fun to battle the whites on small gear it was a big disadvantage not to have a reel with a ratchet to tell me when something was tasting the oama. I liked to imagine I was on Wicked Tuna when a strong fish would scream the small trolling reel.

All in all, it was a successful day. Frank paddled his custom Fishing SUP further than he had in the past, against a stiff head wind. My cheap fish finder found the suspended whites and the frozen oama brought them up for identification. I was a little disappointed that the sinking lure didn’t get bit. Next time I’ll try to drop a jig on the whites’ head and call them up with a popper on the surface.

SUP with oama = 3; Yak with lures = 0

May 26, 2017 By Scott 3 Comments

Kelly, Frank and I hit the deeper water grounds that have been productive recently. Kelly would be trolling frozen oama, Frank would whip lures first, and then troll oama. I was loaded for bear, with 40lb fluoro leader and abrasion resistant fluoro main line so I could bring in a big fish before Sharkey took his cut. I would stick to the lures that had been working the last two times I fished here solo. The wild card was the “King Tide” that would flood the shoreline later in the day.

We started while the tide was below zero. The wind was calm at the launch and we easily paddled to the area that was working last week. Something wasn’t right. The water was a copper-yellow tinge, not the way it would look if it were caused by runoff. Visibility was reduced and we suspected that the turbulence from the big tide stirred up sediment. I marked much less fish on the fish finder, and nothing hit Kelly’s oama he SUP’d around. I even tried fishing the suspended marks that produced big strikes the last time but I couldn’t even get a bump.

We spread out and a couple hrs of no bites went by. Then Kelly found a productive reef and landed a 2lb omilu followed by a kaku that cut the leader, and a roi that took his meal down a hole. He ended his outing with a larger omilu that shook off before it could be landed. Kelly passed some frozen oama on to Frank before having to leave, and Frank began trolling the reef closer to shore while I explored a deeper water papa further out.

The wind was over 12mph with gusts to 15 mph and the papa’s protected side was still bumpy. The drift was fast but I was able to mark larger fish near the bottom. The big boys were there but didn’t take any sub-surface, sinking lures or jigs. Big contrast to the earlier trip when they came up in packs to hit lures. I let the wind blow me back to where Frank was SUP trolling.

Frank had some roi action, then pulled in an oama head that was left by a papio or kaku. After putting out a new bait he instantly hanapa’ad a 12″ FL omilu. Repeating his path again he landed a 12.5″ FL white that was thicker and stronger. After I had covered so much ground for nary a bite I was very surprised that an omilu and a white would be caught in the same area. I put on a Waxwing Boy and whipped the flats and papa edge nearby. Still no love for me. Frank’s last oama bait was pulled down into the rocks so we whipped lures on the way back to the launch site.

I put the trusty sub-surface lure back on and sure enough a roi jumped on. Luckily it didn’t rock me and I dispatched it with a knife. I’ve been catching roi with full bellies lately. Are they pregnant or just stuffed with reef fish? This particular colored lure has caught more roi than any other lure for me. Good for roi roundups but bad when the roi make it into the holes.

We checked the usual spots on the way back in but they were all barren. So was it the King Tide and off color water that scattered the fish and made them unresponsive to lures? The bait schools I had seen earlier were gone. Perhaps the bait didn’t feel safe in water they couldn’t see their predators coming, and without bait, there was no reason for the predators to hang around?

It was awesome to fish with Kelly and Frank. We tried to work together to find fish. Kelly was the “control” with trolled oama, proving that some areas were indeed barren, and some areas held fish that wanted a room service delivered oama. Frank hooked a roi on the same sub-surface lure I did, but no papio. That told me that the heavier leader and thicker main line I was using wasn’t the reason I got blanked. And, it’s always good to fish with great guys who happen to be skilled watermen.

Predators gone amuck!

May 22, 2017 By Scott 10 Comments

The whites I stumbled upon the other day kept calling my name. I went a little earlier this time, and the tide was still falling in the morning. It was a little windier, maybe 8 to 10 mph trade winds, but lighter than normal. Headed straight for Erik’s spot where I struck out the other day. My go-to sub-surface lure got bumped repeatedly on the papa edge but nothing stuck. That was odd cuz it normally produces. I put on a sub-surface lure that I modified to run two inline single hooks instead of 3 small trebles. I wanted to see if having 1 less hook would affect the hookup ratio.

Evidently not. On the first cast a fish chased it down, jumping out of the water twice to eat it. I thought I was fighting an awa awa but brought a white papio to color. I guess that fish preferred the swimming action of this slightly longer lure that was missing its belly hook. Disappointed it wasn’t an awa awa, I shook it off. My tag kit got soaked while tagging fish the other day and I decided to skip tagging today.

Since the water was higher on the papa I drifted on it and cast to productive looking areas. A smaller white hit about 10 ft from the papa edge but shook off before I could shake him off myself. Hmm, didn’t know white papio feed on top of the papas like omilu do. Trying another drift over the papa I hooked something that took my lure into a long rocky tunnel. When the line finally broke, I was missing the lure and 3 ft leader. I hope that roi chokes on my lure and dies, though I bet it was able to shed the single hook quickly.

Not wanted to lose any more sub-surface lures, I put on a heavy lipped swimmer. It cast well but didn’t get bumped at all. I had thrown it before and didn’t get a bite then either. Maybe that’s why it was half off on eBay.

Continuing with my lure tests, I paddled away from the papa and marked what looked like medium-sized fish suspended a little above squiggly lines that I assumed were bait fish. I put on a smaller-bodied heavy lipped swimmer that was supposedly the hottest thing in Asia. Cast out, let it settle to the bottom and retrieved steadily. It got bumped and I hooked fish but the hook kept pulling. The fish felt like smaller white papio or maybe taape or some other reef fish? I threw it closer to the pointed edge of the papa and an awa awa grey-hounded out of the water. Finally, the target fish! The line went slack for about a second, and then took off again. I fought the stubborn fish to the yak, and when I brought it to color it was a 13.5 inch (FL) white! The awa awa had dropped the lure and the white picked it up thinking it was his lucky day. Wrong, I bagged him for getting my hopes up.

So far that heavy lipped lure got bumped or hit on just about every cast. I paddled back out to the concentration of fish settled near the bottom and dragged the lure over them. I could feel the bumps again and imagined the fish were annoyed that this lure was interrupting their nap. Then I got a solid hookup and the fish felt like a 3lb white papio, just 3 times stronger. It fought up and down, and didn’t take a lot of line but I couldn’t bring it to the surface. Fish started showing up on the fish finder all over the water column so I imagined the white papio school was trying to find out why their big bruddah was swimming so erratically. I tried to get him to the yak as soon as I could before another fish ran into the line with its scutes and maybe 5 mins in the line cut. I was disappointed that I didn’t see what I had hooked but kind of expected this ending.

The 17 lb mono main line was frayed; not the clean kind of cut like papio scutes normally cut line. I sent the picture to Erik and he said I got sharked. The next day he went out and sharks were chasing down his fish and spinning in the air! And to think, I had my legs in the water, straddling the Scupper Pro to stabilize it.

I put on another sinking swimmer and it got bumped but didn’t hook up on the first couple of casts. It was time to go anyway, and I was pleased again with the equipment mods. My cheap, portable fish finder put me on fish resting in the channel. The 4X treble and single inline hook combination seemed to still allow the lures to swim and yet have the holding power to bring fish in. I am gonna have to replace the 17lb mono with the castable fluorocarbon I used to use, to get more abrasion protection. And keep my limbs in the boat, and a tourniquet nearby.

“Fish finder fish” landed on the stronger hooks

May 21, 2017 By Scott 5 Comments

Erik had been nudging me to get out on the water with his detailed catch reports. He actually drew maps of where he caught fish, and met me on the water to tell me where they were sitting earlier for his epic tag and release session. I braced for a hit as I threw out the sub-surface lure with stronger hooks. Something jumped on that pulled a little and had a lot of resistance in the water but came off on the papa. Big roi or foul hooked papio? I metered fish near the papa drop off, a few feet off the bottom but couldn’t get them to come up to identify themselves. My guide, Erik, had to leave for work so I was left to find my own fish.

The kayak with reduced transducer drag glided easily in the sheet glass conditions so I ventured further out than I had ever fished in that area. My lure got hung up deep in a hole at the papa edge and the main line broke off. Dang roi hit the lure on the surface and pulled it down deep. That was an expensive loss. I put on another modified lure and trolled a little off the papa edges but nothing hit so I daringly trolled on the top of the papa in a few feet of water. Finally, I landed a 10.5 inch (FL) omilu that was hooked in the mouth and lightly foul hooked with the front belly hook. The fight felt a lot like the first fish, so I suspect that was a foul hooked papio also that got off. The omilu was tagged and released back to his two waiting buddies.

The current pushed me to the edge of the papa and the fish finder marked 3 larger fish suspended a few feet off the bottom that looked like a bunch of whites resting in the deep shade. Sure enough one came up and took the sub-surface lure deep in its throat. A larger white came up with it, eyeing me warily. I had to use my long nose pliers to remove the rear single inline hook. Note that the front treble hook didn’t foul the fish like the stock trebles had been doing. I’m sure it would have survived after being released since the rear single hook did much less damage than a treble would have, but I kept the fish since I had already tagged a fish. It went 14.25 inches (FL).

The wind had blown me far off the spot I had caught the whitey so I had to try and recognize where I had gotten the strike. I used the fish finder to locate larger fish hunkered down in groups near the bottom and sure enough, on my next cast, a 15 inch (FL) white got caught on the front treble hook. The free swinging rear single hook didn’t snag the fish at all. Maybe that white was the fish that was eyeing me earlier. The fish was tagged and set free.

Today’s whites were fat and strong for their size. They seemed to be eating well and the stronger replacement hooks didn’t stretch at all. The reduced drag of the transducer mount let me expand my range and locate fish with the fish finder. It was great to verify that the equipment modifications were actual improvements.

Equipment mods = longer kayak range and more fish landed?

May 21, 2017 By Scott Leave a Comment

After fishing with Frank the last couple of months and seeing how his custom equipment mods really enhanced his fishing experience, I finally put grab handles on the Scupper Pro to make lifting much easier, and attemped reduced the water drag the fish finder transducer creates.

I had been mounting the portable fish finder’s transducer with a suction cup that was intended to be out of the water but the deck of the Scupper Pro was too rough to hold the suction cup. By sticking the suction cup under the water line I was creating an incredible amount of resistance that felt like I was pulling a small bucket on that side of the kayak.

Ended up using a small Ram Mount and recycled the blank of a fishing rod to make a very streamlined, above water mount. By barely keeping the transducer below water level I hoped to reduce drag by 75%.

Next significant modification was to replace the stock treble hooks off my various lures with 4X Owner hooks and Owner inline single hooks. It sounds like the serious guys that go after larger fish upgrade their hooks. The photo at above left shows how the stock Owner 2X hooks opened up on a large fish. Here’s what had happened. The photo at above right shows the Owner 4X belly hook, 1 size smaller than the original treble, and an Owner inline single.

I had tested various combinations of replacement 4X trebles and inline singles and the singles seemed to let the lures swim more freely but often were too loose in turbulent water and the lures came in leaning on the side. The 4X treble in the belly seemed to stabilize the lure. I tested the modified lures from shore and the kayak and had only hooked 1 roi, which was hooked on the belly hook. I didn’t know if I was just unlucky or if the modified lures no longer swam as well. Not sure if the roi was pregnant or had just swallowed a fish but it sure was plump for its length. I dispatched it on the beach and threw it back to feed the ecosystem.

Next up: Take the kayak out to test paddling range and strength of hooks against big fish!

SUP and Kayak whipping action

May 3, 2017 By Scott 8 Comments

Frank had been customizing his surf SUP for fishing and came up with design where he could sit kayak-style with legs supported by foot rests, and paddle as if it were a surf ski. It was much easier to transport than my kayak, and he could climb back on easily if he huli’d (flipped). If I huli on my old Scupper Pro, it’s a struggle to climb back in with all the accessories attached, and the hatch would have let in water.

We went out on a light wind, low surf day to see how Frank’s Fishing SUP fished. I had misjudged the waterline of my kayak when I made an adjustment to the fish finder’s transducer mount so the transducer was high and dry and unusable. I rely heavily on the fish finder when scouting new grounds so it felt severely handicapping but turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Without the drag of the transducer mount, the Scupper Pro felt lively and glided like it had never before.

Frank ventured into the white wash, and I stayed just out of range, trying to gauge the tippy-ness of the kayak. Straddling the kayak as if it were a longboard helped greatly with stability. Frank found a small break in the surf and hooked something on his JDM sub-surface lure. It tugged pretty hard for about 10 seconds and then unbuttoned. That gave us hope. An hr later I had yet to feel a tug. I followed Frank into a protected break in the surf and watched as he fished up in the white wash.

In the serenity of the calm 5 ft water I hooked something! It pulled drag a bit and was hard to bring in. Turned out to be an omilu that was hooked on both treble hooks. I was stoked to catch something decent in the safety of the protected water and eventually worked my way further into the waves as they got smaller with the rising tide. The grounds looked great but we didn’t get another strike for the next 2 hours.

At 6pm, when we were considering paddling in, we made one more attempt. It was the witching hour, after all. We looked for the largest boulders and turbulence and bam! Something ran against my tight drag, making two strong, brief runs, then the hook pulled. UGH! The two treble hooks were bent open! The fish probably was hooked like the first fish was, and was able to pry itself loose by straightening out the hooks. Since I had pinched down the barbs, it easily slid off after that. That had never happened to me before, mainly because I had never hooked a big fish with treble hooks. I’m still amazed that the Owner 2X #3 treble hooks opened so easily but friends have since explained why single hooks are a much more secure connection to the fish. I’ll be replacing the hooks on these very productive lures soon, hopefully keeping their swimming action intact.

Frank’s Fishing SUP performed very well. He was able to paddle comfortably and access rougher water than I could risk. Frank is very skilled at fabricating customized solutions and has created a fishing / surfing SUP transformer. He gets compliments on his gear wherever we fish. We both have some equipment and technique tweaks to make to fish safely in the wash, and we’ll be back, ready for the next SCREAMAH!

Big papio still around, just harder to find

December 14, 2016 By Scott 6 Comments

The winds were down but picking up, the moon was almost full and one of my oama tubs was experiencing a die-off. I scooped about 10 of the remaining oama and headed out on the kayak. The tide was about 2 hrs from the small peak tide and nothing bothered the oama slow trolled at the papa’s edge. An hr and 45 mins into the trolling circuit the ratchet sounded and I tried to set the hook by taking a few more strokes. When I tightened the line I found it stuck in pile of submerged rocks. Hmm, did the bait get stuck in there or did a pesky roi hunker down after it got hooked? It sure sounded like something was running with the bait before it got stuck.

It had been raining off and on and I had been paddling against a 12 mph onshore wind. I rounded a papa and started paddling in. Again it seemed like something grabbed the bait and wedged itself in the rocks. Well I’ll teach that blasted roi! I set the drag really tight to the point it was hard to pull line and continued paddling with the papa’s edge on my left as I paddled straight towards shore. This time the rod got yanked and something kept trying to pull line. I loosened the drag a bit and the fish ran, then shook its head repeatedly. What an unexpected hit at the nearest papa to shore. I was hoping for an awa awa since we aren’t tagging those, but it turned out to be a hard fighting white papio, bigger than any I had caught at this particular spot. I looked at my watch and it was just past the top of the tide.

I kept the fish in the water near the kayak and readied my tagging kit. I lifted the papio onto the area right in front of where I was seated and measured it. 14 inches, head to fork in tail. That was the easy part. Tagging a fish while seated on a kayak is very different from tagging a fish laying on shore. My perspective was off because it was almost on my lap and I was pressing straight down on the white’s 2nd dorsal fin area with the tagging applicator. I pushed too hard and the tag’s barb went through the other side of the fish! Oops, sorry fish. Papio are tough so I knew it could survive that superficial wound that didn’t draw any blood. I tried again and this time my angle of entry was too shallow and I didn’t penetrate the dorsal fin ray bones. I had to pull the tag’s barb back out and left a larger second hole. Poor guy. No blood this time either though. 3rd time was a charm and I properly inserted the tag just after the start of the 2nd dorsal fin and stopped after penetrating the fin ray bones. I thought the fish would be limp after being poked 3 times but it took off as soon as I placed it in the water, not wanting to be stabbed anymore.

I had a lot more oama and 1 more tag so I made the turn around the papa, counter clockwise, and just started heading away from land when I got a bigger strike. This fish was stronger and kept resisting being pulled in as if it were foul hooked. Turns out it was a larger fish that measured 16 inches (FL) and about 4lbs. Whites are thicker than omilu for their fork length. I had learned from my previous tagging mistakes and tagged the second fish with just one try.

I was out of tags and the next fish could be brought home. Problem was I didn’t get a bite within 10 mins. The wind picked up so I let it blow me back to shore.

Take a look at the way those two fish were hooked. Both hooked in the right corner of the mouth. That means they turned left after hitting the bait. Left would have driven them onto the papa if they hit the oama from behind so they must’ve hit it from the front they way papio are supposed to, and turned left towards deeper water. I gotta take note of how other fish were hooked in relation to the reef now.

Not bad action for mid-December. It did take live oama and 2 hrs of kayak trolling but those 2 whites were larger than any other combined kayak catch this year. I guess they’re still out there if you look hard enough.

Summer is over, Fall’s about done too, what to do?

December 9, 2016 By Scott Leave a Comment

Well, the nearshore summer season started a bit late, with the oama finally showing up in good numbers in early August. By the beginning of October, the larger schools of oama were gone, and a few pockets of fish were seen here and there. The Fall rain provided habitat for large schools of jumpin iao but even they were gone by late November. The papio and kaku are no longer coming in past the reef so the inshore whipping bite has come to a complete stop, at least for me.

Up until this week the Fall winds were unusually strong, preventing me from going out on the kayak. I did get out once, in early November, with a few live oama. I caught a couple 11″ FL omilu that were tagged and released. The funniest thing was hooking a small lizardfish on the free swinging back hook. Somehow it hooked itself through its forehead, not in its mouth, and the oama was still alive and intact.

Since the lizardfish looked so appetizing next to the oama I put both down and paddled past a sandy area. Somehow the baits got stuck and when I pulled them free both were gone. Very suspicious huh?

It was getting late so I put on a 6 inch oama and paddled just off the reef edge on my way in. Something pulled drag and I looked behind just in time to see a big kaku shaking its head. Somehow the kaku managed to insert the free swinging back hook into the stub of the still alive oama yet cut the leader. Very odd things going on with that super sharp Owner back hook.

I am planning to troll live oama while we still have light winds, hoping to intercept some papio and awa awa on a reef further out from shore but still within my paddling range. Sadly, I expect the bite to be much slower than it was a month ago.

So what can we expect within wading range this winter? The fish that feed on crabs and shrimp, oio and weke, are still within range. Dunking or dragging a fresh bait should get their attention. And limu eating fish like nenue and kala will be feeding in the high surge zones. Go get ‘um!

Oama trolling on kayak and SUP

October 10, 2016 By Scott 6 Comments

My friend Frank, a superb waterman, just started SUP fishing. He wanted to R&D some of his fishing attachments so we did a little oama trolling. The wind was initially light but then the rain came through, and strong gusts came with it. The murky water extended fairly far from shore so it took a while to find clean water.

The first strike came on my weighted frozen oama in a deep channel about 20 ft from the papa edge. It was a chunky white papio, about 1.75 lbs.

By the time I bagged it and rebaited I was blown off the spot and couldn’t find my way back. We eventually found cleaner water inside and Frank’s oama, slow trolled over a shallow reef got hit but the akamai fish wrapped himself up in a hole. The wind started gusting over 20 mph and we began to make a run for our launch site.

On the way, Frank’s next oama, under a floater, got pulled down and Frank landed this omilu in the wind storm. I was impressed that he could find an omilu in the murky chop. We didn’t measure it but it was easily legal.

When we got near our launch spot the wind slowed so we decided to fish upwind of the spot so the next wind storm could blow us in. Then the rain started pelting us but the fish still bit.

A 10.5 inch omilu bit close to the papa edge. It hit the back hook and took the oama for a ride. I didn’t have my tags with me so it was released tag-less.

Then the rain starting pelting us and I hooked a slightly better white. The photo wouldn’t have come out so I didn’t bother taking one. It was closer to 2lbs.

The forecasted increase in wind came an hr earlier and blew us off the water.

All but the first fish were caught on live oama from my tubs. I think that’s what made the fish bite on this bad weather day. The last two unused ones were set free in the murk. Hope they remember how to run from predators.

Frank made sashimi, soup and fried fish with the 2 whites and omilu. Just about everything was consumed by his family except for the bones.

Gear shake out

July 12, 2016 By Scott 2 Comments

Finally, after a month of gusty days, the wind slowed enough to kayak fish. During that time off the water I had repurposed two reels I hadn’t been using, purchased a light, sensitive jig rod, and assembled some eye catching micro jigs from Japan. With so many things to try out I left the frozen oama at home.

(L to R) Calcutta 200TE, Calcutta 300TE w/Trevala rod

I started by whipping the black/chrome Waxwing Baby with an upgraded Calcutta 200TE. The level wind reel was great for fishing bait but too slow for retrieving Waxwings, so it hadn’t seen use in months. I came across a 200TE main gear upgrade sold on a Japanese Domestic Model (JDM) website that increased the line retrieval from 25 inches to 32 inches per crank. The downside of that retrieval increase is a proportional decrease in torque and drag (level wind reel have drag washers on the gear stack and are affected by gear ratio). Sure enough the Waxwing was zig zagging like it does on the high speed Shimano Curado 300EJ, but on the discontinued Calcutta 200TE that sports a stronger frame and better centrifugal brakes. I did feel one bump and a miss.

I put the whipping rod down and picked up the new lightweight jig setup: A Shimano Trevala S rod so thin and light that it made the compact Calcutta 300TE reel look big. The 300TE, one size up from the 200TE, was gathering dust in a box since I stopped using it as a small trolling reel. I added a longer power handle to replace the two-knobbed paddle handle and could immediately feel the increase in cranking efficiency.

(top to bottom) Live Deception, After Burner Japanese jig, Jigpara Japanese jig

I lobbed the shiny, nehu looking Jigpara jig (bottom lure in the photo) from Japan and lifted and fluttered it back. Not a single bump. Odd. So much activity on the fish finder and so little interest in the lures. In the distance, 2 guys on a boat were whooping it up like they landed an ulua, so that made me fish harder.

Switching back to the WW whipping setup, I cast onto the shallow reef top, hoping I wouldn’t backlash and get my lure stuck. A long fish lunged for the WW and missed the hooks. On the next cast, the lure was sucked down and a fish swam through the shallow crevices in the reef. I was relieved to see omilu blue instead of aha gray. The omilu ran line out against the drag and I had to tighten it further. The drag really was diminished by the higher gear ratio, and didn’t feel as smooth as it normally did. Because I was “practicing” tagging papio, I had planned to take a photo while the fish was still in the water, measure the fish against the markings on my kayak, and let it go. The fish wasn’t aware of my good intentions and literally spit the lure at me. It missed me by about a foot to the right. The freed omilu, which I got a good look at, was at least 2lbs, maybe even 3lb.

Nothing else was on that reef top so I paddled out a bit and cast over another reef edge. A pretty big aha grey hounded across the water like it’s nickname “poor man’s marlin” and also spit the hook. I was relieved my lure was still attached and I didn’t have to release that toothy demon. To give the jigs an equal chance, I switched back to the jig setup, changed to the Live Deception jig and bounced it off the shallow bottom. Still no interest. Back to the Waxwing and I got another hit and drop of either an aha or kaku.

It was about time to see if the white papio were gonna swarm at dusk like they did the last time they hit every micro jig dropped in the water. The fish finder picked up breezing fish gathering close to shore, but they didn’t take the Waxwing or the Live Deception jig. Maybe it was too early? I waited for the sun to drop lower and then “poof” they were gone. No fish on the fish finder. I paddled around not believing that they would suddenly pick up and leave but appeared to be what they did. The whites must’ve gotten bigger and headed somewhere else to attack bait.

Look at what 3 fish did to this lure! (zoom in)

Maybe I had missed other fish and didn’t realize it?

No fish landed but I was glad my confidence in the Waxwing was restored. It had recently been outfished by surface poppers and heavy jigs, but proved once again that in shallow spots holding bait, there is no equal to a well-retrieved Waxwing. And the Calcutta 200TE with higher gear ratio was fast enough to make the Waxwing look enticing.

The Trevala S light jig rod could cast jigs well despite it’s short 6’3″ length due to its soft tip. I guess I’ll have to see how well it holds up to a fish some other time.

Note: Charley’s is running a jig combo special, which includes the Trevala S jig rod and the Shimano Curado 300EJ reel I used on that Big Island jigging trip of a lifetime. Trust me, it’s a deal you don’t want to miss out on.

The New Moon Curse?

June 6, 2016 By Scott 6 Comments

Kelly and I SUP’d / kayaked fished the day before the New Moon. My fish finder marked fish and we caught a few legal omilu and whites on frozen oama, with Kelly getting cut off on coral by a larger fish. Nothing hit my micro jig. All the papio were released intentionally or unintentionally, in preparation of the start of Papio Tagging this summer. The bite was the best around the top of the tide so we went back the following day to dial things in.

The wind and swell were down a bit from the day before, and nothing seemed to be stirring in the depths. The same places that showed fish on the fish finder the day before were barren. Even the turtles were absent. I scouted the deep areas and the reef edges, and Kelly crossed over the flats into deep water and back. Halfway through our outing Kelly got a strong hit that took a third of his line. He had paddled over the reef edge, into the deep side, and was perfectly positioned to fight the fish in obstacle-free water. But it came unbuttoned.

That fish gave us hope but all we got was a series of short bites on our frozen oama and I landed a 9″ white. Kelly paddled back to the launch point and I dawdled behind, hoping an evening bite would magically materialize. In the 20ft to 15 ft sandy/muddy gap in the reef, the fish finder began to show some mid-sized fish. Another 9″ white was hooked and released, and the next oama got hit as I let out line. The frenzy was on but Kelly was already out of the water.

He texted “goodbye” and I was free to try out the small but heavy jigs. I paddled out to deeper, clearer water to give the jigs their best chance. The fish finder transducer was suction cupped to the side of the kayak at an angle so the depths read deeper than they actually were. I’m guessing it was 30 – 40 ft even though the fish finder said 56ft. The fish were marking from the bottom to halfway up and really thick.

Exploded view of Live Deception jig and assist hooks before being slid onto Power Clip

I cast a 1oz Live Deception jig that had a rear treble hook, with added assist hooks connected via a Tactical Angler Power Clip. I had snagged my trolling line and as the lure sank it hooked up! Another 9″ white came up but the Live Deception lure was gone! Meanwhile the oama didn’t get touched so I reeled that in and stowed the rod.

Exploded view of micro jig and assist hooks before being slid onto Power Clip

I kept the assist hooks and slid on a 30 gm micro jig. It got hit halfway down the sink also! And same thing, 9″ white caught on assist hook but the micro jig was gone. What the heck? This happened when I had caught a kahala deep jigging an 80 gm Shimano Flat Fall. I had thought a fish hit the Flat Fall hook and another hit the independent assist hook, and the Flat Fall-hooked fish pried itself off the clip. Now I began to realize that the kahala and small whites were flipping the heavy jigs off the clip with their head shakes.

this white threw off the Live Deception jig

this white threw off the 1st micro jig

this guy threw off the 2nd and last micro jig

this one threw off the 2nd and last micro jig

I had one 30 gm micro jig left and slid it down the power clip next to the assist hooks. Cast out, let it sink, hookup, repeat. Couldn’t be any easier. Reel in a 9″ white and no jig left on the clip. I guess the clip wasn’t intended to have heavy lures and separate assist hooks. 3 casts, 3 whites, 3 jigs lost. I was out of jigs so I got a chance to see how surface lures would work on these sub-surface whites.

The normally effective Waxwing Baby couldn’t raise them and neither could the Yozuri Hydro Popper, which slayed the 1lb – 3lb whites off the boat the previous week. I had been disappointed that the Waxwing and micro jigs did not work at all when the Poppers raised all those fish from the depths and was beginning to think poppers were all we needed. But on this weird evening following very little activity during the day, when the small whites were swarming halfway down the water column, the only thing they wanted were sinking jigs. I guess every lure has its day.

Friends who fished further out on their boat, and others who fly fished the flats said this day was unusually slow, yet the next day had more action. I had heard that the New Moon, like the Full Moon, was a slow day to fish. One theory, my wise fishing kupuna told me, is that fish travel on those two moon phases so they’re less interested in eating. It’s like the predators and prey have a truce so they can complete their migration. How productive has the New Moon been for you?