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Changed my leader setup this year – saved money and caught more fish

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When I started offshore kayak fishing, I played it safe and used what was considered the best leader material and hooks since I wanted to give myself the best chance of catching a fish. Seaguar Blue Label fluorocarbon was thought to be nearly invisible and had great knot strength. Gamakatsu hooks were sticky sharp and strong. But both were so expensive.

Made the switch to VMC extra strong saltwater hooks a few years ago and haven’t been missing fish. They’re almost as sharp as Gamakatsu, thicker, and waaaay cheaper. Almost disposable cheap but I still try to reuse them until they get dull. This year I switched from the VMC Heavy Duty 4X Live Bait hooks as the front hook on the double hook setup, to VMC’s standard Live Bait hook, to be stealthier.

I’m using VMC 1X Inline hooks on the rear hook because the gap is open and a hard hitting fish will hopefully get snagged on it no matter how it approaches the bait. This inline hook is most often used to replace treble hooks on lures, and the hook point rides “inline” with the lure body, facing up or down.

It was hard to break away from Seaguar Blue Label since I believed it was the least visible fluorocarbon leader available, but I tried some 40 lb Sufix Invisiline this year and didn’t notice any decrease in performance.

The Invisiline was a lot cheaper than Blue Label, and was also stiffer, which is a good thing for leader material.

I replaced the VMC ball bearing snap swivel that was connecting my Invisiline shock leader to my Invisiline leader with a VMC ball bearing swivel and no snap. So from my braid (Sufix 832) to the hooks, all that was visible was this small, 110lb strong swivel.

These changes resulted in an increase in fish landed but as I began hooking bigger and better fish, I also experienced cutoffs of the rear hook. Shea, on the Big Island, suggested I try the Knot2Kinky titanium leader. I started by just using the Knot2Kinky between the first and second hook, called a “stinger” rig. On the first try something got hooked, couldn’t cut through the titanium leader, taking 300yd of line in 90 seconds before breaking off. Here’s a short recap.

On the next trip a 6lb uku wasn’t deterred by the titanium stinger rig.

So it seems like these tackle changes have improved my catch rate.

I’ve been using the stealthy leaders and terminal tackle on my kayak but they can be used from shore and other watercraft as well. All but the Knot2Kinky are available in the Store at lower than MSRP.

Finally caught a Southside fish: Catch, spike, bleed, ice, clean and cook

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The last 2 trips to the Southside had big bites but no fish landed. I went out last week to see if I could land what had been cutting and busting me off. It was the calmest of all the previous trips and the fish really didn’t want to bite for the first few hours. Nothing on damashi, nothing hooked on the dead opelu, just a lot of small boats coming way to close to me and spooking the already spooked fish.

Finally my bait got yanked hard, a bit of line pulled, and the opelu was gone. I dropped another opelu down, kept the drag Avet SX Raptor’s lever drag loose and put on the clicker. Immediate hard tugs, then hookup! A very jerky, spastic battle ensued which led me to believe it was an uku down there, and sure enough a nice one came to color. It had swallowed the rear titanium-wired stinger hook, and was already bleeding.

It’s been 6 months since I caught a good sized uku, so I was stoked to get one and break my bolo streak. I spiked it in the brain, bled it over the side, and put it on ice cubes and Arctic Ice in the fish bag. The rest of my subsequent baits were stolen on this too calm day so I eventually went in.

Since I had “cooked” some recent fish in the fish bag before putting them on ice, I iced the fish well on the short drive home, and buried the 6lb fish overnight in 40lb of ice cubes and Arctic Ice.

The next day the cooler was a chilly 34 degrees. The bottom shelf of my fridge, in comparison, is about 37 degrees because we open the door too often.

The fish was very fresh and drained of blood when I cleaned it more than 24 hrs after capture. Icing it firmed up the flesh so it was easy to filet and I decided to leave the rib meat on since the fish had so little bloody areas. It was a male in pre-spawn with those waxy fatty pieces in the stomach cavity, which translates to an oilier (in a good way) taste.

My neighbor loved the light, delicate flavor of the uku sashimi, in comparison to the kawakawa he had tried earlier, and fried the uku bones with salt, smoked paprika, garlic and corn starch. Man that looks good yeah?

It’s humbug to have enough ice to properly cool down a fish but totally worth it when you produce optimal tasting filets with a long shelf life.

Kayak fished the Southside the last 3 weeks – lots of cut offs and very big fish busted off

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Winter season is fast approaching. Wind on the Southside has been variable at times, and the south swell has been down. The drive and paddle distance is much shorter for me than the productive Eastside, but often I just get my baits stripped while dodging boats.

The weather during the first trip back was so calm that the fish were very wary, but eventually I found small, dumb fish to bite the hooks. A small uku managed to eat a frozen opelu, then a bunch of weke nono up to 1.5lb came up on the damashi. The most exciting thing was having an even smaller uku pounce on the falling 60g tungsten jig. I kept that fish to see what it was feeding on, and sure enough it had an oama in its belly that hadn’t made it into the shallows. Match the hatch baby!

The following week I picked another very calm day and again, the fish were wary and didn’t take take the baits wholeheartedly. I had a lot of baits raked or pulled off and even had the back hook cut off twice!

This bait was picked up and the fish ran with it for a few seconds before dropping it. You can see the jaw pattern of the fish.

Shea on the Big Island advised me to run wire leader which I had never used before. I ordered some Knot2Kinky titanium leader and watched his video on how he ties his rigs for ono.

This past week, the wind was texturizing the water enough to get better bites. My first bait was sliced through fairly cleanly, and the next bait had its back hook got cut off so I put on the Knot2Kinky stinger hook as Shea recommended. Got nibbled on, then the fish realized it couldn’t cut itself free so it took off for the deep. More than 300yd of line was pulled off a pretty heavy drag in 90 seconds and I had to almost lock the drag down to try to stop the fish. On the next surge the fluorocarbon knot pulled. The water was so choppy at this point for the fish to pull my kayak easily, shucks!

After analyzing the video, the consensus is that the mystery fish was a big shibi (yellowfin tuna under 100lb) and in fact two shibi were hooked in that area by another kayak fisherman.

I was bummed to lose such an awesome fish but in hindsight, the conditions weren’t safe for me to fight and land something of that size. So, my last two trips to the South resulted in no fish landed but I guess I have to try again, with the aid of the titanium rig.

First Rainbow Runner off the yak, followed by an ulua!

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The lighter winds of Fall have arrived and the warm-ish water (78 degrees on the surface) is still holding baitfish and pelagics. This short window of a few weeks is the best time to kayak fish before the cold water of Winter shuts everything down.

I started at my favorite Windward spot’s drop off and couldn’t find any opelu. Finally a small moana came up on the damashi so I dragged it around for 30 mins with no bite. Gave up, since live moana has rarely worked for me, and put on a fresh, very expensive ($3.50 each!!!) store bought opelu. Resumed jigging and the opelu got taken on the bait rod a few minutes later.

The fish ran fast like a pelagic but also had head shakes like a jack. After a spirited fight, I saw what looked like a mahi tail at color, but on closer examination, it looked more like a small yellowtail (hiramasa). Turns out it was my first rainbow runner ever. Also called kamanu, it was a stunningly beautiful fish.

Slipped it into my fish bag, on 10lb of Arctic Ice, and dropped down my second fresh opelu. It got hit in a few minutes also, by something the didn’t run quite as fast, but pulled me further out. It never tried to rock me, and because of its strength, I was hoping it was my first shibi (small yellowfin tuna), but it turned out to be a 15 – 20lb white ulua. It’s swim bladder was partially filled with air but it strongly kicked down when released.

I only had brought 3 of the $10/lb opelu since I hadn’t gotten many bites off frozen opelu at this spot, and dropped the last piece down. That one got hit a few minutes later but taken. On this day, very fresh opelu worked almost as well as live opelu.

The 8.5lb kamanu was packed with two bags of ice in the cooler overnight, like I did the 13lb kagami ulua that I caught on the previous trip, but by the next afternoon a third of the ice had melted.

Th

Maybe because that day was humid with low wind? The meat separated and tore when I fileted it because it hadn’t firmed up in the cooler. Much softer than the ultra firm kagami.

While it looked a little slightly bloody, it didn’t taste fishy at all and made for some tasty, soft, mild sashimi. Hope I get another shot at one even if I have to use high-priced bait to catch ’em. I gotta do a better job icing the fish on the way home from fishing, and pack it in more ice overnight.

Hail Mary kagami ulua! Catch and clean, sort of.

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It had been 6 weeks since I last fished, flipping the kayak and bolo-ing. The wind finally dropped, swell wasn’t hitting my Windward spot directly, but it was the day after the full moon. Big moon and glassy water usually translate to slow fishing but I needed to get out for sanity sake.

As expected, only small opakapaka hit the damashi dropped deep, and nothing bit my 1 yr old frozen opelu. I had gone out to 375ft deep, the furthest I’ve ever gone, and turned around and tried to hit some “contours” on the way in. An underwater canyon seemed to be creating a rip current on the surface, and sure enough the 10 inch FL paka pups bit the damashi on the way down. One barfed up a slender tako leg, but nothing bigger hit.

Giving up on the pelagic fish search, I entered the shallow ridge area that always holds reef fish. I considered bringing in the weighted opelu that hadn’t been touched in 3 hours, so I wouldn’t snag the reef but suddenly the bait reel started screaming and line was coming off fast! I had been jigging at the time and tried to get the jig in to stow the jig rod, but decided to leave the the jig halfway off the bottom and grabbed the bait rod before the fish rocked me. Had to hold the jig rod in the kayak with my leg since it wasn’t tethered down.

The fish made another sustained run faster than uku and ulua run, and I was hoping it was a pelagic that found its way into the shallows. Eventually it slowed and some moderate head shakes were felt, so I began thinking it was a big papio. When it surfaced I was shocked to see a kagami ulua (African pompano), my first ever on Oahu. The hook was pulling its lip open and I was unprepared to land it, since I had been thinking I was gonna release a “regular” papio. Please see the short video of the fight and landing below.

I bled it, put it in my fish bag filled with 10lbs of Arctic Ice, and decided to go in since it started raining. At home I surrounded it with 2 bags of cubed ice.

The next day, when I cleaned the 13lb 11oz fish, I found it to be drained of blood and empty in the stomach, and much firmer than any jack I’ve ever cut. But the flesh was a milky, opaque color and asked friends if this was to be expected. The guys who had caught kagami before said the flesh should be more translucent (see-through) so it was possible the fish was so internally heated that it “cooked” a little because I hadn’t immediately cooled it in an icy brine.

That bummed me out, since Shea, the young Big Island kayaker who has guest posted in the past, said that kagami made the best sashimi he’s ever eaten. I tasted a scrap piece and it was firm, non-fishy with a hint of oiliness. Hmm… Following the advice of the brain trust, I wrapped the filets in paper towel and stored them in air tight containers in the fridge. Coach Haru said the meat is so firm, it’s best to wait 4 to 5 days for the muscle tissue to break down and “relax”.

On day 3, I thinly sliced off a few sample pieces and found it still very firm to cut but a little softer on the tongue, and very clean tasting. I gave to friends with the instructions to not eat until day 4 but a lot of them couldn’t wait. They said they found it to be clean and crisp tasting with no fishy aftertaste.

I’m still unsure why the flesh was uniformly opaque but there weren’t signs of spoilage or visible damage. And I feel very blessed that one beautiful, unusual fish, changed the fortunes of my trip.

Well it happened. I flipped the kayak.

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Normally, the month of September marks the gradual start of Fall weather, with periods of humid, light wind days. Not this year. Instead we had trade winds and showers throughout the month. I’m blaming the La Nina again, in fact the “experts” are saying yet another La Nina has started. That’s good for lessening the drought and keeping hurricanes away, but bad for offshore fishing.

I was only able to go out once in September, and it was so choppy on the Windward side that my Bixpy motor’s power cable disconnected because I hadn’t completely tightened it. Instead of paddling the 2 miles back to shore to reconnect it, I climbed out of the kayak when the winds calmed, and floated my way to the rudder to try to re-tighten it. Climbed back in, still was malfunctioning, climbed out, tried to tighten it again, and on the climb in my PFD got hung up on the kayak’s rail and I flipped the kayak!

I have never flipped in all the years I’ve been kayaking so I was stunned, 2 miles from shore, alone, with an overturned kayak. (It’s always much safer to kayak with a partner.) My heart began to race as I worried I couldn’t get back in. I righted the kayak, hung on the side a while to catch my breath, and ungainly scrambled in like a wounded crab, and ended up with my legs tangled up under me. My 3 rods/reels got dunked, lost a few small items, and broke one of the flush mount rod holder extenders. Thank God I was able to make it back in without getting hooked or stabbed.

Paddled back to shore with the help of the onshore gusts and tightened the motor’s power cable. The motor started without glitching so I kept testing it and eventually ended up 3 miles out. I wanted to “get back on the horse” and shake off my misadventure. Nothing good was caught in the choppy conditions.

Lot of good lessons were learned though.

  • The kayak had to be leaned over quite a bit before it huli’d. I think I can avoid doing that while sitting inside, fighting fish, getting hit by waves etc.
  • I now know how to properly tighten the motor’s power cable. Hopefully it never gets loose on the water again. If it does, I won’t get out of the kayak to tighten it.
  • Even though I was in 50ft of water when the reels got dunked, some very fine sand got in all the reels. Never a good idea to dunk reels no matter how deep you are.
  • Everything tethered stayed tethered.
  • The floating Action Hat GoPro mount did its job and I was able to retrieve my cap that had fallen off my head.
  • The Garmin 44CV Plus fish finder and the Bixpy battery were completely submerged for a few minutes and didn’t short out.
Offending protrusion mostly ground down.

One of the two Ram flush mount rod extenders I was using to hold my rods behind the kayak seat broke, leaving its base wedged in the flush mount. I couldn’t remove that piece, and it was impossible to find that exact Ocean Kayak flush mount rod holder online that would match the screw holes in the kayak, so I ended up having to take the flush mount out and chip away at the protrusion with every tool I owned so it still could be used.

I was pleased to see how thick the plastic was on the kayak’s deck. No wonder the kayak is so heavy!

I ended putting that partially filled flush mount in the spot of another flush mount I don’t use much, and put the undamaged flush mount in the spot behind the seat.

Scotty flush mount extender

Instead of the Ram flush mount extender that couldn’t be locked tight enough to troll with, I’ll see how the Scotty flush mount extender works out. It’s strong and rigid but since it has no give, if I take a strike and the drag is tight, the kayak could flip or the flush mount could rip out of kayak’s base!

Well, they say it’s not IF but WHEN you will flip your kayak. I don’t want to go through that again, but now I have a better awareness of what do if I end up in the water and can’t get back in.

I would hang onto my kayak and first call for help on my VHF radio, and if that doesn’t bring a rescue, I could activate my PLB (Personal Locator Beacon). Bummer is, my rescuers may not be able to bring my kayak in also.

Hoping October has some light wind days!

Holoholo: Fishing the Calm Before the Storm

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Big Island kayak fisher Shea shares their best outing yet, right before a storm was supposed potentially flood the island.

Shea:

The ocean on the windward side of the Big Island was crystal clear and flat as a lake and winds were dead calm through the work week, and the remnants of Hurricane Linda were supposed to pass by on Sunday, so my buddy and I decided to head out on Friday. Even with the full moon and a sub-par fishing forecast, we figured maybe the incoming low-pressure system would turn the fish on. We launched in the dark and immediately noticed that the water had some “morning sickness” as the surfers say. The winds also started blowing onshore 5-10 mph with higher gusts, so going out to the grounds was slower than usual. We got out to the bait zone just as the horizon was lighting up with hues of red and orange.

The only time I hooked Opelu that day. Hooked 4 but one fell off right at the kayak.

It wasn’t long before we started passing some massive schools of taape or some other bottom fish. Experience has taught me that sometimes the opelu will be close by. Sure enough, a cloud of bait spanning 25-75 feet deep soon came into view. I was able to hook four on the first drop, but only managed to get three onto the kayak. I decided to take my chances and head out deeper to catch the dawn patrol. I sent my first opelu out on a 44 lb wire stinger rig and slowly pedaled out over the drop-off. As I passed over into deeper water, the fish finder came to life with marks from the surface all the way down to ~150 feet. Some of the marks had the telltale cloud shape of opelu, so I dropped my sabiki rig down hoping to pick up a few more.

A school of Rainbow Runner destroyed my sabiki right after, but managed to land one just as something took off with my opelu!

Something much stronger than an opelu immediately started screaming drag in short runs from my bait rod, and as I was fighting what would turn out to be a rainbow runner on my 10 lb test sabiki, something grabbed my live bait and took off on a short run. I tightened the drag on my Penn Spinfisher VI 8500 in an attempt to set the hook, but whatever was on the other end had come off. Thinking either my bait was gone or my line cut, I focused on landing my little rainbow runner, and just as I was brining it onto the kayak, my live bait rod bent over and screamed in its rod holder, listing my kayak over to the right. I guess my bait wasn’t gone after all!

First time seeing one of these ninjas right next to my kayak.

Whatever was on the other end put up a decent fight, but it had obviously burned a lot of energy in its initial run. After a few minutes of tug-of-war, the fish was within 20 feet of my kayak, but I still couldn’t see it in the dark water.

It’s really hard to take a good photo of these long fish on a kayak.

Suddenly, the fish broke surface right next to me and I realized that for the first time in 7 months of kayak fishing, an ono (wahoo) was within reach of my gaff! I sank a rushed kage shot into the back of the fish’s head, then readjusted and got a decent stab clean through.

Zoom in to see the stinger hook caught right in the roof of the mouth.

The ono curse had been lifted, and the stoke was real! My Hobie fishbag was not nearly long enough, so I radioed my buddy and asked if we could stow the fish in his. Turns out he was also hooked into a scrappy shibi ahi (yellowfin tuna). Nice double strike!

Chunky uku that ate my next bait immediately and really high up in the water column.

The fish finder screen was still lit up, and my ono would have to wait until my friend was done with his fish, so I decided to quickly tie on another wire stinger rig and get my second bait out. Not even a minute after letting my second opelu swim out, something grabbed it and I was on again! The bait couldn’t have been more than 50 feet down when it got eaten, so I figured it might be a shibi or another ono. After a brief but intense fight, the biggest uku (green jobfish) I had ever hooked broke the surface! My kage actually bounced right off of its skull so it took a few tries, but I was able to get the point to stick and wrestle it aboard.

Unmistakable two-toned and sickled shibi outline!

I tied on yet another wire stinger rig and sent out my third and final opelu, then slowly made my way back to where I’d hooked the ono. I had passed over some promising looking bait schools while fighting the uku, so the plan was to try pick up more bait and perhaps give some to my friend. At the time, he was improvising using a live 2 lb rainbow runner and trolling out deep. Before I could even find the bait school, something devoured my last opelu and took off on a screaming run. After a couple decent runs, the fish started coming up easy and I saw the sillhoute of a shibi circling under the kayak.

How NOT to kage a shibi!

After a fair amount of struggling, I rushed my kage shot, lost my grip, and watched in disbelief as the fish took off with my spear sticking out of it!

Luckily, he came back up with the kage still inside!

Luckily, the shibi came back up quickly and even still had my gaff in it. Nice easy and free lesson to be patient and wait for a clean shot, especially if the fish is hooked well!

These guys are a plague while trying to catch bait, but great fun on the jig!

My friend had managed to catch another opelu while I was fighting my shibi, so we decided to give the area another drift. With no baits left in the tube and not much energy left to pedal around and look for more, I decided to drop a 120g Majorcraft Jigpara slow-fall vertical jig into some promising marks on the sounder. After what must have been 7 or 8 missed strikes, I finally got a decent hook set into something. It turned out to be a rainbow runner slightly larger than the one I landed on my sabiki. There must have really been a lot of these guys out there.

Nice job getting a last-minute ono!

After landing it, I looked over and saw that my buddy’s rod was bent and he was battling something. As I pedaled closer, I could see the long silver outline of an ono circling around under his kayak. Double shibis and double onos! Definitely one for the books and I don’t think either of us will be forgetting this day’s action anytime soon. 

Here’s the video action of the story you just read:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Laurel and Hardy of Kawas

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

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

Kayak fished the Westside for the first time!

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It had been 8 weeks since my last decent catch and the wind on the South and Windward side of Oahu wasn’t letting up any time soon. I had been planning to meet up and fish with Terry, a contributor to the Hawaii kayak FB groups and a customer of the Store, and so he offered to show me his go-to Westside spot. The day was forecasted to be blowing over 12 mph everywhere else but only 8 to 12 on the lee side of the island.

I got to the spot a little after 7am, taking just 10 mins longer than it does to go to the Windward spot we had been planning to try. Terry was already setting up his Scupper Pro, which he skillfully outfitted with rod holders, fish finder, drag chute, insulated kill bag, bait tube, etc. I used to fish off a Scupper Pro and carried much less gear yet but looked more overloaded and disorganized than Terry’s setup.

The water was only slightly dimpled and the wind felt like 8 to 10mph but wasn’t impacting us at all. After a mile paddle we were at our first spot in 90ft of water. That’s a mile and a half less than the paddle to our Eastside deep spot! There were marks on the bottom that didn’t look like opelu but we dropped our damashi down to see what was around. A small moana came up for me and since Terry recently caught a 4lb uku on a moana in that general area, and I normally don’t do well with live moana, he put it on his live bait rig. I then hooked something that fought like a small papio but it shook off right before I could see what it was. Then I hooked a nice sized blue nabeta. Spoiler alert, that was the highlight of the day for me.

Terry began to get big bites on his homemade 20lb fluoro damashi rig. He had what felt like a good size papio break him off, then caught a beautiful 1.5lb weke nono.

He had been drifting around with his moana down for an hour and a half, and checked it to see if it was still intact. It was, and as he lowered it again the line took off! After an odd feeling fight he brought up a 3.5lb uku that was hooked in the mouth and in the side, thus inhibiting the way the uku could swim. We both were stoked with his action and I dropped a refrozen whole opelu down which immediately got mauled and yanked off the hooks. Felt like a small uku and I was expecting to connect with another soon.

Well, I just had my opelu baits chewed and pulled and Terry had two of his live moana steathily removed so he took me to the spot less than a mile away where he had caught his previous uku. We saw some bait marks that didn’t bite, I lost more baits including a live malu (sidespot goatfish), trolled around, jigged around, but couldn’t catch anything else.

I was super impressed with how Terry could cover the grounds without aid of pedals or motor, and fish over deep spots. He’s not exactly a spring chicken (neither am I), but showed no signs of tiring from the paddling. We both got a little stiff sitting on non-elevated kayaks seats though.

Our cars were intact with beach goers nearby and all was good. I did hit pau hana traffic on the way home and would need to leave by 2pm next time. My take of this area is that it does get fished often because the weather is favorable, but there still are reef fish inside. That’s a good sign that the fish population is healthy, but the fish weren’t big enough to swallow my hooks. That happens on the South side a lot too. Just gotta find the ledges that are holding the bigger fish.

Terry broiled the weke nono filets in a sake, vinegar, shoyu, ginger marinade. Was a bit dry but his wife said was ono. The next day they ate some of the uku as sashimi and steamed the rest Chinese style. Was winnahs! I saw my neighbor walking his dog as I was unloading my fishing gear and gave him my lonely nabeta. 🙂

Jigs, Jigs, Jigs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rudder/motor broke off 2 miles from shore, then phone broke during water safety test

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Rudder and motor placed in back of kayak when I returned safely to land

On my way out to the 3 mile spot on the Windward side, I was porpoising through choppy water when the kayak stopped tracking. I turned around and was shocked to see my rudder-mounted Bixpy motor on the side of the kayak. It was still connected to the power cable, and since I was alone that day, I didn’t want to risk getting into the water to put it in the kayak. So I paddled the 2 miles back to shore in following seas with no rudder, as the yak pulled to one side. Good thing the wind blows onshore on that side of the island.

Back home, I found out the plastic Bixpy rudder broke off from constantly lifting out of the water in chop, and the power cable was damaged. Even though the rudder mount was out of warranty, Bixpy sent me a new one and I ordered replacement power cables.

  • SmartTrack rudder in down position
  • SmartTrack rudder just showing off

The SmartTrack rudder that was originally on my Trident Ultra 4.3 is spring loaded to return to position after being lifted up by hand or by swell, and is more robust than the Bixpy rudder but not meant to hold a motor. I attached the motor to it and stress tested it in adverse conditions. The rudder mounted motor stayed in place in the 20 mph headwind and choppy, swelly condtions, and performed better than the Bixpy rudder because the SmartTrack rudder kept the motor pointing in the proper plane. I even climbed out and circumnavigated the kayak and climbed back in twice. I got winded climbing in the second time but it was good to know I could if I needed to.

Photo taken with the Walmart phone

My Samsung Galaxy S8 Active phone (3 yrs old) is supposed to be waterproof and was in my PFD jacket pocket went I went underwater twice, so I dunked it in fresh water just in case, to rinse off. About 30 mins later the screen went black and the phone started buzzing intermittently. I couldn’t shut it off and ended up taking it apart to prevent further short circuits, then drying it in a ziplock back with those moisture absorbers you find in food packages. Subsequent research showed that the S8 phones are prone to water damage if submerged, especially in salt water – ugh.

AT&T Maestro – Walmart only

Since my cell is my lifeline as yours probably is, I got a $70 Walmart smart phone (AT&T Maestro Plus) that night and am really surprised how capable it is. It can do everything my S8 Active could do. They had to save money somewhere, so the case and buttons are plasticy, the display isn’t as crisp as my old phone, and the call quality is a notch lower. But all in all, it’s pretty darn good for being 1/10 the replacement price of my S8 Active. I guess the previous years’ cutting edge cell phone technology eventually trickles down to the budget phones.

These equipment breakdowns caused me to miss two light wind days but it could have been much worse. It was a wake up call that bad things can happen when you’re offshore on a kayak, and you should be as prepared as possible.

Well, my S8 Active was still broken after I reassembled it, so I may eventually purchase a middle-of-the road Samsung Galaxy and use the Walmart phone as the kayak and backup phone. On the kayak I’ll be putting the phone in a waterproof case, and using the Rogue Fishing Company tether to keep it from sinking to the bottom. Lessons learned.

Holoholo: Live Bait and Vertical Jigs = Mixed Bag

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Shea

Check out the video:

It’s better to be lucky than good – doubled up on the pelagics!

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Late Spring / Early summer is the best time to catch pelagics on live opelu. Problem is catching opelu during this time is really hard because the opelu know the pelagics are hunting them. Best shot at the opelu is at the crack of dawn before the pelagics are on them but I’m not even driving to the launch at that time. Still, I was hoping to catch some hungry, stray opelu and drag them around in the deep.

I decided on the Windward side because the winds were lighter than the South side, and hit the water at 8:40am, 3 hrs after sun rise. Bait was scattered and sure enough they didn’t want to eat my damashi. In fact, the only thing falling for it were the deep water lizardfish. No nabeta, no opakapaka. The conditions were so nice that I decided just to run the Bixpy motor on the lowest speed and drag the damashi out to 300ft just to see what kinds of marks would show up on the fish finder. At 200ft something latched onto my damashi hooks and I was completely astounded to see two small, yet perfectly sized opelu come up. It was after 10am! I put one on my live bait rig and tried to keep the other alive in a juice bottle, head first, changing its water every so often.

I tried catching more opelu but failed so I went out to 300ft (a whopping 3 miles from land) and turned around and let the current push me in while I tried to hook something else with the damashi. Sure enough, with my damashi on the bottom in 280 ft, the opelu was taken and the line was going out fast. It probably took more than a minute to bring in my damashi, so the fish had run out a lot of line. I was really hoping that it was my first shibi (small yellowfin tuna) and it had some frantic head shakes, but when it came up I saw silver and sadly thought it was a kahala. Instead it was a tired kawakawa because I had fought it with so much line out, so when I bled it over the side it actually died a few mins later and the blood stopped flowing.

I had drifted in and was at about 250ft when I dropped the second, now dead, opelu down. It got slammed near the bottom and this fight was a strong up and down battle. I put the Avet SX Raptor in low gear and grinded it up. Because the fight was so short, the kawakawa came up green and took longer to get in position to kage. It stayed alive while being bled over the side, and after 5 mins I got tired of leaving a bloody trail for sharks to follow so I bagged in my my Large Hobie kill bag. There wasn’t room for another big fish so I headed into the shallow drop off to check on the reef fish.

The last time we fished the drop off was in April and the water was a chilly 74 degrees. This time it was 77 degrees and the damashi got hit on every drop until the hooks and lead were broken off. Misc reef fish (lai, moana, hawk fish, etc) were released. Looks like this year’s inshore season is about to go off.

I feel so blessed (and lucky) to have stumbled upon the two opelu the way I did, and be able to put them in front of kawakawa. The kawakawa, being big, bloody fish required a lot more special handling than a 5lb uku. I had to stop to buy ice on the way home to supplement the Arctic Ice in my fish bag, and had to cut all the darker, bloody meat away from the filets to maximize taste and shelf life.

But the recipients of the fish ate ’em within hours of receiving it and said was similar but tastier than yellowfin tuna and less *fishy/bloody* than aku. That was a testament to the instructions Kelly provided (bleed well, ice well, clean all the guts and dark meat out right away, wrap in paper towel and change the towel when it gets bloody).

Big fish returned to the South Shore and one tried to eat my uku

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It’s been a few months since I’ve checked my “big fish” South Shore spot. The last two times the only critters present were little bait stealers. Boaters had been getting ono and mahi mahi on the troll recently so the plan was to get out, catch opelu and troll ’em up out to 300ft. Unfortunately the few bait marks didn’t bite so I paddled around with the Bixpy motor assisting me, and nothing bothered my 8″ frozen opelu. Since the water was so flat, I went out to a spot about a mile away from my normal grounds, that held tackle busting ulua in the past.

Before I reached the spot I saw some promising marks and dropped the frozen opelu down. Felt some hard pulls and something ran hard with the bait. I thought it was a small shark but it settled into a familiar jerky fight. A long, skinny uku surfaced but had some fresh wounds past its dorsal fin. Something left a 6 inch bite mark, biting down from the dorsal fin towards its tail. Maybe that’s why the fight was so intense early on. What grabbed it wasn’t that toothy since the uku wasn’t shredded, so we’re thinking big ulua.

I drifted around that area, but nothing wanted another opelu or jig. On my way back to my regular grounds something really heavy ate my opelu and didn’t want to budge. I eventually broke it off and lost the rest of my baits, including live moana, to bait stealers too small to eat my big hooks.

The uku was 22″ and only 5.5lb because it was a male that had spawned out. It was pretty busted up on the outside but luckily the bite marks didn’t enter the prime meat.

Water temp was 76.5 degrees, up from 74 degrees two months ago. That’s still a little cold for May, but on its way up to the peak temps of 84+ degrees in the summer. The big fish are back but the opelu are really hard to catch now.

Cool products: Rogue Fishing Company phone tether and rod/paddle leash

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We’re always looking for new products that will enhance our fishing experience, and sharing recommendations with our readers. An ad for an improved phone tether showed up in my Instagram feed recently. I’ve been using a waterproof pouch on a lanyard attached to my pfd (personal floatation device) when I kayak fish, and it’s kept my phone safe, but I often can’t unlock my phone through the pouch. Even if I can, I have a hard time texting through it. Since my Samsung Galaxy S8 Active is waterproof, I really didn’t need the pouch. I checked reviews of Rogue Fishing Company, and their products, and all looked very positive.

So I joined their email list to save 15% off my first order, and ordered their 3rd generation phone tether ($19.99) and their rod/paddle leash ($17.99). A few days later the products arrived. I was very impressed with the ergonomics and quality of the components.

The leash of the phone tether is a compact fabric covered coil, the loops that hold the 4 corners of the phone are a durable silicone, and the carabiner and metal ring are corrosion resistant. The position of the silicone loops are designed to not interfere with the phone’s camera, and should stretch to fit most phones. Here’s Rogue Fishing’s product description and video of the Protector 3.0.

Even though my phone is supposed to be waterproof, if water gets in the charging port, a warning is displayed so I taped over that port temporarily. I took the phone tether and rod leash out to the deep this week. I could text on-the-water fishing reports to my buddies and ugh, answer phone calls freely. I resisted the temptation to take photos on the water, and instead used the GoPro on my cap.

I had been using a hard plastic, coiled paddle leash for years. It does the job and is very strong, but is heavy and rattles around on the deck of the kayak when I paddle. Rogue Fishing’s rod/paddle leash is much more streamlined, lighter, quieter, and the clip that attaches to my kayak doesn’t rattle. Even the elastic loop that cinches to the paddle has less resistance when I rotate the paddle, so it’s less taxing to use. Here’s the product information and video for the Defender Rod and Paddle leash.

Both the tether and leash were big improvements on what I had been using. I’ll post an update in a few months of hard use.

Update 6/5/21: The Protector phone leash and Defender Rod and Paddle leash are in the Store now.

How the Avet SX Raptor held up after a year of kayak fishing

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The Avet brand of reels is not well known in Hawaii. You won’t see them in local tackle stores. I had heard of the brand but hadn’t seen a recent ad for them in years. Accurate is the much better marketed brand that also builds 1-piece aluminum framed reels with stainless steel and anodized aluminum components.

When I was at the 2020 Fred Hall Show in Long Beach, I was taken over to the Avet booth and explained to long time rep Ben Frazier how I needed a light, powerful reel to land strong fish and sharks as safely as possible on my kayak. Specifically, I wanted to troll my baits with very light drag and clicker on, and then increase the drag quickly once the fish was hooked. The problem I was running into with my star drag Shimano Trinidad, was that I took a while to spin the star drag to proper fish fighting tension, and the high gearing of the reel, while great for bringing in the bait quickly, was hard to winch sharks off the bottom. Ben suggested the small framed lever drag SX in the fully loaded 2-speed Raptor version. The Raptor came with a max strike drag of 17lb, full max at 26lb, with low 3.8:1 gearing and high 6.3:1 gearing. It even had a magnetic cast control to pretty much eliminate back lashes. The SX Raptor weighed in at only 17 ounces, and retailed for $395.

I had fished that little reel for a year, landing small ulua and large sharks with ease. In fact, anytime the high gear was feeling a bit bogged, I switched to low to bring fish in quicker. The lever drag mechanism was much easier to adjust properly while fighting a fish, and I liked how light it felt on the rod.

It was my first lever drag 2-speed reel and it exceeded my expectations. But then it was time to break it down and see how corroded it got. I watched a video on how to open it up and clean it, and it didn’t look hard at all but was very different from my Shimano casting reels. I played and paused the video as I took the reel apart. There was no trace of salt or corrosion in the reel. I was amazed. And no breakdown of the drag washer material despite fighting sharks at high drag, to try to bust them off. I couldn’t believe how pristine the innards were. I could have easily gone another year without opening it up. Later, I read that lever drag reels are sealed better at the reel handle than star drag reels, and don’t let much water in.

I just use the Avet as my bait trolling/bottom fish reel so I’ve never casted it. Never jigged it either. But for what I use it for, it has been excellent. From what I read online, the comparable Accurate reel is smoother but more expensive and requires more maintenance.

I definitely recommend the Avet SX Raptor as a light-in-weight workhorse reel and am looking to add another Avet as I step up into larger fish. Please let me know if you’re interested in purchasing an Avet reel. If there’s enough demand, maybe I could become a dealer for the Hawaii market.

Coach Haru: Love/hate relationship lure fishing for ono

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

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

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

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

Holoholo: C-Tug kayak cart has numerous usability issues

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Despite so many positive reviews online, Guy ran into the following problems trying to get his Hobie Compass to the water and back, through sand.

Black plastic bucket cut open and shaped to conform the hull of Guy’s Compass

Guy: I read so many good reviews about the C-Tug kayak cart with beach wheels and really wanted to like it. Unfortunately it hasn’t performed as expected. The cart’s flat pads don’t cradle rounded hulls well. The cart’s straps slip off the kayak if the wheels hit any obstacle and the cart has to be repositioned. I had to add a cradle made out of a plastic bucket, to hold the C-Tug in place.

Sand in tire tread after being sprayed with water

I attached and detached the wheels under water and sand got into the plastic parts. Sand remained on the inside of the wheels despite traveling over a hard surface.

It was difficult to clean off without water. Sand gets stuck in the tire tread and probably cuts into it.

Wheel’s hub is scoured from sand stuck on axle

Sand got inside the axle and scratched up both the inside of the wheel and the axle itself.

Plastic axle scoured by sand

Sorry that my first Holoholo post isn’t more upbeat but I just wanted the kayak community to know that my experience hasn’t been as good as was expected.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lucky damashi -> one opelu -> first kayak Kawakawa

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Frank, Guy and I were blessed with near epic weather on the Windward side. The trip didn’t start off too smoothly though. Frank and Guy ran into heavy traffic on the H2-H1 merge, and then Guy’s fish finder went on the blink. Guy also had to do an on-the-water reattachment of his Hobie inflatable ama, but got things situated.

I had heard reports of ono being caught close to shore on Oahu and really wanted another one. The only ono I ever caught was on a live opelu Robert had gifted me because I was so bad at catching my own. Here’s how that trip played out. Since Robert wasn’t with us on this trip, I figured the next best thing would be to use the damashi he made for me that I was saving for a special occasion. I “baited” the damashi with CHL Minnows in the May Day color.

My GoPro was angled too high and cut off the bottom of what I tried to capture

First drop of the damashi over scattered marks brought up an opelu! I couldn’t believe my luck, called the guys over but we couldn’t catch any more. Meanwhile Guy hooked a 3lb oio on his damashi and carefully brought it to the surface, but he had forgotten his net. The oio broke off as he tried sliding into his Compass.

Wanting to take the opelu out to the ono grounds, I zipped out with the help of the Bixpy motor. Guy joined me, landing more lizard fish and little puffers than he cared to count. Nothing bothered the opelu and it was still kicking after 2 hours.

I told Guy I wanted to head over to the deep reef where maybe an ulua might give me a yank, and was heading that way when he radio’d to say fish were busting on the surface and birds were dive bombing. I circled back to the area, didn’t get any hits and turned back to the reef when I got the strike. It started with a few yanks as the fish tried to swallow the 9 inch opelu, and then the fish took off. The runs were very strong and the weight of the fish didn’t feel heavy like sharks do, so I began to think it was a big uku. I dropped the Avet SX Raptor into low gear and pumped and cranked the fish in, hoping to see a 20lb uku. Instead I saw what looked like a small yellowfin tuna! The fish snagged the keel guard under my kayak twice and I thought I lost the fish. When it got closer to the surface I could see that it was my first kayak kawakawa. Man are those fish strong. It was making clockwise pinwheels and my first attempt at kage-ing it missed because the fish dove as it neared the yak. Two more pinwheels and I was lucky enough to get it right past the gill plate.

Sharky had splashed my GoPro lens

Guy and I tried bottom fishing with frozen opelu and he got two hard strikes that literally rocked his kayak, but both shook the single hook he had in the opelu head. He rigged a trailer after that but the mystery fish didn’t return. My opelu got taken by a sandbar shark which I winched up in low gear. I thought of unhooking the shark with pliers but decided to keep my digits and cut the leader instead.

Here’s a short video of the landing of the kawakawa.

Frank had been on a papio hunt and caught two omilu within the first hour, trolling last year’s oama. Switching to damashi, he brought up a nabeta and a yellow spot papio. With his fish bag full of great eating fish, he radio’d us to say he was safely heading in.

The kawakawa ended up weighing 9lbs. It was good training for the 25lb shibi (small yellowfin tuna) that’s hopefully in the near future.

Capt Erik and Kelly gave me tips on how to clean the kawakawa. Because I didn’t have to scale and gut it, it was actually easier than cleaning a smaller reef fish. I was shocked to find the kawakawa’s stomach stuffed with 2 fresh ika and two small opelu. And yet it tried to eat the 9 inch opelu.

I was a little leery about eating the kawakawa since I don’t like fishy tasting fish. Turns out the Hawaiian bonito could be bloody but not fishy like limu-eating reef fish, and since I bled it on the yak it wasn’t really that bloody at all. It had a firm, meaty texture and a good taste. I did get one piece that left a slight bloody after taste though, maybe I didn’t cut out the blood meat on that one.

Guy took this photo before he and his wife ate the entire plate. It definitely tasted different from ono and uku but good in its own right. Bleeding, icing, cleaning right away and wrapping in paper towel definitely keeps the flesh fresh.

Guy paid some dues on just his 3rd offshore trip and will be a better kayak fisher because of it.

Thanks to Robert for the lucky damashi, Guy for putting me on the kawakawa, Frank for spreading Aloha, and the crew for teaching me how to clean and eat fish. God has really blessed me with great fishing friends.