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Live opelu is way better than fresh opelu!

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Old timers have told me that opelu is the “magic bait for pelagics”, like oama is the “magic bait for papio”. Since frozen oama still works when slow trolled for papio, I’ve been buying opelu from the fish market and trolling and bottom fishing that off the kayak. It hasn’t worked that well trolled (one 11lb mahi last spring) but has worked for uku (and a lot of bait stealers) near the bottom.

Hayabusa damashi fly on gold hook

Boaters and kayakers who catch their own opelu have been telling me to save money and just catch my own but that’s much easier said than done. I’ve been striking on when others have been bringing up multiple opelu and was kind of just going through the motions of dropping the damashi down until I finally caught an opelu on the last trip. That made me realize it was possible to catch one or two for bait, and since fishing is all about confidence and sticking with it, I was determined to catch opelu and hook something good with it. To increase my odds I was using the expensive store bought Hayabusa damashi flies with gold hooks.

You can see the damashi fly springing free

I went out this week on an overcast, slightly drizzly day. It was about 9am when I reached the bait grounds but because the sun was blocked it looked like dawn. My version of dawn patrol. The fish finder marked a lot of small fish near the top of the water column and I dropped down, felt something hit but it was pulling harder than opelu should. Baby aha – ugh. Next drop was another aha. I’ve never caught them on the damashi fly before and was gonna find another bait pile but decided to drop one more time. This time something smaller was on, and because my opelu confidence had dropped due to the aha, I brought it up slowly and when it got to the surface it was a perfect sized 8 inch opelu that popped its head out of the water and shook the hook! Arrgggh…

The school moved and I spent another 45 mins in different spots trying to catch them. Gave up, slow trolled a 9 inch fresh opelu that got taken near the bottom and the hooks pulled once again. So I started fishing the 9 inch fresh opelu cut in half, with two hooks to see what I was missing. Sadly, I landed 2 big taape and a hagi. So that’s probably what has been stealing my dead opelu, not the small uku I was hoping for. Disillusioned, and now fighting a 10mph south wind, I came across a promising bait school in the area where I’ve lost ulua and sharks but hadn’t seen a lot of bait before. The bait stealers had depleted my fresh opelu supply so I decided to try for opelu on the damashi again. To my surprise I got bit on the way down! This one was bigger than I preferred but stayed on the hook and was dropped back down with two hooks in it.

I slow trolled it around and nothing bothered it until I went back to the spot I caught it. It started getting nervous and then something ran with it for a few seconds and ripped a 4 inch wound in its stomach. That was probably the small uku since hagi and taape wouldn’t be able to catch the opelu and leave such a big hole. I dropped the now dead opelu back down and the bait stealers picked it apart.

The south wind had settled down but there was a lumpy west swell that was bobbing me around, enough to come over the side of the kayak at times. The bait ball was still around so I dropped the damashi down and caught another 10 inch opelu. 3 opelu in one day if I count the one that fell off at the surface, my personal best! I put the opelu down, maybe 30 ft off the bottom and went back to opelu fishing.

The opelu got nervous, and the rod began to bounce a little as line was pulled off an inch at a time. This went on for about 10 seconds and I gave the pred time to turn the big opelu around and swallow. Then the pred took off, pulling my rod under water and I had to clear the bow of the kayak. The fish was strong and heavy but I was able to stop it with a strong drag setting, so it wasn’t a shark. The fish was turned and I was short pumping it back so it wouldn’t find the reef like last week, and then about a minute and a half into the fight it felt like the hook slipped and got stuck somewhere else. Then the fight got really jerky like the fish was getting attacked by something and it transitions to the heavy pull of a shark. 15 seconds later, the leader above the first hook was cut fairly clean with a bit of abrasion above the cut. I was running the GoPro on my cap and shared the video of the fight with friends (sorry too many landmarks for general viewing). They think that maybe a big uku ate the big opelu and made its initial strong run, and was coming in when a shark or sharks mauled it.

I like that the bait stealers leave the live opelu alone and only something fairly big will grab it. Also like that you can tell when it’s about to get hit because the opelu starts jerking the rod. So in the end I bolo’d once again, but am getting closer to hooking and landing the prize fish on live opelu.

Wrecked by ulua, bait pulled off by preds but underwater camera may have caught the likely suspects!

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The day started off with calm winds and Frank, Robert and I met on the water. Robert was on the maiden voyage of his Solo Skiff and working out the kinks. Frank, on his Hobie Revo 13, was initially trying to catch opelu, but when we all struck out, turned to bottom fishing, then trolling. The tide was falling to a slack tide, not the best conditions for pelagics. I quickly dropped the GoPro down twice from my Trident Ultra 4.3, in deeper water (between 100 and 130 ft) than the previous two times and trolled a fresh opelu to my first bottom fishing spot.

Something bit it behind the head and missed the 2 hooks. Better to bottom fish where I can watch the rod tip and feed the fish some line.

Wind chop picked up mid-morning and bounced us around a bit but not before I missed what felt like 2 uku that couldn’t quite swallow the head or tail and get hooked. During this time, Frank had a big strike on his trolled dead, fresh opelu that broke his wire leader! The weather conditions were getting worse but I was determined to land at least one fish.

Frank started to make the long pedal back in, and Robert made loops around me with his motorized skiff, as I finally hooked a good sized fish that ran for about 10 seconds, parallel to shore, before shredding the braid main line. That’s never happened to me before. Usually sharks take their time as the head to deeper water, and uku run hard initially but then tire out.

I tied on a swivel to my braid, then a 5 ft – 40lb fluoro leader to the swivel and dropped another fresh opelu down. Got another pick up after a lot of taps and this fish ran for about 5 seconds and cut the leader between the two hooks! I radio’d the guys that I lost two fish to cut line but I don’t think they believed me.

Rigged up again, dropped another fresh opelu down and hooked something strong and fast that took at least 200yds of line because I initially had the reel in freespool to ensure the fish could get hooked without feeling much pressure. With most of the line out, I tightened down the drag and the fish pumped against the pressure and broke the braid main line. This fish was on another level compared to shark battles I’ve had so I assumed it was ulua. At this point I was getting really frustrated with all the gear lost and hooks left in fish (they’ll eventually rust out) and still hadn’t even seen what was biting.

Then I realized we were fishing the slack bottom tide when the lazy sharks and ulua come out to look for an easy meal. I dropped the GoPro down once, hoping a shark or ulua won’t take a swipe at it and resumed bottom fishing with fresh opelu. A shark hit the bait, ran the way sharks do and shredded the braid again. I began to suspect that my braid had been pulled through the reef by the first fish and was now weakened.

The wind and chop were getting hard to combat so I let the current push me into towards shore and had my remaining baits pulled off. Nothing to show for it except for pics of mauled opelu. Or so I thought.

Look what showed up on the deep drop videos. I had to look at the videos frame by frame and then extract a still and optimize it. Felt like a fish detective.

The bigger fish in the back is following two other fish. What do you think they are?

On the last camera drop where all the action was, this uku swam up to the GoPro with the blinking red light and turned away slowly. I think this is circumstantial proof that small uku and papio are taking my opelu and missing the hooks!

For extra credit, what is this fish which was down in 100ft? Hint: Look at the shape of the fish closely.

Finally… light wind, caught an opelu… but missed the fish!

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5 weeks of wind and rain, very unusual for winter, finally let up this past week. Frank and I dusted off our kayaks and out of shape bodies, and paddled out in greasy calm conditions.

Black hage on top with opelu kala under them
There were a few of these fish about 8 ft off the bottom
Based on shape and coloration, what do you think they were?

Water clarity improved at about 80ft so I dropped the GoPro down a few times before breaking out the damashi. I didn’t see the video until I got home. There weren’t as many surprise fish as the last time I did this, but there were a few mystery fish near the bottom swimming slightly out of range of the camera. Based on what we had caught there before, I have an opinion of what it was. What do you guys think it was?

There were a lot of small fish marks on the fish finder without larger marks under them, so it looked like those reef fish weren’t worried about being eaten by something bigger. The tide was dropping to a very small high tide later, so it seemed that the big fish hadn’t come in to feed.

At 90 ft the water was really clear and I palu’d some opelu pieces to see if I could bring in the opelu. The black hage swarmed the palu, and the opelu kala came into view. Then we could see silvery, elongated fish beneath the opelu kala.

A tight bait ball was passing under me just as I was bringing my damashi up, and I could see the two intersect on my fish finder. I hooked something in 40ft down that couldn’t be the usual moana or lizardfish, and the frantic tail beats gave me hope. My first opelu caught intentionally, and the 9 inch fish was bigger than I wanted for the small uku I was targeting. All the on-the-water instruction from my Opelu Sensei Robert helped me recognize the opelu bait ball halfway off the bottom and I had to go right through the bait ball to finally catch an opelu.

I put the fish in my kayak foot well because there was a little water flushing through the scupper hole. Frank and I tried to catch more opelu but failed. The opelu was splashing around but seemed fine when I hooked it in the nostrils and lightly through the back. We heard boat chatter on the VHF radio of nearby boats initially struggling and eventually getting an ono and a mahi so we were pumped to go deep.

Frank trolled a weighted store bought fresh opelu and I trolled my livey with a 2.25 oz bullet weight out past 300ft (deep) with no bites. Frank dropped his down to the bottom and instantly got hooked up with something that pulled much harder and faster than anything he had hooked before, and eventually popped his mainline. These ulua are hard to stop on our light-medium tackle!

I trolled the livey back to 110ft and dropped it down for uku. Just before the opelu reached the bottom it started jerking on the line like it was trying to get away from something. I held the rod with the clicker on and light drag set, and line pulled off the reel fast for a few seconds and stopped. The predator had run with the 9 inch opelu and yanked it off without getting hooked. Shucks! Next time I need to fish the live bait completely out of gear with just the clicker on, and let the predator run, stop, turn and eat the big bait.

Another fish pulled line when it took an 8 inch fresh opelu and missed the hooks also. Seemed like the few uku around were too small to easily swallow the bait, or tentatively nibbling on the flat tide conditions. The rest of the baits were mauled by hage so we gave up and went in.

Great day wind-wise to get back into shape but the fishing was slower than we had hoped. But I did learn that using live opelu was much more effective than using fresh dead opelu because the bait stealers didn’t chase down and maul the lively opelu. The fresh dead opelu were mauled within a minute of nearing the bottom.

Found out what’s been stealing my opelu bait!

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The forecast was calling for 6 to 8 mph West wind, which really means 8 to 10 mph at least. That’s right at the max we can handle so I planned to kayak fish within 1.5 miles of shore, no deeper than 100ft, and was hoping to find another shallow water uku. The fish in the shallows are generally smaller and manage to pull my opelu off, even biting clean through the body, and still miss the two hooks. I often go through all my baits without hooking anything.

So the primary goal was to determine what was stealing the baits. I was hoping they were small uku that just couldn’t swallow the hooks, but realistically thought they were other smaller snapper type fish like toau and wahanui.

I jury rigged my backup GoPro Session 4 in a $15 waterproof housing, to hopefully slightly point down and not tumble too much in the current. I wouldn’t know if anything meaningful was recorded until I got home and viewed the videos on my computer. Robert was joining me later so I headed out to find spots to video. Because it rained hard the day before, the water looked really murky to 60ft out, and I didn’t know how clear the water was on the bottom, in deeper water. I lowered the camera down in a few spots that had marks on the fish finder and wasn’t expecting much useful footage.

The camera seemed to stay upright without spinning much but dropping and retrieving on my jig rod meant I couldn’t fish at the same time. I soon tired of recording spots and grabbed the damashi rod when I was over what looked like bait suspended near the surface. A shiny 6 inch fish came up but it was a baby uku! This is the second one I caught recently, and Robert later caught one too, so that looks like a great sign for the uku fishery.

Enlarge to see how many hagi came to the surface

I couldn’t hook anything else on the damashi so I dropped down a fresh opelu in about 70 ft of water. I could feel the tell tale taps of hagi but then line got pulled off the reel. Shallow water uku? The fight was really jerky and the fish didn’t take any more line but I was still hoping it was a small uku. Nope, it was the dreaded black hagi with the blue lines, barely hooked on its top lip, that came to the surface with the rest of his gang. With baby uku and hagi coming to the surface, that told me there were no large predators around.

At this point my kayak was being tossed around by the West wind and the rolling South swell. Whenever I looked down to set up my gear I felt queasy, which rarely happens on the kayak. I paddled to the 1.5 mile mark to try to escape the hagi onslaught and try to clear my head . The fish finder lit up with marks near the top and on the bottom. I slowly lowered the camera one last time, to hopefully record bait near the top and reef fish clustered above the rocks. Then I stowed the camera for good and dropped another fresh opelu down. This time I felt a few hard tugs and when I checked the bait, the middle of the opelu was missing. Dropped the sad looking bait down again and something picked it up and ran fast for about 5 seconds before the hooks pulled. I tried to return to that spot after drifting off while rebaiting, and dropped another fresh opelu down. This time I hooked something that ran slower but stronger, and I was on the dreaded Shark Sleigh ride. Feeling queasy really made my arms tired and 7 mins later I got free and found myself in 180ft of water.

Robert called me on the VHF radio while I was battling the shark and was checking bait spots on his way out so I shook out my arms and paddled in to meet up. He’s a master at recognizing opelu marks and dropping down on the moving school and soon enough had 3 in his live well while I continued to strike out. I declined his offer of a livey and he trolled his bait deep while I worked my way into shallower spots to try to get out of the West wind. In 60ft of water my last frozen opelu got yanked a few times, then I hooked a heavy fish that shook its head frantically. I was thinking good sized uku but was stunned to see the biggest, ugliest hagi I’ve ever personally seen.

Robert’s live opelu were attacked by aha immediately and the washing machine conditions out in the deep got him feeling sick also, so we both headed in. He was still able to catch 2 more opelu when he passed over good marks.

At home, I looked up the hagi, thinking I had caught a state record, but it turned out to be a “fine scaled triggerfish” that grows much larger. Then I looked at the video I captured. The visibility was pretty good in the deeper drops and the camera stayed remarkably stable. The bottom structure was much flatter and harder than expected, and didn’t have the boulders and caves I thought the fish needed to congregate. I did see the herbivore reef fish but also saw opelu higher up in the water column, and in the last deep drop, there was a school of large fish (more than 3 feet long!) so astounding I had to pull stills and send out of for confirmation. The plan now is to note what is being shown on the fish finder, then drop the camera down and see what really is down there. That should fine tune our understanding of the fish finder marks.

What’s funny is that the underwater footage didn’t help identify the bait stealers, instead I was lucky enough to hook the culprits. I now think that the light “tap, tap, tap” bites are hagi but when I hook an uku in shallow water, that uku came in and took the bait from the hagi. On the next trip, I plan to drop the camera down where the sharks have been. Hopefully the sharks don’t eat the evidence.

My Thanksgiving turkey has scales on it

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I was on a 4 trip bolo streak where I started each day by looking for opelu and ended with paddling in because the winds got too strong for me. The last trip started off with a lot of small fish caught on damashi (moana, malu, baby uku, lizardfish, hagi) but no opelu. When I switched to bottom fishing, my fresh halalu baits were bitten in the center and pulled off the two hooks but the fish weren’t big enough to swallow the bait and find a hook. These weren’t the typical hagi or aha bites. Instead they looked like a snapper type fish that just ate the good, soft parts of the fish.

There were a couple days before Thanksgiving with a few hrs of light wind according to the wind models, so I picked the only day I had free and was gonna head straight for the uku grounds. Before I got there the winds were already blowing 10 – 12 mph so I stopped at a shallow spot on my GPS that always had bait but I’ve never caught anything there. The current was running west and the winds were blowing east, so it was choppy but I was being held in place. Down went a fresh opelu I had bought the day before and soon I felt the tell tale taps of what I hoped was an uku. It took more than 30 seconds before the fish got hooked and then it took off. Maybe it’s because I hadn’t fought a fish in so long, but the fish felt strong! The carbon fiber drag washers in my gold Trinidad 14 gave line in a controlled manner and after a minute and a half I netted my Thanksgiving uku. Just like that my bolo ended.

I tried to add to my Thankgiving haul but I missed what felt like 2 more uku and had the rest of my baits mauled by hagi and other pests. The wind was white capping the water at this point so I went in.

The 20.5″ uku was bled a little when I caught it, put on Arctic Ice blocks in my Hobie fish bag, then transferred to a cooler when I got home and covered with cubed ice overnight per recommendation from boating friends who catch uku by the boat load. I’m hoping to get enough meat off it to be sashimi and a little poke for a family Thanksgiving meal.

This Thanksgiving, I thank God to be able to live in the greatest country in the world, in the State of Hawaii with the nicest people and the best weather. I hope your Thanksgiving is spent with loved ones and yummy food.

Goose egg but lessons learned kayak fishing the deep

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My last 3 deep water kayak trips resulted in no fish landed, but each one is bringing me closer to success, I hope. Trip 1: Wind was light initially so I explored some new grounds further from my launch/landing spot; found some suspended bait schools and saw big fish marks under the schools but the wind came up and I had to paddle back to my normal grounds. By then the current was too hard to stay on the spot so I came in.

Trip 2: Fished with our new fishing partner Robert back on the grounds where he helped me catch my first ono. Here’s that ono write up if you missed it. He’s been patiently trying to teach me how to catch opelu, and we found the school suspended in 250ft of water but again I couldn’t hook any.

Catching opelu so far down is difficult because the school isn’t staying in one place and the kayak drifts with the wind and current. There are also sub-surface currents taking our rigs for a ride. The guys on Hobies can pedal themselves to stay over the school but on a paddle kayak, the best I can do is paddle up current, drop down and try to reach the school as I drift over it.

Robert caught about 9 big opelu and I thought I finally caught one but it came up yellow. I guess it’s easy to hit the taape school since they’re hovering over structure, not swimming back and forth like opelu.

Even heavy jigging in 300ft of water has proven to be more difficult than expected. Like opelu schools, the areas holding preds are a small target to hit. In the past, I’ve jigged off boats in shallower water and was able to get down with jigs that weighed 100gm (3.5 oz) or less. Turns out kayaks drift faster than boats and you need more weight to reach the bottom quickly.

Robert hooked an 8lb kahala on a 120gm jig in 270ft of water speed-jigging that he was able to target with his fish finder. I tried to do the same with an 80gm jig that took too long to get down, so I went up to a Shimano Flat Side 112gm jig and still didn’t connect. And I got tired speed jigging so deep!

When we trolled the live opelu Robert had caught, we got picked up and dropped by fish that hardly left a mark on the bait. A 23lb shibi (ahi under 100lb) was caught in that area, so we’re thinking our big opelu was getting hit by the shibi but not chewed long enough for the fish to find the hooks.

Mangled damashi rig

Trip 3: Winds were light so I was able to return to the new spot I discovered on Trip 1. Found what looked to be opelu in water 200ft deep, but after trying for a while, my damashi rig got mangled. Hooks ripped off and lead weight taken! I figured, if the fish wanna eat a piece of lead, they might wanna eat a jig.

I had brought heavier jigs with me this time, figuring they’d reach the bottom without “scoping out” too far. I started with the 100gm Daiwa Tungsten jig (top in photo) thinking it would look like a reef fish because of its small profile, and still fall quick enough. On the first drop it got picked up and what felt like a good size jack (ulua or kahala) ran with it for a few seconds before the hook pulled. That was the first real fish I had felt in 3 outings! I was stoked the jig worked and I was able to entice the fish with the slow pitch “lift, drop and crank” method.

I paddled back to the area I had hooked up and there were thick marks on the bottom. Dropped down again, cranked up a bit off the bottom, then slow pitched twice and got picked up. The fish pulled line easily and since it was near the bottom I had to really tighten my drag. I was using a Shimano Game Type J medium-heavy rod, not expecting to fight big kahala and ulua, and was over-matched. The rod’s soft, parabolic bend couldn’t put the brakes on the fish and the line parted less than 15 seconds into the fight. Pretty sure it was an ulua because the kahala I’ve hooked in the past run more steadily and not as angrily. This one felt like it was really trying to bust me off. Here’s what it looked like.

I couldn’t hook anything else with my other jigs and my damashi rig got destroyed again so I tried to salvage the trip by catching an uku. By now it was past noon and the tide had peaked. Not the best time to bottom fish. My first spot came up empty and I paddled against the current to a spot that has yielded uku and sharks in the past. Dropped down a 10 inch frozen opelu, held the rod and waited. Tap, tap, tap…tap, tap, tap…tap, tap, tap. When I checked the bait it was gone. I don’t think hage can pull the opelu off both hooks so I was hoping it was a bait stealing uku. Dropped another whole bait down and the taps started again. Then line pulled out for about 3 seconds, then stopped. Arrgh… an uku had grabbed the middle of the big bait and swum off and got away without feeling the hooks.

I tried dropping the front half of a big opelu down and got yanked but the bite didn’t set. So I put down the back half of the opelu. Thump, thump… and it felt like the fish ran into a cave. Then the cave moved slowly at first, than at a constant speed. I either hooked a submarine or a huge shark. I tightened the drag hoping to pull the hook out or bust off but the creature steadily pulled me from 115 ft deep to 170 ft. I was tired from paddling around for more than 5.5 hrs at this point so I did everything I could to break free, then made the bolo paddle of shame to shore.

I had bought a few of those Daiwa tungsten jigs on eBay in different weights when they fell out of favor a few yrs ago and people were selling them at half the retail price. I just checked and they are are now selling at way more than retail price. I guess someone figured out a small, dense jig falls fast and looks like a tasty morsel. I had fished the 80gm version at the Penguin Banks a couple of yrs ago and caught a big white papio on it. I guess GTs like its action?

Those 3 trips were a lot of time and effort spent to catch nothing but I did learn some new spots holding fish, reminded that slow pitching saves energy and attracts fish, and uku bite even during the slow times if you drop a bait right on them.

Hope I actually land a fish next time.

Holoholo: Flying Fish TV double ono, shibi and kawakawa on kayak!

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My name is Dan, but a lot of people know me by my YouTube channel Flying Fish TV. I am pilot by profession, former military and now as a civilian I am pursuing my greatest passion, kayak fishing. Before moving to Hawaii I told myself that if I managed to figure it out that I would start a channel to teach others. I started kayak fishing back in 2010, but never really went anywhere with it until my family was stationed in Hawaii. After fishing mostly solo for 6 months in Hawaii I started to get it down and started a YouTube channel in May of 2018. 

Dan: It was a Saturday morning and despite having to work in the afternoon I hit the water. My friend and I had been eyeing the forecast and it looked like the last day before the wind was going to pick up. It was supposed to be 14-18 knots and 4ft swell. On the way out in the dark we could tell that it was going to be a little rougher than expected. As the sun came up and we could see the conditions and we decided to make it as short of a trip as possible. We easily caught bait and I filled my bait tubes with 5 opelu each. I set out my first long bait and then my short bait, both on wire. The current was ripping pretty hard and after about 40 minutes I was thinking we would be going home with a big donut.

I had drifted a couple hundred feet in that time and started moving back. I opened the bail on my long bait and the line seemed to peel off a little faster than my bait could move. I closed the bail and I was on. It was fighting a little weird and I wasn’t sure if I had a needlefish (aha) at first or later on a yellow fin tuna (shibi) or a wahoo (ono). I had the fish at my 50ft leader and I strained to see it in the water. With waves and the ripples I wasn’t able to tell it was a wahoo until it popped up right by my kayak. Knowing there wasn’t enough light to get a good picture I kage’d him and brought him in the kayak. It had a big scar near the tail and a broken dorsal fin as well.

At some point after catching bait I managed to lose one of my bait tubes despite it being in a carabiner. It must have slipped out, but the paracord may have broken as well. Either way the bait tube sailed off with 4 live baits inside. During the fight I managed to drown my other bait and after switching it I set it out at my 200ft mark. Shortly after I put the wahoo in my fish bag I heard a buzz as something hit my long bait. I picked up the rod thinking that I missed the fish. I left my bait out there hoping the wahoo would come back for the other half. After a few seconds I started reeling in the slack and the fish was still on. I moved my other live bait rod around so I could chase the fish without getting majorly tangled. I got to my leader quickly but the fish fought hard digging in circling below the kayak. I must have gotten the yellowfin in range to kage several times, but it kept taking line. I finally kage’d the fish and I was surprised how lit up it was. It might have been that I pulled the fish in about half as much time as usual.

During the fight a big swell of around 8ft knocked something loose on my battery or so I thought. The fish finder kept powering on and off every second and it turned out that the power cable was broken at the fuse. I disconnected the fish finder after the fight. I now had my first ever wahoo and yellow fin combo and I started to dream about a grand slam. I have had several yellow fin and mahi mahi combos in the past. Another swell snapped me back into reality as I put the yellow fin tuna in the fish bag. I had drifted about a half mile since the first hook up and decided it wasn’t worth moving back. I set out another short bait on wire and it wasn’t long before the bait was freaking out. The rod tip was bouncing so much I wasn’t sure if a shark was about to eat it or it was running for its life from a pelagic. I opened my bail to let it run as life like as possible. It was maybe 3 seconds later it stopped taking line and I closed the bail. I could feel that something was chomping on it so I put the reel into live liner mode. Once the fish started to run again I clicked off the live liner mode and I was on. It felt tiny like I had hooked a bonita (kawa kawa) or a small yellow fin as I brought the fish to my leader. I pulled it right to within 20 feet of the kayak and then it must have realized it was hooked. It was another yellow fin screaming off line in desperation. Once I got the fish close again I saw that it was only hooked by the stinger and I stood a good chance of losing the fish. I chilled out a little bit and waited for it to wear itself out. I pulled it into the kayak and it was a copycat of the first all lit up. I told my friend that if I caught another fish that it was going to be too heavy for the kayak as it was getting pretty tippy with the big swells. He offered to let me throw fish in his fish bag if needed. 

The night before I had texted my friend that I was going to bring the Dock Demon, my toy rod. If I was successful in catching one wahoo I was going to try to get one on the Dock Demon. I was still in the area where I caught the last yellow fin and set out my second to last bait on wire with the dock demon. Initially the bait ran around my bait tube lanyard, but after I got it loose I free lined the bait. It swam down and away from the kayak with the line jerking off the spool. The last fish I had caught on the dock demon was the 20lb yellow fin and a lot of the braid was tightly compacted. With the jerking motions I barely noticed that something had picked up my bait and was swallowing it. That was until I stopped free lining with about 70 feet of line out. The small dock demon bent over and I felt the weight of something. I instinctively moved the steering handle in an attempt to get the line around the bow to the right side of the kayak. If at all possible I fight fish from the right side of the kayak that is free from my camera, fish finder or transducer. The line got caught on the front handle and my luck held as it popped free.

By now the fish was running and the Shimano Senora was singing. It was way up on the surface and I knew it had to be a wahoo. I initially thought I was in for a pretty long fight but after a few minutes the fish had stopped running on the surface and was around 30 feet below the kayak. I could see something long and skinny, but a little smaller than I imagined. Below the kayak it started circling and having forgot about my other line and I slowly drifted over it. I grabbed the small wahoo and after putting the dock demon in the rod holder I started to realize that I actually made it happen. It was at this point I noticed my other line going under the kayak and grabbed my rod to avoid a tangle, but it was too late. My line was flapping in the wind as it had been clean cut 200ft above my bait. I’m pretty sure that the wahoo swam through my line and cut me off. Since the fish was pretty small I decided that it would just barely fit in the fish bag with all of the other fish. It wasn’t easy maneuvering the fish bag with nearly 100lbs in it, but in the process the unthinkable happened. While struggling to get the zipper closed my hand slipped and I knocked the Dock Demon out of the rod holder and it was gone sinking below the kayak.

A little heart broken I had almost met my goal of catching a wahoo, yellow fin tuna, and a mahi mahi on the dock demon. I was totally loaded down at this point and started heading in slowly. I still had one bait left and I tossed it in not knowing the depth. My friend was also near us on his boat and I asked him if he wanted one of the yellow fin tuna. He said yes and was maneuvering to take the fish when my bait got hit. It was a kawakawa and I ended up giving him both fish. I gave the smaller wahoo to my friend on the trip.

I finally purchased a scale and the wahoo were 24 and 16lbs, and the yellow fin tuna was 18lbs. With my 20lb bag of ice my fish bag had 96lbs in it, the second most weight I have ever put in it. If it was flat this much weight would have been fine but not in 5ft waves. My friend was still trying to catch some more fish but after the bite died off we made our way in at 9am. Tons of action for such a short trip and my best fishing trip in Hawaii far. Double wahoo and a yellow fin, now I just need to tack a mahi on and I’ll have a grand slam.

Is there a Fall offshore kayak season? If so, I think it started…

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I’m not sure if the nearshore pelagics like ono, mahi mahi and shibi (ahi under 100lbs) are more common in the fall, or if it’s just that the winds have finally dropped and more folks are fishing, but there have been a lot of reports on social media of kayak fish caught.

I got word that one of the kayakable spots was holding opelu in relatively shallow water, and with the winds light and surf down it was time to go! My partners couldn’t make it so it would be a solo session, under safe conditions.

My opelu catching skills continued to let me down so after more than an hr of searching for them, I put on a fresh, store bought opelu and slow trolled to 400ft. I crossed bait marks but nothing hit the opelu. Turned around and dropped to the bottom at 375 ft, brought the bait up a bit and something grabbed it and headed strongly back down.

With the frequent head shakes and unstoppable runs, I’m pretty sure it was an ulua. I fought it for more than 3 mins before the line parted. It felt lighter in weight than sharks I landed but much stronger and angrier. And while I think I could have eventually landed it, I would have let it go so it could give the shoreline guys some action. If you look at the photo of how my front hook was cut off, you can see that the 40lb fluoro was chewed and the line has a split end. Since this hook is snelled and the rear hook should be behind it, the knot didn’t come undone, which is what I originally thought when I saw the curly end!

I trolled another fresh opelu back to 100ft and finally I got a high speed strike. The fish pulled my rocket launcher rod holder down and the rod knocked my GoPro cap into the water! The Action Hat floatation did its job but by the time I wiped off the GoPro lens and put the cap back on, the fish had swum off with my bait. I’m thinking what hit was a pelagic because the rod holder would have had to be pulled down with a lot of force, and the clicker screamed for a couple of seconds.

More uneventful trolling went by so I dropped down a fresh opelu at one of the uku holes. Sure enough, tap, tap, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. The fish fought spastically all the way to the top and I was thrilled to see what I thought was a PB (personal best) uku.

The rear VMC 4X inline hook had just caught the tip of the uku’s upper lip and popped free when I jiggled it. Super lucky hook set!

I put down another 12″ opelu that immediately got chopped up but maybe the bait was too big for the other uku? Refrozen opelu just got hage bites so I made my way into the shallows and never found the opelu school. I later heard that another kayak fisher put the time in, found the opelu and caught a 25lb ono!

The uku taped out at 21.5″, exactly tied for my PB. I love catching uku cuz they are challenging to hook, fight hard, and fit nicely in my fish bag, unlike long, skinny pelagics.

I’m hoping we have more light wind days and my partners can free up from their responsibilities to help me find those opelu!

It took a village to catch my first kayak ono

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Our experienced deep water kayak fishing buddy Robert, who shared his catch reports and tips on this website, had offered to show Frank and me how to catch catch and troll live opelu. Our schedules and good weather didn’t line up for months but we finally got the green light.

Frank and I got out earlier than Robert, and we used our fish finders to look for bait schools but all I could bring up were reef dwelling rubbish fish. We were very relieved when Robert joined us and we meekly followed him to deeper water as he searched for the tell tale opelu marks.

Frank on the far left, Robert on the right

Robert pulled up in an area that has held opelu before and started paddling around in concentric circles. It took a while for Frank and me to catch up to him, given that we’re both old enough to be Robert’s dad! We eventually drifted over the thick bait ball, but these opelu were deep and Frank and my deep water damashi skills are lacking. Robert ended up putting five 12 inch opelu in his live well, while Frank and I just got tired arms pulling up weights that were dropped 300ft down.

After all that travel time, interrupted by rain squalls so heavy we couldn’t see land, we only had about 15 mins to troll the live opelu in the deep before we had to make the long paddle back to shore. Robert gave us each a healthy, hard earned opelu. My VHF radio was on the blink from being soaked in the rain so I stayed near Robert, and Frank gave us some space. With his live opelu out, Robert tried to add more to the live well and I kept within talking distance.

My rod tip dipped a few times as something was playing with the bait, and then the ratchet screamed! The drag was fairly loose and yet it was hard to get the rod out of the rocket launcher in front of me. The speed in which the line was being pulled was unlike anything else I had hooked before, including a small mahi. The fish dove first and then swam away from us. I had a 40lb Seaguar Blue Label fluoro leader on a front and rear hook rig, and since the fish was staying on, I assumed it was a shibi (ahi under 100lb) rather than a razor toothed ono. My main line was 30lb Sufix 832 braid, which Robert felt was a little light, but after catching way too many sharks, I knew it could handle this fish that felt faster but lighter.

I eventually got it within eyesight and we saw a silverly long shape. Ono? When it broached upside down on the surface I could see how lucky I was. The VMC 4X size 4/0 inline single hook I use as the rear hook of a double hook setup was firmly locked in the left corner of the ono’s jaw. That was keeping the line away from the teeth. Robert had stayed with me for the whole fight and was now encouraging me to bring it within range of my kage. Since I had only kage’d an uku and a mahi before, I pulled the spent fish really close, and the kage Frank had made for me found its mark.

Robert passed me his telescopic, floating Promar gaff, and I used that to pull the fish carefully onto my lap.

Click on this to see the rear hook (2) in the corner of the mouth and the front hook (1) dangling free. The grippy BUFF® Elite gloves prevented the fish from sliding overboard and my buttery smooth, hi-speed gold Shimano Trinidad 14 did the job once again.

The ono was still alive but not putting up too much of a fuss. To be safe, I knocked it out with a Promar wooden bat, and yet it was still hard to keep from sliding off the kayak. Robert suggested tail wrapping it before putting it in the 36 inch Hobie fish bag behind me. That was the scariest thing of the whole deal, sitting side saddle with my legs in the bloody water, trying not to capsize the kayak. Felt much safer with Robert and Frank there if things went badly. At this point we were in 700ft of water!!!

With the fish secured, the guys trolled their live opelu in but nothing else obliged. At our landing spot we helped each other get our kayak carts positioned and made our way to the shower. I lagged behind, struggling with my lousy 20 yr old cart, one of the first ones ever sold, and the guys saw that and assisted me. I’m seriously thinking about getting the Wilderness System Heavy Duty Kayak Cart Robert reviewed.

Another kayak guy left his hose connected for us, and gave me his left over ice since he hadn’t caught much. Frank did the same with his ice, so I didn’t have to buy ice on the way home. I just bring reusable Arctic Ice blocks, not cubed ice because I don’t expect to catch anything big!

First fish I was able to measure with the Rapala Retractable Ruler!

The ono measured 48 inches in fork length and my fish bag was only 36 inches long, so that last 12 inches was never chilled. I rushed to clean it as quick as possible and put the chunks on ice in a cooler.

Click to see the VMC 4X Inline hook size 4/0 locked into the corner of the mouth, and how the cleanly cut pieces of opelu fit back together

In its stomach I found 3 quarter pieces of the opelu bait so cleanly cut I could put them back together like a puzzle. Only the head was missing. How did the ono get hooked on the back hook, yet cut and eat the 3 pieces without cutting the line between the front and back hook? As Robert said, “it was meant to be”. I’m thinking maybe the fish bit the tail piece off and got hooked, and the rest of the bait was still attached to the head hook. It then ate pieces leading up to the front hook and stopped before cutting off that hook. That could be why my rod tip dipped a few times before it bent over.

However it happened I was super blessed to have been given Rober’ts live opelu and then have an ono not sever my fluoro leader. Thank you Jesus! Getting all that help on land from the guys and then being able to reach my wife before she drove home from work, so she could buy more bags of ice, it was like the guy at the shower said, “It takes a village to catch and process a good fish like that“.

We aren’t able to sell Promar products but fully endorse the nets, gaffs and bats we use as well as the great Promar-Ahi USA folks themselves. We’d love to sell the Buff Elite paddling and fishing glove but can’t because we’re not a “brick and mortar” store. Despite that I don’t kayak without that glove and will be buying a backup pair soon.

We do sell the VMC 4X inline hooks and I’ve found them to be strong, effective as a rear hook on bait or a lure, and very reasonably priced. I’ve never had one open up, even when landing big sharks. The guys and I are testing the Rapala Retractable Ruler, and so far, I’ve found it to be easy to deploy, shows up great in photos, and cleans up easily. We have one more in stock and if there’s demand, we’ll order more. Using Sufix 832 braid really should be a no-brainer. Since I’ve switched from the popular brand to Sufix 832 I haven’t had a problem with backlashes or break offs. The 30lb Sufix has proven to be strong enough to land 6 ft sharks, and a 49 inch 25 lb ono. 🙂

Hunting the schooling white papio

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Seasonally the white papio, some ulua-sized, school up in the bay for a month or so, and for the last couple of years Frank and I tried to crash their their feeding frenzy party on our paddle watercraft. Each year we couldn’t find them, or they just didn’t want to bite.

We have caught small ones (less than a pound) just as the sun was going down, but never got the bigger ones to bite in the morning. Our boating friend Erik located a big school a few weeks ago, and that was the intel we went on.

Frank and I were on our smaller watercraft since we weren’t going past the breakers. He was on his SUP converted into a sit down kayak style board and I was on my old Scupper Pro kayak. I still had use of my Garmin Echomap fish finder and could see scattered bait and what looked like larger fish spread out in as shallow as 8ft. I dragged sinking swimmers and lead headed jigs through the schools for nada. Frank trolled through them with frozen oama and stopped off a reef edge to throw a popper. As soon as the popper hit the water he was on! The aggressive white taped out at about 11.75 inches. Way to find the biting fish Frank! But the action shut down since it was getting close to 9am.

I slurped the same popper Frank had luck with, over large fish marks but couldn’t get them to wake up. Finally I foul hooked a baby omilu with that popper, on the reef. Almost 2 hrs from Frank’s first fish, in the same general area, he got a surface explosion on his popper I could hear 40 yds away! This was a bigger fish, and went almost 14 inches.

That was all the action we got on poppers. Frank wisely dragged his frozen oama around and released a small omilu and got another white to match his first one. Good thing I have a fishing partner that can catch fish when the fishing gets tough. Without his whites I would have assumed those big blobs on the fish finder’s screen were turtles or something!

So we know the whites were there, it just was too late in the day to get them to frenzy. We’ll start earlier next time!

VMC terminal tackle and Sufix 832 to be stocked soon!

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Some of the tackle we’ve endorsed on this website will be stocked soon, at introductory prices.

Clockwise from top left:

  • VMC Heavy Duty Live Bait hooks for big baits like opelu
  • VMC 4X Inline Hooks to replace big trebles on plugs or use as trailing hook on bait
  • VMC 4X Treble to replace stock trebles on small lures
  • VMC Heavy Duty Ball Bearing Snap Swivels
  • Sufix 832 Braid – 20lb – 300 yds – Hi Vis Neon Lime
  • VMC Heavy Duty Ball Bearing Swivels with Welded Rings

If these sell well, we’ll bring in more sizes.

Mahalo to those who have purchased from our fledgling store. We’d love to hear how the product(s) has worked for you.

Ono surprise!

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By Robert Richards

We originally had planned on a “fast” kayaking session of 3-4 hours, starting at about 5am and coming in around 9am. However, the trip turned into a super early launch at 3am to try for Akule (Goggle Eye, Bigeye Scad). Conditions were favorable with light winds and slight rolling waves. Fishing in the dark with rolling waves does not mix too well. Unfortunately, one of my friends, Jay, got seasick and had to go in. I almost got seasick too, but luckily my other friend, Shaun, found the Akule! Nothing cures seasickness better than staring at the land or catching fish!

Catching Akule off the kayak at night is so much fun because we can target them similar to Opelu (Mackerel Scad) but they tend to fight a lot harder. After catching about a dozen, the sun came up and the hunt for Opelu began. I managed to catch 4 and started my trolling around with mixed live bait of Opelu and Akule.

I went far before stopping to rest for a few minutes and to gauge the time I had left and how much further away from the launch point I wanted to go. Then a quick, short “ZZZZZ” happened on my Opelu rod. I thought it was an aha for a minute, but I decided to let loosen the drag and see what happens. Suddenly line starts to peel off the reel, so counted to 3 and tightened the drag. FISH ON! The sweet sound of ratchet lasted for about 3 seconds before the fish started to run straight towards me. For a second, I thought it was either a Kawakawa (False Albacore) or a Shibi (Yellow Fin Tuna under 100lbs). I caught up with the fish and the fight became vertical. Had head shakes and pinwheel runs, so I still thought it was in the Tuna family. Though after another minute, I saw a long striped silvery fish and instantly my heart started racing and I called out “Ono!”. 3 more pinwheels and the classic “PPZZZZ” sound of the kage (straight gaff) finding it’s mark, I landed the fish. Surprisingly, the fight only lasted 2-3 minutes max and I didn’t even get a chance to turn on my GoPro!

This was my second Ono (Wahoo) from my kayak. The first was a much larger 30lber and this one wound up being 12lbs. Though this one was much smaller, I was happy because it was the perfect size to fit in the cooler I had and big enough to share with friends. That ended the pressure to catch fish and I headed in with not much more action. After the sun came up, the conditions became more epic, with glassy water and a light breeze.

Targeting nabeta from the kayak

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It’s been a month since I stumbled upon the stray nabeta and opelu in stormy weather. Here’s how that scouting trip went. This time around, it didn’t rain on us but the winds were a steady 10 mph onshore, with wind swell that bumped up the water.

Our plan was to head directly to the nabeta/opelu spot, and if we caught opelu, we’d troll ’em deeper. Well, the opelu weren’t around so Frank trolled deeper with a frozen opelu. I had started damashi-ing with a CHL Blue Dust Minnow on the bottom hook, and a CHL Obake Purple Minnow on the top hook. Two nabeta hit the Blue Dust Minnow within the first 20 mins so I put a Blue Dust Minnow on the top hook and it immediately got bit, but what came up were deep water lizardfish. The wind kept blowing me off the spot and I eventually let it take me shallower.

Thought I was gonna load up after this but I drifted off the spot.

At 130 ft I hooked something over some good fish marks on the sounder, and there was more resistance than a lizardfish or nabeta could muster. Then drag pulled for a few seconds and abruptly stopped. I was hoping for a papio or uku but what came up was a dead trumpetfish with his throat ripped out and wounds near his tail. Predators in the area! I put on a small frozen opelu but that was ignored. So were tako legs and halalu. The bite went dead and we gave up.

Lead fish in the school is upside down!

Still, it was a successful trip, learning more about what I consider to be the best eating fish in our waters. The nabeta were only at a certain depth on this day, 5 feet deeper was barren, 5 feet shallower was full of lizardfish. And at this spot they love the CHL Blue Dust Minnow. Moving up to a 5 oz lead helped call the sand dwellers with each sand cloud lifting thump.

The bigger one has a puncture wound in its head because I killed it with my long nose pliers so it wouldn’t bite me as I bagged it!

I gave the two nabeta to a friend who gives me fresh tako. He hasn’t tasted the delicious fish for 19 years. Seems like a lot of fishermen heard about nabeta but haven’t seen it for a long time. Still got if you know where to go. 🙂

Product Review: Wilderness Systems Heavy Duty Kayak Cart with Beach Wheels

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By Robert Richards

Ever question how to get your kayak easily from the truck to the water? Who hasn’t? After pouring over all the options, composing pros/cons lists, comparing features to cost, reading reviews and observing friends’ use of kayak carts, I finally settled on the Wilderness Systems Heavy Duty Kayak Cart (Wildy Cart).

Why I like it: Simple and functional design that holds a lot of weight and is easy to use!

Coming from using Hobie kayaks with the reinforced scupper holes to prevent scupper hole damage and easy to use scupper carts, I found searching for a kayak cart to be a difficult task. Since I now fill an Ocean Kayak Trident Ultra 4.7 with a fitted cooler and all my fishing gear, weight limits on carts and ease of dragging through the sand were the leading factors for me spend so much effort researching kayak carts. I was looking at about 210lbs (dry) worth of carrying weight. Now I could have chosen a different cart and unloaded gear on the beach, but sometimes that simply isn’t an option.

So, my minimum needs for a kayak cart were to transport at least 210lbs, and have beach wheels. I noticed that most kayak carts rely on kick stands to keep the cart in position and ready for loading. Potential problem with other carts is not being able to balance properly in sand or be easily tipped over if bumped, or the stand could even get broken, since these carts are meant to have the kickstand forward for use. Some carts have 2 stands on one side, which certainly would reduce forward tipping and provide overall stability. Though there still is a chance the cart could tip backwards, and you must start the loading process all over again. The Wildy Cart’s bunker bars are designed in such a way as the bars act as a stand in either direction! If the cart tilts the other way, the bars act as a teetertotter and you simply load the kayak as usual. As a bonus, I have found that I can easily load the kayak onto the cart by simply lifting the tail end of the kayak and slide the cart under the kayak or if I am in the water just slide the cart under the kayak and strap it. This cannot be done as easily with any of the kayak carts on the market.

Furthermore, most carts on the market have a one size fits most frame with little to no flexibility to adjust to fit your kayak perfectly. Here is where the Wildy Cart shines again, because you can not only adjust height (2 settings), you can adjust the width as well. On top of that, the Wildy Cart has the option to swap out the wheels from beach wheels to all terrain and vice versa! Other carts do have wheels that can be used for sand and all terrain, but I found they don’t do as well as purpose-built wheels. For strapping, pretty much all the carts (including the Wildy Cart) are a chore to strap; you must loop the straps around the kayak and cart to hold the cart onto the kayak. Though there are a couple of DIY modifications you can do, which I may cover in a future article.

This brings me to a few observations I have about the Wildy Cart, now that I have spent nearly a month with it. Aside from easily loading it as described earlier, I did notice that the height setting had a huge impact on how you load the kayak. With the higher setting, the higher you have to lift the kayak to put on the cart. This can be a very difficult task if you must lift the kayak onto the cart on the beach. I tend to prefer to slide the kayak onto the cart in the water. I figure it is best to let the water do most of the heavy lifting. You only need fight the buoyancy of the wheels this way. However, this does expose your cart to the salt frequently and I have yet to learn of the possible damage that I will cause the cart from this loading method. With submerging the cart in water, it tends to fill the bars with water and there is no draining that can take place in the bunker bars except at the plastic piece at the four ‘T’ junctions.

Wilderness Systems Heavy Duty Kayak Cart specs (MSRP $199.99) :

-As promised, the cart looks and feels as though it can handle 450lbs

-13” x 7.5” beach wheels

-Bunker bar frame

– Easily adjustable width that does help from kayak twisting upon loading.

– 2 height options

– 2 security straps

– No scupper posts

– Built from aluminum

– easy to load and unload kayak

– collapses with 4 bolts to fit within the hull of my kayak

Specs not listed:

Weight: ~15lbs, Length: 32”, Height- High: 17.5”, Low: 15”

Width: Beach wheels- 33 ½”, Bar adjustment range: 16″

I have got to say that I am loving this kayak cart! I would highly recommend getting one or trying one out. I purchased mine during a 20% REI sale but had to pay extra shipping for the oversized item. It’s cheaper to buy it at $199.99 from Amazon Prime.

Disclaimer: I am not yet affiliated with Wilderness Systems, I did this review purely out of love for this cart!

Caught the target kayak species, but…

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The offshore kayak guys who consistently catch pelagics (ono, small ahi, mahi mahi, kawakawa, etc) do so by catching live opelu and then trolling ’em. Frank and I have specifically gone out to try to bring up opelu on our damashi rigs, and failed. The few times the opelu school was under us, they kept moving and we didn’t drop our damashi rig in time.

We always start our day by trying to catch bait, and eventually give up and put on frozen bait. Our latest trip to the Windward side started that way, and Frank brought up some taape on the damashi for the frying pan. I was just getting my CHL Purple Obake colored Minnow bitten off, so I put on a light green, translucent Minnow. A small brown hage took that Minnow so I put on a jade colored CHL Blue Dust Minnow with blue flakes.. Frank then hooked something strong that broke his damashi branch line, but the bite in that area stopped shortly after.

Remembering that Capt Erik and I stumbled upon deep water gold (nabeta) on his tin boat months ago, I paddled out to that mark on my GPS but didn’t see anything on the fish finder. Here’s that epic nabeta trip post from last fall.

I dropped my 2 hook damashi rig with 4oz weight down, and because the rain squalls offshore were generating gusts, I started drifting before my weight hit the bottom. Immediately it felt like I snagged a small bag and could feel the slightest twitches on the line. I cranked the rig up and brought up a deep water lizardfish. Next drop yielded another instant lizardfish. By now I had drifted about 50 yds off my mark, and into shallower water.

Dropped one more time before paddling back upwind and felt more twitches but less resistance. Yeehah!! Deep water gold was mined! I called Frank on the VHF and he paddled out but the rain and wind really made things cold and choppy. I tried paddling back to my original mark but it took so long I dropped down in slightly shallower water. Frank had headed to the less windy inshore grounds and I told him I’d give it a couple more tries before meeting him. Lizardfish, trumpetfish, lizardfish, lizardfish… Every drop, even though my line was sharply angled by the time it got to the bottom, yielded some bottom dweller but not the delicious nabeta.

A larger rain squall came through, and I made my final drop. This time I lowered the rig after feeling a fish hook up, then felt it get extra heavy. A lizardfish was on the top hook but an opelu was on the bottom hook! I could not believe my eyes. After specifically trying for opelu in much better conditions, I catch one in torrential rain while bottom fishing for nabeta. I wanted to troll that opelu around but my trolling rig was wrapped around my rudder because I neglected it as I was pushed around in the wind. I couldn’t free it while seated and decided not to get in the water with the wind pushing me at 15 mph plus. I paddled in so Frank could free my rudder, and the opelu stayed alive with splashes of water wetting its gills but died after 10 mins. Just as well, more rain was about to drench us.

Despite the rain and wind, I’d consider this a successful exploratory trip. There were huge barren spots in the deep, but the “nabeta spot” had so much life for some reason. Just no predators who wanted to eat my frozen halaluu. Definitely worth exploring again under calmer conditions.

The nabeta and opelu were both on the smaller size, about 6 or 7 inches. Smaller, thinner nabeta fry up easier, and because the sun never really came out, the nabeta was so fresh it didn’t taste like fish at all! My wife and I don’t like “fishy’ fish, so fried nabeta is our favorite fish to eat. The junior opelu will hopefully prove to be lucky when I troll it next time. And I’ll start with the CHL Blue Dust to see if its success was due to the overcast conditions, or if it’s an even better color than the Purple Obake.

First kayak pelagic!

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The plan was to catch live opelu and troll ’em deep since the kayak guys have been getting shibi (small ahi), ono and mahi mahi recently. I struck out on the opelu, had some strong hits bottom fishing tako legs that pulled but didn’t get the hooks in the mouth, so I headed deep dragging frozen opelu.

Got to 300 ft and hadn’t seen anything on the fish finder, so I turned around to get back to the tako stealers. Halfway in, my ratchet went off the way it sounds when an aha takes the bait for a few feet, stops to reposition it, and runs again. I figured I was in water too deep for aha to feel safe (pelagics eat aha if they can), so the fish had to be something good! I heard the splash of a fish landing in the water, and could just make out something greyhounding. I was thinking “ono” and it looked kind of silvery at that distance so halfway through the 10 minute battle I began to worry that the ono would cut through the 40lb fluoro leader. (check out the 35 sec video at the bottom of this post)

I was relieved to see the brilliant yellow-green of a cow mahi, and could feel the mahi’s teeth on the leader. It used its flat body to provide maximum resistance, and did one lap around the kayak but I eventually pulled it close. All the previous bouts with sharks had prepared me well.

It was tired and still I missed the solid part of its head on my first strike with the kage.

The Anetik shade socks kept the sun and mahi blood off my legs!

When I got the mahi on the kage and put a gaff in its head to pull it aboard, I could let out a “YEEEE-HAAAAAA”. After all the trolling time we’ve put in, it was almost a relief when it finally happened.

I missed what felt like an uku when I went back to bottom fishing, and paddled in since I wasn’t prepared to ice down a big fish.

Stopped by Times to get a couple bags of ice, and kept it chilled ’til Kelly could come by to teach me how to skin and filet a mahi.

The skinned fillets went to family and to friends who helped outfit the kayak and provided fresh tako.

This is Kelly wearing my fishing shirt and getting blood on its sleeves…err, artfully prepping the fish for distribution

They said the fillets were mild yet good. I’m stoked I got my first pelagic but not sure if I can fool an ono or shibi with frozen opelu. And I do want to land what was pulling so hard on the tako legs.


Paddled to 300ft deep and back and got this mystery fish

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I fished solo on my Ocean Kayak Trident Ultra 4.3 in conditions safe enough to drag my frozen opelu out to the 300 foot line but it was a barren wasteland. I turned around and zig zagged my way back in, and found what I thought was a bait school at a dropoff just outside 100ft. My bait got taken and a spirited fight was on.

When the fish came to color, I first thought it was a small rainbow runner. It was something we caught by boat that I hadn’t caught on the kayak before. Here’s how it looked going into the net.

How many of you guys know what it was? Comment below. If you’ve seen this on IG, please let the other guys answer first.

After landing that fish, a second one cut my back hook off, so I slow trolled to another spot. A strong running strike turned into a long battle with another large galapagos shark, and then the bite turned off. Oh well, it was a nice day to get some paddling exercise in.

Holoholo: Damashi & Jig Mayhem!

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I met Robert on the beach as he was cleaning up after a full day’s kayak fishing outing. He recently purchased a used, big brother version of my kayak and we bonded over that. He scored a big uku that day, here’s that post. Since that day, Robert has been very helpful in getting Frank and me better prepared for the pelagics in the deep.

Robert: Well to start off, I am Robert Richards, a nearshore/offshore kayak fisherman. Hailing from Wyoming, I spent most of my childhood on Oahu and decided to become a resident back in 2007. Of course, I pursued shore fishing: whipping, dunking and even trying my luck at sliding dead baits. (no luck on the slide for me haha) Eventually I wound up wanting more. Not having resources for a boat, the next best thing was this kayak fishing craze that is seriously in right now. I picked up a kayak and the adventures began! Similar to Scott, I chose the Ocean Kayak Trident Ultra 4.7 after countless hours of deliberation as my current kayak.

Managed to get out this past week with a couple kayak friends, Reece, Jay and Ben. Normally we do an early launch to try and pick up any Menpachi (Brick Soldierfish), Aweoweo (Bulleye) or more importantly some Akule (Big Eye Scad) for the sunrise bite. However, this trip turned into a later launch at 5:30am. We tried to catch Opelu (Mackerel Scad) at the start of light, but none to be found. Hoping to catch the lowering tide, minor bite period at 6:30am to 7:30am and sunrise bite, we decided to rush to one of our spots.

We paddled towards our spot. On the way, Jay and Ben found an Opelu school, but they were too far away for me to try for that school. I tend to keep moving out on the water always searching for bait or good marks. I paddled up on one of my other spots and BOOM fish finder is loaded with the marks of Opelu. Got my damashi sent down just in time into the school. Picked up what felt like 2 Opelu. Started to work them up and then “ZZZZZZZZZZZ” my reel starts peeling line, over 100ft gone in the flash of 3 colors of braided line. I thought to myself: ‘as long as I can last this run, I have a chance at landing this fish’. Well, I did, this battle turned into a 400ft drift and nearly 40 minutes of tug of war before I finally landed a decent 10lb class KawaKawa (Mackerel Tuna) on my 10lb test damashi.

The top hook was hooked perfectly in the corner of the mouth. This isn’t as common in these cases, sometimes they get hooked in the mouth but usually they get snagged on the body somewhere. KawaKawa are strong fighters all the way until the end, no matter the size. The problem is that they rather enjoy stealing your Opelu in the depths and destroy your damashi. To counter this, I usually have a looser drag when I fight my Opelu, fighting the Opelu in a pumping fashion using my reeling hand to cup the spool for added drag pressure.

The day went on and the bait became scarce, though there were plenty of larger marks varying from the bottom to the mid water range. This calls for the jig! I dropped my jig in about 340ft and started to crank. About 12 cranks up, a huge hit and line peels off the reel. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop this beast and it ran into a cave resulting in line cut in bankrupt fashion…  I quickly tied a damashi and jig then back towards the original spot. However, Reece has been on a jigging binge, catching an estimated 20lb Kahala (Greater Amberjack) and couldn’t help himself but to challenge me to a jig battle! OH, it’s on! We found some good marks, dropped our jigs then, BOOM, Reece is hooked up and I am left with no bite, cheering him on. A battle ensued and Reece landed his PB Ulua (Giant Trevally) estimated to be between 25-30lbs! Caught and released.

We dropped a few more times with no takers, so we headed back towards the first spot. I paddled over another school of bait, this time managing to land one. Threw it out on the live bait rig and trolled. Making to the original spot, I found another bait school and hooked into what felt like one more Opelu. Score! Until… ‘ZZZZZZZ’, another 100ft of line ripped from my spool and the fight on another pelagic on my damashi started! This time I was a bit more impatient due to my time limit rapidly approaching. I wound up tightening my drag a little too much and broke it off. The funny part is the pelagics loved stealing the bait off my damashi this day but none wanted the rigged up live nor dead baits.. Sometimes that is how it goes. The over all conditions, stayed calm with light winds, plenty of sunshine and minimal current. The bite stayed on from about 6:30 until about 9:30-10am. Total trip went for about 6hrs.

Why I bought a Trident Ultra 4.3 to fish offshore

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We’ve been fishing further away from shore, and my Scupper Pro felt tippy and overloaded with gear. I wanted a kayak that could handle wind and cross current if those conditions came up, would be efficient enough to propel (paddle or pedal) with the least amount of parts to break down, and have a center hatch large enough to store gear and fish. A transducer cavity under the hull, large enough for my Garmin EchoMap 44CV would close the deal.

I looked at a lot of offshore kayaks and narrowed my list down to the Hobie Revolution 13 (which Frank has), the South African fiberglass Stealth Profisha series and the Ocean Kayak Trident series. I realized that I probably would forget to take out the Revo 13 mirage drive when landing on the beach, or take it out while fishing and drop it over the side, and I’d gouge the fiberglass Profisha on rocks, or drop it in the parking lot. Those two kayaks are beautiful and pricey and even if I didn’t destroy them I’d be too worried about theft.

So instead I went to Go Bananas in Kapahulu to see what Trident models would work for my needs. John Enomoto explained that the discontinued Trident Ultra series was modeled after the hardcore New Zealand Trident series, sporting a much larger center hatch and huge tank well designed to carry loads of fish and even a bait tank. The new Trident 13 and 15 didn’t have as much storage and the rails were cluttered with track mounts that wouldn’t be strong enough to hold an offshore rod.

So for quite a bit less money than the Hobies and Stealths, I could get a very seaworthy, durable kayak that could carry a lot of gear and fish. I was sold.

John installed/improved the bow and stern handles, front rod holder, center hatch, seat and rudder, and my fishing buddy Frank fabricated a stainless steel mount for the transducer to fit high and tight in the transducer scupper hole.

In the 4 trips so far, I’ve felt much safer and have caught my PB uku and first pelagic. I really feel comfortable out deep on the Ultra 4.3.

In this video, I do a brief intro as to why I chose the Trident Ultra 4.3, and John of Go Bananas walks through the improvements he made. No laugh, I nevah like be in front da camera!

Big Moon Day: Sharks and bait stealers not around but the uku were!

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The last 3 deeper water kayak trips were plagued with sharks and bait stealers. I went out solo this week, in light wind, but wasn’t too optimistic because the moon was so big. My plan was to catch opelu (which I have yet to accomplish), then drag them around to entice the sleepy, pelagics with full bellies.

A school of 8 inch opelu actually swam by me, 10 ft below the surface, but I wasn’t quick enough to drop the damashi down, and they didn’t look like they were feeding. When I did find some marks on my Garmin Echomap 44CV, nothing bit my damashi. I could hear other kayakers on the VHF expressing how hard the bait bite was so I gave up and paddled to my spot that has yielded an uku before but lately has been the shark fighting gym.

This was still the bottom of the tide, and the current was slack. Even more reason not to expect any action but soon there was the tell tale “tap, tap, tap, yank, tap” of the uku. The yanks were harder than I had been feeling in the past, so I kept the rod in hand, with light drag and clicker on, and soon the line took off. But the fish felt too strong for an uku and I thought I was fighting another shark. Sigh. At least this one stopped after its first run and didn’t feel like it would be a half an hr battle. Then I felt the spastic headshakes of an uku, much quicker than papio headshakes, and began to hope.

My GoPro battery was drained ‘cuz I forgot to turn off the “connection mode”, so I wasn’t able to video the battle. The fish battled longer than any other uku I fought so I was still unsure what it was. When I saw my biggest uku at color, followed by a free swimming uku about the same size, there was no one to yell out to. I unsheathed the kage Frank “The Fabricator” had made for me, and was stoked to use it for the first time. Course my first stab missed the head and just caught the tip of the nose, so I pulled it out and stabbed it again. This time I got it in the collar, so it wasn’t brained but I pulled it onboard.

Used the kage again to try to kill and bleed it, hence all the holes you see in the pictures. A kage really is easier to use than a hook gaff, to penetrate fish with thick scales and skulls. Thanks Frank, it felt good in my hand. Just need more practice. 🙂

I had drifted off the spot, fighting the fish and stowing it in my fish bag, but had marked where the uku bit, so I was able to return up current of it. Dropped down, and felt the strong taps again. Maybe it was the one that came up with the first fish? This fish ran with the bait eventually but managed to shake the hooks. I planned to fish the reel in freespool with no clicker the next time a fish tapped, but that was the last bite I had for the rest of the day. The bite ended right before the tide started rising. Odd huh? Not even the pesky aha took a swipe at the bait. Is that how it works on big moon days?

I sent this pic to the guys the night before saying I hoped to catch something worth sticking

Well I had two goals for the day. 1) Catch more than 1 uku since I have never done that before, and 2) poke something with the kage Frank made per my specs: short and light.

This is how Frank ate the uku

And while I only caught one uku, it went 21.5″ in fork length and weighed about 6lb, and 5 different families got a taste.

Sure looks like the deep water kayak season has turned on!