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Red hot bottom bite on the kayaks!

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Fishing had been slow onshore and nearshore for the past two months due to the drop in water temps. It’s been warmer on land lately, so it was time to check for improved water conditions. My fishing partner Frank invited his friend Christine to fish off his Hobie Revo 13 for her inaugural kayak fishing outing, and Frank tied lines, rigged baits and provided safety support on his fishing SUP.

We couldn’t have picked a better day to take a rookie out to the deep. The waves were small and the wind stayed under 8 mph most of the day, and when the west wind did blow, it was countered by the east current that bumped the water but kept us from drifting much. There even was a small rising tide to stir the fishes’ appetites.

2nd, smaller shark. Photo by Frank, off his SUP.

My first 3 drops in 130 to 170ft of water resulting in instant shark hookups. Well, the first could have been a fish (wishful thinking) because it never stopped running and popped the uni to uni splice of my Sufix 832 about 75 yds in. The other two back breaking battles were confirmed sharks that I brought to color. The 3rd shark was bigger than the 2nd, and popped the line when it saw the kayak. I licked my wounds and paddled shallower, taking Frank and Christine with me.

Bait and small predators showed up on the fish finder at 80 ft so I put a 7 inch frozen opelu down. After some hard non-hage (triggerfish) tugs only the head came back. Next opelu resulted in a wahanui, my first at this spot but Frank has caught them on past trips. You can see why the Hawaiians named the fish wahanui, or big mouth. It’s a jobfish/snapper, related to the uku, or green jobfish, but can swallow much larger prey whole.

Photo by Frank, off his SUP

Frank changed Christine’s bait from oama to small opelu and the bite was on for her! She added a thick wahanui to the aha (needlefish) she had caught trolling. I dropped down another opelu and patiently waited as my rod tip went “tap, tap, yank, tap…yank” and the ratchet went off. The fish was shaking really spastically, and running but didn’t feel too big. I was thinking it was a small, angry aha but was stoked to see a small uku, hooked in its side, come to the surface. During the frenzy with the other bait stealers, it must have run into one of the hooks.

Meanwhile, Christine was hooking and landing more wahanui and a toau (blacktail snapper). I missed a few more fish that pulled line and missed the hooks. I even fed line in freespool to a fish that eventually was hooked but had swum into a cave. Soon we were out of bait and happily headed in with fish in our cooler bags.

A bunch of kayak fishermen had landed before us and I noticed one of them had an Ocean Kayak Trident 4.7, the big brother of my Trident Ultra 4.3. His name was Robert, and it was only his second outing on his Trident (was my 2nd outing also) but he did a lot better than I did. He caught a few live opelu and fished near the area I was doing shark isometrics, and caught an 8.8 lb uku, his PB. Robert also had a kawalea (deepwater cuda) and some aweoweo. All really good eating fish!

For her first kayak fishing outing, Christine really did well. She and Frank planned to share the catch with friends and family. I did brief Frank on the perceived concern of ciquatera poisoning regarding wahanui and toau, but those two species probably aren’t any “hotter” than papio and uku. The fish weren’t too big, and the consumers weren’t people who ate a lot of reef fish, so they should all be ok.

Sure looks like the Winter Doldrums are over and it’s time to get out and fish hard!

Fred Hall Show 2019 – Part II

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Axel Valdez of Hotel Buena Vista

Last year, Steve of Promar / Ahi USA introduced me to Axel Valdez, co-owner of the renown Hotel Buena Vista on the East Cape of Baja Mexico. Steve highly recommended the family owned hotel for their hospitality and fish catching prowess.

Felipe Valdez of Felipe Valdez Sport Fishing

This year, I was able to meet Axel’s brother Felipe, who recently launched his independent guide service, Felipe Valdez Sport Fishing. Felipe puts together customized trips that could include surf fishing for roosterfish, panga (wooden motorized skiff) fishing for nearshore and bottom fish, and cruiser fishing for pelagics. He could even take a kayak out on a cruiser and put us right on the fish, equipped with live bait. East Cape trips are very affordable compared to farther destinations, and because the Hotel Buena Vista is rustic, clients don’t have to pay 5 star prices. Since their warm water species are similar to our jacks, grouper, mahi, tuna and marlin, we could use our own gear and techniques to try to land them. Makes for an easy destination fishing trip from Hawaii. Our crew is trying to see if we can put together a trip for next year’s prime season!

I sought out Ali Hussainy of the Bloody Decks website and the Local Knowledge fishing show. Bloody Decks started as a fishing forum, I believe, and is now the world’s largest saltwater fishing website. If you haven’t watched their tv show Local Knowledge on YouTube, the focus is to compare and contrast SoCal fishing with Florida fishing. Makes for some interesting background on the two fisheries and some serious smack talking. I told Ali I manage a tiny Hawaii based fishing website and would welcome any advice he had on how to grow it! Traded him a box of Hawaiian Host Caramacs and a couple NOH Poke Mixes for the original Bloody Decks t-shirt. Unfortunately they were out of the Local Knowledge shirts.

Stumbled upon the Anetik booth, maker of the world’s only UV protectant leg sleeves, as far as I know. I had read about them in a kayak fishing review when I was looking for leg protection from Man Of War stings. The “Shade Socks“, as they’re called, provide UPF 30+ coverage on feet and legs, in an ultra breathable way, and have a rubber grip at the top of the sock to keep it in place.

Pete walked me through the fashionable lineup of fishing shirts, polos, hoodies and face masks in their breathable UPF 30+ material. The show pricing was so good, I got the shade socks ( no need to put sunscreen on our legs now!), performance shirt and shade mask and will be testing them on the kayak soon.

I like the contoured fit of the shade mask. Won’t catch a lot of wind when kayak fishing. Turns out Anetik’s products are sold on Oahu and the Neighbor Islands. Check out their Hawaii retailers here.

In the outdoor perimeter of the Long Beach Convention Center, there were wading pools filled with hatchery rainbow trout kids could catch and take home, and trained dogs leaping off a ramp to catch a ball before landing into a pool of cold water.

This little pooch was just getting acclimated with the chill.

Ended the trip with a stop at an REI (Recreation Equipment Inc) store, to bring home reusable canvas bags for the wife. She loves these because they wash and dry without distorting as they shrink. For $5.99 they are a pretty good deal to be used as grocery bags and gift satchels.

Fred Hall Show 2019 – Part I

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Being able to talk with the major fishing brands in one setting was too hard to pass up. The crew who provide reviews for this website couldn’t make the trip so I went solo and opted to use Lyft to get around.

I hit up the vendors on the first two days of the show, Wednesday and Thursday, while they were still fresh. Last year, when Erik and I hit the show on the weekend, the guys in the booths were swamped and glassy eyed.

A lot of the guys we met last year weren’t there this year, but I did meet some new folks and learned a lot about the products we use and hope to use. The show focuses on Southern California fishing and Alaskan / Mexican destination fishing lodges, but I was able to see a bunch of products and services that would interest us back home in Hawaii.

I had been tracking the Bixpy electric “jet” motor that mounts to a kayak’s rudder for a while. The jet motor has such a compact footprint on the rudder and the lithium ion battery is so small and light, that someone could paddle around without running the motor and not be negatively impacted.

My concern was how long the jet motor and lithium battery would last in the salt since together they cost $1000. The Bixpy rep said the motor should be able to run maintenance free for a few years, and then would be easily repairable at the factory. The lithium battery, however, would need to be replaced after about 3 years of normal use, and a replacement battery would cost about $500. That’s still cheaper than the $1800 plus Torqueedo kayak motor.

Since one of my favorite sales guys, Rick Carr, was repping Minn Kota electric motors at the show, I stopped by to understand how much it would cost to mount a salt water trolling motor on my new Ocean Kayak Trident Ultra 4.3. Rick recommended the Minn Kota Riptide Transom Mount 45lb thrust with “Digital Maximizer” that efficiently conserves battery power. List price is about $320, and it would be mounted off the right side of the kayak, behind my seat, and I’d control it with an extended tiller. Sounds like I know what I’m talking about huh? I’m not a boat/motor guy so it took a while for me to understand the terminology. This would be the least expensive way to add a motor to my yak but the downside would be the added weight of an SLA battery and the weight/size of the electric motor hanging off the side of the kayak.

Steve and Peter Oropeza working hard and having fun in the Promar booth

Steve Oropeza, of Promar / Ahi USA, helped me get situated with the locations of the 500 plus exhibitors, and told me that Chase Baits and Hookup Baits were two of the hot lure makers this year.

Chase Baits makes very realistic swimming soft plastic squids that look like they would be effective to fish vertically. The squids were about the size of our Hawaiian cuttlefish and could be killer in low light but I opted not to get any since I still have a few lures I haven’t tested from last year!

At first glance the Hookup Baits just looked like beefed up freshwater tube baits with better hardware. But the owner Chad explained how the lures were properly weighted with Owner jig hooks to swim optimally and the durable plastic bodies were infused with fish attracting scent. Their photos of the saltwater bass, yellowtail, and tuna with Hookup Baits hanging out of their mouths spoke to the effectiveness of the easy-to-fish lure. The lures could be cast and retrieved like you’d retrieve a weighted soft plastic, or fished off the bottom in a hopping manner. The silhouettes really replicated the bait fish they were imitating. I picked up some 3/8 oz jig head versions to whip with, and some 1 oz jig head versions to fish vertically.

A friend wanted me to pick up a Nomad Design DTX Minnow in the 6.5 inch, 3.75 oz size to troll fast and deep for pelagics. They are the hot offshore brand of lures from Australia that are encased in hard plastic, wired throughout the body, and rigged with heavy duty inline single BKK hooks. I can’t troll a lure faster than 3 mph so I decided to try the Nomad Design Maverick, in the 5.5 inch, 1.5 oz size. The Maverick is a very versatile lure that floats, and can be popped, walked or retrieved so it swims underwater in a gurgling S-shaped pattern. I’m thinking I can put the Maverick out as I paddle around, and retrieve it on the surface when I get to a fishy spot.

Stay tuned for Part II covering a Mexican destination bucket list trip, UV protection leggings for kayak fishing, dogs jumping into frigid water on command and more!

Maiden voyage of the NEW kayak!

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front view: Hobie Revolution 13, Ocean Kayak Trident Ultra 4.3
rear view: Ocean Kayak Trident Ultra 4.3, Hobie Revolution 13

I’ve been shopping for a true offshore capable kayak for more than a year. The ideal kayak would need to be stable in surf and chop, paddle or peddle efficiently, have easily accessible gear and fish storage, and still be car top-able. It came down to the Hobie Revolution 13 and the Ocean Kayak Trident series.

In the end I purchased one of the last Ocean Kayak Trident Ultra 4.3s Go Bananas in Kapahulu had been socking away, since the Ultras have been discontinued. I opted for the Ultra, closely modeled after the New Zealand version of the Trident, because of the large center hatch and large rear tank well that the current Tridents lack. The “Revo 13”, which my fishing partner Frank has, could probably out distance the Trident Ultra with its peddling ability, but I wanted to keep moving parts to a minimum and use the required paddling to get much needed total body exercise.

I sea trialed the Ultra with Frank on a day after a massive full moon and cold wind. As expected, the bite was really slow. The Ultra was roomy, comfortable and much more stable than the Scupper Pro I’ve been paddling, and it was easy to open the center hatch to get to gear and bait. On flat water with no wind, it required more paddling energy to get it moving than the lighter, thinner Scupper Pro, but the Ultra punched through a head wind and choppy seas better than the Pro, because of the sharp upturned bow.

Can’t wait to fight a good sized fish on it, and store said fish safely on board. Stay tuned for walk around video where John from Go Bananas talks about the merits of the Ultra and all the mods he made to my boat to make it safer to use.


Catch report: 2 different solar/lunar conditions, 3 separate locations

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The last few outings in the deep have been slow so we decided to mix it up.  tides4fishing.com said the major bite period was during the afternoon on a day forecast to have winds under 10 mph so Frank and I gave the afternoon a try.  Turns out was very slow, with only one shark interested in our bait, and the east winds cranked up over 15 mph as we struggled to get in.  Then we had to rush to rack our yaks before dark. Never again.

3 days later, the winds were supposed to be light again so Frank, Kelly and I fished separately on the morning falling tide. tides4fishing.com said there wouldn’t be a bite in the morning, yet we all caught our target fish.  So much for the solar / lunar activity predictions.

 

Kelly: I fished the early morning top of falling tide, past the surf break on my SUP and landed 2 omilu. Released a nunu (trumpetfish).  Lost another estimated 2-3lb papio.  Had many small nibbles.  Was action.

 

Frank: Fished for a few hours in the morning.  2 baits were stolen, got rocked once. Caught one omilu along the reef edge and caught two on the outer reef.  Action picked up on middle of falling tide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scott:  Tried to catch opelu over a medium sized bait school. Only managed a baby moana.  Tried hard for uku at the depth I’ve found them before and finally got one to end my 3 trip uku bolo.  Wind blew me off the spot as I was securing the fish and I couldn’t safely return to fish it. Landed 3 out of 4 aha on the back single hook on the way in.  Action was on middle of falling tide.

So on this comparison of two separate days, morning with a moving tide trumped the afternoon “major” bite period.  Having hours of daylight to clean up was a nice bonus.  The omilu seem to be just outside the surf break since there isn’t any bait to lead them inshore.

Choke strikes, back breaking fight and a jelly fish sting!

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We picked a perfect light wind, small surf day on the South Shore for our last outing of 2018.  Frank on his Hobie Revolution 13, Kelly on his Costco SUP softy and me on my Scupper Pro were safely able to fish 2 miles out.  Frank was on a mission to catch live opelu, and Kelly paddled frozen oama around.  The opelu were spotted but didn’t bite for Frank and me.

I gave up trying to catch bait and put on some small, frozen opelu.  The baits were hit hard, with drag pulled but most didn’t stay on too long. The ones that showed themselves were aha so I paddled out deeper and dropped down on a spot we’ve caught uku and lost screamers before.

Instantly I got picked up by a strong, fast running fish that took half my line, more than 150 yds.  I was hoping it wasn’t a shark but the leader eventually cut at the rear hook and had some nicks in it.  I paddled back to the same spot, assuming “if got sharks got fish” and dropped another bait down. This one got picked up by what felt like a shark from the beginning.  I tried to break it off but it stayed on for more than 30 minutes as my back strained and my left bicep cramped.  And a not so funny thing happened.  As I was trying to pull the shark from the deep, what looked like a clear jellyfish tentacle was clinging to my main line (braid). I swished the tentacle free in the water but it must have drifted over to my ankle I had over the side of the kayak, and stung me. I felt the sting hours later on land.

 

I got the shark to color but it didn’t want to come up higher than 7 ft under the water.  It looked bigger than 5 ft to me, but at that point I may have been prone to making this gladiator sound bigger than it was. Didn’t feel safe unhooking it on my tippy Scupper Pro so I cut the line and it swam free.

The shark had dragged me about a quarter mile from where we started, and I didn’t want to hook another in the shark hole so I paddled in shallower. Felt good to shake out my tired arms that way.

Dropping another 6 inch frozen opelu down resulted in a foul hooked aha so I put on a 10 inch opelu.  Shark number 3 grabbed it, but I was able to pop it off.

Meanwhile, Kelly was slow trolling his oama on the way in and landed 4 of 6 aha strikes, mostly on the rear hook. He consistently has a very high landing ratio, and does it all standing or sitting on a foam SUP with no rod holder or net.  He kept two of the aha, fried them up as fish nuggets and will write up a catch and cook soon.  Frank stuck to his plan to damashi for opelu but just got incidentals for his efforts.

There was so much bait around  (opelu, flying fish, etc) I was really hopeful that we’d connect with a pelagic. At least 15 of my opelu baits were slammed.  Just didn’t convert those strikes to the target species.  Next calm weather day we’re gonna go even further out to avoid the aha, and maybe troll faster to attract pelagics instead of sharks.

I have purchased a wider, more stable offshore kayak I’m hoping will feel much safer battling big creatures in the deep.  I’m tired of using my legs as pontoons to stabilize the Scupper Pro and getting stung by jellyfish in the process!

 

Bad solar/lunar day vs good solar/lunar day

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Lately I’ve been comparing my fishing results to the predictions on Tides4fishing.com and I seem to do better on the days with more solar (sun) and lunar (moon) activity.  In simple terms, the position of the sun and moon affect tides and, it’s believed, fish activity.

Opelu victim #1

Opelu victim #2

This past week I fished 4 days after the full moon and Tides4fishing had a dismal prediction. To compound matters I fished the mid-morning last half of the falling tide and the wind was blowing 10 – 14 mph.  The bite was really slow and I just had three 8 inch frozen opelu stripped at the gills.  This happened at 70ft and twice at 30 ft, and I suspected a big kaku.  Note that both fish just missed the second hook. I suspect the didn’t hit the baits hard, and just pulled the back half away.

The wind was much lighter 3 days later, 7 days after the full moon, and the solar/lunar activity was predicted to be much higher.  I was able to fish the first half of the falling tide, and the current was almost too slack. To get a better shot at landing the bait stealer, I lengthened the line between the two hooks and buried the second hook in the tail.

 

 

 

 

 

My left hand was getting ready to pull its teeth out of my shin!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sure enough, there was much more bait activity spotted on the fish finder, and 3 fish were solidly hooked. Unfortunately, the culprits were big aha or needlefish. All were hooked on the back hook and the first one eventually bit through the 40lb fluoro leader, which was fine with me.  The second unhooked itself, even better.  I couldn’t shake the 3rd and smallest of the 3 so I had to unhook it.  I kept my feet out of the water and still, the aha rammed into the side of the kayak and then hit my shin with the underneath of its jaw.  Glad it didn’t jump into the yak with its mouth open.

I also missed a couple more drag pullers while trolling, and had my baits pulled off with hard jerks when I bottom fished but couldn’t hook what I hope were small uku. The two days varied in wind speed and tidal movement phase so it wasn’t an apples to apples comparison, but I believe that the fish bit much better on the second outing because the moon was smaller and I was able to fish right at the high tide drop.

How does the size of the moon affect your catches?

 

Getting it done on the inshore and nearshore jobfish (snappers)

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Frank and I finally had a kayak outing with light wind and small surf conditions that lasted all day.  I started out by breaking off my transducer mount that hangs over the side, but Frank did a quick repair with zip ties and duct tape to restore my eyes beneath the kayak.  Can’t beat a fishing partner that keeps you safe on land and water, and can quickly repair stuff you break in the field!

We trolled halalu out to the deep and our baits started getting mauled at the 70ft depth, but nothing stayed on the hooks.  Then Frank landed a good sized wahanui (smalltooth jobfish), common on the Big Island but not so common on Oahu anymore.  He has a knack for catching them; he caught one trolling at the exact same coordinates back in February.

More baits were stripped so we hit a deep area I had marked on the GPS.  I kept bringing up just the head of my halalu bait after feeling slight taps, despite the trailing hook tucked in the tail section, so I dropped down to the bottom and brought the bait a third of the way up.  This time I got some hard tugs and the bait was completely gone.  I put on a whole, 8 inch frozen opelu out of desperation and lowered it to what I thought was more than half way down.  Got a hard tug that pulled a bit of drag, and I waited a few seconds and got another tug and then line pulled off quickly. Finally something was solidly hooked!  The fish made some smooth, straight runs away from me and I wasn’t sure what it was until I saw color. Uku, or blue green jobfish, as it’s known in other places!

Until I pulled this photo off the GoPro, I didn’t realize that my paddle, net and shirt sleeve match the uku’s shades of blue!  I dispatched it with my bat, and squeezed it into my small 20 inch long fish bag that was stuffed with frozen bait and a frozen water bottle.  Pressure was off, with each of us putting a good eating jobfish in our bags, and we resumed the job of catching more fish. See what I did there? 😉  Instead, we missed fish and I went through my frozen bait supply and drank my bottle of water.  The uku sat in the bag for 3 hrs with just a block of Arctic Ice and wasn’t as chilled as the one I caught a week ago.

I cleaned it when I got home, and the guts smelled a little fishier than the last time too. It measured 19.5 inches, 1 inch shorter than last week’s and this one had male gonads like the previous one.  Kelly advised me to filet it right away, wrap it in paper towels, and store in the coldest part of the fridge. My parents cooked one filet on day 2, and I changed the paper towels daily on the other filet. 3 days later it still smelled fresh despite my oversight in not cutting out the blood section under the skin and was made into seared uku poke and deemed “super ono” by Thad our JDM expert.

Pay it forward uku – Catch and Cook

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My family was stuffed with fish Capt Darren gifted us the day before, but the wind was supposed to be down on the Eastside and the surf manageable.  It might be one of the last days I could kayak fish that side before the winter swells made the surf unsafe.  Right before I jumped in the car, Kelly alerted me that the rivers were at risk of overflowing on Kamehameha Hwy.  About 10 mins into the drive I heard on the radio that the rain was stalled against the Koolaus and flooding was imminent. I pulled off the freeway and headed home.  The south side was dry and surf was supposed to be about 2-3ft plus.

Drove to the beach Frank and I had luck at this winter, and the reef passage looked safe.  Shoots! At about the 30ft depth I dropped down a fresh dead halalu Capt Darren had given me the day before.  The halalu was rigged with a sliding weight, an Owner Gorilla hook through its lower jaw and out its forehead, and a rear VMC inline hook tucked in the skin by its butt.  Before I reached the 50ft depth my reel screamed!  By the time I stopped paddling, turned on the GoPro, and it started recording, a few seconds elapsed so I think the fish ran for at least 5 seconds.  The run was so strong and sustained I thought I had hooked a shallow water ono!

The fight was odd, though.  There were some head shakes but there were also spastic twitches and the fish wasn’t resisting as much after the initial run.  When the fish was below me, It felt like the line was rubbing against the reef.  It didn’t feel like a papio and because the water was so shallow, I didn’t expect a pelagic.  Maybe a big kaku that got tired out?

I was surprised to see a big uku (well, big is relative to me since my biggest was at most 3lb) at color.  Normally they circle when I try to net them but this one was pulled in easily.

When I tried to unhook it I saw why. The size 2/0 VMC Inline hook was at the opening of its gullet!

No wonder it took off when it felt the hook, and I was feeling its teeth on the 40lb Seaguar Blue Label leader.

 

 

The water was already a little choppy and then the trades picked up soon after I landed the fish. I paddled into the wind and drifted back with it, but only had hage and small papio mess with my bait.  Water was coming over the side of my Scupper Pro so with my biggest kayak caught uku to date, I paddled in.

Here’s a short video of the strike and landing of the fish.

Hope you’re not squeamish! The stuff that looks like Chinese wide, flat noodles are the gonads.

VMC Inline 4X hook size 2/0

 

 

 

 

 

The uku measured 20 3/8″, 1/8 shorter than the uku Darren gave me the day before! Mine had a distended stomach and weighed 4.25lb.  Turns out it was filled with male gonads (reproductive organs) and nothing in its stomach but my hook! Poor guy.

Paying it forward after the previous day’s generosity, I gave a filet to my church friend so he could compare with the yellowspot he received the day before, and gave the rest to Kelly who gave me the flood alert and hadn’t had uku for a long time.  Kelly is really efficient in his fish cleaning and can stretch fish like Jesus did in the bible!

Kelly:
Thank you for the uku Scott! We made it in a variety of ways, however most were raw because you took such good care, it was uber fresh.

 

 

 

 

 

First we made sashimi, that is the best way to get the true flavor of a fish (and the easiest prep method).

 

 

 

 

 

Then we made chirashi sushi, which is a big tray of sushi topped with various ingredients. My wife made the sushi and it was amazing. She topped the lightly vinegared rice with shiitake mushooms, egg, cucumber, salmon, tobiko and fresh uku!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also made the head and bones into arajiru, which is a miso soup that sushi restaurants in Japan are renowned for. The sushi was enjoyed by my extended family (6 people) and also some folks who attended the potluck that night (about 12 people), so it fed many appreciative folks!

Product Test: Gerber Crucial Multi-Tool for kayak fishing

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Gerber Neat Freak

A critical piece of kayak fishing safety equipment is something that you can use to cut yourself free from tangles in an emergency. I used to carry a serrated saw type knife on my vest but wanted something that could also cut bait and trim line tags.  So I added a Gerber Neat Freak scissors I got at the Fred Hall Show that is designed to cleanly snip braided line. Since the Neat Freak is tethered to my vest, I’d be able to cut myself out of tangles also.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I liked the construction of the Neat Freak so much, I checked Gerber’s other products online. They had a bunch of well made knives and fully loaded multi-tools I didn’t need, but then I came across a very basic multi-tool, the Crucial.  It had a half serrated knife that could be opened easily with one hand, flat and phillips screwdrivers for tightening mounts on the yak, and needle nose pliers.  Best of all it was made out of stainless steel so it wouldn’t rust in my vest pocket.  Everything I needed to carry and nothing I didn’t, in a very compact package. I guess that’s why they named it the Crucial.

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a raised edge on the knife blade that allows you to flick open the blade with one hand.  Very handy if you’re holding onto an overturned kayak with your other hand, and your legs are wrapped in fishing line.

Amazon Prime is currently selling the Crucial for $25 to $35 depending on the color.

Product Test: Flotation added to sunglasses and GoPro cap

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The general rule in kayak fishing is to tie everything down in case your kayak goes bottom up.  But what about the things on your body like  sunglasses, and GoPro hat?

Last month, I had put my unstrapped Maui Jim prescription sunglasses on my head to tie a hook and the strong winds blew it off without me even knowing. No where to be found.  Very sad day.  I’ve been a bit more careful with my  GoPro cap.  Been using a bright orange floating cube around the GoPro, but it’s so heavy and glaringly indiscreet.  I needed to improve on those two items’ flotation.

I purchased a Chums Classic Glassfloats Sunglass Retainer on Amazon Prime for $8.95 (price varies based on color). The strap is comfortable enough to wear and allows me to let the sunglasses hang down on my chest when I need to do close work (the prescription lenses are too strong to tie knots).  The straps should prevent the sunglasses from blowing off me and if I huli the kayak hopefully the bright orange floating retainer will float my sunglasses in a highly visible manner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also purchased an Action Hat DIY Kit, $29.99 on livelivegear.com. It comprised of an 8mm thick foam frame you add to the inside of your own hat for flotation and a GoPro mount you screw into the frame.  I installed it in my good luck G Loomis Coolmax cap and it looked almost stealth in comparison to my previous setup.  The frame blocked a bit of ventilation when I paddled for 4 hrs on a hot day but otherwise was very comfortable and functional.

I need to test the sunglasses strap and Action Hat DIY kit further to ensure my stuff floats. Will keep you guys posted.

 

Product Test: Buff® Elite Gloves

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It was less than 10 years ago that long sleeve UV blocking “performance” fishing shirts were a rare sight here.  As they caught on,  those ninja mask looking “neck gaiters” began to gain popularity around 5 years ago. Buff® was the company that introduced the face and neck protection sleeves to the fishing world.  Now it’s fairly common to see sun exposed fishers covered up with cap, neck gaiter and long sleeve shirt.

Fly fishermen have always led the way with UV blocking clothes and they were the first ones to wear fishing gloves for sun protection as well as finger protection since they are constantly guiding and stripping line.  Kayak paddlers have been wearing paddling gloves for years also.  I’ve been taping my left thumb and forefinger at times to avoid line cuts from wet braid when I whip with my bait caster, but couldn’t justify wearing gloves to fish. Mostly I though they’d reduce feel and look a little *funny*.

 

 

 

 

Fishing gloves with the finger tips exposed sounded like a “kill two birds” kind of solution to pad my palms from paddling blisters and protect my fingers from line and fish cuts.  Buff® has an “Elite” glove made to provide UV, blister and cut protection, reduce bacterial growth (stink) and provide grip.  They aren’t paddling gloves per se, but seemed padded enough on the palm to serve that purpose.

The Elite gloves were light weight, breathable because the backs are made out of the same material as the neck gaiters, and I could still use my finger tips to tie knots, manipulate my reel, unhook fish and wipe my sunglasses.  I broke them in on that 6 hr kayak fishing trip I tested the Columbia PFG Terminal Tackle shorts. My hands felt much less fatigued from paddling and weren’t cut up from handling fish fins / spines and hooks.

 

I inadvertently dropped an omilu that I thought was bonked out cold but came to life as I was trying to put it in my fish bag.  Luckily it landed on my foot that was straddling the kayak, and I was able to slide my gloved hand down the pokey scutes and secure it by the tail.  Without the gloves I would have been poked and slimed and for sure the fish would have gotten away.  I felt like an NFL wide receiver catching a slippery football one handed!

I’ve worn the gloves a couple of times now and haven’t experienced any downsides. If I really need my fingers free I can quickly take the gloves off and put them on again. And when they get stinky I can machine wash them. Definitely gonna wear gloves whenever I kayak fish, and want to try another pair with more of the finger tip exposed.

The Buff® Elite Gloves sell for $45 on the buffusa.com website.  I’ve worn them twice and machine washed them twice and they are holding up fine.  If they work out as well as I expect I’ll add a product endorsement. 

Finally, we were able to safely fish the deep!

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Overloaded Scupper Pro in red, new Hobie Revolution 13 in orange.

Tropical Depression Paul replaced our normal trade wind high pressure system (my dad is a former meteorologist) so Frank and I launched from an eastside beach and threaded the needle through the breaks in the surf.  Frank was pedaling his brand new Hobie Revolution 13, and I was struggling to paddle my overloaded Scupper Pro to the deep. The ocean was so calm we could hear the sound of water lapping on surface. I mistakenly thought I was hearing fish tailing!  My fresh dead oama didn’t get touched so at 40 ft I put on a live oama and it got hit instantly.  I released the 10 inch omilu and put another live oama on.

Frank was trolling a whole, frozen opelu on a wire leader with an egg sinker near the front hook and something big ate it in 90 ft of water.  My fish finder was showing bait around there so I marked the spot as I got into GoPro view of Frank.  The fish pulled doggedly, and spun him around a couple of times.  Frank spotted a long, silver fish that looked like his first ono he got last fall, so he pulled out his homemade, brand new kage and speared it but the point kept bouncing off the gill plate and the fish would jump after each stabbing. Frank and I were both cracking up at his first attempt with the kage.  Finally he safely secured his “ono” but on closer examination it turned out to be a kaku, later weighing in at 10.6 lb!  Our fish eating experts have advised Frank that kaku is delicious but has been implicated in ciquatera poisonings. Small portions of the filet portion of a kaku this size should carefully consumed.

Seeing Frank’s action on a big bait, I pulled off my live oama, added a 3/4 oz bullet weight to my 1/2 oz bullet weight and put on a frozen halalu.  I free spooled it down and because the winds were so light, the 1 1/4 oz weight reached the bottom. Just as I engaged the reel the line took off!  The head shakes felt like a good size papio so I was surprised when a kahala, smaller than the papio I was picturing, surfaced.  Not wanting to deal with worms and the small chance of cig, I released it. The kahala battled hard from the bottom, up to maybe 50ft, then got sluggish as it tried to depressurize. It swam off strong on release though.

I put on another frozen halalu, and Frank resumed trolling whole opelu as we ventured further out. At 130 ft I added another 3/4 oz bullet weight to my trolling setup, bringing it to 2 oz.  The halalu got picked apart by hage so I knew I was getting to the bottom.  When we reached 200 ft my bait took off horizontally, caught in a strong deep water current and probably never got close to the bottom.  Frank was further out than I was and closer to a loud splash that sounded like a small whale breaching.  The large creature did it again and it didn’t look like a whale!  Frank said the shark had told us twice to leave his fish alone so we turned around and worked our way in!

 

 

The bottom quickly rose from 90 to 50 ft, and the fish finder picked up a lot of fish on those ledges.  I dropped a jig down and before I could work it back up my trolling rig with halalu went off.  The fish was still on by the time I stowed the jig rod, and I had a fun scrap with what I thought was a 4lb omilu but it only taped out to 15.75 inches at home.

With Frank’s big kaku and this omilu in my fish bag filled with Arctic Ice blocks and frozen bait, the front hatch area of my kayak was top heavy.  I was trying to turn side saddle to reach behind me and the fish bag shifted and I came as close to huli-ing as I ever have! Thank God there were no waves to help push me over.  I’ve been adding all kinds of stuff to fish the deep and my kayak is bogging down under the weight. Gotta remove unneeded stuff and place some things behind me to even out the weight distribution. Thanks Jon S., early member of the Aquahunters, for the suggestion!

Frank hooked a papio that eventually rocked him, and I had fish hit my trolled baits and pull drag, then take the bait. I’m guessing they were aha.  The surf looked bigger and I couldn’t paddle quick enough to navigate the surf channels so I paddled really wide around the surf zone.  Frank stayed closer to the waves, nimbly avoiding them with his speedy Revo 13 and patiently waited for me to plod in. By the time we reached shore, after paddling nearly 6 hrs, I was wiped out and cramped up from paddling my bloated kayak.

Frank’s inaugural outing on his Revo 13 was a complete success.  His handmade rod and paddle tethers worked well and his custom kage did the job on the kaku.  He said the pedaling was much easier than paddling but his legs did feel it the next day.

Propelling himself hands free, he was able to rig lines, drink water, follow the fish and even reverse to give himself space to land his fish.  I could barely pull my yak onto the sand but Frank had energy to spare.

I didn’t get the deeper water species I was targeting but learned some new grounds and caught my first kahala via kayak.  I also discovered limitations to the way my kayak was rigged and to my mid-50s body. I think a Hobie is in my near future.

 

 

 

 

Kayak deep water fails | SUP shallow water successes

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I’ve been relentlessly trying to fish the deeper water (100 ft to 250 ft) on my kayak in the hopes of getting better at catching tasty bottomfish and pelagics,  Unfortunately days of small surf and light wind on the south and east shores have been extremely rare. We even tried fishing the north west side of Oahu when Hurricane Miriam was supposed to block the trade winds, but the winds were blowing a dangerous 15 to 20 mph.  I bailed after my prescription Maui Jim sunglasses were blown off the top of my cap without me even feeling or knowing it.  Those were the best sunglasses I ever had and I was one grouchy guy for the next couple of days.   It was only a few months ago that I reviewed those Maui Jim Twin Falls. Here’s that review. RIP Maui Jim Twin Falls.

The last time I caught a fish in the deep worth keeping was back in February.  Here’s that write up.  That’s a long, frustrating drought.  In the meantime Kelly has been fishing the inshore reefs off his foam SUP minimalist-style with his rod tucked in the back of his shorts.  His success rate has been much higher than mine this oama season because he has a good grasp of where the shallow reef predators like to hang out, and can handle getting tossed by the waves once in a while. Since I can’t catch fish I asked Kelly to write up his last outing.

Kelly:

Recently, I went holo holo on the south shore of Oahu with the kids after work and got a few oama for pupus and bait. The next day was very windy, so my SUP fishing options were limited. I decided on a semi-sheltered spot that seems to produce small papio regularly and ended with a mixed bag.

 

The moana kali was about 11” and was a nice bonus fish on my last oama. Note: I sometimes take smaller roi to eat –they are sooo ono steamed– however I cut off the head and belly areas to (hopefully) reduce cig risk a little.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is how I made the larger papio, which was about 3 pounds.  Please click on the photos to zoom in.

Prep for light wind days ahead

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Hurricane Lane caused a lot of flood damage for most of the Island chain; our heart goes out to those affected.  Hurricanes Miriam and Norman are heading north of the islands, thank God, sparing us from further storm damage and even blocking the trade winds for us.  Looks like we’ll have some short periods of calm wind days.

Darren plans to take his daughter live oama trolling on the small boat again,  Kelly plans to troll live oama off his SUP, and Frank and I plan to bless his new Hobie Revolution 13 by dropping live oama in the mid to deep water.  All these guys are better oama fishers than I am, but I have the tubs to keep oama alive.  I tried to catch enough oama for us but the bite was a lot harder than the week before Hurricane Lane came through.  I’m thinking it was the big moon and not Lane that made the oama picky.

extra-small tub

small tub

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Medium tub. You can see a couple moose putting up with their oama toddlers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I targeted the pinkie oama on the first day. One the second day I tried for moose but they seem scarce now that so many small oama are in. I managed to hook one mega moose that broke my 3lb fluoro on its first dash.  Had to settle for some consolation pinkies. On the third day I used 4lb fluoro and bait that a weke would hopefully eat, but none fell for it.  The pinkies shunned my bait so I ended up with a handful of ring finger sized oama.

My tubs are way too overcrowded and I’m hoping the water quality stays decent until the fish are used.

9/5/18 Update:
Here’s how the live oama did compared to dead oama and no oama at all.  If you have any catch reports to share, please send them our way.

More man o’ war in my kayak than fish

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Windy conditions kept us off the kayak for 8 weeks.  Finally the wind let up, and the surf on the east side subsided because the trades slowed down.  Unfortunately Frank came down with a cold so I planned as safe a solo outing as possible.  I picked a public park to launch from that was shielded from waves, and planned to paddle out to the 100 ft drop off.

I had two 8 to 9 inch moose oama with me that were 1 to 1.25 inches thick.  I didn’t want an aha or kaku mauling the moose on the way out, so I deployed the first one when I hit 50 ft of water.  With a 1 oz bullet weight, 6ft 40lb fluoro leader, live bait front hook and a VMC inline single hook dangling, I sent it to the bottom.  It stayed alive as I dragged it out to about 75 ft but wasn’t too frisky because I had taken a while to bridle it with a new system I’m trying out.  I stopped paddling to tie on a jig on my jigging rod and the oama rig got stuck on the bottom.

 

Since I only had one moose left and the first moose didn’t get bit, I put on a frozen halalu from last year. It got mauled and the line pulled a few inches but the mauler(s) avoided the two hooks.

 

 

 

I put on another halalu and dragged it to the 100ft mark and back to 50ft. Finally it got hit but the surgical strike left it hanging off two hooks. Probably a kaku.

My left heel began tingling at times and thought my surf bootie was irritating it.  I rubbed around my ankle but couldn’t find the source of the irritation.  An hr later I spotted a 3/4 inch blueish purple float of Portuguese Man of War floating in my kayak’s foot well next to my leg! No wonder my ankle felt like it was getting small electric shocks, I carefully threw the man of war float over the side but the stinging sensation continued.  Later I found another small float in the left foot well.  How the heck did they get into the kayak?!! Did they get sucked through the scupper hole at the bottom of the foot well, or get washed over the side of the kayak?  I was a little freaked out, and my left leg began to throb more so I decided to end this unproductive outing.

Colored clips are there just to hold the hooks in place for the photo. Distance between the clips was 6 inches.

I put on the last moose, running a large Gamakatsu live bait hook through its nostrils and left a large VMC inline single hook swinging free by its tail.  The moose was very lively and I could feel it pulsing on the line.  I paddled the edge of the boat channel in, where it was 40 ft in the channel and 20 ft on the reef  Something hit the moose hard and was running with it for a few seconds before I could get the rod out of the holder.  It took another 1 second run and when I lifted and cranked the hooks pulled.  It had taken the moose.  I had 3 strikes and each somehow missed the hooks.  In this last strike, I now realize my rear hook was too far away from the center of the fish where it often gets grabbed.  I imagine something fairly big took the moose from the side or tail and missed the free swinging back hook and didn’t get near the front hook. It merely yanked the moose off the hook.

Enlarge to see the man o’ war that was under the kayak seat, under my right thigh!

Man o’ war just behind my seat back

 

 

 

 

Man o’ war dried up on net handle that was in rear tankwell

When I was washing off the kayak I found two dried up man of war floats in the tankwell area behind my seat, and another on the seat cushion under my thigh!  So glad that one didn’t sting me!  The stings turned into an itchy rash that night and made it hard to sleep.

I’ve become way too experienced with man of war sting treatments.  The pain of the sting goes away in an hour or so, but the itchy throbbing lasts for a few days.  Heat seems to activate the nerves on the skin, so using a cold gel pack, Cortizone 10 Plus cream, and keeping your body cool seems to help get over the few days of itchy misery.  Here’s the bad man of war sting I got wading the windward side in June.  Maybe I have to wear compression calf sleeves even when I kayak fish?

Holoholo: 1st ono off Big Island kayak

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Jorden and his wife Dominique have actively supported PIFG’s Tag It program with beautiful photos of their tagged papio/ulua for use in the Lawai’a magazine.  They’ve been kayak fishing off the Big Island for about a year, targeting bigger and better fish. I’ve asked Jorden to describe his most recent kayak fishing accomplishment so Frank and I can prepare for the deep water pelagics.

Jorden:
My wife and I launched our 13 ft Hobie Outbacks from shore around 9:00am. After trying for small inshore game for bait with little success, we decided to head out to deeper waters for pelagic species before the winds picked up. At about the 100 ft depth I pulled out the largest frozen opelu I had, which was hooked on my pre-made leader set-up that included 6ft of 80 lb Yo-zuri topknot fluorocarbon leader with a 7/0 live bait hook put through the head, which was connected to 7 inches of 120 lb Malin wire attached to a 4/0 treble hook that I attached near the posterior end of the bait. This leader set-up was connected to the mainline on a 5 1/2 ft Seeker trolling rod/Shimano TLD 30 loaded with 200 yd of 200 lb braid and about 150 ft of 80 lb mono for some stretch.

I let out about 75-100 ft of mono and began trolling. After about an hour or so of trolling and no action I decided to do a bait check by giving the rod a couple of pulls and BANG! The reel screamed off about 25 yd of line, then slowed. I began to fight the fish which felt nice and heavy. A couple more solid runs then nothing….. I reeled in about 30 ft of slack line and then the reel started screaming again. After a few similar situations of the fish running away then towards the kayak, the fish started circling the kayak. As the fish approached the kayak it gave one more run and then I finally saw color… A long shiny spearhead shape appeared and I knew immediately that it was an ono, which I’ve wanted to catch for 20 years. I pulled out my kage and with one shot, speared the fish perfectly and the fight was over.  It’s quite a feeling to have a fish like this lay across your lap.

I feel extremely fortunate to have landed this fish given that it had completely swallowed both hooks, but didn’t cut through the leader. The rudder and mirage drive system on the Hobie was clutch, which enabled me to adjust the kayak to best fight the fish. Not only did this fish provide an awesome experience, but also provided us with weeks worth of ono food.  We didn’t weigh it, but guess it weighed somewhere around 35lb.

Hunting the white papio school via kayak and SUP

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After Capt Erik took me around the bay and showed me the possible places the schooling whites could be holding, Frank and I tried to find them via our paddle-powered watercraft.  Unlike the recent boat trips, we launched in the afternoon on a big incoming tide to allow for enough time to get into position before the witching hour started.  The wind decreased from 10 mph down to almost no wind so we were able to cover more ground than usual.

My Garmin 44 CV fish finder/chart plotter marked bigger blobs halfway down the water column in the wide sandy channels, and there were bait balls around but the fish didn’t want to eat for the first 2.5 hrs.  Finally, at 5pm, Frank got got a hit on his frozen oama trolled near the papa’s edge and brought up a legal omilu (he didn’t measure his fish).  He followed that up with a bigger and stronger omilu and it looked like the early eaters were beginning to bite.

I surveyed our favorite papa and marked a lot of bait and what looked like suspended larger fish.  Frank got another hit on his trolled oama but the aha managed to skitter off.  At about 6pm I had something ambush the Waxwing Jr I was retrieving on the reef edge but miss the double hook.  Witching hour was beginning to start.

I tried to emulate Capt Erik’s popping style with a JDM popper that throws a lot of water with just a small tug, but was introducing slack on the spool and backlashing my Shimano Curado 300 EJ. To tighten the line I cast the floating popper and paddled 40 yds away, then carefully pinched the line and popped it back. I could get a good deep gurgle with a side sweep of the rod and didn’t have to worry about backlashing my cast.  On my 3rd attempt at this I got boiled on and hooked a fish!  It was a legitimate 14 inch white papio that I decided to take home so my parents could compare it the menpachi papio they just had.  I wasn’t able to get a good shot on the water shot so this will have to do.

Frank’s fish with his foot in the background. Looks like he needs a larger fish bag so he doesn’t have to bend the fish to get them in!

Just as I was bagging the white, Frank radio’d that he caught a white on his JDM sub-surface lure! That was his first papio whipping with his Shimano Stradic 4000 XHFK and he was stoked!  It was 6:30 at this point and the sun was getting closer to hiding behind the mountains.  We kept at it, and I got another boil on the popper that skittered off the hook like an aha.  I turned my kayak to drift in and was in 6ft of water when I had my last boil. Looked like a small white that couldn’t quite get the hooks in its mouth.  The witching hour was on but we needed to be on land cleaning and racking our watercraft so we bid the biting fish adieu.

Sundown was about 7:15pm on this day and the whites didn’t really start getting active until after 6:30.  So the witching hour probably starts 45 mins before sundown and continues until dark.

After eating the white papio, my dad said he prefers that to the menpachi papio, “although some people may like the darker meat menpachi papio”.  I hadn’t kept a papio in months so maybe he was just appreciating both?

 

 

Kayak fishing the deep in light wind, small moon conditions

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The rare light wind, small wave, small moon day presented itself.  My fishing partner, Frank, was out of town so Kelly graciously filled in.  Kelly planned to troll frozen oama on the way out to the deep and then switch to damashi tipped with ika when fish showed up on the EchoMap 44CV fish finder/map charter.  I planned to keep things simple and bottom fish with frozen opelu and maybe drop a jig with the other rod.

I hadn’t bottom fished with bait at this particular spot and wanted to see if that would be the difference maker.  Kelly hooked an undersized omilu within minutes of launching and released it. I steadily paddled out, telling him my depth via walkie talkie as he followed behind.  Before I reached the 100 ft mark, Kelly battled and landed a big aha which he also released since he hoped for better fish in the deep.

Fish gathered under me so I dropped a frozen 6 inch opelu down on a relatively small offset circle hook.   The first couple were getting pulled off the hook without me even detecting the theft.  Then some came back with 2 inches missing off the tail, or puncture marks through the body.  At first I was excited because our last two big moon bottom fishing trips yielded no bites, but as I quickly went through my bait supply,  concern mounted.  Kelly damashi fished and after a while got a bite. Up came a big nabeta! Whoohoo!  I was surprised they were in 100 ft since I thought we were over a rocky ledge, not the sand that nabeta hide in.

More of my opelu were mangled and the bite pattern sure looked like fang-toothed nabeta, though maybe I was wishful thinking.  I was down to a 3 inch piece of a big opelu head and three 8-inch whole opelu.  I changed to the 12/0 VMC circle hook I had been using in the past, since the offset hook I was using had too small a gap to slip around the bait.  With the opelu head securely hooked through the nostrils, I dropped down and waited. Tap, tap, tap. Kelly was watching nearby when the fish ran hard with the bait and took drag for a second. It managed to pull the bait off without getting hooked.  Sigh…

Kelly magically brought up a moana on his damashi and I hooked it through the nostrils and set it down.  I drifted that moana further out, over ledges for a good amount of time and nothing hit it.  It was a good test and in the future I’ll stick to opelu if I have some.

We started fishing our way in, and Kelly stretched his body by standing and fishing off the SUP.  Takes a lot of dexterity and calm water to do that.  At 60 ft he got a bite.  Here we are, hoping the fish isn’t “black”.

I ended the day with no fish landed, extending my bolo head streak to 7. Kelly felt bad and insisted I take home the nabeta since that’s the only fish my wife wants to cook and eat.  He said to gill and gut it right away and place it on paper towels in the fridge to keep it dry.

I rolled it in corn starch, deep fried it lightly, pulled it out to let it cool and fried it again, “Coach Haru style”. I slightly under fried the outside so it wasn’t as crispy as it should have been but my wife ate it to the bones.  Nabeta is the best! Thanks Kelly!

And while I got skunked once again, I do believe I got so many hits and steals because of the dark moon phase and moving tide.  Just gotta convert that knowledge to fish caught, next time.

Composite product test and catch report

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Since returning from the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach, the weather was often windy and rainy. Erik was able to get out and jig the deep a few times when conditions allowed and caught some noteworthy fish on the test jigs.

He got this 15lb kawakawa on a Jigging Master striped glow jig he purchased at the Fred Hall Show and immediately bled and iced the fish.  Made some incredible sashimi.

 

 

 

 

 

And right before Easter, Erik deep dropped a Lumica Xtrada Jacker glow jig with rattle he was given by the guys at Lumica and pulled up a rare and delicious hapu’upu’u.  Erik described the sashimi as having a texture similar to ono but with a slightly lighter taste.  And 3 days later it firmed up a little more with great oil content. He also made a fish and shrimp chowder with it and said it was super ono.

 

I haven’t done as well.  Caught a cold shortly after returning from the Fred Hall Show and whipped once and kayak fished once.  Took the 13 Fishing Omen 7’3″ travel rod and zero ball bearings Concept Z bait casting reel out to the test flats.  The tide was too low to allow predators to come in but I was able to see how the rig cast a 1/2 oz top water lure into the wind. I was very impressed.  The spool doesn’t initially spin as fast as my other bait casters so it doesn’t have to slow down as abruptly either.  I had 17 lb mono on, which is more forgiving than braid, and never backlashed, even with a head or side wind.  Could also cast further than I normally do despite a stiffer rod 7 inches shorter. The little reel was easy to cup and the 3-piece travel rod felt like a 1-piece.  I did get a small kaku to boil on my lure but that was it.  I’m pretty stoked to have a travel rod that I can carry on the plane that fishes like my 7’10” 1-piece whipping rod.  Excited to test the rig again under more fishy conditions.

Frank and I did paddle out on the one day calm enough to do so.  We fished the same 100 ft dropoff area we’ve been getting the big strikes and small uku, and the tide was rising in the morning.  Yet it was super slow. I hooked one shark which looked to be about 5 ft, and Frank had 3 of his trolled dead opelu attacked by something that clipped 3 inches off the tail.  It was a bright moon day, a few days before the full moon so maybe that’s why it was so slow. Even the whales had left the area.

The shark pulled steady and rested often. I tried to fight it off the bow, not off the side, so it couldn’t tip me over, and finally got it up to leader after about 20 mins.  Just as I was reaching to cut the leader with my new Gerber Neat Freak scissors I bought from the Fred Hall Show, it shredded the leader with its body or tail.  The VMC 6X Circle Hook was embedded in its jaw, keeping the line away from its chompers.  No pictures or video. Turns out, while fighting the shark, I turned the GoPro off instead of on.  Now I know how sharks feel on the line and the next time something pulls slow and steady, with rest periods, I’m gonna try my hardest to bust ’em off. My GLoomis Bucara rod, which is too stiff for the small uku I’ve been catching, had a lot of backbone to raise the shark off the bottom.  But all that backbone puts pressure on me so I gotta get in better shape to fight these heavy sea monsters.

No light wind days predicted in the near future so our product reviews are piling up.