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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.

Pedaling test of Hobie Revolution 13

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Frank and I have worked up to being able to paddle 2 miles out to the deep for a few hours of fishing but when the wind picks up it’s a pretty strenuous paddle to get back in.  We definitely feel it the next couple of days.  Pedal kayaks are looking better and better for the efficiency of using our stronger muscles (legs) and freeing up our hands to fish.

There are a few makers of pedal kayaks and all but Hobie use a bicycle style pedaling motion that turns a propeller. Hobie pedal kayaks use a piston style pushing motion that causes fins under the kayak to flap. The Hobie pedal kayaks seem to be the gold standard.  Hobie’s drive train mechanism is easier to maintain than their competitions’ and only Hobie has an actual dealership on Oahu.  That was the clincher for me since the pedal mechanism on all the makers’ kayaks is prone to breaking down.

We’ve been told by guys who have used the various Hobie models that the Hobie Revolution 13 is the one we want for ease of transport to fish a couple miles off shore so Frank made an appointment with Windward Boats in Kailua, Oahu for the water test.

In this video, Frank is instructed by Bert to set the comfy raised Vantage seat, secure the paddle, deploy the rudder, insert the Mirage Drive 180 pedals and go into reverse gear.  He takes the Revo 13 for a spin, then I do, and then I switch to the longer Turbo fins for increased propulsion.

I found the bare Revo 13 to be lighter to carry than I expected.  Its advertised weight without the seat, Mirage drive, rod holders, etc is 70.5 lbs and my old Scupper Pro is supposed to be 55 lbs but the Pro feels quite a bit heavier than the Revo now that I have the rod holders, rudder kit, fish finder mount, transducer and battery permanently attached.  Since the Revo already has its rudder installed, I’m guessing the other permanently mounted accessories will add 12 – 15 lbs but still be car-toppable with the right car rack system.

We tested the Revo 13 in flat water and it was faster than I expected also.  Definitely quicker than paddling the Pro, which is a fast Sit On Top kayak.  And although the Revo 13’s width of 28.5 inches is narrow by pedal boat standards, it’s 2.5 inches wider than the Pro and felt a lot more stable.  Folks coming down from a much wider paddle kayak may not feel the same way, however.

The carry handles, rudder control, hatches, seat and Mirage Drive looked and felt well thought out.  Granted, we didn’t fish the Revo 13 but it did feel like a quality boat. The best blue water paddle fishing kayaks (Jackson Kayak Kraken 15, Ocean Kayak Trident 15, Wilderness Systems Thresher 140, etc) are half the price of the Revo 13 and come with more accessories and fish carrying capacity.  Is the pedaling convenience of the Revo 13 worth it?  For a few thousand more, we could get a power boat but I don’t want to have to deal with boat maintenance and having to trailer it around.

I have this transition plan in my head to adjust to our aging bodies:
Paddle Kayak -> Pedal Kayak -> Motorized Kayak -> Boat

What do you guys think we should do?

 

Guest Post: Ono on only second kayak trip ever!

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Frank and I first fished together in 2014 just as this website’s blog began. He is a very accomplished longboard surfer of Hawaii surfing aristocracy, and was my surfing and church mentor. Frank’s family had a small boat when he was growing up that they used to target reef fish but he was much more experienced with a surfboard than a fishing rod.  In the spring of 2017 we made an effort to fish together more often, starting with some top water whipping.  As expected, Frank quickly caught on to the art of retrieving surface lures and landed good size kaku.  Here’s one of those kaku top water trip reports.

Then Frank modified his stand up paddle board (SUP) to sit and paddle kayak style. With that, he had a very light watercraft he could safely paddle around to troll and whip.  We started in the protective bays to get used to fighting fish in the relatively cramped, seated position (I was on a kayak), and began to venture near the surf break.  By the fall of 2017, we were going past the surf line, dragging live and dead oama.  Frank was much less prone to capsizing on his SUP than I was on the yak, and he did especially well fishing just behind the waves.  Here’s one of our productive days.

The inshore bite came to a screeching halt in the winter of 2017, so we carefully went deeper on vary calm days.  At least a third of the time the wind came up and we had to paddle in for safety, but when we could fish the deep we began to see schools of bait on the fish finder, and we stumbled upon small uku and papio in the 40 – 60 ft depths.  I wouldn’t have attempted to kayak fish past the reef if I didn’t have Frank as a very competent water safety/fishing partner.  Hard to believe how far we progressed in just one year of fishing on the SUP/kayak!

This trip took place in the first week of December, 2017.  I am a little uncomfortable with his words of appreciation but didn’t want to edit it all out!

Frank:
Planning and packing the night before my next fishing adventure and OJT (on the job training) with Scott was extra exciting.  This will be my 2nd time on his Swing kayak and first time using Scott’s fish finder.  Our main plan was to jig in deeper water and this will be my 1st time jigging.  Scott instructed me to join a 25 lb floro leader line to the 30 lb Suffix Braid line that Scott gave me to fill my Penn 440 SS.  He has choke top of the line fishing gear and he’s so generous. Scott showed me the Uni knot a long time ago while teaching me top water lure fishing.  Of course I forgot so I had to use instructions with pictures.  Tying the Uni knots took a while but it came out pretty good, I hoped.  I made sure I packed the jigs Scott gave me.  My first plan was to troll oama on the way out prior to meeting Scott in the deep for my OJT jigging session.  So I had to pack pre-tied leader lines and hooks and stage the frozen bait to load the next morning. Fishing gear, rinse off water, fishing/change clothes and paddle was now in the car.  After going through my new check list (for kayak fishing) it was time to sleep.

We met at our launch site about 8am and the ocean conditions were perfect, what a Blessing!  After unloading and setting up the kayaks with fishing gear, Scott briefed me on how to read the fish finder and how to attach/remove the jigs on the Anglers Power Clips along with some jigging techniques.  We made sure our safety gear was secured, walkie talkie radios loud and clear and cars were locked. We dragged the kayaks into the water and I said a pule before hopping on the kayak.  As we started paddling that’s when I realized that I forgot the oama.  I grabbed the Arctic Ice pack from the freezer for my fish bag but forgot the oama.  I told Scott my plan to troll was canceled so I concentrated on the fish finder.  It’s an amazing tool to measure depth and see fishes.  It was cool to see the change from 30’ to 100’ and the scattered fishes at different depths.

We paddled to an area where there were a lot of fish so we started jigging.  I picked a Live Deception jig and attached it to the clip, then double checked that it was secured.  As I was dropping the jig down I was so thankful for the super calm day as the line was almost straight down.  After hitting the bottom I started slow jigging while trying to follow Scott’s instructions.  It took me a long time to get a good rhythm while  untangling the line tangled around the rod tip during the lifting and dropping motion. After a few drops I paddled to another area that the fish finder (FF) was marking fish. After slow jigging for a while I changed jigs and tried jigging again using different jigging techniques. After a few more drops and tangled line on the rod tip I changed the jig again and tied my luck again but no takers.  I think the fishes knew there was a rookie on the other end of this jig.  I drifted apart from Scott so I reeled up the jig roughly half way up, put the pole in the pole holder, attached the safety clip to the reel  and started paddling toward Scott.  The water was so calm and clear that I spotted a long silver fish about 30’ to 50’ down just cruising.  I thought it was pretty cool to be able see a good size fish swimming right under me.

After paddling for about 45 seconds the pole bent over and my first thought was I snagged the bottom.  I realized that I reeled the jig up quite a bit before paddling so it couldn’t be a snag, and then the pole started reacting like a hookup.  I grabbed the rod and reel from the pole holder and the fish took off taking line with ease. After two long runs I was thinking the fish was going to spool me so I tightened the drag a little. It stopped taking line but the fish was pulling me East. I finally had the chance to call Scott and tell him I had a good size fish on.  He started paddling towards me while my good fun battle continued.  Our give and take tug o’ war lasted a few minutes when the line went kinda slack so I reeled in as fast as I could remembering my last adventure fighting a good size heavy fish from a boat.  That boat fight lasted over 50 minutes when the fish started swimming toward the boat and I didn’t know to take up the slack in that situation.  The fish turned and I felt a tug on the line and I lost that battle.

In this battle I prayed I didn’t lose the fish as I reeled in fast until I felt the fish’s tug again then panic turned to joy again.  Scott was close enough to watch his kayak being towed by a fish.  He yelled with excitement and encouragement saying to take my time.  But Scott also said on the walkie talkie that I should try land the fish ASAP because the possibility of sharks.

Editor’s note: I said that because my feet were in the water for balance to help land the fish and I didn’t want to become shark bait!

I didn’t”t want my first good size fish from a kayak taken as an easy meal so I picked up the pace. The fish was getting closer and it also started swimming in a counter clockwise direction around the kayak. It wasn’t close enough to see color but it did keep me busy reeling in while trying to keep the line clear of the bow and the stern of the yak as it kept circling in the same direction. My poIe was just long enough to clear both ends of the yak, another Blessing. I could reel in line only when the fish was on the port and starboard side of the yak. After uncountable circles around the yak I finally could see a sliver color. I told Scott it was a Mahi Mahi but it was an Ono. Scott soon paddled in closer to see the sleek silver fish still swimming around the yak. Scott’s excitement got me more excited. As the fish got closer we started talking about how we going land our very first Pelagic on kayaks. Scott got close enough to see that the jig was hooked to the left side fin which prevented its sharp teeth from cutting the 25 lb. leader line. Another Blessing and more excitement but we still needed a plan to land the Ono with a round gaff or a “bonker gaff” used to pull Alaskan halibut aboard boats and then bonk ’em. Problem was both were on Scott’s yak. The Ono was still circling the yak but was slowing down. We agreed that as the Ono circled around in between our yaks Scott would gaff with the bonker gaff. As the ono was coming along my port side Scott saw that the ono was making a U-turn around the transducer. His calm voice turned to frantic instructions to free the line from the transducer to prevent cutting. The wrap was loose so I freed it easily. The ono continued in the same direction but did the same U-turn. It was like an instant replay with the coach yelling from the side lines. Kinda funny now but nobody was laughing at that moment. Good thing the Ono was tired and swimming slow, the line was easily cleared from the transducer, another Blessing. The transducer was tilted out of the water and it was time to gaff this fish. Scott got into position (my starboard side) and was ready with the bonker gaff. The Ono made one lap around my yak and heading next to Scott but was little too deep to gaff so I reeled in more line as it made one more lap. It cleared my stern and was heading to Scott right below the surface. As it got within Scott’s reach he used one chopping motion to set the gaff but pulled up and immediately said he didn’t want to cut the line using that gaff. I reeled up to the leader and had the fish on the starboard side of the yak. Scott said he was going to hand me the bonker gaff as he paddled to my port side. After he gave me the gaff the fish swam in the same counter clockwise direction around to the port side. I grabbed the leader line, pulled the Ono along side the yak and inserted the gaff into the gill and lifted it on board. The Ono was barely moving and my coach said to make sure it was dead so I used the back side to the bonker to knock em out. Now we could celebrate, take a few pics and relax after a exciting battle. Our first pelagic! A Blessing from God! I didn’t even know what a pelagic was until my coach told me.

Our challenge wasn’t over yet. Our Ono was longer than my Seattle Sports fish bag which is 20” long and we were about a mile from shore. While we were deciding what to do to keep our Ono fresh, Scott was marking a lot of fish around him and his attention quickly focused on catching another pelagic. My mind was on sashimi, fried fish and fish soup. I looked at the fish and the fish bag lengths and figured half of the fish would fit in my bag. A thought came to mind. Scott had the exact same bag with the same Arctic Ice pack and was empty. If I put the other half of the Ono in Scott’s bag and butt the openings together, the Ono would have a better chance of staying cool. Scott let me use his fish bag and the Ono fit perfectly, still another Blessing.

I watched Scott fish while I rested and hydrated. After a few minutes I told Scott I was going to start my long paddle in. He was going to fish a little more then head in also. After a radio check I started my paddle in, still in awe of what an exciting adventure this trip turned out to be. An adventure filled with excitement, flashbacks, panic, joy and choke Blessings. And I got to share this special experience with a great friend and fishing sensei.

We finally made it to shore safely, our biggest Blessing. Within an hour we were at Scott’s house. The makeshift Seattle Sports fish bags and Arctic Ice packs kept our Ono surprisingly cool. After a weigh in at 11 lbs and a few more pics, the Ono was cleaned, cut, bagged and iced in a cooler. We were able to Bless our families, FWA (Fishing With Aloha) brothers Scott, Kelly, Erik and Thad, and a friend who fabricated Scott’s transducer holder with fresh Ono.

 

 

When I asked Frank to take a photo of the Xesta After Burner swimming jig he caught the ono on, he decided to wear it as a necklace.

This fishing trip definitely tops the list of all my fishing adventures since retiring and learning to fish more seriously under Scott’s tutelage. Mahalo to the FWA guys who humbly shared their many years of fishing knowledge and experiences which has helped me enjoy fishing, catch fish and see more our beautiful Aina (from the ocean). They even stretched me to write this article which is harder than tying knots. Mahalo & Aloha ke akua.

We battled sharks/ulua on bigger gear and landed the target species – catch and cook

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Look at the discolored 20lb mono on the Sealine SL20. I even found salt clumps that I hadn’t washed away before storing it. Shame on me.

The last time Frank and I ventured out to the deep I ran into a strong fish that manhandled my light gear. This is what went down.  We were advised by my uku sensei to use 60 – 100lb leader and big rods/reels.  So I went into storage and rummaged through the gear I brought back from my party boat days out of San Diego that haven’t been looked at in more than a decade.  Cleaned and lubed a Daiwa Sealine SL20 conventional reel, put on fresh 50lb Sufix 832 and matched it to a Daiwa VIP boat rod.  This was my light setup to cast live anchovies on 20lb test mono back in the 90s before we used fluorocarbon leaders.  I figured it would be strong enough for Frank to land big uku and small ulua.

The red marking on the Trinidad’s side plate says “300yds 30lb Sufix” on clear tape. It isn’t a blemish.

I went into the “museum” to pull out the original gold Shimano Trinidad 14 and 7′ 7″ G Loomis Bucara bait rod I had purchased to catch yellowtail on the kayak in SoCal and never used.  That combo is at least 18 yrs old and the rod and reel are out of production now.  I really didn’t want to scratch the beautiful gold reel but the guys convinced me that the reel was meant to be fished, not to be tucked away in a box on a shelf.  Took off the discolored mono and put on 30lb Sufix to get more capacity. Both the Trinidad 14 and SL 20 are really 20 – 30lb test reels but I put 50lb on the SL20 just in case Frank needed to lock down on a big fish.

My uku sensei recommended VMC tournament 12/0 hooks that looked huge to me but the gap between hook point and shaft wasn’t really that big.  The intention was to hook the bait on, drop down and raise it off the bottom, away from hage, and just leave the rod in the holder until something hooked itself.  The circle hook with the severe turned in hook point was designed to be initially taken deep into the fish’s mouth, and as the fish turned and ran, the hook would slide out to the mouth’s corner, roll into position and hook into the thick cartilage.  Layton, at Charley’s Fishing Supply, suggested we also carry a few 14/0 hooks in case our baits were so big the 12/0 hook point wasn’t fully exposed.  The 14/0 looks a lot larger but the gap really only is an index finger width versus the pinkie width of the 12/0.

Frank and I both started with the 12/0 hook.  He used 50lb mono and I used 60lb fluoro as leader.  I figured we had tipped the scales in our favor.  Boy was I wrong.

We picked a light trade wind day with a rolling swell due to a big east swell wrapping around the island.  Not as glassy as our previous time but still easily fishable.  The Garmin 44cv took me to where we started the last time and we put down 5 inch opelu halves Frank had skillfully brined,  wrapped in newspaper and froze to preserve the integrity of the soft bait.  Not much was biting at the 80ft reef except for an occasional hage that shortened our bait and plucked out the eyes.  We kept our baits off the bottom to lesson the hage attack and set up behind the reef where it suddenly drops down.  Fishing with a light drag and clicker to allow the fish to run with the bait before getting hooked, we had numerous hard pulls that didn’t set. Some took the entire bait.  Others left teeth scrapes halfway up the bait but not at the hook area.

Suddenly Frank got a hard pull and run that almost tipped his SUP over.  The fish ran down and hugged the bottom like my fish did the last time, but Frank stabilized himself and quickly learned how to use the conventional reel.  He constantly had to adjust his seating position since the fish was pulling him forward, and had to reposition the gear strapped to his board.  The drag down fight went on for more than 25 mins and then I saw a large light colored shape at deep color. Looked like a big ulua, but Frank had a better view and he realized he had been battling a 6 ft plus shark!  It was another 5 – 10 mins before he could get the shark close enough to cut the leader and salvage most of his line.

This is just a couple mins of Frank’s physically challenging battle with the shark. Can you imagine sitting on a surfboard with no foot rests to push off of, feet dangling in the water with the ocean bottom 130 ft below, as a shark does its best to unseat you?  Frank did an incredible job getting that shark to leader.  Unfortunately the video of his release, with the shark swimming directly under me, had too many landmarks to use.

That shark didn’t take him too far out from where he had hooked it, but we slowly paddled back inside of the 100ft line. Frank caught his breath, and I dropped my opelu bait down.  More strong pulls and baits stolen.  Maybe our 12/0 hook was too large for most of the fish below us?  Then Frank hooked up with something big again!  This fish took him from the 100 ft depth to the 190 ft depth, which is about 350 yds based on the Navionics chart.  This fish cut his leader about 2.5 ft up from the hook before Frank could see what it was.  At this point, Frank’s arms and lower body were torched from doing big fish isometrics in a seated position on an SUP.

We paddled in to 80 ft, and Frank dropped a bait down, put the rod in the holder and started jigging with a Live Deception jig on his Shimano Stradic 4000 FK XG, which was a whole lot smoother than his old Penn 440SS.  He cast, jigged the lure back at an angle and bam! Hanapa’a! Up came a scrappy 2.5 lb omilu!  With that kau kau fish in his cooler bag he didn’t feel so bad about losing the second fish.  Then his bait rod bent over and he almost went with it.  The fish was running so hard he couldn’t get the rod out of the holder, so he loosened the drag, pulled it out and went back to work.  This fish fought like the second fish and pulled him out before cutting him off at about the same halfway up the leader spot as the second fish.  We’re wondering if the scute of an ulua cut the line so far away from the hook but I guess we won’t know until we land one.  I was wondering why I wasn’t hooking them or anything for that matter.

Out of desperation I dropped my opelu half down, cranked up about 40 ft, and held the rod to feel for bait stealers.  Soon I felt some hard taps, then stronger tugs, then the clicker sang.  After so many missed fish I expected this one to drop the bait but it stayed on and I fought my first fish on the Bucara/Trinidad setup.  It felt awkward compared to my short jig rod and bait casting reel. The rod had a stiff tip and long butt, and I had to think about laying the line as I retrieved.  The fish felt strong, much stronger than a hage so I was hoping it was the target fish.  It was, and the circle hook was securely tucked in the 3lb uku’s mouth.  That was the only fish I caught that day, but I was stoked to get my personal best.

In this video you can see that I wasn’t smart enough to put the rod in the holder and hold the leader with my left hand while netting with my right. I kept trying to use the rod tip to pull the fish close enough but the 6ft leader was too long!

We tried to fish that area harder and I finally got a strong, steady pulling fish. Thankfully it cut the leader within 15 seconds and I didn’t have to do big fish isometrics like Frank did. We were nearly out of bait and drinking water, so we trolled our baits in.  I put on a whole frozen halalu and it got hit hard but the fish had only taken the back half in its mouth and missed the hook in its head.

When we got to the beach we both had trouble standing up. 6.5 hrs seated makes our old bodies stiff!

The uku had a small fish, a red opae and a crab in its stomach; the omilu’s stomach was empty.  Frank gave the omilu to our friend who made my custom transducer rod and mounting plate so streamlined I could pull the large transducer through the water with minimal drag.  That Garmin 44cv fish finder/gps has been critical in putting us on the deep water fish.

Frank put slices of ginger and diced chung choy (pickled turnip) into the cuts on the side of the uku and steamed it.  After it was cooked he took it out and drizzled shoyu, then poured hot peanut oil over the fish, then garnished with green onions, parsley and shiitake mushrooms. He said was “ono” and he’ll be targeting uku next time and getting his workout on land.

We have to fine tune the size of the hooks we’re using to increase our catch rate, and get better with the conventional reels. I did put a small scratch in the Trinidad, probably while transporting the rods after our long day, but I guess it doesn’t hurt too badly.

 

Undergunned against the creatures of the deep – catch and cook

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Holy smokers, talk about action!  OK, where do I begin?

Frank and I were able to paddle out on a sheet glass day to fish a spot we were eyeing the couple of months. The conditions were so perfect Frank exclaimed that it was “an ono kind of day” because the last time we had such good conditions he caught an ono on a jig, our first legitimate pelagic.  We both had a grab bag of baits we gathered from our freezers. Oama, halalu, opelu and ika.  We hoped we had our bases covered.

The water was so clear I didn’t need my fish finder to tell me there were schools of fish around.  At 40 ft we were followed by at least 30 aha and Frank kept one after it pulled off his frozen oama one too many times.  In about 60 ft of water we could see 7 inch silver fish passing beneath us.  All this activity raised our expectations even further.

A few kayaks and boats were already at the reef almost 2 miles out but the area was so large we had plenty of room to work the shallow bottom fishing grounds.  We started with frozen oama and my initial baits were surgically removed. Was this the work of aha?  Frank trolled up a wahanui, also called fork tailed snapper or small toothed jobfish, a good eating nearshore snapper rarely found on Oahu anymore.  I went deeper to avoid the aha and made sure my oama made it quickly to the bottom. I set the hook on a fish and was surprised to find out an 8 inch FL moana ate its goatfish cousin. Watching this video, I realized I crank up small fish too quickly because I think they’re hage.

Frank topped my efforts by catching a moana on a jig!

We fished the reef and missed a lot of strikes on the frozen oama.  One fish even cut my oama in half and missed the front and back hooks!  I got tired of this and put on a 6 inch frozen halalu which was much larger than an oama.  I didn’t change the small hooks. I just nose hooked the halalu and stuck the back hook near its dorsal fin, midway down the fish.  Dropped it down to the bottom in 80 ft of water and something hit it hard but missed the hooks again and left the head of the halalu.  While it was fun to have so much action, it was frustrating to miss so many bites.

I followed marks on the fish finder in to the 60ft depth but wasn’t getting anything good when Frank radio’d me saying he was on a floating scum line past the reef and missed a “pole benda” on halalu.  That was good enough to get me out to the deep.  As I paddled towards him the depth quickly dropped from 90 ft to 115 ft.  There weren’t a lot of fish marks on this ledge but I had heard that predators hang out at the drop offs.  I put on the front half of a frozen opelu, more than 4 inches in length and 2 inches in diameter.  The two hooks I was using looked really tiny buried in that chunk of bait.  Since the drift was so slow, I could drop down the bait and fish almost straight up and down.  I felt some heavy taps and then something strong pulled drag!  I lifted the rod, the fish was battling for a few seconds and then came off.  Arrggghh. That was a good fish.  I put on my second to the last piece of opelu, dropped down, and felt the thump again. This time I let the fish eat and it took off on a slow steady run. Then it really pulled line off the reel and it looked like it was running straight down but it was following the contour of the bottom and running to deeper water.  I was using my light Trevala S rod and Calcutta 300 TE level wind reel with only a 25lb fluoro leader and had a feeling this wasn’t gonna end well.

Here’s what the fight looked like after I removed all the landmarks.  Sorry about the waterspot on the lens.  When I frantically turned the camera on I must’ve hit the lens with my hand.

That fish felt bigger than the 30lb ulua I caught on the Big Island on a boat, and was definitely the largest fish I hooked on a kayak.  I had one more piece of opelu and Frank was fishing his halalu bait.  I put on a pre-tied leader of 40lb fluoro with slightly larger hooks and hooked the opelu in the nostril and where the front half ended.  A few seconds after it reached the bottom something pulled hard and missed the tiny hooks again.  The opelu skull with some hanging flesh was left on my front hook. I didn’t have larger hooks and didn’t have anymore opelu so I dropped the skull down. Tap, tap… wait…….pull….hookup.  I waited for the line to burn off the reel but this fish wasn’t as large as the previous eaters of the opelu.

This is what is was.  I gave it the bends by cranking it up too quickly.

After so many missed strikes I was stoked to land that uku. We were out of halalu and opelu baits and a bunch of humpbacked whales started breaching way too close to us so we worked our way to the inside to bounce the sand for nabeta. No nabeta found but Frank and I got a moana each.

Wahanui on the left, smaller cylindrical steaks of aha on the upper right, and the two red pieces of moana on lower right.

Frank fried the moana, wahanui and aha and said the wahanui and aha tasted similar, with mild white meat that needed a bit of sauce for flavor and moisture.  His wife liked those fish but he enjoyed the taste of the moana even more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My wife and I are neophyte fish cookers so we got a lot of advice from friends to properly prepare the uku.  I cleaned it more than 24 hrs after catching it and that was the reason it smelled a little fishy when steaming in a colander in a large pot of water.  I had placed ginger slices in slits I cut into the fish and we determined it was cooked by inserting a chopstick into the thickest parts of the fish and pulling it out clean. The fish was then placed on a dish and we drizzled shoyu, hot peanut oil and topped it off with cilantro.  Ponzu sauce was added to our individual portions.  The fish wasn’t fishy at all and tasted really ono despite the simplicity of the  recipe.  Friends told me later that it’s critical to keep the fish as cold as possible on the kayak and keep it cold at home. Ideally, it should be cleaned immediately to stop the bacterial breakdown which causes the fishy smell and taste.

Frank and I were severely undergunned against the size of the fish that would eat a big chunk of bait in the deep.  We’re over hauling our tackle by using large circle hooks, 60 – 100 lb leader and small-medium sized conventional reels with clickers.  Stay tuned for our next nearshore deep water adventure!

Nearshore fishing has been very slow!

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The winter cold water doldrums are in full effect now.  Our group has tried wade fishing, SUP oama trolling and deep water kayak fishing the last few weeks with very little to show for it.  My fish finder was reading 73 degrees on the surface in the mid-morning.  Average water temp in July is 80 degrees so the nearshore predators must have gone somewhere warm to wait out the winter cold snap.

On our last kayak/SUP trip, the fish finder marked clouds of bait at 100 ft but my 2 hook damashi with one ika strip only caught hage at the very bottom.  Frank trolled a fresh dead oama from 10 to 80 ft and nothing bit. That has never happened before at this spot.

 

 

 

 

 

I kept bouncing the damashi with ika on one of the two hooks as I worked my way back to land.  An occasional hage would hit the ika and leave the unbaited fly alone.  Then I hooked something in 20ft of water that fought a little differently. I was surprised to bring up a small weke nono in such shallow water.  Had it been larger I would have kept it for poke.  In the second photo you can see that it has a predator’s mouth like the obake weke, much larger than the common white weke.

Since the fishing has been unproductive, the guys want to surf and gather bait until the bite picks up again.  I won’t bore you with the surf trip reports but if you’re interested, I could do some brief bait gathering updates.  Anyone interested in that?

Fish in the deep didn’t bite, awa awa did on the inside

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Screen shot from Session 5 video. Still a little low res, sorry.

The forecast called for light winds so Frank paddled his trusty fishing SUP and I took the Scupper Pro.   My plan was to try to get better with my new fish finder and learn how to fish the damashi. Frank intended to troll a frozen oama out, and then troll and jig various lures. The bait cloud was at 130 ft this time, but wasn’t showing up as dense on the Garmin EchoMap 44CV as previous bait clouds had. I dropped the damashi down but nothing bit. I’m guessing the bait was a smaller fish than opelu but I sure would like to have pulled up a bait to see what they are.

The trade winds blew over 10 mph at times so we kept paddling in a ways to reset our drift. I put the time in, dropping the damashi on various bait marks.  Frank trolled between drifts and jigged off the bottom.  Not a single touch for either of us so when the winds turned offshore and increased to 12 mph we went further in.

I had marks that looked like single, large fish, at 40 feet but they wouldn’t take a jig.  I purposely wasn’t carrying bait, so I could focus on my damashi education, but was wondering if they would have taken something real.  Frank then hooked a fish on frozen oama in 15 ft of water. Awa awa!  He called me on the walkie talkie but I misunderstood when he said “Hanapa’a………….awa” and thought he said “Hanapa’a……..off” because the fish came off. It’s very hard to push the button to talk when you have an angry fish on your line.  The fish jumped twice, then made some long runs, and spun his board around 4 times.  It was so feisty he had to dispatch it with a knife after he netted it.  I’m bummed I wasn’t able to video the action.

We fished the 10 to 20 ft depth for another hour and Frank landed a roi. I finally hooked something  on the Gulp grub that I threaded on a small damashi hook. It looked dark and when it shook off about 5 ft from the surface I thought I saw red.  Moana? Roi?

The action was very slow except for Frank’s awa awa.  Was it because the tide was so slack on this day?

Frank cleaned the awa awa and roi at the beach and fed the ecosystem with the scraps.

 

 

 

Here’s how he made his delicious awa awa fish paddies:

Fry some minced garlic and chopped round onion in oil, then add ground pork and chung choy (salted turnip).  Brown and cool.

Then add a little water to the awa awa paste to make it smooth. Mix in green onion, water chestnuts and grated carrots.  Mix in the ground pork mixture and form patties.  Fry the patties, being careful not to overcook them.  Drizzle oyster sauce or plum sauce and grind ’em!

Frank fried the Roi and you can see it at the top end of the pan. Roi is actually a very delicious grouper, and small ones from this area haven’t been reported as cig-hot.  He said it tasted very good, and plans to steam the next one he catches.

I’m seriously concerned about fishing the deep on this side of the island since off-shore winds seem to come up most of the time and cause us to scramble back in for safety.

 

Failed kayak damashi attempt

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I had “accidentally” caught a nabeta on a 2 oz jig the last time out and hoped that a  damashi rig would be a lot more effective.  Found these packaged damashi rigs from my California party boat days but dealing with so many hooks concerned me.  I split the rigs in half, sort of, and limited the modified rigs to 2 hooks each.

Expecting the current to be slow on a projected light wind day, I used a 2 oz Ahi USA Assault jig with the treble hook cut off as the damashi weight about 2 ft before the bottom hook.  Added an assist hook to the top.

The winds were light on our paddle out and Frank immediately hooked up with two 12 inch omilu on frozen oama.  I put out a lipped sinking swimming plug when I reached 50 ft and had a screamer of a strike.  A fish jumped out of the water in the distance and I was hoping the long, skinny fish was another ono like Frank had caught a couple of weeks ago. Sadly, it was a tail wrapped aha which I video’d but am no longer giving those nasty fish any more media coverage.  With such a hot inshore bite we were anticipating some action in the deep.  It took a while to find what I think was the opelu school and they were scattered near the bottom in the 120 ft area.  Unlike the previous trips, they weren’t bunched up and thick, and just past them, there was a weird rip current churning the top of the water that took us on a bumpy ride out to sea.  We paddled back closer to shore and noticed the bait school was staying just on the inside edge of this rip.  Our weights didn’t get the damashi rig straight down through the strong current and after trying for more than an hr we paddled in a ways to look for nabeta.

More weirdness. Our damashi rig appeared to getting pulled to the east, but we weren’t drifting to the west.  Once again, the rigs weren’t straight up and down which made for sloping jigging of the flies.  Nothing bit our rigs and then the trade winds picked up and we had to paddle in to the protection of the inner reef.

Frank deployed another frozen oama and got bit right away.  Another off-season 12 inch omilu!  He was making it look too easy.  I joined him and whipped my swimming jig in the vicinity but bite ended.

I consulted my damashi senseis and asked why we did so badly.  They said our weights were too light for the strong current, my hooks were too far away from the weight, and when we fished the inside, there was probably a strong current pulling east with wind blowing west, holding our kayaks in place.  Bottom line, when the damashi isn’t getting down effectively, use more weight.  I’ll try 4 to 5 ounces next time, and make my lead about 5 inches from my bottom hook.  If we actually catch an opelu we’re not fully prepare to use it properly but we’ll deal with that bridge when we come to it.

If you guys have any damashi tips for us, please send them our way!

 

 

Going further and deeper to extend the season

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In the past, our “season” has ended when the water temps cool and the bait leaves the inshore waters.  Knowing this end was near, we prepped the kayaks and SUPs to do some nearshore bottom fishing further out than we had previously attempted.

The first outing yielded our first kayak/SUP uku but we had to paddle in to safety against strong winds and deal with having to keep the kayak straight in following seas.  This was how that outing went.

After that successful but dangerous outing, we tried another deep drop off but the wind came up and was pushing us out to sea. We had to paddle for our lives to get in and were emotionally shook up from the realization that we would have needed to be rescued if we had become incapable of paddling hard for shore.

I had Go Bananas in Kapahulu add a rudder and some convenient bungee “trees” to my Scupper Pro, and I picked up a Garmin EchoMap 44cv fish finder/gps from West Marine on Black Friday.  My hope was that the rudder would make my paddling more efficient, especially in windy conditions, the GPS would take us to nearby artificial reefs and mark hot spots, and the more advanced fish finder would accurately tell us what type of fish were below.  I also got a Thule Hull-A-Port “J” style cradle to securely carry the second kayak on its side.

Our next outing was back to the deep water spot where we had gotten in trouble.  This time we picked a day with almost no wind, and not much swell.  The new fish finder/gps accurately told us the depth we were in, and marked what I think were fish on the bottom and a large bait school suspended from about 50ft to 100ft.  Nothing was biting our jigs and I paddled further out to mark more bait. I heard Frank yell “hanapa’a” but couldn’t see what he was fighting. He tried to talk over the walkie talkie while fighting the fish but I was just getting fragments.  When I paddled back to him, he was getting towed against the wind and current towards me!  The fish didn’t want to tire, and he was battling it on an ancient Penn 440SS which was definitely not made to fight fish of that size.  I shot video of the long fight and the very difficult landing process.

Frank will write up his recollection of the amazing, miraculous experience but here’s a preview of his catch.  We still can’t believe he caught a pelagic on only our 3rd deep water outing.  I jigged near the bait school for a few drops for nada and then we paddled in to take care of the prized fish.

 

On the next light wind day I was dying to return to the opelu / pelagic spot. Frank couldn’t make it but had designed and oversaw the process of fabricating a streamlined transducer rod and plate so I could hang the transducer over the side with as little drag as possible.  This thing is work of art!

I tentatively paddled out solo but was relieved to see so many boats around and helicopters above.  The bait school was deeper on this day, in 125 ft of water but again, nothing bit my jigs.  I even tried trolling jigs and swimming plugs “Frank-style”.

 

Happy enough that all the new equipment was working well, I let the wind blow me in as I steered with the foot controlled rudder.  At 100 ft I had a bite on the jig that came off. I assumed it was a hage but was still glad for that one bite.  At 80ft I hooked something that felt like a small hage and winched it up. I was stunned to see a nabeta hooked on the rear treble of the Live Deception 2 oz jig with its swim bladder popped out through its gill.  I marked the spot on my GPS and returned to it but couldn’t catch another fish.  I’ll have to return with a proper damashi-type of setup.

 

 

 

 

 

My friend and fellow kayak fisher, Haru, told me how to gut the fish but leave the scales on and scrub the slime off with Hawaiian salt, then salt and pepper it before deep frying, taking it out to cool, and then frying it a second time to crisp up.  My wife used a ponzu sauce and chilli pepper water Frank had given us, and that fried nabeta was ono with a non-fishy, sweet, soft texture.

So far the uku, ono and nabeta we’ve caught in deeper water have been much less fishy tasting than the papio we’ve been catching inshore.  Now I understand why boaters often prefer bottom fish to reef fish.

Instead of waiting for the bait fish to return to the shallows, we’re now gearing up to target the bottom fish and pelagics of the winter season.  Chee hoo!!

First attempt at uku from a kayak

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It had taken me 10 months to get my first awa awa of 2017. Once I got it, and fish cake was made, I set my sights on my favorite fish to make poke with: uku.  I’ve caught a couple by boat on the Big Island and at The Banks, but never from a kayak.  We hadn’t ventured out deep enough to target uku before, because our watercraft and the predominate weather conditions prohibited it.

But I heard of a spot not far from shore where kayak divers get small uku and figured if they could reach them we could too.  Normally the trades were too strong there, and even medium surf would make it dicey to return through the reef passage, but a forecast promised small waves and winds under 10 mph. Frank would try out my second, ancient kayak, a flatter bottomed, more stable Aquaterra Swing on his kayak maiden voyage.

We had 5 live oama each, of the big 5 to 7 inch size, along with cut opelu.  The beach launch looked doable.  The wind began to pick up so we hurried out.  My portable fish finder wasn’t marking much fish on the bottom but was instrumental in telling me the depth we were in. At 30 ft we put out the live oama and tried to keep ’em near the bottom despite the current and wind drift.  We slowly paddled deeper and suddenly my ratchet gave a sustained squeal.  Since it was so shallow, and the strike was strong, I assumed I was fighting a good sized omilu.  I felt head shakes, and the fish pulled towards the bottom, but its strength waned quickly after that initially run back towards shore.  I couldn’t believe my eyes – UKU!  Just a few mins out, in such shallow water and the target mid-water fish had been hooked. No way.

I really wanted to keep my first uku but it was small for a fish whose state record is 39lbs and  I thought was not that abundant.  At least I got it on video and Frank witnessed the catch.  I put on the 2nd live oama and in a few minutes the ratchet went off again.  I still assumed it was a papio and wasn’t seeing much structure or fish on the fish finder.  My second kayak uku ever came up!  This one looked a little bigger than the first, and surprisingly took the big Gamakatsu 2/0 Live Bait hook in its throat so I decided to keep it. It later taped out at 14.33 inches (FL).

The trade winds were blowing 12 – 15 mph at this point and Frank had paddled up wind so he could ride the wind back down to our launch site.  I tried to radio him but the walkie talkie was very staticy.  When I reached Frank, he had an aha jumping around his kayak, not a good thing!  See what they can do.  The aha had been mauling his live oama.

My Scupper Pro felt more and more unsteady in the cross swells so I told Frank I was gonna carefully paddle back in the following seas. He is a much better waterman than I am, and wasn’t too concerned considering this was his first outing on a kayak.  I warned him that the Swing feels stable, but had no “secondary” stability due to its flat bottom.  He was probably thinking, worst case, he could rough water swim back, towing his kayak!  I paddled with my feet up on the rails to add some stability, and tacked back and forth to keep the Pro perpendicular to the wind swell.  Along the way I missed 3 strikes on 2 baits that cut off my oama but was focused on the safety of the inner reef.

In my hurry to get in, I misjudged where the “channel” really was but we got lucky that no wave broke during that time.

I was stoked to get 2 uku the first time out but we realize that this spot is rarely fishable by kayak.  We’ll be watching for a day when the winds are supposed to be under 5 miles an hr, since the winds often increase quickly.

Aha (needlefish) safety video

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The Hawaiian Needlefish, or aha, has been implicated in several stabbing incidents, a few fatal.  They tend to leap out of the water with their beak open, slashing anything in their path.  Those stabbed by the aha have found teeth in their infected wound.  I hate when they bite my lure or bait and I try to let them tire out before they get within range of assaulting me.  The big ones, called Blue Bone because they actually have blue bones, can be chunked and fried but I’m happy enough just to shake them off and set ’em free.

In this video, a little aha is about to ram my kayak but the landing net’s webbing intercepts it.  You can see that it had opened its mouth and is angrily slashing. It clamps down on the webbing and doesn’t let go until I remove the hook from its jaw.  Good thing I had taken my foot out of the water. They do make a few high speed initial runs and somersault all over the place.  Poor man’s marlin indeed but can leave a nasty wound.

Awa awa! Will this one stay on?

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The awa awa have eluded me all year. The are the hardest fish for me to land because they aren’t often encountered,  jump when hooked, and often succeed in tearing the hook out of their soft mouth.  Here’s how I hooked and lost the last one.  My family and friends much prefer awa awa paste to oio paste so I was on a mission to land one.  The forecast called for light north winds, with surf on the south and east shores. Frank and I decided to stay in the safety of the bay and hunt for something more exotic than omilu and whites.

We had 7 live oama each and yet the first 5 or so were cut in half, crushed or spit out by small papio,  aha and one large papio that took line and shed Frank’s double hook.  Maybe the water was too calm and clear, and the predators were a little suspicious of our offerings?

An hr and a half into our paddle, I got an odd, erratic tap on the line and turned to see an awa awa leave the surface of the water.  I called out to Frank and was glad I had just changed to a fresh leader.  The fish was on longer than the few seconds I normally would take to lose an awa awa and my confidence grew. I kept the drag light so the hooks wouldn’t pull and the fish swam towards me after its initial run.  That was unusually behavior for an awa awa. Normally they battle all the way to the boat, splashing me as I try to bring it aboard but this one was fairly docile.  It briefly pulled straight down when it got near the kayak and I waited for the second long run that never came.  When it floated broadside, I was surprised it was of decent size.

Frank offered to video with my cap cam so I tried to unhook and pose with the still squirming fish while maintaining a death grip.  The front hook was halfway down its throat and rear hook was just under its gill. It was bleeding quite a bit.  Maybe the hooks’ positions controlled and weakened it?

With the target species in my cooler bag, the pressure was off and I could enjoy the calm conditions.  Frank landed a 12 inch omilu near the papa edge and I missed a fish, and then the bite stopped. We explored for another hour without the fish interrupting our solitude.

 

I hadn’t scraped the flesh off an awa awa or the more common oio before so I decided to give that a try. My dad assisted me and we harvested more than 3lbs from the 27.25 inch (FL) 5lb plus fish. 4 different families were able to stretch the fish paste into delicately tasting fish cake. There aren’t many fish that can be split so many ways and still be appreciated.

All the awa awa strikes I’ve gotten were on live oama.  Kelly has hooked awa awa trolling dead baits but I seem to need a lively oama being pulled in the upright position.  Catching, raising and transporting live oama is a lot of work but it seems to be the best bait for the fish I’ve been chasing. Here’s what’s involved in the oama process.

Now that I’ve gotten my awa awa for the year, I’m moving on to a much harder species to catch from a kayak. UKU!!! Such a bad sounding name for such a delicious, clean tasting, firm meat fish. Its English name is “green jobfish” which isn’t that much better. They are much further out than the depths we’ve been fishing, so I’ll need the crew to join me on this uku hunt.  I’ve made poke from uku we caught from a boat and it’s now my favorite fish to eat.

How long to you think it’ll take to get my first kayak caught uku?  Here’s how we did on our first kayak uku hunt.

 

The stuff I use and why I use ’em – Kayak Fishing Equipment

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(Updated June 2021)

I finally got an offshore kayak, in Jan 2019.  Since that allowed me to go further and deeper, a few other accessories needed to be updated.  

I’ll mention the kayak fishing products that perform especially well.  Please check out my other gear recommendations.

Kayaks: Ocean Kayak Trident Ultra 4.3 , Ocean Kayak Scupper Pro, both discontinued.  Here’s the in-depth review of the Trident Ultra 4.3.  The Scupper Pro is long (14’9″) and narrow (26″), so it paddles well but is tippy and doesn’t have much room in the cockpit.  Adding a rudder to the Pro really made it an efficient paddler in the wind and current.

Rack: Thule bars, Thule Glide and Set pads and cradles. I’m able to slide the yak onto the rear hatchback without much back strain.  Please read my short post about the rack system. 

Paddle:  2-piece carbon shaft Werner Camano paddle.   Light, strong and has an adjustable ferrule to change the angle of the offset. Looks beautiful too!

Jigging reel for offshore. Shimano Trinidad 14. Silky smooth, high gear retrieve and easy to maintain. And has a clicker so the fish’s runs are audible in videos. 🙂

Trolling reel for offshore: Avet SX Raptor.  Small, light footprint for a workhorse 2-speed lever drag that’s super easy to maintain.  Moved up to this to quickly get into strike drag after hooking fish, and for boosting big sharks off the bottom in low gear. Max drag 26lbs. Amazing little reel.

Hooks: VMC Live Bait hook size 3/0 to 5/0 for front hook, VMC Inline Single hook size 2/0 to 5/0 for stinger hook. 

Leader: Seaguar Invisiline 40lb fluorocarbon. 

Wire Leader: Knot2Kinky 35lb.

Main Line: Sufix 832 braid.

Swivels: VMC Heavy Duty Ball Bearing Swivels with snap and without.

Click here to see VMC tackle in the Store.

Click here to see Sufix line in the Store.

Kayak Seat: On Scupper Pro – Surf to Summit GTS Pro with a Hot Seat pad.  The more padding the better when sitting and bracing for more than 4 hrs.

Life Vest: NRS Chinook. This vest was made for kayak fishers and has a lot of pockets and attachment points.  The high back starts at my lumbar and doesn’t get in the way when I lean back.  It’s like wearing a comfortable tackle bag that can save my life.

Stuff in the NRS vest:

  • Personal Locator Beacon (PLB): ACR ResQLink+. If I need to be rescued, I can push a button and the Coast Guard will be sent my GPS location.  My emergency contact will be notified also. The unit is waterproof and floats.  Wearing it gives me and my loved ones peace of mind.
  • Whistle.
  • Motorola MS350R floating walkie talkie.
  • Standard Horizon HX300 vhf radio.
  • Gerber Neat Freak scissors.
  • Gerber Crucial Multi-Tool.
  • Pre-tied leaders.
  • Hooks, swivels and lead.
  • Cell Phone.
  • Aquapac waterproof phone bag.

Waterproof, Floating Walkie Talkie: Motorola MS350R.  I can keep in touch with my fishing partners for safety and fish reports.  Often we’re within eye sight but not ear shot of each other.  I’ve lost 1 walkie talkie so far, so I’m now buying refurbished units to minimize the loss.

Gerber Neat Freak scissors.  Designed to very cleanly cut braided line so the raw edge can be threaded into small eyelets.  I have this attached to my life vest and have cut fluoro leaders and braided main line free in dangerous situations.  I’ve also cut defrosted bait into chunks with it.  Very easy to handle in a pinch.

Fishing pliers: Rapala aluminum pliers.  All my previous “carbon steel” needle nose pliers have eventually rusted out and left corrosion stains in their sheaths.  These aluminum pliers shouldn’t rust but they are shorter than the ones they are replacing.  Hope they’re long enough to keep my fingers away from sharp teeth.

Bilge Pump: Seattle Sports.

Rod Holders: I have two Tite-Loc Rocket Launcher on the Scupper Pro and an Angler’s Pal Stainless Steel holder on the Swing. The Angler’s Pal is adjustable to 360 degrees but is hard to remove so I leave it mounted, parallel to the deck.  The Tite-Loc isn’t as adjustable but is easily removable with one allen screw so I take it off the Scupper Pro.  Both have performed well and haven’t shown signs of corrosion.

Fish Finder (inshore):  Huminbird Fishin Buddy 120.  Discontinued. This simple unit has both a side finder that scans the top portion of the water in front of my kayak and a traditional bottom finder.  Runs on 6 AA batteries.  I cut off the fixed plastic tube that held the transducer cord and mounted it on the kayak with Ram Mounts.  The transducer creates a small bit of drag but having a fish finder on the boat is worth the extra resistance. If I need to paddle far I’ll lift the transducer out of the water.  Fishing without it is like fishing blind.

Fish Finder (offshore): Garmin Echomap 44cv. My first “real” fish finder ever, and this has GPS maps so we can mark spots and find known hot spots.  It has amazing resolution in its “traditional sonar” and the CHIRP sonar view has picture quality bottom returns.  We couldn’t fish the deep without it.

(I cracked my Echomap 44CV when it was out of warranty and now have a Echomap 44CV Plus. Has better maps and better sonar detail.)

Net:  Promar ProFloat Landing Net.  Besides the fact that it will float if I drop it, it also has snag free mesh.  Fish I’m about to tag are much more controllable sitting in the net in front of my lap.

Gaff:  After our small boat friend Erik hooked a 35lb shibi in the area that we fish and eventually landed it with a kage gaff, I’m trying to remember to take a small traditional gaff again and a bat.  For years I got by without even a net since the fish I caught were small.  We’re in the process of making a shorter kage for our purposes.

Kayak Cooler (inshore):  Seattle Sports Kayak Catch Cooler.  This 20 inch cooler fits the bow of the kayak really well and has a removable waterproof  inner sleeve that keeps the fish separated from the block of Arctic Ice – Alaskan Series that I use.  Easy to reach forward and store fish, and when I pull the fish out at home, it’s like they were stored in the fridge.  The inner and outer bag clean up quickly.  No more fish spoiling in the hot Hawaiian sun.  Click here to read about the amazing Arctic Ice product.

Kayak Cooler (offshore): Hobie Catch Bag made by Reliable Products.  This is their larger bag, 36 inches long and holds 70 qts.  Frank’s first ono caused us to have to use both both our Seattle Sports Kayak Catch Cooler and we quickly realized we needed a larger bag if we were going offshore.  It doesn’t come with an inner bag so I use a large dry bag to hold the ice and fish, keeping the catch bag relatively clean.

Live Bait Bucket: Plano Flow Troll. The same yellow bait bucket we all put our oama in.  I submerge it in the water every so often to refresh the water for the oama, and keep it in the cockpit when I paddle.

Dry bag: Sealine see-thru bag of miscellaneous stuff. Used to be water proof but has been poked too many times by fish spines and tag applicators.

Rogue Fishing Company Protector 3.0 Phone Tether.  I couldn’t unlock my waterproof phone through a waterproof pouch and switched to this in June 2021. Can now send and receive texts and take photos.

Rogue Fishing Company Defender Rod and Paddle Leash. Much lighter and quieter than the coiled hard plastic leashes I had been using.

The bait -> oama -> papio process

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Live oama are indisputably the best inshore bait.  But there’s definitely a process to be able to troll live oama off our watercraft.

Late season oama are spooky and picky about what they eat.  They often shun the baits that have worked early in the season.  One of our fishing hui, Thad, goes out and gathers the natural food they feed on.  We try to  use those baits at the time when the oama feel like eating.  Then I rush the live oama home before they “make” (die) in the aerated bait bucket.  There’s a low mortality rate over the next few days but if one oama dies in the tub due to the catching process, it could kill the rest of its inhabitants.  The oama near the end of the above  video had some loose scales and couldn’t swim completely upright. He looked worse the next day so I had to remove him before he died.  A friend used him “fresh dead” in a boat fishing tournament.

I feed the oama frozen Mysis shrimp from the pet store.  The small sized shrimps are easily consumed.  There’s a very fine line between feeding the oama enough so they survive, and over feeding to the point the tub fouls and they all get sick (and “make”). Over the course of many months, the oama will slowly malnourish and eventually die.  If I fed them more so that they didn’t lose any weight, I’d have a much higher food bill and would have to clean their tub more often. Instead I try to use them within a few weeks.

When the weather conditions allow, we make plans to troll the live oama.  They need to be transported in freshly mixed salt water (I got tired of going to the beach to get sea water) that’s aerated enough to support them on their journey to the fishing spot.

Trolled live oama usually get slammed right away if the fish are around.  That’s the easiest part of the whole process but also the part that makes everything else totally worth it.