Fishing the Diamond Head – Waikiki Fisheries Management Area on a blustery day

May 27, 2014 By Scott 3 Comments

Potholing the FMA

Justin from Berkeley CA was researching spots to fish for his upcoming South Shore visit and stumbled upon the posts about the Diamond Head – Waikiki FMA. He contacted me and along with his friend Pete, we fished the area of the FMA that’s wadeable on the minus tide.

The 15 – 20 mph trade winds made it hard to cast against the wind so we “pot holed” the cracks and crevices in the reef and cast with the wind onto the shallow reef.

The reef fish bit furiously but quite a few immediately holed up in the rocks and avoided being yanked out. Maybe we broke some jaws today.

Chop and slop

Justin won “the fish that got away” honors for the black tip reef shark that bit a long Makata Lure strip but the shark rubbed the hook off on a rock. Sounds like a fish story but I saw the 5 foot shark swimming towards us. I guess the folks at Makata Lures have to update the packaging to say “Papio, moi, kaku and shark”.

Since Justin and Pete didn’t strike me as poachers from the mainland, or guys that would expose the hot spots on the internet, we’ll be going to another spot tomorrow for a little omilu action.

Diamond Head to Waikiki Fisheries Management Area fish report #3

March 20, 2014 By Scott Leave a Comment

not some remote atoll

Went back to the Diamond Head – Waikiki FMA area for round 3. The tide was dropping below zero feet and the wind initially was manageable when this picture was taken. The contrast of the reef and sand bottom was breathtaking. But the fish didn’t want to bite and the wind made it hard to cast long leaders attached to floats without snagging something on the way out.

It was a “bolo-head” (white wash, nada, zilch, goose eggs) day but I got a chance to chat with Kawika whom I met last week at this spot, and later with Brandon (I think) back at the car. Both generously shared fishing tips even though I warned them that I blog about my fishing experiences! So while I didn’t return home with dinner, I gained something much more valuable.

I’ll give their information a try and report back with the results. Here’s a preview: Kawika tied his own flies to whip explosively behind a large cast-a-bubble. Brandon liked using live bait (‘opae, “sand turtles” (mole crabs) and oama) and turned me on to some “guarantee oio spots” I could board fish in Waikiki.

The Aloha Spirit is still alive with the Oahu fishermen. Just gotta respect their spots and practice Aloha in return.

“Ho brah, how you keep your car so clean?”

March 16, 2014 By Scott Leave a Comment

That’s what you want to hear when your friends see you unpacking your fishing gear. Not “wow brah, your car so pilau”.

After you trudged around the steenkest waters on this island, with your functional yet uncool shoulder tackle bag and tabis, you’ll want to whip them off as quick as possible and leave the scene. How do you do that without ruining your car forever? Get a large plastic tub to throw your gear in, and carry a large water jug to rinse off in. Keeps the steenk self-contained and off your car.

Side note about the 5 gallon gasoline jug I use: It’s the largest container I could easily find but I have gotten jabs while rinsing myself off like “what brah, you need one light?”.

tub and water jug

“Tah-bees”, do I really need them?

March 16, 2014 By Scott 1 Comment

tabis

The Japanese tabis, pronounced “tah-bees”, are about the dorkiest footwear you could wear and most beginner fisherpeople try to avoid wearing them as long as they can. But if you have to walk on slippery wet rocks, or sharp reef, nothing is more protective and sure footed. Tabis have thick rubber protection around the toe area to prevent stubbing, and have a felt bottom to provide grip on slippery surfaces that rubber can’t provide. Yeah old sneakers, surf booties and even reef walkers look cooler, but eventually you’ll slip and fall, or get poked through to your less-than-luau feet.

tackle bag

And if you’re wading and fishing, do yourself a favor and get some kind of over-one-shoulder tackle bag to keep your gear out of the water. I know, the bag looks like a lady’s purse so it’s not gonna help your fashion cause, especially if you’re wearing tabis, but it will be handier to access than a backpack and will be worn higher than a fanny pack. Attach pliers and a line snipper on a retractable spring and you won’t have to worry about dropping your tools in the drink.

If you’re gonna spend a lot of time in the water and sun, you’d be wise to accessorize with a hat and polarized sun glasses. I’ll leave the style details up to you.

Crazy stuff you see fishing the reef dropoff

March 10, 2014 By Scott 1 Comment

flat, shallow reef

Took a friend whipping on the south shore who hadn’t fished in more than 10 years. The afternoon trades were blowing and the sky was overcast, which made our initial dip in the water feel a little shocking. Then it started to rain. As we walked further out, the tide was waist high at times and rising, which made it harder to avoid stepping on the sea cucumbers and wana (sea urchin). Not the most comfortable conditions for my friend to reintroduce himself to the ocean.

The fish weren’t biting on the shallow reef so we hop scotched our way to the outer edge where it dropped off into a 12 – 15 foot sandy channel. We were trying to make out the shapes flitting around in the blue water beneath us, when a 4 foot oval brown hump porpoised out of the water 10 feet from us. This only added to the spookiness of the evening. Turns out it was a massive green sea turtle and it turned towards us and almost backed us into a deep hole in the reef; all we had to fend him off with was our poles.

The turtle eventually got tired of scaring us and bobbed back and forth in the open channel about 20 yds away. We went back to peering into the blue abyss and I dropped a bait down. It immediately got hammered by what looked like black humuhumus, saddle wrasse, and dark and light colored kupipi. Then a 2 foot black fish appeared out of nowhere and just as quickly disappeared. The swirling fish were about 10 feet down in the rolling water so we weren’t sure if we imagined that mystery fish. But when I hooked a hinalea, the black fish lunged for it and missed, wisely staying far away from the surface. The hinalea was released and we caught and released a number of fish before the black fish attacked a kupipi larger than my outstretched hand and ripped it off the hook.

My friend, still shaken by the turtle that was bobbing up and down making noises like an old man snoring, was captivated yet a bit uneasy watching the cycle of life struggle below. More determined to see what this dark marauder was, I dropped the bait down again, felt the rat-ta-tat-tat of a hinalea and then a half second later the line was peeling off my reel. The powerful fish ran for about 3 seconds and then the pull of the line stopped. A scuffed up hinalea was pulled up and when I lowered the hinalea back down it quickly got stuck in the rocks.

I strongly suspect the mystery fish was a roi (peacock grouper) and that it nailed the hinalea and holed up tight in the reef. I couldn’t free the line and had to break it off. Too bad because the roi are invasive predators that are so effective at catching reef fish that they are wiping out a lot of the native fish.

There’s literally a bounty on the roi. There are skin diver tournaments to see how many roi can be killed, and fishermen are being encouraged to catch and kill as many as possible. It’s believed that since the roi were not indigenous to Hawaiian waters, the Hawaii fish here still haven’t figured out that the roi are just waiting to pounce on them. From what we saw peering down into the edge of the reef, this appears to be true.

This photo was copied from the University of Hawaii’s Malamlama website. Beautiful fish, really efficient predator.

Diamond Head to Waikiki Fisheries Management Area fish report #1

March 6, 2014 By Scott 2 Comments

shoreline dunking

The State of HI closes the area from the Diamond Head lighthouse to the ewa (west) end of the Natatorium every odd-numbered year. The area opened the first of this year to the usual craziness so I was curious if the mayhem had subsided. When I checked the area just west of the lighthouse, there was 1 diver in the water and a few fishermen on shore but nothing like the beginning of the year madness.

All the naive fish have been removed from the gene pool after 2 full months of fishing, and the tidepools were missing the large schools of bait fish present during the “off” year, but there were still a few fish left on the reef.

bright red moana

The fish I caught were mainly under the legal size limit or not that desirable although they still were a lot of fun to catch and release. The motley crew included small omilu, large lizardfish, jumbo humuhumuapua’as, Christmas wrasse and this beautiful moana (manybar goatfish).

I don’t believe the 1 year closed period is enough to increase fish population in this area since all it seems to do is give the fish a false sense of security only to be easy prey the following year. An increase in the permanently closed area of Waikiki or a longer closed period would seem to be more effective.

The purity of fishing

February 24, 2014 By Scott Leave a Comment

Good times

Took some new friends, Kelly and Colleen, to the dependable South Shore spot expecting to have a repeat of the hot omilu papio action we experienced a few days ago. The tide didn’t rise as quickly as I had hoped and the omilus were no where to be found. As their host I was disappointed but it turns out they really enjoyed the calm water and abundance of life in the tide pools.

They were able to see all kinds of reef fish I had previously ignored, and were able to pull in aholehole, hinalea and monster kupipi. In the end they taught me that the purity of fishing with others is the fellowship and tug of something alive at the end of the line.