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Damashi/sabiki out fished live opelu and jigs but big fish kept breaking off, even with 40lb line! Early Winter shallow bottom report.

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I have been focusing on shallow bottom fishing since I don’t start early enough for productive pelagic fishing. Bottom fishing has less variables since the fish are usually somewhere in the general vicinity but the trick is getting the right ones to bite.

Almost all species of predatorial fish seem to be attracted to small bait imitations moving up and down in unison. Often the morning starts with opelu biting mid-water column, and when that slows, fish near the bottom eagerly hit the damashi rig. Some spots are loaded with taape and small moana. The former I kill and release back to the reef, the latter I release unharmed.

While it’s always fun to feel the bites and bring up fish, unhooking unwanted fish is just time away from catching the desirable fish like uku, yellow spot papio and kagami papio.

This report comprises of the last 2 trips. 1 trip back, a 1.5 lb uku got tail wrapped and hooked multiple times and by the time I unraveled it, it was in bad shape so I had to keep it. While I’ve been trying to get uku here for years, normally I wouldn’t keep one under 2lb.

Then some toau (invasive black tail snapper) started biting, and since their bones are easier to deal with than the small boned taape, I brought them home.

I went out to the 200ft area but could only get a kahala checking out the underwater camera.

On the way in, I checked the nabeta spot with a small piece of aku belly on the bottom damashi hook and something hit harder than a nabeta could and took some drag. I was stunned to see a 2.5lb uku come up, which is still on the small side but the biggest for this greater area that lacks large rocks and caves.

A fat 11 inch moana hit next and joined the catch. All in all, a productive day learning the bottom fish grounds. My neighbor fried the moana and toau fillets tempura-style and said they were amazing. The smaller uku was steamed, and the bigger one was given to a friend who said the sashimi was firm enough and very good despite only being 2.5lb.

CHL Minnows added to store-bought damashi set

The winds dropped again this week and I set out to bottom fish the damashi armed with the 1.5 inch CHL Minnows (the ones with the split fish tail) and some leftover Japanese wormy lures. Since even my 20lb rigs were broken off on the previous trip, I had rigs tied all the way up to 40lb test.

Look at the bait school on the fish finder!

The opelu showed up on the fish finder and bit in the shallows. I filled the bait tube, requiring me to drag the tube around. Although the wind was down there was a strong current running South to North that kept pushing me away from my spots.

I put out a live opelu and landed and released a big kawalea (Heller’s Barracuda). Good eating but like all barracuda, its slime is really stink.

The next opelu was neatly sliced in half but there were small teeth marks also, meaning it probably wasn’t an ono. The following opelu just had small bites taken out so I gave up live baiting and focused on the damashi fishing.

The afternoon bite really turned on, and omilus and bigger jacks kept jumping on the hooks. I released 3 omilu and each of my rigs from 15lb to 40lb eventually get their branch lines cut or light gold hooks broken off by heavy, strong fish. Those brutes didn’t fall for a jig, interestingly enough.

I was feeling a little desperate with nothing but opelu in my fish bag and then I stumbled upon a very small area where a 1.5lb yellow spot came up, followed by a 2lb uku and then a light colored goat fish that turned out to be a large 12 inch malu (side spotted goatfish). Whew, finally got some great eating fish to take home.

It was a lot of work to get these small good eating fish, with so much bycatch (taape, hagi, small moana, lizardfish, etc). I gave the big opelu to a friend at the beach who plans to make lomi opelu out of them, and kept a small one to freeze for bait.

The malu had crabs and some red & white shrimp in its stomach a little bigger than my CHL Minnows, and the yellow spot papio had translucent baby fish just a bit bigger than the minnows. No wonder the small damashi lures were so effective. Maybe really big fish were eating the same small food? I’ll be taking 40lb damashi with longer shanked Gamakatsu hooks next time and hope to see what’s been busting me off!

Here’s a comparison of the yellow spot papio and uku, prepared as sashimi and steamed.

Here’s a comparison of the malu and moana, prepared steamed.

Dropped the CanFish CamX camera down and was amazed at the diversity of life

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I drove to the Windward spot as early as I hoped to, but a rain squall delayed my launch, and the onshore chop slowed me from getting to the grounds nearly 3 miles out. But the brown boobies greeted me as they always do and made a tight circle. When they do that, I find usually bait in the circle and sure enough an opelu bit on the first drop even though it was close to 9am. Scattered, feeding opelu appeared on the fish finder.

For the next hour opelu bit along with lai, small opakapaka and lizard fish if I dropped too deep. I stuffed 8 opelu in my bait tube, a record for me I think. I weighed one down with a sliding tungsten weight and took it deeper and then onto the shallow ledge but it only got pulled off by a small aha, I’m guessing. I put another opelu on and the same thing happened. Nothing was big enough to swallow the opelu and get properly hooked by one of the 2 hooks.

So I went back out to the bait spot and the bait marks were gone. The only thing that came up were lizardfish. The afternoon solunar bite was supposed to be starting but the fish weren’t cooperating. Since the fish finder wasn’t helping, I attached a 20lb leader 2-hook damashi rig to the CanFish CamX underwater camera, attached that to my heavy jig rod, and dropped it over what looked like small patches of structure. Occasionally I’d hook a small opakakpaka or lizardfish, but the action was really slow.

After dropping a bunch of times on what I hoped were areas of small structure, I went to the sandy area where nabeta have bit in the past and dropped the camera down with some opelu meat. I felt tugs through the stiff rod but the fish were just pulling off the bait. I was really hoping the culprits were caught on camera.

When I got home and looked at what was recorded, I was astounded at how many species were on that small structure I initially dropped on. There were small patches of rubble holding some type of short seaweed. And those spots were packed with fish.

The sandy area I had my bait yanked off did indeed have nabeta. This video captures one coming out from under the sand to grab at the bait. And I didn’t bring up any nabeta so maybe they are always there but I often can’t hook them?

The CanFish CamX may prove invaluable for aiding us in determining if fish are around, even when we aren’t getting bites. My friend Shea on the Big Island has used the discontinued GoFish cam attached to his live bait trolling rig to see how many ono have sniffed his bait and turned away.

If you’re interested in purchasing a CanFish CamX, lemme know. I’ll be putting together an order for friends. Please contact me through the Contact page.