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Season and habitat change

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Continuing my survey of spots in the area, I fished a spot I hadn’t visited since June.  The tide was higher than ideal so I could only walk halfway out to the break. It felt like I was walking on piles of rocks and I could feel the sharp points through my tabis.  Only when I returned to shore did I realize the sand had eroded drastically.

The shoreline was covered with the kind of limu that grows in areas of fresh water influx, and what was once a murky area was crystal clear.  The bait fish schools were absent and so were the larger predators.  I saw a kaku follow my bait, and a few 3 inch omilus were bravely trying to pull off the oama, but nothing was hooked.

Looks like winter has arrived at that spot, and the lack of the silty sand removed the environment predators hid in.

Papio still around in mid-November

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I wanted to determine the spots that still held inshore papio this late in the season so I checked another spot I hadn’t fished all year.  The spot was an area I had trolled oama in the past but was never really good near shore.

I wasn’t expecting much so I was really surprised when I hooked a 12″ (fork length) omilu on the second cast, just a few yards from shore.  The omilu looked like it had been eating well over the course of the summer.

 

 

After this surprise fish I didn’t hook anything else as I worked my way down the shoreline.  I worked my way back and caught a slightly longer omilu about 5 yds from where the first was caught.  This one was considerably fatter too so there must be a reliable food source nearby.

I decided to save my remaining frozen oama for a survey of another spot and called it a day.  It was great to know papio were still catchable so late in the season, so close to shore.

Papio season continues… in other locations

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My regular wading and board fishing spots haven’t produced in the last 3 weeks despite the Hawaii Fishing News calendar forecast saying that omilu are supposed to be inshore through November.  Out of desperation, I fished an area I haven’t fished in almost two years just to see if there might be some hold over papio.

The water was clear on the rising tide and I could see tangs and humuhumus flitting around at the dropoff, and small ahas and trumpetfish were following my dead oama back to shore.  I was encouraged by all the life I was seeing, but had to unhook many a slimy trumpetfish before the better fish showed.  Sub-legal omilus pulled off the oamas, and moana nipped at the baits but didn’t get hooked. Then I landed a few just legal omilus and let them go.

Finally, I hooked an omilu I knew was easily legal.  It went 12.5″ from head to fork and I bagged it.  From then on, 10.5″ omilu kept taking the baits so I kept a couple to pan fry.  The “recruitment” class of omilu the last two years was so large that there are a lot of omilu 12 inches and smaller competing for a not-so-good recruitment class of juvenile reef fish.  Harvesting some legal omilu will help reduce the predator burden on the bait supply.

I’ve been hearing report of papio being landed around the island despite what I had thought was the end of the papio season.  Looks like it just ended in the area I was frequenting.

Papio season may have ended…

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The water cleared after last week’s murky conditions so I waded out to the same area that had been slow.  I was really hoping the papio bite would continue full bore, but alas, I started with mystery fish pulling my dead oamas off the hooks.  Then some oama came back with their back half sliced clean off.  Next, hooks were bitten off.  I’m guessing small reef fish and small papio were the bait pullers and kaku were slicing the baits and biting off the hooks.

After an hour of bait mangling and no fish to show for it, I cast from the reef edge of a deep sand channel leading to the open ocean.   The sun was getting lower and large and medium kaku were competing for my dead oama in the light blue water.  Miraculously I had some on without getting cut off, but they spit the hook.  Then I hooked a medium sized kaku at the tip of his upper jaw such that he couldn’t bite the line.  It was pretty tricky to grab the hook with long pliers and shake him off without getting nipped in the process.  Tired of the kaku frenzy I positioned myself to cast to the right side of the channel.

I put on a beautifully preserved, large oama that still looked alive.  It cast well because of its weight, and was hit solidly. The back half of the oama was raggedly torn off by something that didn’t have precision cutting teeth.  Left with first 3 inches of the oama, and the sun setting, I threw the severed bait out again wondering what would want a fish head.  Something slammed it, pulled against the stiff drag and jumped in the distance.  I figured it was a kaku angry it didn’t get away cleanly with the tailless oama.

But the fish continued to pull drag and after it turned and swam up the reef shelf into waist deep water, it jumped again. Awa awa! I had never hooked one in this location and had no idea they came in here.  It shot away after seeing me, but instead of going out into the deep channel it ran parallel to the beach and took at least 100 yds of line, taking me well into my braid backing.  I felt confident it would tire out eventually but then I felt the rubbing of the line against a reef papa and sure enough the line got stuck.  When I pulled, the line came back with no fish.  At least 20 yds were shredded and stretched.  Shucks, my dad would’ve really enjoyed the awa awa fish cake.

I had gone through 12 fresh dead oama and only landed a kaku.  Sheesh. I put on a frozen oama and it got pulled off.  By then the sun had set behind the mountains and I headed back in while there was still ambient light.

I guess this means the papio season is officially over.  The reef fish, small papio and kaku will still be around to pester the baits but it sure looks like the big omilus won’t be hunting inside until next season.  I would settle for a hard fighting awa awa until the papio return, though.

White papio caught whipping dead oama

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The wind was much lighter than yesterday so I tried the spot I waded out and whipped last week.  The waves were small enough where I could sit just inside of the white wash, or in a small channel and cast into the surf.  It took a bit of paddling around to find the biters, but once I found them, there were others nearby.

The first papio was a skinny, just legal omilu which I released.  The next was a white papio of about the same length but thicker and more muscular. Unlike the omilu, it kept fighting even when I had it board side.  The next papio was about 10.5″, head to fork and I considered keeping it but as I readied my fish bag it came off the hook. Oh well, I was just thinking of taking it since the fish seemed to all be the same size.

I cast out a rock hard, frozen oama and the fourth papio took it head first.  It was just legal but hooked deep and I didn’t risk killing it by yanking out the hook with pliers so I cut the line off in front of the hook.  Hopefully the hook rusts out or falls out soon.

With so many barely legal fish, I paddled around looking for a deeper spot to safely fish.  I dug around for a larger oama that still had its colors, and tossed it out. Bam, a much stronger fish hit.  The white papio kept fighting even when I had it next to the board.  Omilu seem to pull faster and whites pull more doggedly.  I happily bagged it.

With a nice white in the bag I went exploring and fished some unproductive water.  Then I discovered an area next to the impact zone where the swell rolled through without breaking. I situated myself near the edge of the impact zone and cast another frozen oamasickle.  Hookup, and the fish pulled me towards the waves. Yikes! I put the rod in the rod holder and paddled towards calm water hoping the fish wouldn’t rock me.  When I reached calm water, I sat up and started cranking.  The white, which was initially taking drag, wasn’t nearly as large as I thought.  Man these whites can pull hard.

Pretty good action for a spot I’ve never board fished before.  I headed in to keep the papios in good condition.  Didn’t lose any rigs this time  unlike the snaggapalooza yesterday.

Interesting that, although the larger fish below is just an inch longer than the smaller one, its body is deeper and more angular to make room for its sex organs.  It fought considerably harder also.

Challenging weather conditions, fish still bit

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Dean and I board fished this morning since the wind was supposed to be less than 15 mph.  Contrary to that forecast there were gusts over 20 mph which made it hard for Dean to stand up and paddle.  The wind had less effect on me since I paddle lying down on my longboard, but I was still affected by the chaotic swell.

Dean trolled a dead oama behind a floater the way I used to, and I sat on my board as close to the waves as possible and cast into the surf.  I got more strikes than he did but also got stuck a lot more since my prototype oama whipping rig sinks.  I suspected fish were hitting the oama and pulling it into the rocks since I would pull some snags out and everything came back except for the oama.  When I pulled an eel out of the rocks my suspicions were confirmed.

Dean caught the first fish, a non-legal omilu, and then we both started getting hits, misses and cut lines.  Seemed like other reef fish were pulling off the oamas, and kaku were cutting us off.  I finally stuck a good fish and it ran in a funny way which made me think it was a big stickfish or cornetfish.  I was relieved to see the color of a beautiful 2lb omilu. I finally made use of my gaff by lifting the omilu out of the water by putting the gaff hook through its mouth and out its gill.

The wind picked up and it was hard to effectively fish the surge zone.  My next papio ran through the rocks and popped my line.  Dean was getting occasional hits but having a harder time paddling upwind from his knees.  It was time to head in.

I had quickly gone through 4 whipping rigs and 15 dead oama.

It was more fun to feel the strikes of the fish while whipping the oama but I definitely lost more tackle than I do when I troll with a floater. I’ll have to work on the prototype whipping rig some more.

 

Waxwing Baby works right out of the box

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Charles contacted me to let me know that he purchased a black and chrome Waxwing Baby from Charley’s Fishing Supply when he found out they were in, drove straight to his Westside sandy beach spot, and threw the lure in the wind and waves for half an hour.  Bam, he felt a solid strike and the fish went air borne trying to throw the lure.  After a very exciting fight he subdued the awa awa.

Here’s his son verifying the length of 27″ before Charles’ wife made oishii Japanese fishcake dumplings with it.  I’d say Charles got his money’s worth with that Waxwing.

Whipping dead oama got even better!

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Well, I guess I didn’t discover a whole new way to present an oama to hungry predators. It appears that others have been whipping oama, live and dead, for ages.  What’s cool though is that I’m now able to cast a dead one much further than I would try with a live one, and can reach the spots the predators are prowling. On days like today where the wind is gusting higher than 20 mph, it’s a nice option to be able to heave an oama with the wind and not worry about getting blown around on a surfboard.

Dean and I waded out on the 0.3 ft low tide today but because it wasn’t lower we had to stop 50 yds from the surf line.  Our initial casts of fresh dead and frozen oama were hit by small omilus but as I ventured further out and braved the occasional dunking, the hits got bigger.  I dropped a fresh dead oama into a deep sand pocket and something hit heavily then chewed through the line.  Arrgh, had to re-tie line as the waves smacked into me.  The next cast yielded an omilu half and inch short of legal.  Loading up with a frozen oama, I walked further out into the wind and wave maelstrom and lobbed into the tail end of the white wash.  As I picked up the retrieve, something tugged then ran between the coral heads against the almost locked down drag.  My 7′ 11″ medium action G Loomis swimbait rod arched nicely, keeping the tension on the fish with power to spare.  The fish pulled drag and ran back and forth through the canyons of the boulders but never got more than 50 yds away.  I was more afraid of getting cut off than by getting spooled.  After a few mins I could see that beautiful iridescent flash of blue and brought the lit up omilu close.  It was too pooped to resist me grabbing its tail as I walked it back to Dean.

I was stoked holding the biggest omilu I have caught in years, maybe ever, but Dean wasn’t too impressed since he catches larger ones dunking.  I fumbled around trying to hold my rod under my arm, open my sling bag to take out my catch bag, and not lose the fish that I let swim around at my feet.  I never really expect to catch fish when I’m not on my board, so I’m always ill prepared to bag them.  The fins and scutes sliced my hands up pretty good but I guess I’m willing to put up with a little pain to land such a beautiful fish.

Dean and I walked back out to the deeper spot that now had bigger waves coming through.  As I was hunting around for another frozen oama, Dean hooked a screamer on his 6.5 ft light action spinning rod. His rod keeled over and bounced up and down as he cupped the reel to slow the fish down.  The fish was diagonally heading out to sea, unlike mine that did figure 8s around the boulders.  The fish was still running but Dean could feel the line rubbing on the rocks and eventually the line stuck.  Dean slacked off the line and tried to coax the fish into swimming back in but it didn’t fall for his tactics.  2/3 of his line was gone and when he tried to wade out to loosen the snag, it became apparent that the snag was in water too deep to reach.  Sadly Dean popped the line and retied.

We started casting our frozen oama again but nothing bit. It was as if Dean’s fish was the bull of the reef and scared the lesser fish into fleeing.  We headed in with our last baits on. Mine got hit by a large aha that I had snagged in the side and it grey hounded at a much higher speed than papio run but eventually tired out.

Based on the fight of his fish, Dean estimated it was about 5 lbs.  When he saw mine on land, he estimated 3.8 lbs.  Turns out it weighed between 3.8 – 4.2 lb on my inaccurate scales at home.  The man knows his fish sizes.  I’ll go with 4lbs!

I’m still perfecting my oama whipping rig but like what I’m seeing so far. I can cast a dead oama as far as any lure and the hookup ratio is really good.  I was snagging the reef early on today but made some changes to minimize that.  Hopefully I’ll have a few more test runs before the season ends.

 

 

love the small but powerful Calcutta 200TE

love the small but powerful Calcutta 200TE

Note: Per request here’s the omilu next to a tape measure.

Whipping dead oama works, who knew?!

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I had a few fresh, dead oama that I wanted to use instead of freezing them for later.  My last board fishing outing was outstanding but it was much too windy for that today.  Hmm… since trolling fresh, dead oama worked, what if I could somehow cast them out and retrieve them?  Stands to reason that the papio would whack ’em right?

I had never done this before and don’t know of anyone who regularly whips oama since dunking live oama is so effective.  Somehow I had to be able to cast the oama far enough in the wind to reach the areas holding fish.  I decided to use my trusty level wind Calcutta 200TE bait caster that had been sitting idle during the Waxing and trolling expeditions.  I waded out on the low tide but had issues with the Jim Rizutto sliding double hook setup slipping and causing the oama to bend.  I ended up having to hook both hooks in the oama’s head and hope that something would hit head first.  The bait caster, doing what it was meant to do, cast bait, worked marvelously.

Using the wind, I was able to reach the surf zone, and hooked a 10″ white papio on the first cast!  I let it go, and put on another fresh, dead oama.  That one got hammered by a 11″ white.  I missed some hits and ended up with mangled oama but the next 2 oama got hit also.  Then I hooked a fish that pulled drag and brought in a 13.5″ (head to tail) white that went into my fish bag.  I couldn’t believe the action I was getting on the dead oama so I moved spots slightly and the bite slowed dramatically.  Eventually my remaining baits were hit by 8″ – 10″ whites and omilus.  I put on a blue sardine Waxwing to see if I could fool the papio so attuned to oama and came up empty.

Who would’ve thunk that whipping dead oama would be more effective than trolling them inshore?  It’s a really strange season due to the early, extra hot water and humidity shutting down the bite, followed by strong trades and cooler water causing the papio to make up for lost time.  I don’t think whipping dead oama would’ve been as effective last year when the papio could get their fill of free swimming oama.

I’m still refining my dead oama whipping setup to increase casting distance and hookup ratio.  Stay tuned for more oama whipping catch reports.

P.S.  Look what was in the white papio’s stomach! A slightly digested tang and a completely intact baby mantis shrimp.  The white was stuffed and still went after the dead oama.

Waxwing Baby lures now at Charley’s Fishing Supply

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Charley’s Fishing Supply in Kakaako now has the smallest size Waxwing, called the “Baby”.

They have the 2.68″, 1/2oz lures in the Black/Chrome, Blue Sardine and Ghost Blue Shad colors.  I’ve had success with all three colors in the shallows around bait schools and the Blue Sardine worked well at the surf break. I hadn’t tried the other two colors at the surf break yet.

I like throwing the Black/Chrome Baby from shore partly because it works so well and partly because the silver paint shows the teeth marks of the fish I miss.  I just had a couple mins to cast on the way back from looking for oama yesterday and had two stops (lure felt like it hit a snag but nothing was snagged) and then a big kaku boiled on the Black/Chrome Baby before coming unhooked. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to hook it well.

When you get your Waxwings from Charley’s tell them you heard about them from this blog!  They brought that small size in per Lawai’a magazine and my request.  Great guys there…

Red hot 2 hr fishing window

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new best day ever!

new best day ever!

Today was supposed to be the light wind day of the week so I took 6 live oama and 4 fresh dead ones out for a surfboard troll.  I planned to fish a different stretch of the beach by paddling into the wind and letting the wind bring me back to the launch point.

I started with a recently deceased, medium-sized captive oama so I wouldn’t waste a livey on the way out to the surfline.  Nothing bit it after reaching the break and trolling parallel to it for 10 mins, so I was about to put on a livey on instead.  All of a sudden my ratchet screamed and the rod bent over.  I hadn’t heard my ratchet scream all year so I was initially spooked!  It was actually hard to pull the rod out of the holder; man I missed those screamers.  The fish pulled drag in a straight line, then let itself be worked in halfway, then took off again.  While I was loving the fight, I strongly suspected it was an oio that decided it needed to add oama to its diet, and I really wanted a nice sized papio instead.  The fish started shaking its head, which gave me hope, then pulled line straight out again.  After a hard fight against a tight drag, the largest omilu I caught in 2 yrs flashed on its side. It was hooked on the front hook and somehow had broken off the hook that was in the oama’s tail.  I was stoked and I had only been fishing 20 minutes.  I contemplated heading back in but I didn’t want to waste the live oama.

I put a live one on and something pulled it off without sounding the ratchet.  I wonder what could have done that?  I put on another livey and this one got eaten by a 10 inch C&R omilu.  The next livey hooked a 15 inch (head to tail) omilu that pulled drag nicely and was added to the catch bag.  2 good sized omilu make a decent catch so again I contemplated paddling in but I still had 3 live oama and 3 dead ones.

The next 3 live oama were mangled and crushed but I couldn’t hook the culprit despite the two hook setup.  I put a dead oama on and saw the floater go under.  When I retrieved the line all I got back was the oama’s head.  I put the second to the last dead oama on and let the wind blow me back to the launch site.  The ratchet went off but the fight felt a little weird.  There was a lot of resistance but the fish wasn’t pulling a lot of line.  When it got close, I realized why. Somehow a 14″ omilu was hooked on the front hook and a 10″ omilu was hooked on the rear hook! And another omilu was swimming with them, trying to join the party.  Crazy.  I shook the 10″ omilu off and kept the 14″ (head to tail) omilu.  That was more than enough fish for one day, so I dumped the last dead oama and went in.

Darin's oio

Darin’s oio

Darin, whom I had met before, was dunking ika from the beach.   He said a lot of undersized papio had been hitting his baits in the last hr, with one legal omilu in the mix.  I wished him luck and ran into a guy who had been hooking legal white papio on his Crystal Minnow from shore.  His C&R lure action was in the last 30 minutes.  While we were taking he noticed that Darin was on a nice fish.  What the heck was going on? Were all the planets in alignment or something?  We went over to watch Darin’s fish make numerous strong runs before being subdued.  The oio went 21″ and 4lbs and Darin packed up his gear to get the fish home in good shape for fish cake.

There wasn’t a particularly good solunar activity period today but something made the fish feed aggressively at the break and at the shoreline. I suspect the fish are trying to make up for all that lost time spent hunkering down during the stormy, humid weather.  The trade winds have cooled the water nicely and it looks like the papio season isn’t over yet.

The larger omilu I caught went about 19″ (head to tail) and made 3 lbs on my not too accurate hand scale.  Not that big as omilus go but bigger than any omilu I’ve caught last year and this year.  With so many papio competing for not much bait this season, I suspect larger than normal papio are coming onto the reef to find food.

 

Rain and hot inshore water put a damper on the fishing

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Is it just me or has the El Nino inspired hot, rainy weather shut down your fishing also?  With the ocean temps already a few degrees hotter than normal, and air temps hitting record highs, the inshore water has been jacuzzi hot by mid morning.

Well, I didn’t measure the temp so that may be an exaggeration.  But I finally trolled some oama on my surfboard last week and felt exhausted by the hot air and water.  Other surfers were hogging the shower just to cool off.  The larger predators avoided the over heated inner reef, and the 8 inch omilus that did bite the oamas were too weak to pull drag.

The rain runoff has caused an explosion of fine, hairy limu to pile up near shore also, making it impossible to retrieve the Waxwing without fouling that stuff.

Not sure how this extra hot summer/fall has affected your fishing but so far it’s been kind of a dud for me.

Lazy fish on a hot & sticky day

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Tropical Storm Guillermo passed to the north of us but made for a hot, sticky, drizzly morning.  The wind was relatively light  so I took the board out to the break where I hooked the oio on the Waxwing Boy last week.  Using the same lure, I hoped lightning would strike twice. Instead I didn’t have a follow or bite for 75 mins.  I eventually reached a deep channel and cast the Waxwing across to the west edge.  A 1 lb white papio hit the lure and flipped on the surface but didn’t hook up.  I was stunned after going so long without a hint of life, and watched as it hit two more times. Somehow it missed the rear double hook, focusing on the underneath belly of the lure.

Zoom in to the photos to see what it did to the previously unmarked lure.  It was smart enough not to try again and I couldn’t get anything else to hit the Boy.

Disheartened, I switched to the smaller Waxwing Baby and fished another hour and missed two weak strikes.  Meanwhile friends waded out a mile up the coast and caught a few papio on cut bait.  They said the bite was slow but fairly steady.

I blame the lethargic Waxwing bite on the drop in barometric pressure.  Just like we feel lazy when the weather turns unbearable warm and humid, so do the fish.  A still bait can coax the lazy predators into slowly feeding but they don’t have the energy to chase an aggressive lure.

Off day or were the fish lackadaisical?

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Fished with Kris at two of our on shore Waxwing testing grounds. The tide was at a good height and we could see a lot of bait in the water at the first sandy/muddy beach we fished.  Kris caught 3 small white papio on the Waxwing Baby and 5 on the bubble and grub. I couldn’t buy a solid bite.  The most action I got were some follows and weak bumps on my Waxwing Baby.  When your fishing partner is having an outstanding day and you can’t even hook a single fish, it messes with your confidence!  I asked Kris how he was retrieving and he said he was retrieving slower because the water was so murky.  Even with that valuable info I couldn’t adjust my retrieve to entice the fish.

We moved on to another sandy/muddy beach that could handle a higher tide and the water level looked perfect as well.  With a slightly slower speed I got some boils and hooked a very small kaku.  Man did it feel good to land that fish.  I think Kris purposely introduced wind knots in his spinning reel to give me time to catch a few fish and get my confidence back.  I had a few more boils and chases, and hooked another kaku but overall the action was slow.

Was it just an off day for me? I’m now thinking that the fish were lackadaisical due to the large moon messing with their feeding pattern.  White papio and kaku can easily locate prey under a bright moon, so maybe they were just full?  Kris’ slower retrieve and use of a small curl tail grub provided an easier meal for the fish.  I hadn’t fished the first testing ground with my high speed Curado 300EJ before, and I probably didn’t slow down enough to present the Waxwing properly.

The conditions and result made for a very valuable fishing log entry.

Oio on a Waxwing, are you serious?

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If you weren’t a believer before, this may convince you.  I fished a Blue Sardine Boy Waxwing at the surf break in hopes of catching something worthy of the Waxwing Lure Review I’m writing for Lawai’a magazine.  Prior to this I was using the smaller Baby size.  The Boy is 3.5″ long and weighs 7/8 oz. With a tail wind, it casts really far; with a side wind it curves more than the Baby because of its larger profile.

It’s the perfect lure for me to throw seated on my board at water level.  I only need a few inches of line past the tip of my rod to cast, and the lure swims so well because my rod tip is so close to the water.

I'm wearing size 9 tabis

For reference, I’m wearing size 9 surf booties

I didn’t get a bump for 20 mins and was wondering if it was too large a lure to use.  In comparison, the Boy is 2.7″.  Then I got a hard strike and a strong run.  I fish my drag really tight to set the swinging, upward facing hook, and the fish pulled line in hard spurts.  It swung me around, toward shore, instead of into the waves and took all my fluorocarbon top shot.  Not sure how much line that is though, maybe 70 yds? I was convinced it was the biggest papio I hooked on my surfboard and when I finally had the fish at color I saw a long thick shape and thought it was a kaku on steroids. It was a 5lb plus oio and was foul hooked behind its eyes.  Oio have very tough skin, luckily, and both hooks were embedded.  I took some pics and let the fish go.

An oio on a subsurface lure right in front of the white wash.  Oio normally feed on the bottom and are rarely hooked on fast moving subsurface lures.  I’m working with some Lawai’a supporting tackle shops to put a promotional Waxwing package together.  There were a few mods to the lure system I had to make to improve my catch ratio.   Stay tuned.

Waxwing shines again

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I went back to a shallow, rocky area with a sandy pond to look for oama.  A few weeks ago the oama weren’t in and I had some follows on my Waxwing Boy in the Chrome pattern, but no hookups.  Today there were mid-sized mullet and micro aholehole in the protection of the rocky shoreline, and the kaku and small white papio were nailing the Waxwing just 15 feet from shore.

caught on the Waxwing Boy size

caught on the Waxwing Boy size

I missed a couple larger kaku and landed a kaku and 3 small whites.  There were even some very small oama running back and forth in the pond

 

The bite shut down an hr before sundown, right before Kris arrived.   Just before dark Kris hooked a small moi on the sandy beach.  Such a drastic change from the slow action I experienced the last time I visited. The summer action is definitely heating up.

All the fish were released unharmed.

 

Red hot Waxwing action

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Went to check my favorite oama spot yet again, and there were none to be found.  Kris was throwing a small plastic curly tail and caught some small  omilus and chunky white papio.  I started throwing the Baby Waxwing on the Curado 300EJ with fluorocarbon and soon enough was picking out backlashes just like I had been with braid. I was backlashing with all the centrifugal brakes turned on!  How is that possible?

(Click here to see why I switched from braid to castable fluorocarbon. )

Out of desperation I set the spool tensioner so tight the lure couldn’t fall in free spool.  I cast and the spool spun under control with no backlash.  The spool shouldn’t have had to be tensioned so tightly, something must be wrong with the spool tension bearing.

Don't I look stunned?

Don’t I look stunned?

The sun was going down, it was time to leave and I didn’t even get a bump.  As we walked back on the sand, Kris threw a Crystal Minnow but the water was so shallow he kept snagging limu.  I carefully lobbed the Waxwing which swims a few inches below the surface and hooked and lost a kaku in 15 inches of water.  My drag was set too light because I was backlashing so much!

My next cast was boiled on so Kris started videoing with his iPhone.  Next cast, no backlash and another boil.  Usually the fish only follow or hit twice and then wise up.  During this pre-dark witching hour it seemed like a pack of hungry predators were looking for Waxwings to swim by.  On my next cast, something hit halfway in and ripped drag.  Turned out to be a 14 inch white papio (head to tail).

Here’s the video, sorry for the jumpiness.

It was a very impromptu shoot and I edited out the landmarks which shortened the length of the video.  When we pau fishing I checked my drag and I had locked it down after missing the first kaku.  No wonder the papio didn’t get too far.

 

very respectable kaku a few feet from shore

very respectable kaku a few feet from shore

Kris captured the cast, strike and fight on video and I wanted him to get in on the red hot action. He took off his Crystal Minnow, put on the same Black/Chrome Baby Waxwing and hooked an angry kaku on the next cast!  After releasing it, he got an even bigger boil that didn’t stay hooked.  The boils lasted until the sun began to set, then completely shut off.

The Waxwing really performs in shallow water conditions.  The red hot action with the large shallow water predators almost made me forget the backlash frustrations I’ve been having and I didn’t backlash once in the dark. I guess the spool tensioner was finally set tight enough.

Update 9/25/15: Charley’s Fishing Supply in Kakaako has the Waxwing Baby in Black/Chrome, Blue Sardine and Ghost Blue Shad.

Official Waxwing review will commence

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How cool is this? Lawai’a magazine  provided me with some Waxwings so I could write an in-depth review about them!

POP Fishing and Marine, at Pier 38, had the full complement of sizes and patterns.  I chose from the Baby size (2.68″, 1/2 oz) and the Boy size (3.5″, 7/8 oz).  The finish on these lures is amazing.  Even up close they look lifelike.

Update 9/25/15: Charley’s Fishing Supply in Kakaako has the Baby size also in the Black/Chrome, Blue Sardine and Ghost Blue Shad.

Been hearing that the bait fish are finally beginning to show, and the papio have been more aggressive lately.  Let the review begin!

 

P.S.  If you’ve been using Waxwings I’d love to hear how they’ve worked for you.

The Waxwing Braid experiment is over

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Shimano recommends tying the Waxwing lure straight to red Powerpro.  The lure swims best with the thin, supple line but braid is difficult to manage on a bait caster.  Braid cuts through the wet fingers that attempt to pack line tight on the spool, and wind knots seem inevitable on windy days.  I tried to fish the 0.5 oz Baby Waxwing in the wind again, and created hangman loops in my line.  When I did manage to cast the Waxwing out a ways, nothing bit.

I cut the lure off and asked Kris to try it on his light spinning rig with 20lb Powerpro.  He was able to cast in the wind, and after a few practice retrieves he caught a small white papio.  I wanted to get a feel for casting the light Waxwing on a spinner so I made a few awkward casts.  No wind knots but I didn’t quite like the wobble a spinner makes as the rotor rotates to pick up line.  It’ll definitely take some getting used to, to go from the straight retrieving bait casting reel to the rotating spinning reel.

Small papio or baracuda boiled on the Waxwing as I reeled it in, and the boils and hits continued as Kris resumed fishing the Waxwing.  Waxwings tied directly to light braid are definitely easier to manage on a spinner than a bait caster.   But, before I invest in a spinning rod & reel just to throw small Waxwings, I’ll try a top shot of castable fluorocarbon on the Curado 300EJ.  The fluorocarbon won’t cast as well as braid but it won’t cut my fingers or dig deep on itself and produce wind knots as easily.

My Waxwing System has a glitch

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Braided line is so thin and slippery that it digs deep into a loose packed bait casting reel’s spool if you pull hard on the line.  To pack the line tight either your lure has to provide enough resistance, or you need to provide tension with your thumb and forefinger when you retrieve. However, I found out yesterday that pinching the line with wet fingers leads to line cuts.

So today, I had Flexi-Wrap tape over my thumb and forefinger and couldn’t feel how tight I was pinching the line.  That lead to a loose spool, which lead to a backlash when I cast into the wind.  I pulled hard on the backlash and caused the line to bury itself deep down in the spool. Next cast ended about 20 ft in the air.

Every other cast ended in a backlash.  And I pulled harder on the line to free it, only to cause deeper line buries.  If I were smart I would have stripped off all the loose line and packed it back tightly. I wasn’t smart and eventually quit.

The Waxwing System’s red Powerpro is very unforgiving when things go wrong.  It casts and retrieves well under calm conditions but is prone to backlashes when mismanaged.  So far I had two windy, backlash days and one calm, backlash-free day with the Waxwing System. I have to figure out how to cast properly in the wind, or go back to fluorocarbon when it’s windy.