It’s been 2 years since I caught a pelagic (migratory fish like tunas, mahi, ono, etc) and I had kinda given up on trying after so many recent attempts where my live opelu were just dog boned (grabbed in the center and eventually let go) by fish not big enough to swallow the 10 inch bait.

I’ve been perfectly happy using my 3-hook damashi (sabiki) rig and dropping jigs when the sabiki rig was broken off by big fish.

But in last week’s short window of light to moderate south wind on the Windward side, I went back to the area I had recently fished, hoping to get more kagami papio and uku. (Here’s the kagami post, and here’s the uku post from the last 2 trips). The tide was flat and the unusual south wind may have put the fish off their feed. Sonar marks weren’t very good and the big damashi strikes were absent. The only good species I caught was a small yellowspot papio that I considered keeping but was really too small to get much meat out of.

I checked some other spots on the slow return to shore and caught an opelu, by accident. I kept it alive in my footwell but it was beginning to weaken so I put it out with a sliding 2 oz tungsten weight to get it down near the bottom. Eventually an aha (needlefish) left pin pricks all over its body and it was near death as I pulled up to a usually productive opelu spot. I was gonna change out that dying opelu with one I had just caught, but figured the opelu would just get finished by another aha.

The opelu weren’t there and neither were the normally present bottom fish but suddenly my reel started screaming like I’ve only heard once before, when an ono hit on the South Shore. Ono had been caught in the last few days within a few miles, but this strong running fish dove deep and out, and took line in surges. Even though I had never caught a shibi (yellowfin tuna under 100lb), I strongly suspected it was one since friends have caught them there in the early hours in the past.

I had my drag set slightly looser than normal because I didn’t want to lose this fish. It pulled me in a semi circle near some structure and stayed down 50ft until I finally broke it’s spirit. After about a 7 min stressful fight, I could see yellow sickles and fins! Spearing it with my kage gaff was a blooper reel as I kept missing the kill shot and ended up inadvertently bleeding it by the throat.

It looked huge to me as I strained to get it on board. I (over) estimated 25lb, and it was a struggle to safely put it in the fish bag behind me, with so much slippery blood all over the place. I have to learn how to do that without sitting side saddle and putting my feet in the water!

The remaining opelu had died because the water in the footwell was thick with the shibi’s blood. Not expecting any more action, I put that out on the weighted rig and 2 minutes later it went off! This fish felt smaller than the first and I fought it with a higher drag setting. It turned out to be a kawakawa that was foul hooked on its belly!

Since it came up upside down, I just grabbed it by the tail and lifted it into my yak. More blood in the deck! The south wind had gone up over 15mph at this point and I didn’t want to risk flipping over as I tried to make room for this fish in the full fish bag, so I paddled in ’til the wind was calmer before bagging it.

I could not believe my good fortune. After trying for years to catch a shibi, which are known to only be fooled in low light and stealthy rigs, I caught one with a perforated opelu on a weight, then followed that up with a kawakawa hooked in the belly. One theory shared by a passing jet skier with live opelu, is that the water clarity was bad in areas these fish were normally caught, and they moved down to where I was, to be able to see the bait. These were the first fish to test the Phenix Black Diamond Rod and Avet MX Raptor combo, and the combo said “is that all ya got?”.

The 18lb 12oz shibi was easier to clean and fillet than the 13lb kawakawa, because the shibi was a little firmer and had more defined sections to quarter. It also had a lot less blood meat to remove. God is good!