Seems like the cold water slow down is a little late this year. In 2019 and 2020, February was really cold and slow and by late March the kayak and boat fishing had picked up a bit. This year, the recent weeks of heavy rain and strong winds have been giving the fish lock jaw. Even the Penguin Banks shallow bottom fish bite has been slow. Hopefully we’re near the end of the heavy rain and wind storms and the water begins to warm. The inshore fishing has been slow since the Fall and with no bait schools around, continues to be a tough nut to crack.
To gather more data, I went out to our regular big fish / big shark spot on the South Shore and nothing big was around except a lonely gray whale that kept giving me the tail. Live moana just had their guts eaten, probably by hage, and all the frozen opelu were pulled off by predators not big enough to take the hooks. I switched to fishing the shallower fish marks with cut bait and caught brown hage and some smallish weke nono, but even that bite was very slow.
The bait the hage were throwing up did keep some 14 inch lai around me, but even they were too smart to get hooked. Water temp was 74 degrees at the start and 76 mid day. Summer temps are 10 degrees hotter than that.
At least all this rain will be good for the plants and estuaries.
Yep, these cold fronts have put a real damper on the nearshore fishing but I think things will start to turn around soon. I’ve noticed overnight temps gradually moving up, and have even spotted bait (and have had reports of spotting bait) in a few “shallow places” you know. They were small suggesting they are this years’ brood, which would be pretty unsual.
Thanks for the bait fish report Jason! Are the bait oama? If so, that could mean we will have another “odd” bait fish year without the traditional big schools coming in late summer.
But you’re right, the warmer nights could mean that the cold winds are over and the water will warm. Crossing fingers!
-scott
Yes lol.. one spot is on-base, the other was near the easternmost flat on the other side of the island where you know i sometimes fish.
Brain said they couldn’t be, but my eyes insisted they were :~) Could be one-off deals. We do see some odd things out there sometimes.
You fly fishers make the best observers cuz you’re right there in the water and not disturbing the fish. I think we’re due for a composite fly rod and spin rod oio report! I’ll see if the others have time to contribute.
thanks,
scott
Sounds good!