Hadn’t been able to kayak fish for 5 weeks so when the wind forecast dropped I got my gear ready. Surf was too big on the south shore so I headed back to God’s Country, the Windward side of Oahu, land of plenny fish and nice people.
I wanted to catch some fish for some friends who had helped me out, and the most productive kind of fishing I was capable of was using the damashi for tasty critters. The wind was stronger than expected, at 12 to 15 mph, and the water was lumpy from the big south swell. It took a while to get out to the spot I found the last time, but the rudder mounted Bixpy jet motor pushed through the slop with ease.
I made a bunch of drops with two sizes of CHL Minnows, drifting around until I brought up a small nabeta. 1 in the bag! The second one came up soon after and then I drifted off the spot and couldn’t find them again. I went further out, made drops until I felt more resistance on the line than a nabeta could make. Juvenile opakapaka, or “paka pups” as we call ’em! Their swim bladder pops out on the ride up from the depths so even if I deflated the swim bladder I’m not sure they’re gonna survive. There’s no size limit for opakapaka but without a Commercial License I’m only allowed 5 “Deep 7” fish, so I bagged it and went deeper for hopefully larger paka.
A double of larger paka pups came up and one fell off the hook and floated away. I motored back to get it and it definitely couldn’t decompress and head back down on its own. I poked its swim bladder with a hook and left it in my footwell. It stayed alive but wasn’t too lively and its swim bladder was still distended.
Another double of paka pups came up so I went shallower to find the nabeta and to avoid catching more pups.
I felt a little wiggling on the line and up came a silver, slender fish? Opelu? Noooo… baby kaku! These guys were cute but still stink like the larger variety. Another came up on the next drop so I moved away from Kaku Kindergarten.
The wind has pushed me shallower and I started catching little boxy porcupine fish so I cranked the Bixpy up and headed past the Kaku Kindergarten. The first drop yielded a nabeta so I was on the spot! Then I got a double nabeta – woohoo! I’m now counting in my head whether I have enough of these deep water golden nuggets to share.
Then I felt a heavier fish fighting back and up came a blunt nosed deepwater lizard fish and a paka pup. Uh oh, I was past my limit and didn’t want to kill anymore of them so I headed in with 5 nabeta and limit of pups.
A really nice guy, camping and boating with his kids, helped me pull my kayak out of the water and gave me a brand new Hayabusa damashi (the expensive kind) when I told him I suck at catching opelu. The folks I meet on this side of the island still live life the old Hawaiian way. It feels like I’m being transported back in time when I’m out here.
The fish were small but my friends were able to get a taste of how good steamed opakapaka and fried nabeta can be. I’m hoping to get more pups when they’re bigger.
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