Frank and I finally had a kayak outing with light wind and small surf conditions that lasted all day. I started out by breaking off my transducer mount that hangs over the side, but Frank did a quick repair with zip ties and duct tape to restore my eyes beneath the kayak. Can’t beat a fishing partner that keeps you safe on land and water, and can quickly repair stuff you break in the field!
We trolled halalu out to the deep and our baits started getting mauled at the 70ft depth, but nothing stayed on the hooks. Then Frank landed a good sized wahanui (smalltooth jobfish), common on the Big Island but not so common on Oahu anymore. He has a knack for catching them; he caught one trolling at the exact same coordinates back in February.
More baits were stripped so we hit a deep area I had marked on the GPS. I kept bringing up just the head of my halalu bait after feeling slight taps, despite the trailing hook tucked in the tail section, so I dropped down to the bottom and brought the bait a third of the way up. This time I got some hard tugs and the bait was completely gone. I put on a whole, 8 inch frozen opelu out of desperation and lowered it to what I thought was more than half way down. Got a hard tug that pulled a bit of drag, and I waited a few seconds and got another tug and then line pulled off quickly. Finally something was solidly hooked! The fish made some smooth, straight runs away from me and I wasn’t sure what it was until I saw color. Uku, or blue green jobfish, as it’s known in other places!
Until I pulled this photo off the GoPro, I didn’t realize that my paddle, net and shirt sleeve match the uku’s shades of blue! I dispatched it with my bat, and squeezed it into my small 20 inch long fish bag that was stuffed with frozen bait and a frozen water bottle. Pressure was off, with each of us putting a good eating jobfish in our bags, and we resumed the job of catching more fish. See what I did there? 😉 Instead, we missed fish and I went through my frozen bait supply and drank my bottle of water. The uku sat in the bag for 3 hrs with just a block of Arctic Ice and wasn’t as chilled as the one I caught a week ago.
I cleaned it when I got home, and the guts smelled a little fishier than the last time too. It measured 19.5 inches, 1 inch shorter than last week’s and this one had male gonads like the previous one. Kelly advised me to filet it right away, wrap it in paper towels, and store in the coldest part of the fridge. My parents cooked one filet on day 2, and I changed the paper towels daily on the other filet. 3 days later it still smelled fresh despite my oversight in not cutting out the blood section under the skin and was made into seared uku poke and deemed “super ono” by Thad our JDM expert.
Great post! Wanted to get your opinion about the wahanui: I’ve caught a couple in the 3 lb range recently but have turned them loose because a co-worker said they were a high ciguatera risk. Am I being too conservative? I fish windward side out of K Bay. Thanks – Mike
Hi Michael,
We’ve been pondering the same thing about the reef predators we’ve been catching. Sounds like I should gather some actual published study data and do I quick summary post on Cig.
In short, all reef predators have been found to contain ciquatera. Roi appears to have a higher amount, but papio/ulua, kaku, wahanui and even uku have been implicated in the past. Cig builds up in your body cumulatively, It seems reasonable that larger fish have more cig than smaller fish, but the “experts” warn that some smaller fish may have a high level of cig.
Certain predator species travel all over (papio for example) so where they are caught may not be as much a factor as species like roi that may not travel as much.
As for your 3lb wahanui, they were probably not super high in cig but you gotta decide for yourself if it’s worth the risk. Same for a big papio or kaku or uku or…
Stay tuned for the cig post,
scott