Good day to whip the Windward side

Today’s South Shore forecast called for a head high WNW swell wrapping around, combined with Kona (South) winds and a constant drizzle.  Sounded like the perfect day to try the Windward side.  Sure enough, once I got past Kaneohe most of the rain cleared and the sun poked out a bit.  The waves were small and the Kona winds were light.  I was hoping for a spot with a patchy reef near shore, with parking safely off the busy Kamehameha Hwy.

It took half an hour of driving back and forth before I settled on a spot after Kahana Bay and before Hau’ula.  The tide was about 0.25 feet and rising which made it too deep to wade out.  The sandy shoreline with a few small reef spots looked good but only yielded the occasional 5 inch omilu, something I could get back on the South Shore.   It takes a lot of luck to stumble upon a spot and actually catch decent fish the first time out.  After 1.5 hrs and a bag of cut bait, I realized that I lucked out with the weather but not with the fish.

I got the last bag of cut bait out of the car.  I was too lazy to wash off and drive to another spot so I walked the shore line in the opposite direction I had previously fished.  This stretch had more wave action and the sand was more muddy and gravelly.  Turns out a stream dumped into the ocean there, so it was like fishing a river mouth.  In the muddiest section I got a strike that felt like a bigger omilu, and was surprised to land a 4 inch white papio.  I almost never catch white papio whipping so I thought this was a fluke but for the next 10 casts or so, I hooked or missed a white papio.  On the 11th cast I caught a small toau in the muddy, churny water.

The whites are thicker than omilus for their length and put up a more stubborn battle.  I kept hoping that a larger white was in with the small ones, but the biggest I landed was about 6 inches.  I was soon out of bait but had learned something new.  If you find a stretch of beach where the waves reach higher up the shore, exposing coarser sand and receding into muddy water, fish may be hunting prey in the churn.

All in all, a pretty fun catch and release day considering how unfishable the South Shore was.