Goose egg but lessons learned kayak fishing the deep

My last 3 deep water kayak trips resulted in no fish landed, but each one is bringing me closer to success, I hope. Trip 1: Wind was light initially so I explored some new grounds further from my launch/landing spot; found some suspended bait schools and saw big fish marks under the schools but the wind came up and I had to paddle back to my normal grounds. By then the current was too hard to stay on the spot so I came in.

Trip 2: Fished with our new fishing partner Robert back on the grounds where he helped me catch my first ono. Here’s that ono write up if you missed it. He’s been patiently trying to teach me how to catch opelu, and we found the school suspended in 250ft of water but again I couldn’t hook any.

Catching opelu so far down is difficult because the school isn’t staying in one place and the kayak drifts with the wind and current. There are also sub-surface currents taking our rigs for a ride. The guys on Hobies can pedal themselves to stay over the school but on a paddle kayak, the best I can do is paddle up current, drop down and try to reach the school as I drift over it.

Robert caught about 9 big opelu and I thought I finally caught one but it came up yellow. I guess it’s easy to hit the taape school since they’re hovering over structure, not swimming back and forth like opelu.

Even heavy jigging in 300ft of water has proven to be more difficult than expected. Like opelu schools, the areas holding preds are a small target to hit. In the past, I’ve jigged off boats in shallower water and was able to get down with jigs that weighed 100gm (3.5 oz) or less. Turns out kayaks drift faster than boats and you need more weight to reach the bottom quickly.

Robert hooked an 8lb kahala on a 120gm jig in 270ft of water speed-jigging that he was able to target with his fish finder. I tried to do the same with an 80gm jig that took too long to get down, so I went up to a Shimano Flat Side 112gm jig and still didn’t connect. And I got tired speed jigging so deep!

When we trolled the live opelu Robert had caught, we got picked up and dropped by fish that hardly left a mark on the bait. A 23lb shibi (ahi under 100lb) was caught in that area, so we’re thinking our big opelu was getting hit by the shibi but not chewed long enough for the fish to find the hooks.

Trip 3: Winds were light so I was able to return to the new spot I discovered on Trip 1. Found what looked to be opelu in water 200ft deep, but after trying for a while, my damashi rig got mangled. Hooks ripped off and lead weight taken! I figured, if the fish wanna eat a piece of lead, they might wanna eat a jig.

I had brought heavier jigs with me this time, figuring they’d reach the bottom without “scoping out” too far. I started with the 100gm Daiwa Tungsten jig (top in photo) thinking it would look like a reef fish because of its small profile, and still fall quick enough. On the first drop it got picked up and what felt like a good size jack (ulua or kahala) ran with it for a few seconds before the hook pulled. That was the first real fish I had felt in 3 outings! I was stoked the jig worked and I was able to entice the fish with the slow pitch “lift, drop and crank” method.

I paddled back to the area I had hooked up and there were thick marks on the bottom. Dropped down again, cranked up a bit off the bottom, then slow pitched twice and got picked up. The fish pulled line easily and since it was near the bottom I had to really tighten my drag. I was using a Shimano Game Type J medium-heavy rod, not expecting to fight big kahala and ulua, and was over-matched. The rod’s soft, parabolic bend couldn’t put the brakes on the fish and the line parted less than 15 seconds into the fight. Pretty sure it was an ulua because the kahala I’ve hooked in the past run more steadily and not as angrily. This one felt like it was really trying to bust me off. Here’s what it looked like.

I couldn’t hook anything else with my other jigs and my damashi rig got destroyed again so I tried to salvage the trip by catching an uku. By now it was past noon and the tide had peaked. Not the best time to bottom fish. My first spot came up empty and I paddled against the current to a spot that has yielded uku and sharks in the past. Dropped down a 10 inch frozen opelu, held the rod and waited. Tap, tap, tap…tap, tap, tap…tap, tap, tap. When I checked the bait it was gone. I don’t think hage can pull the opelu off both hooks so I was hoping it was a bait stealing uku. Dropped another whole bait down and the taps started again. Then line pulled out for about 3 seconds, then stopped. Arrgh… an uku had grabbed the middle of the big bait and swum off and got away without feeling the hooks.

I tried dropping the front half of a big opelu down and got yanked but the bite didn’t set. So I put down the back half of the opelu. Thump, thump… and it felt like the fish ran into a cave. Then the cave moved slowly at first, than at a constant speed. I either hooked a submarine or a huge shark. I tightened the drag hoping to pull the hook out or bust off but the creature steadily pulled me from 115 ft deep to 170 ft. I was tired from paddling around for more than 5.5 hrs at this point so I did everything I could to break free, then made the bolo paddle of shame to shore.

I had bought a few of those Daiwa tungsten jigs on eBay in different weights when they fell out of favor a few yrs ago and people were selling them at half the retail price. I just checked and they are are now selling at way more than retail price. I guess someone figured out a small, dense jig falls fast and looks like a tasty morsel. I had fished the 80gm version at the Penguin Banks a couple of yrs ago and caught a big white papio on it. I guess GTs like its action?

Those 3 trips were a lot of time and effort spent to catch nothing but I did learn some new spots holding fish, reminded that slow pitching saves energy and attracts fish, and uku bite even during the slow times if you drop a bait right on them.

Hope I actually land a fish next time.