Grant Taura previously shared how he catches akule in the pre-dawn morning off his kayak. Check that out here if you missed it. He’s back to share his best offshore catch to date. Takeaway: Good luck doesn’t just happen on the kayak. You gotta get out early, put in the time and cover a lot of ground!
Grant:
We decided on a 4am launch. Our normal routine is to catch Akule as a backup bait just in case we aren’t able to pick up Opelu at sunrise. Shortly after launching, while powering up my navigation lights and fish finder, I soon realized that my fishing chart was working but my depth chart (sonar) had no signal. It didn’t take long for me to find that the cable connection at the fish finder had failed and could not be repaired at the moment. Being that the depth chart is a vital tool and critical in locating and catching bait, I was tempted to turn around and call it a day. Then I remembered the last time I had issues with my fish finder, I brought in a Shibi and a Kawakawa, the first time I landed two Pelagics in a day. Fishing, like any sport, is all about mindset, perseverance overcoming obstacles in order to be as successful as possible with the situation and circumstances in hand. So, I decided to utilize what I have learned up until this point and go for it. I asked my partner, Roger Tabugadir, to call out the “marks.” That’s what we call when we see potential Akule or Opelu on the fish finder. Good partners can also be huge in your success and this day proved that. Roger called out marks perfectly. I mark my line in my reel in 50ft increments with different color line, so when he called a depth, I dropped my line to that depth according to the color of my line. He was consistently on point with both the Akule and the Opelu. We were both able to pick up enough Akule for friends and family and also enough Opelu to last the day. It actually ended up being way more than what we needed.
We then headed to deeper water. My target was the Uku and any Pelagic that would take the bait. Roger on the other hand, targeted his favorite Nabeta and Pelagics. By using my fishing chart, I was able to kind of determine my depth. Although it wasn’t accurate and I wasn’t able to locate any marks because of my depth chart not working, I was able to still fish the general area and depth by following the fishing chart. Another good tool that I had as a backup was the Navionics app on my phone. I had forgotten about it. Paul Miguel Braga (You Tube Channel: Shallow Water Shibi), who had a later start than our 4 am launch, had suggested I use the app which also shows you your location and fishing charts. Soon after, I hooked up on my poor man’s downrigger. As I was fighting the fish I was trying to determine and identify what I had hooked up to. I could tell it was some kind of Jack or my targeted species Uku, by the head shakes. After reaching my leader and about 20 feet of remaining leader I was able to see that it was my first Uku of the day at 13lbs. Landing an Uku never gets old. I let out “Cheee” bled, took a pic, bagged and iced. I’ve been blessed to have met some awesome fishermen like Devan Inouye ( YouTube Channel: Where’s D-AHI? ) who shared some tips for targeting Uku. I learned that the best way is to gather information from different fishermen who are willing to share tips and find ones that work for you. There are a lot of different ways that will work.
After setting up and dropping the next bait, I cleaned off the deck using my manual bilge pump and had a protein bar.
Time went by, my guess would be another hour and a half, before I took a strike on my Penn 8500 Live Liner reel. After counting thousand one, thousand two….to thousand five, I flipped the live liner to set the hook. I was on, and I could tell it was a tuna by the tail beats and just as I was starting to fight the fish my line had tangled around the bail and at that moment my line had slacked and I could no longer feel the fish and I yelled Ah! as I thought I had lost it. I now focused on untangling my line off of my bail, taking my time to not make it worse. After untangling, I was reeling and taking up slack and my line felt a little heavy like something was still on. I took up the slack and I guess the fish finally realized that it was hooked and took off. It was about a 10min fight until I heard that I had reached my leader, that sound you hear when you go from braid to fluoro.
When it hit about the 20 ft mark, I could see it was tuna but wasn’t able to identify ‘til it got closer. It was a 21 lb Shibi. I removed my drive to prevent the line wrapping around it. Took out my Kage and missed on the first attempt and got um on the second. Did the “cheee”, bled out, bagged and iced. In the meantime, Roger had drifted North and out of my radio range. I didn’t hear all the action that he was having on his side. Paul was in between and was in radio range and heard the action. Unfortunately, Roger’s previous Nabeta spots didn’t produce any Nabeta this day. But he managed to land a nice size Aku. It was time to head in. In one last attempt, we let out one bait and slowly made our way in. I was about to bring my line in because we were in the 50ft depth when I took a strike. With the same feeling I had on my first Uku, I could feel the head shakes. This one took a little under 5 minutes to land. It was an Uku around 8-10 lbs. After putting on ice we headed in and called it the day.
A very insightful and entertaining read!
Maybe your luck is best without a fishfinder! ?
So true! Two of my best days came when I had fish finder issues and one time fish finder and radio battery was dead.