Our middle school Holoholo writer Matthew provided this catch report/safety tip/bait report to let us know we can still catch fish in January.
Matthew:
Heeia fishpond was having a fundraiser La Holoholo in January, So I signed up for it. When I got there and walked out, the first half of the pond was totally murky, with only 2 inch visibility. I was super worried, but when I got further out, the water turned clear (because of the water flow in the makahas).
I got there, with not a single bite for the first two hours, but then when the tide changed, I saw a big school of very small nehu. I put the smallest kastmaster I had, and casted outside of the pond. I got a few bumps, then looked and realized a school of Omilu was on the lure. I had a big one on, but it fell off immediately. As soon as the lure came off, a small one picked it up and I was on. It fought hard for just a little 11 incher, and I netted it after a short and feisty fight.
I kept casting it and landed a kaku on the inside of the pond, maybe around 15 inches. I then landed a kaku on the outside, around 13 inches, and tagged it. I started dunking in the inside. I then continued to whip on the outside, but got no more bites for around an hour. Then I got a blind omilu strike out of nowhere, but since I was not expecting it, I didn’t land it. I kept covering ground, and eventually got a 19 inch kaku on the outside that bent the only treble of the tiny hook I hooked it on. I changed the hooks then kept fishing.
I came back to see my dunking line all slack and leading towards the rocks. I knew it was an eel, so I locked down the drag completely and boosted it in. It was a ticked off “green head puhi”, and a fat one too, around 3.5 to 4 feet long and maybe 10 pounds. I got a pic of it, and cut the line. There was a large portion trailing out of the mouth, and I felt bad, so I reached closer to cut it. A VERY fatal mistake. The surprised eel lashed out and bit me two times. It hurt pretty bad, and I was mad so I kicked the eel very hard into the water, and then washed my hand off with saltwater. In case of an eel bite, their teeth do not inject toxin, but they have lots of bacteria on it. It is best to put pressure on the wound after washing it off and removing any teeth if they fall off. You should then put hydrogen peroxide on it and bandage it up. Keep putting ointment on it, and if it gets infected go see a doctor. The easiest way to prevent it is not to put your hands near an eel’s mouth, as this is a dumb injury. The day wasn’t worth it, but in total I tagged four more fish, bringing my total up to 53 total tagged fish. I hope to reach 80 by the end of 2019.
Bait Report
Most bait schools are gone, although there is one halalu school I still know of that’s hanging around. Early/late oama are coming in, and are very small. Wait a month or so, then they will be catching size. Small nehu are showing up everywhere and it may be a good idea to pull out the small kastmasters. The spring hatch of aholehole is happening, and a lot of those are around. Shoreline fishing is very slow with large lures, and I am catching all my fish on smaller lures now. On one trip, I got no bites at all on the big lures that killed it during the summer, but they jumped all over my small kastmaster. Yet another option again is to try smallie fishing. I like to fish for them two days after a big rain. You should also try new techniques, and I may try fly fishing during this off season. I’ve tried it before and it’s very hard, but the fight is insane. Go gettum during these hard times guys…
Nice catches! Yup, gotta be careful with those puhi. My uncle still has the scars from a bite he took some 50-60 years ago. He was cleaning fish in a large tide pool when the puhi swam up and bit him on his hand. Sometimes when wading we see snowflake puhi, mostly small ones, but one time I seen a big paka. Only the head and maybe a foot of his body was poking out but looked like a 4-5 foot one. Even with heavy duty wading boots on, I decided it was a good idea to leave that area!
Sorry to hear of the puhi bite. I’ve been bit twice, both times on my foot while oama fishing. Lol. Must be the smell of all the baits in the water.