7th Grade Matthew’s mature, insightful writing style continues to impress. This time he blesses us with a recap of his most recent Heei’a Fishpond Holoholo Day outing.
Matthew:
Note: I have fished this place six times before and this will be my seventh time trying it. In the past I have caught Moi, Kaku, Toau, and Papio over here. There seems to be an abundance of Toau and Kaku mostly though, all feeding on Ama’ama or Nehu. In the past I have had both good days and bad days, and found that the tide is a key factor.
I had signed up for a Heeia Holoholo day, because I thought that the old heeia story posted by Scott in 2015 was long outdated and needed another story to give more info on the pond. I got to the fishpond at 8:15am, where before the introduction I caught some opae with a net and put them in our bucket. We did a little introduction to everyone fishing at the event, then headed off to go fishing. I immediately got my stuff and fast walked the ½ mile to the fourth makaha. I set up, got my oama on, sight casted a kaku, and, screamer! Of course, it snapped the line after. I set up another oama rig and went to the third makaha. There I saw a school of around 10 kaku and a few good sized omilu cruised by once in a while. What were they there for? I soon saw my answer as I spotted some large nehu school in the deep section of the area. They all did not bite my oama at all, but that was about to change soon.
The current stopped and all of a sudden, the kaku started eating everything I threw at them, even lures. In that brief 20 minute period, I tagged 9 kaku and missed many more. The person next to me landed a few papio, and a few kaku in that time also. Then, like a magic switch, the fish all of a sudden stopped biting. I could still see them there, but none were even looking at my lures or oama. I eventually gave up, and this is where the opae came in handy. I used the opae and caught a nenue, kupipi, and many toau on the opae. It seemed like the less desirable fish were still willing to bite, at least. My friends that I invited, Jesse and Jayden, were having fun with the toau and kupipi also, who were also disappointed that the Kaku bite had shut down. We fished for the remainder of the time for toau, and then sadly, our day ended very quickly. We headed back and made a few casts along the way, but nothing came out of this last ditch effort for a Papio. We said our goodbyes to Jesse and Jayden, as well as the Assistant Executive Director, Kelii. This was a good day with many Kaku, and hopefully one of them will get captured.
Overall Fish Status: Oama are still here, but get them before they get big and move past the reef. It is best to find a new and “dumb” pile instead of the larger, smart ones. Sardines are still around, but are much less preferred than the oama, unless you are fishing around a sardine pile, which then live sardines would work. Halalu are around, but many spots have been netted, so keep your halalu spots as quiet as possible. Larger fish are coming to hit the piles, and even pelagics in some select spots. Akule appear to be hanging around in a few spots also. Nehu and Iao are littered around the shoreline, so if you see a small pile, it may be a good idea to cast right past the pile and see if a predator is waiting.
Way to go, Matthew! Sounds like a good time. I might have to check this out one day but not sure they’d allow a fly-fishing weirdo in ?. I’m sure back cast space is pretty limited.
Hi Uncle Jason,
Some spots like Makaha 4-5 are unoccupied most of the time, but all there is in those spots are Kaku and small whites. There is a dock at the front that you can also fish at maybe that has bigger whites, kaku, and some oio.
Thanks Matthew. I might check it it out one of these days.
Maybe you can ask pond folks? Back cast is actually wide open on the outside of the pond but you might need a lot of room on your side?
“… but you might need a lot of room on your side?”
Not necessarily, but I can understand why people fishing next to me might ?. I could probably just fish at the end of the lineup, that wouldn’t be an issue at all.
You may have to use a heavy leader (I think it’s called a tippet? Or is that the “mainline”) because of all the Kaku though. There is a lot of seaweed there too, so you might get stuck if you’re dragging a crab or shrimp imitation fly.
Aloha,
How do you sign up for this kind of event?
Sounds like fun and would like to try it sometime.
Hi Aunty Marissa,
The tickets are very limited and sell out within minutes. If you want to get in, you should go to paepaeoheeia.org and look at their “laholoholo” page. You would have to know the exact time they put the tickets up and be ready at the page a minute before they put it up, and be refreshing the page. Yes, it is a very fun event and there is an abundance of fish in the pond. I believe the next sign up date is in March and the date that the next event is in late June.