I met Issey 2 weeks ago, as he was relishing his last few weeks of summer before starting the 8th grade. He had been fishing for 2 years and was already a very accomplished, yet humble halalu whipper in that short period of time. I asked Issey to describe his second halalu season so far.
Issey:
It was a nice sunny, bright day with days counting down till school starts. I heard rumors about the sardines and halalu in one of my places so I decided to check it out with a buddy.
In the distance, I saw people fishing but I wasn’t too sure if they were just whipping for big game or sardines/halalu. I waded my way towards the anglers and the anglers were catching plenty sardines and halalu.
I quickly set up my pole with a strip and walked out to the pile. I had plenty of bites but somehow they broke off while reeling them in. Slowly getting stressed, I managed to pick up the trick and after that I caught plenty. I ended up with 18 sardines and 13 halalu which I think is pretty good with strips.
I went everyday after that successful day. Eventually I noticed that big fish were whacking the pile so I threw out a dunk and managed to catch my first hammerhead shark. Also had a nice screamer free-lining a halalu. However, it broke off soon after it screamed.
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Right on, Issey! When we used to dunk halalu I was taught to use a short lead line and long leader, around 3-5 ft to allow the halalu to swim freely. YMMV. Keep pounding, I’m sure something big and silver is in your future!
Thanks for the tip Jason. What’s the biggest fish you caught off live halalu?
-scott
Small kine, white papio about 3 lbs. My father used to run this setup at Campbell Harbor with live akule/halalu back in the day. He said they used to pick up half a dozen 5-20 lb omilu in one outing. My father’s largest on live akule was 22 lb, he showed me a photo with him his buddies and about a dozen omilu ranging from about 5 to 22 lbs. Granted, this was was back in the 70s, so the fishing was obviously a bit better. I wasn’t even a twinkle in his eye yet lol
Wow, that’s much bigger than the size of omilu that normally hit oama. So your dad was primarily a halalu/akule fisherman that also fished for papio? Or he whipped and dunked dead baits too?
-scott
Yeah he was an all-around shorefisherman who slid-bait, baitcasted, and whipped, but when the halalu were in, they was one of his favorite fish to target. By the time my sister and i showed up he had pretty much retired from shorecasting but we still did a lot of fishing growing up, and one of the things I remember most was halalu fishing. Those were simpler (and less crowded) times!
Your dad isn’t asking you to bring reef fish home to eat?
Well, i mostly catch oio and they don’t care for those too much. When i was a kid i remember they used to get mad whenever i brought home oio. They’d say “too humbug too clean! bring us a papio instead!” After I started fly-fishing they didn’t really understand the concept of catch and release, but I think they understand my reasons for it now.
Do they know you released an eating size, delicious yellow spot papio? 🙂
You mean two eating size yellow spots? 😉 yeah they were sick when I showed them the photo of the first one, and then in disbelief that I released another a month later lol ?
Oh that’s right you got two! Should’ve given them the second one. 🙂
I remember that day! When I netted the shark I grabbed it and after wards I smelled my hands and almost vomited ?
Hammerhead smells that bad? Like pee?