Middle schooler Matthew provided this status report since I haven’t checked the shoreline scene in a while. Much Mahalos, Matt!
Matthew:
Over the past few weeks, I have noticed that fishing has gotten a lot slower. A few baitfish here and there are still around, but the nehu schools have vanished, as well as almost all of the late oama and the halalu. An interesting sight now are schools of moilii, or baby moi. These are around the island in tidepools and shallow areas.
Most of the papio are gone, but if you somehow have live oama for bait, dunking in a channel may produce one. Kaku are still around, but just not in the levels they were in the summer. Whipping along the shoreline with small lures such as spoons, grubs, and small jigs may work now, as there really isn’t much big bait. Oio bites are getting more common though, and a few big ones have been brought up this week so far by baitcasters.
Another bad factor is that the days are getting really short, which means less time to fish. What I have been doing recently though, is going stream fishing for smallies (smallmouth bass). I ended catching my first one, and the fight is pretty similar to a papio. The smallies appear to not be affected by the changing seasons. If you do have a boat, now would be a good time to use it, as fish are moving to deeper waters along with the baitfish. If you can catch a few live opelu, you are pretty much set to catch a big papio or ulua with it, as well as other predators. Opelu, however, are getting plentiful, so that is a plus.
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