Kris’ oio
I received a hot tip from Kris, whom I met through this blog. We’ve been sharing fishing reports and have been planning to meet and fish. He caught 3 oio on the flats yesterday and provided this photo as proof. He released all 3.
That report couldn’t have come at a better time since I was planning to fish the flats with Joel and Dean. Joel writes “Spyda’s Blog“, which artistically chronicles his recent shore casting outings and classic past trips. I had met Joel and Dean through this blog also. We waded out at the bottom of the zero foot tide with hopes of some screamers.
moana
Midway to the break we got our first baby omilu strike. As we got near the leading edge of the white wash, the bite really turned on. Unfortunately Joel had to depart for a previously planned meeting and left us to the frenzy. The reef residents were ambushing our baits before the baby omilus could get to them. Dean missed a big strike that pulled drag, and I brought in a legal moana followed by a 9 inch moana kali.
baby moana kali
I hadn’t caught a moana kali on the reef flat before and was very surprised. Hopefully there’s a healthy population of these, with some reaching steamable size. A smaller moana rounded out my goatfish run.
Dean fished a deep sand channel with a plug and I fished a deep drop off with `opae lolo. I got a strong hit on one of the lolos but the fish managed to rip the body off the hook. I went back to my cut bait to save the precious `opae lolo bait.
The air temp was in the low 70s and we were freezing under cloudy skies. As we headed in to thaw out, Dean hooked a strong obake weke that took a while to be worked in. We left the fish biting and didn’t get the screamer we were hoping for. Later, Joel informed us that he spooked a large oio in 18 inches of water as he headed in.
All the more reason to plan another trip.
(Today’s fish were released unharmed. Sorry for the lack of better pictures, it was hard to turn on my camera phone with numb fingers and I wasn’t close enough to Joel and Dean.)
Despite the flat lighting conditions caused by the overcast sky, the crystal clear water and light winds gave the session a magical feel. The fish were there for sure, I for one just didn’t have what they were looking for on the end of my line. Wish I could have stayed a little longer.
Sorry I didn’t get any photos of you and Dean fishing and catching. I’ll try to do a better job documenting our next outing.
It was hard to fumble around with my camera phone with numb fingers!
Great catch. Was over at Hi Kai flats earlier in the morning with my friends son. Only bite while wading on the flats was on his pole. A small omilu which was released after taking pic’s.
Seems like tidal movement is crucial for fishing the flats. Being in the right place at the right time helps a lot. Figuring out where the right place is, is the hard part!