On an epic light wind day last week, Frank and Kelly SUP trolled for papio past the break on the east side and I went deeper on the kayak to try for opelu and hungry predators. The water was so glassy inside that the papio bite was tentative for the SUP crew but they scraped up a few 1 to 3lb omilu to take home.

I couldn’t find any opelu and nothing ate the frozen opelu I put down so I tried to salvage the trip by catching good eating fish on the Ahi USA damashi tipped with CHL Minnows and ika strips. Over the reefy transition to sand, baby kaku and nunu came up. Then 8 inch baby opakapaka began to mob the Minnow.

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Finally I struck nabeta gold and even brought up a lai. The CHL Minnow outfished the strip of ika and didn’t attract hagi so I stopped using the ika.

On a calm day with minimal current and wave action, it was so peaceful to bounce the damashi on the bottom and feel the electric action of the rod tip.

I shared the nabeta with friends who hadn’t tasted the fish before, and gave the lai to Frank for grinds and lai skin. Good fun fishing in the deep.

-scott