Live opelu is way better than fresh opelu!

Old timers have told me that opelu is the “magic bait for pelagics”, like oama is the “magic bait for papio”. Since frozen oama still works when slow trolled for papio, I’ve been buying opelu from the fish market and trolling and bottom fishing that off the kayak. It hasn’t worked that well trolled (one 11lb mahi last spring) but has worked for uku (and a lot of bait stealers) near the bottom.

Boaters and kayakers who catch their own opelu have been telling me to save money and just catch my own but that’s much easier said than done. I’ve been striking on when others have been bringing up multiple opelu and was kind of just going through the motions of dropping the damashi down until I finally caught an opelu on the last trip. That made me realize it was possible to catch one or two for bait, and since fishing is all about confidence and sticking with it, I was determined to catch opelu and hook something good with it. To increase my odds I was using the expensive store bought Hayabusa damashi flies with gold hooks.

I went out this week on an overcast, slightly drizzly day. It was about 9am when I reached the bait grounds but because the sun was blocked it looked like dawn. My version of dawn patrol. The fish finder marked a lot of small fish near the top of the water column and I dropped down, felt something hit but it was pulling harder than opelu should. Baby aha – ugh. Next drop was another aha. I’ve never caught them on the damashi fly before and was gonna find another bait pile but decided to drop one more time. This time something smaller was on, and because my opelu confidence had dropped due to the aha, I brought it up slowly and when it got to the surface it was a perfect sized 8 inch opelu that popped its head out of the water and shook the hook! Arrgggh…

The school moved and I spent another 45 mins in different spots trying to catch them. Gave up, slow trolled a 9 inch fresh opelu that got taken near the bottom and the hooks pulled once again. So I started fishing the 9 inch fresh opelu cut in half, with two hooks to see what I was missing. Sadly, I landed 2 big taape and a hagi. So that’s probably what has been stealing my dead opelu, not the small uku I was hoping for. Disillusioned, and now fighting a 10mph south wind, I came across a promising bait school in the area where I’ve lost ulua and sharks but hadn’t seen a lot of bait before. The bait stealers had depleted my fresh opelu supply so I decided to try for opelu on the damashi again. To my surprise I got bit on the way down! This one was bigger than I preferred but stayed on the hook and was dropped back down with two hooks in it.

I slow trolled it around and nothing bothered it until I went back to the spot I caught it. It started getting nervous and then something ran with it for a few seconds and ripped a 4 inch wound in its stomach. That was probably the small uku since hagi and taape wouldn’t be able to catch the opelu and leave such a big hole. I dropped the now dead opelu back down and the bait stealers picked it apart.

The south wind had settled down but there was a lumpy west swell that was bobbing me around, enough to come over the side of the kayak at times. The bait ball was still around so I dropped the damashi down and caught another 10 inch opelu. 3 opelu in one day if I count the one that fell off at the surface, my personal best! I put the opelu down, maybe 30 ft off the bottom and went back to opelu fishing.

The opelu got nervous, and the rod began to bounce a little as line was pulled off an inch at a time. This went on for about 10 seconds and I gave the pred time to turn the big opelu around and swallow. Then the pred took off, pulling my rod under water and I had to clear the bow of the kayak. The fish was strong and heavy but I was able to stop it with a strong drag setting, so it wasn’t a shark. The fish was turned and I was short pumping it back so it wouldn’t find the reef like last week, and then about a minute and a half into the fight it felt like the hook slipped and got stuck somewhere else. Then the fight got really jerky like the fish was getting attacked by something and it transitions to the heavy pull of a shark. 15 seconds later, the leader above the first hook was cut fairly clean with a bit of abrasion above the cut. I was running the GoPro on my cap and shared the video of the fight with friends (sorry too many landmarks for general viewing). They think that maybe a big uku ate the big opelu and made its initial strong run, and was coming in when a shark or sharks mauled it.

I like that the bait stealers leave the live opelu alone and only something fairly big will grab it. Also like that you can tell when it’s about to get hit because the opelu starts jerking the rod. So in the end I bolo’d once again, but am getting closer to hooking and landing the prize fish on live opelu.