The wind forecast finally dropped to fishable conditions. It promised a 10mph East wind directly onshore on the Eastside, and a 15mph North East wind coming down the mountains on the south side. So I headed East and had the launch and water to myself due to the social gathering restrictions.
The wind felt like 12 mph heading straight into it but I could push through with the help of my Bixpy motor mounted on my rudder. It was 2.5 miles out to the 130ft spot I hoped held opelu but no schools showed up on my oldie but goodie Garmin Echomap 44CV. I paddled around with the motor assisting me, at about 3mph, as I scanned around for bottom marks.
The first scattered mark, slightly off the bottom, produced a lai which I kept for a buddy who makes flies out of the skin. Next up was a surprise nabeta which must have been in a sand patch I didn’t know was there.
Then I went deeper, all the way out to 180ft but didn’t see anything good and my frozen opelu went untouched. The wind brought me back in, and I started exploring the shallower water. A very active mark showed up on the bottom so I used the motor to hold me in place against the current and dropped the 2-hook damashi rigged with CHL Minnows. As soon as I lifted it off the bottom the pole arched and line pulled off the reel! I was trying to remember how heavy the branch line on the damashi was, and was hoping it was at least 10lb test. The fish battled me all the way up, on the light drag, and I was surprised to see an uku that later was weighed 2lb 10oz. The other branch line was broken off so maybe two uku hit the rig. I had been searching for uku in this area in the past and never expected to catch them on a damashi!
When I checked my opelu it was gone and the 2oz tungsten bullet weight I was testing had teeth marks on it! Man, that was a crazy frenzy.
With the bite this hot and my damashi rig only having one hook now, I switched to my jigging setup rigged with a 2 oz, 2.75 inch prototype tungsten jig I’ve been hoping to test. I couldn’t find that mark despite having set a “Man Over Board” on the GPS so I searched around the area.
Found another good mark in 90ft, dropped the jig on it and “kapow!”. A good fighting fish jerked the tip, pulled a bit of line and gave a good account of itself. The compact jig had fallen like shot and must’ve hit the omilu on the head, haha.
I had another jig shape to test so I switched and went hunting for a good mark again.
Dropped the second tungsten jig on the mark and “whammo”, hooked up! This fish wasn’t taking line but still felt fun. A nice moana came up. Both the omilu and moana were released. I was stoked to see how well the tungsten jigs worked.
I moved off the spot and only saw scattered marks on the fish finder so I went back to the damashi, with 3 hooks this time. By now it was midday at the top of the big King Tide and the current went slack. Fish didn’t bite for a while but then it picked up with a smaller uku and omilu. I released those and the misc reef fish that were keeping me busy.
When small, brown hagi started coming up it was time to head for home. I ran the motor at a 3/4 speed and the battery died about a half mile from my landing. Running between 1/4 and 3/4 speed for 6 hrs drained the battery. Now I know and will keep more juice in the tank just in case.
Without the assistance of the Bixpy I couldn’t safely do the 7 mile round trip, and wouldn’t have been able to stay over marks while I dropped on them. Thank you Bixpy!
Stay tuned for more testing of the compact tungsten jigs. Even though they are only 2 oz (60 gm) they fall like a 3 oz (90 gm) jig because of their compact shape.
Great day on the water!
Thanks Mark!