Weather-wise, January 2023 had light wind and not much rain, making conditions fishable but the inshore and nearshore (out to 3 miles or so) bite was the typical winter slog. The inshore guys resorted to targeting oio and the nearshore kayaks and boats did some shallow bottom fishing for uku, nabeta and goatfish.

The nice weather continued into the first week of February but that was followed by 4 weeks of strong wind and rain storms. When the wind and rain let up a bit, the fly fishers and jig head whippers connected with oio and saw big omilu hunting the flats. March is early for the big omilu who are normally seen by the early June time frame, before the oama begin to trickle in by late July.

The offshore kayak bite has just begun to pick up in some areas. Mahi, shibi and kawakawa are showing up for the live opelu, which has still been abundant in the early morning.

The consistent rain has been making the brackish water estauraries habitable for the little critters the inshore food chain fish feed on. We can look forward to a better aholehole, moi, and mullet season than we had last year, which didn’t have much rain in the Winter/Spring. Let’s see if this prediction holds.