Holoholo: Slow season fishing? Go for the Awa awa!

June 1, 2020 By Scott 10 Comments

Dino’s been fishing most of his life. His father taught him how to fish and he’s been keeping it going ever since. Was a heavy bait caster and is now a heavy whipper. He’s also the adult fishing partner of middle schooler and Holoholo writer Matthew.

Dino: Winds were light and the tide was dropping, so Matt Ikeda, and I headed out to one of our spots that we like to hit up (Matt doesn’t really like this spot, but I think he’s starting to warm up to it lol). Fishing has been a little slow for us lately, but just being outdoors and getting to cast the rods is more than enough to make us happy. The water was pretty calm today, so we ventured out to the point. Bubble + Fly was the name of the game today, and I was using an oama pattern Matt tied for me.

Soon after our initial casts, Matt hooked up to a nice Lai that he kept for a meal and use the skin for his flies. About the 169th cast in, I felt a nice healthy tug on da fly about halfway in. Bango! I’m on! It instantly started jumping and flipping in the air. It made a couple of nice short runs, and was landed shortly after. Eh, it was so nice to hear the reel talk back to me little bit! She’s been giving me silent treatment lately. The awaawa weighed in at 4.5 pounds. A bit refreshing since only baby paps have been caught lately lol.

All in all it was a good day spent being outdoors. Especially during these times. Big Mahalo to Matt Ikeda for netting my fish. Be safe, be healthy, and remember it doesn’t matter if you catch or not. Sure as hell beats working any day.

~ Dino

Awa awa! Will this one stay on?

November 2, 2017 By Scott 7 Comments

The awa awa have eluded me all year. The are the hardest fish for me to land because they aren’t often encountered, jump when hooked, and often succeed in tearing the hook out of their soft mouth. Here’s how I hooked and lost the last one. My family and friends much prefer awa awa paste to oio paste so I was on a mission to land one. The forecast called for light north winds, with surf on the south and east shores. Frank and I decided to stay in the safety of the bay and hunt for something more exotic than omilu and whites.

We had 7 live oama each and yet the first 5 or so were cut in half, crushed or spit out by small papio, aha and one large papio that took line and shed Frank’s double hook. Maybe the water was too calm and clear, and the predators were a little suspicious of our offerings?

An hr and a half into our paddle, I got an odd, erratic tap on the line and turned to see an awa awa leave the surface of the water. I called out to Frank and was glad I had just changed to a fresh leader. The fish was on longer than the few seconds I normally would take to lose an awa awa and my confidence grew. I kept the drag light so the hooks wouldn’t pull and the fish swam towards me after its initial run. That was unusually behavior for an awa awa. Normally they battle all the way to the boat, splashing me as I try to bring it aboard but this one was fairly docile. It briefly pulled straight down when it got near the kayak and I waited for the second long run that never came. When it floated broadside, I was surprised it was of decent size.

Frank offered to video with my cap cam so I tried to unhook and pose with the still squirming fish while maintaining a death grip. The front hook was halfway down its throat and rear hook was just under its gill. It was bleeding quite a bit. Maybe the hooks’ positions controlled and weakened it?

With the target species in my cooler bag, the pressure was off and I could enjoy the calm conditions. Frank landed a 12 inch omilu near the papa edge and I missed a fish, and then the bite stopped. We explored for another hour without the fish interrupting our solitude.

I hadn’t scraped the flesh off an awa awa or the more common oio before so I decided to give that a try. My dad assisted me and we harvested more than 3lbs from the 27.25 inch (FL) 5lb plus fish. 4 different families were able to stretch the fish paste into delicately tasting fish cake. There aren’t many fish that can be split so many ways and still be appreciated.

All the awa awa strikes I’ve gotten were on live oama. Kelly has hooked awa awa trolling dead baits but I seem to need a lively oama being pulled in the upright position. Catching, raising and transporting live oama is a lot of work but it seems to be the best bait for the fish I’ve been chasing. Here’s what’s involved in the oama process.

Now that I’ve gotten my awa awa for the year, I’m moving on to a much harder species to catch from a kayak. UKU!!! Such a bad sounding name for such a delicious, clean tasting, firm meat fish. Its English name is “green jobfish” which isn’t that much better. They are much further out than the depths we’ve been fishing, so I’ll need the crew to join me on this uku hunt. I’ve made poke from uku we caught from a boat and it’s now my favorite fish to eat.

How long to you think it’ll take to get my first kayak caught uku? Here’s how we did on our first kayak uku hunt.

Live oama came through, I didn’t…

October 12, 2017 By Scott 2 Comments

The waves were 1 – 3 ft and the wind speed was about 8 – 10 mph on the Eastside, but the water was textured with some rolling swells past the reef. Conditions weren’t as clean as the last two times we fished there but it was still doable.

Frank and I took 8 oama each that were caught 2 weeks previously and pampered in my tubs. They had lost a bit of weight but were still chunky and irresistible looking.

On the way out we saw a monk seal flipping around near the turtles in the channel. That was a rare sight and hopefully indicated a lot of sea life. We headed in the direction I had fished the last time, staying safely away from the back of the waves and going from the dropoff at 40 ft onto the reef shelf. At 20 ft the fish finder showed fish on the bottom and I got a strike on the 1st live oama at 17 ft but it eventually shook off. Frank got a strike a few seconds after mine and landed his. My on-the-water shots were from my hat cam so I didn’t capture any of his action.

While Frank and I were in close proximity talking, I got a strike and my line had to be hand lined by Frank initially. He expertly cleared the line and gave me room to land the omilu. I didn’t plan to put my feet in the water to tag a fish so I bagged it. With a fish each, the pressure was off for us.

We continued down wind and I got a strong hit on my 3rd oama but I was too relaxed in my retrieval and it found some rocks. I could feel it running through the rocks and couldn’t pull it out. I gave it slack, it ran some more but never came out of that hole. It was really hard to break off the 25lb fluoro leader from the kayak. I re-rigged and tightened my drag, vowing not to be rocked again. All this action was within the first 30 mins but after we paddled into a deep sandy channel the bites stopped. U-turning around to head upwind to where we had come from, I got an odd nibble in 40ft of water.

I tightened the line and a fish rocketed out of the water. Awa awa!! I have been trying to catch one all year and was stoked. But it jumped again and was gone. The hooks pulled because my drag was so tight – arrrggggghhhh! Before I had a chance to react Frank got a pull, an awa awa leaped out of the water and it too shook the hook. Excited but bummed, we headed back against the wind and again, when we entered the 20 ft ledge I got a hit. The hook got stuck in my net when I landed the omilu and as I tried to free it I drifted ominously close to the back of the waves. I scampered away, cut the hook off the line and re-tied my rig. Frank radio’d in that he was going up the line to where he had success the last two outings.

He skirted the back of the waves, getting pushed a couple of times, while I stayed in deeper water and didn’t get another bite. The wind picked up to 12 – 15 mph and I headed for the safety of the inner reef. The tide had been dropping and the bite really slowed. Frank’s persistence paid off with another omilu on a halalu and a long trumpetfish on a live oama that was so bright yellow it spooked him.

Live oama proved to be irresistible on the first 1/3 of the falling tide but I “farmed” 3 of my 5 strikes. Hope we get another shot at awa awa before the year is up. Here I am with our combined catch before Frank cleaned them on the beach.

Smaller moon, rising tide = more fish activity

March 1, 2016 By Scott 5 Comments

Last Wednesday, I kayak fished the deep Windward waters and didn’t even register a nibble. The nearshore fishing has been slow this Winter but that skunk really made me feel “kill fight”. Yesterday was forecast to have the lightest wind – best tide combination of the week so I made it a gear testing day, telling myself that the fishing was incidental. I took the old Scupper Pro out, which hadn’t touched water in more than 10 years, and used a heavier weight to keep the live oama down deep.

After the afternoon showers stopped, the wind completely died down. Not a fair comparison with the chop and slop conditions of the Aquaterra Swing’s last outing. I was worried the Scupper Pro would be tippy since it’s a lot narrower than the Swing, but because the seat sits lower to the water, it reminded me of sitting on a surfboard with my legs in the water. The Scupper Pro also paddled much easier due to its longer length and narrower, rounded hull. The Swing, in comparison, has a flat hull that feels like it’s pushing water, not knifing through it. The SP’s cockpit did feel cramped compared to the Swing’s, but I eventually got used to it.

There were a lot more tiny bait fish and suspended reef fish on the fish finder than last time. I braced myself for a strike on the trolled oama but none came. Hmmmppphhh. Well, since this was supposed to be a test of the Scupper Pro, I paddled further out than I had been fishing recently, enjoying the glide of the long, slender craft. The heavier fishing weight seemed to be keeping the oama down better, without getting hung up on the bottom. I slow trolled over numerous little bait collections but no predators felt like eating an oama with a hook in its nasal cartilage.

Finally something pulled the tip of the rod down a couple inches, then pulled drag. The fish seemed to be shaking its head but the vibrations were a little too frequent to be papio head shakes. I pictured an awa awa swimming in such a way that its large tail was slapping the line. Sure enough, after some powerful runs, I was able to short pump the fish to the surface. About a 4lb awa awa with its weird transparent forehead greeted me. I think awa awa pull harder, pound for pound, than omilu and whites, but once you get them boat side they’re pretty tuckered out.

It felt great to land a decent fish again. I dropped down another oama and a few minutes later something pulled some line off the reel. In my peripheral vision I could see a smaller fish leap out of the water. That was the first awa awa that jumped in the deep water, and it was able to shake the hook and gain its freedom.

Fish began to puddle on the surface and I expected more action but alas, the bite stopped. I took advantage of the glassy conditions by trolling through other promising spots, and dropped the flat fall jig down on bait pockets but nothing wanted to eat.

So why was there more bait and predator activity than last week? The moon was smaller, being 7 days after the full moon rather than just 2 days. And I was fishing the first third of the rising tide instead of the last third. The heavier weight was keeping the bait in the zone longer. And the glassy conditions made it much easier to fish. Why do you think it was better this time around?

Last ditch attempt to catch something/anything; taegu recipe included

January 14, 2016 By Scott 9 Comments

The inshore bite really slowed in the late December, early January time period. The 8 – 1o inch omilu have shown up sporadically but the larger ones appear to have gone wherever they go during the winter. Awa awa have been saving the day for Kelly, as he nimbly trolled dead oamas between sets on his SUP. Lacking the paddling speed and courage, I fished away from the impact zone on my longboard with not much to show for it.

As a last ditch attempt to find a feisty predator, I kayak fished the deep waters of the Windward side solo today. The winds were very light, and armed with live tub-raised oama, I had high hopes. After an hour of aimless paddling I finally got a strike. It felt like a decent omilu, but it broke the surface halfway into the fight. What I thought was a short awa awa turned out to be a pretty large lai. My family doesn’t eat lai so I shook it off the hook.

Hopes raised, I paddled through bait marks on the fish finder, skirted the edge of dropoffs, and even dropped my oama to the bottom. Nada. The evening witching hour came without any predator activity and I dejectedly paddled for home. As my landing site came within view, my ratchet finally screamed. I hoped it was a thick papio but suspected awa awa in such deep water. The fished towed me a bit and spun me around before I could see color. Awa awa it was, and it saved the trip for me.

It taped out at 26 inches (forklength), not as large as the previous one I caught here in the summer, but my first keeper of any kind in 3 trips. The papio continued to prove elusive.

Chester made lomi lomi awa awa out of the fish and said it had a delightful fresh, mild taste. With the left overs he made taegu for us, using recipe below. Yummm!

This taegu recipe had been featured in Lawai’a magazine. Chester uses a small convection oven and dries on the lowest setting. He puts it outside so it doesn’t stink up the whole house. Genius! Oh, and he only uses a half teaspoon of chili pepper flakes. Adjust that to your heat tolerance.

Papio season may have ended…

October 22, 2015 By Scott 1 Comment

The water cleared after last week’s murky conditions so I waded out to the same area that had been slow. I was really hoping the papio bite would continue full bore, but alas, I started with mystery fish pulling my dead oamas off the hooks. Then some oama came back with their back half sliced clean off. Next, hooks were bitten off. I’m guessing small reef fish and small papio were the bait pullers and kaku were slicing the baits and biting off the hooks.

After an hour of bait mangling and no fish to show for it, I cast from the reef edge of a deep sand channel leading to the open ocean. The sun was getting lower and large and medium kaku were competing for my dead oama in the light blue water. Miraculously I had some on without getting cut off, but they spit the hook. Then I hooked a medium sized kaku at the tip of his upper jaw such that he couldn’t bite the line. It was pretty tricky to grab the hook with long pliers and shake him off without getting nipped in the process. Tired of the kaku frenzy I positioned myself to cast to the right side of the channel.

I put on a beautifully preserved, large oama that still looked alive. It cast well because of its weight, and was hit solidly. The back half of the oama was raggedly torn off by something that didn’t have precision cutting teeth. Left with first 3 inches of the oama, and the sun setting, I threw the severed bait out again wondering what would want a fish head. Something slammed it, pulled against the stiff drag and jumped in the distance. I figured it was a kaku angry it didn’t get away cleanly with the tailless oama.

But the fish continued to pull drag and after it turned and swam up the reef shelf into waist deep water, it jumped again. Awa awa! I had never hooked one in this location and had no idea they came in here. It shot away after seeing me, but instead of going out into the deep channel it ran parallel to the beach and took at least 100 yds of line, taking me well into my braid backing. I felt confident it would tire out eventually but then I felt the rubbing of the line against a reef papa and sure enough the line got stuck. When I pulled, the line came back with no fish. At least 20 yds were shredded and stretched. Shucks, my dad would’ve really enjoyed the awa awa fish cake.

I had gone through 12 fresh dead oama and only landed a kaku. Sheesh. I put on a frozen oama and it got pulled off. By then the sun had set behind the mountains and I headed back in while there was still ambient light.

I guess this means the papio season is officially over. The reef fish, small papio and kaku will still be around to pester the baits but it sure looks like the big omilus won’t be hunting inside until next season. I would settle for a hard fighting awa awa until the papio return, though.

Awa awa on the kayak!

August 18, 2015 By Scott 7 Comments

Eddy and Kris pedaled out on Eddy’s Hobie tandem and I tried my best to keep up with them on my oldie but goodie Aquaterra Swing sit-on-top. The light wind conditions made for a beautiful day to be out on the water.

My fish finder was marking fish throughout the water column and we could peer down and see omilu and white papio through the sheet glass surface. With so many fish around it was a good day to try various baits and lures. The fish could see the difference between lures and real bait, and ignored the fake stuff except for Kris’ small lures fished deep.

I started with fresh, dead oama and two were taken off the tandem hooks without much sound coming out of my non-levelwind Calcutta 400’s ratchet. I put on a live oama and immediately hooked a small white papio. The guys began catching small, feisty whites on frozen, year old oama. As I crossed a deep channel, my rachet went off, slowly. I pulled the rod out of the rod holder and started reeling, and the fish shook its head like a very small omilu. Then it got mad and powered away, taking at least 75 yds of line with it. I had made the cardinal mistake of leaving my partner kayak without telling them where I was going, so they were out of ear shot.

I tightened the drag when 1/3 of the spool was gone, and the fish slowed. I could feel head shakes and tail pumps and was hoping I finally hooked a large papio. When I brought the fish close it powered straight down, bending my 7’6″ rod into the water. It spun my kayak a few times before I could make out a long, slim, silvery shape. Oio on a live oama? I guess it was possible since I was fishing deep and had hooked an oio on a subsurface lure in the surf before. Click here to read about that surprise catch.

Then I saw the top lobe of a very large tail sticking out of the water. Awa awa! The previous awa awas have always jumped out of the water, but those were hooked in relatively shallow water. I hooked this one in at least 50 feet. I tired the fish out to grab it by the mouth, largemouth bass style, since I didn’t have a net or gaff with me. The fish was too tired to put up much resistance.

I decided to keep it since I heard of other yak fishers recently catching awa awa in the general area, and had only kept two others ever. I paddled back to the guys and Kris took this pic.

The guys pedaled off to the white papio hot spot as I replaced the line that the awa awa shredded with its sandpaper mouth. Once again, they were out of ear shot when I landed a smaller awa awa on another live oama. That was released and when I caught up with them, they both were battling 2lb whites that bit fresh dead oama.

Somehow those guys can catch the larger whites when I’m stuck with the 9 inch ones that steal my precious oama baits. Eddy followed that up by catching this beautiful awa awa on a frozen oama.

Soon after, we ran out of oama and made our way in.

Perfect kayak fishing conditions. All fish were released except for my awa awa and Kris’ 2lb white papio. The awa awa measured 32″ and weighed 5 lbs. My dad much prefers awa awa to oio for fish cake and was happy to receive it although I did have to clean it for him.