My kayak fishing partner Frank took his fishing SUP instead of the kayak for a quick outing and presented Kelly with his mystery fish after Kelly correctly identified it.

Frank: I had to get some SUP (kayak style) fishing and exercise in before the storms this week. I headed out looking at the dark gray clouds coming from the east, hoping I would get a few hours of calm winds and no rain.  After three laps around the area that was productive on my last outing, I headed East of the channel to try another action area and finally got hooked up.  I had to paddle for about 15 seconds to make sure I was clear of breaking waves. After grabbing the pole from the holder and starting reeling in, the fish was already in a hole and I got rocked. 

Feeling the bite was on I headed back to the West side of the channel and on my 2nd lap hanapaa! This fish was strong and  was taking line in spurts. I didn’t want to get rocked twice so I tighten drag to muscle it in. He fought all the way to the leader and was still splashing around refusing to be netted.  I could see stripes on the papio and I got more excited to get a fish I never caught before. Finally in the net and secured on the deck, I saw that the trailing treble hook did its job. The fish went in the cooler bag and was still flopping around while I did my last 2 laps before heading in.

Got to my car still not knowing what kind of papio it was. I asked my friends and Kelly said “barred” papio.  I gave him the fish since our kitchen is being renovated and he was stoked.  He said the fish is uncommon and very tasty.  I’m glad he and family enjoyed the special catch. Thanks to the FWA (Fishing With Aloha) crew for mentoring me at my new hobby. Be safe and Blessed. Frank

Kelly:

Frank gifted me his barred papio (Carangoides ferdau for you wanna be marine biologist types, like me) and I was super excited to try eating one for the first time! The 15″ fish was very thick and fatty, with pinkish meat similar to a yellow spot papio.

When cleaning it, I was surprised to find that it was full off eggs. Cleaning a fish with eggs is always bittersweet, since I like to eat fried fish eggs but would have loved for the momma fish to have been able to produce offspring.

We filleted the papio so we could make half of it sashimi and the other half steamed, Chinese style. The eggs were fried crispy, with only salt and pepper seasoning. They were ono however not much different from other papio eggs.

The sashimi was amazing, a bit like yellow spot (smooth and creamy) but less oily and the steamed portion was very good as well. 
Thanks again Frank! Now I can asterisk this “bucket-list” fish. One day I still hope to catch one myself and if/when I do, I will know how to prepare it … next time I’m making the whole fish sashimi!