Holoholo: Offshore Kayak Fishing on Hawaii Island – A Summary of 2022

December 31, 2022 By Scott 2 Comments

Big Island kayak fisher Shea Uehana (YouTube: Affordable Wahoo) summarizes his second year of offshore fishing. You can compare this to his previous year here, and to Devan Inouye’s Oahu Offshore Kayak Fishing Summary here.

Shea:

January 2022

Opelu and akule were both scarce through most of the month, but the few that I could catch were quickly eaten by hungry shibi ahi in the 25-35 lb range. I actually got a single shibi each trip out in January.

February 2022

Opelu were easier to find as we ranged out to spots on the southern end of the Big Island. The shibi bite was hot on the east side, while Sailfish readily took live opelu every trip out to the west. I also consistently came across a large school of Great Hammerhead sharks just milling around on the surface in South Kona.

March 2022

Bad weather on the windward side forced us to head west. The shibis were smaller at west spots, but Mahimahi and Kamanu (Rainbow Runner) started showing up. One of the Kamanu I caught this month is still my PB to date, a chunky 21 lbs. Smaller ono started showing up near the end of the month, and on one trip I lost six in a row to sharks!

April 2022

Opelu were suddenly abundant pretty much island-wide. I was finally able to break the ono curse and landed the first of the year early in the month. Large Mahimahi started showing up on the NW side of the island, and a buddy and I doubled up. His bull must have been close to 40 lbs and the cow I landed weighed in at 26 lbs. At the end of the month, I lucked out and landed my biggest ono yet… on a circle hook with flurocarbon leader!

May 2022

The opelu suddenly made themselves scarce, and even the akule were almost impossible to find in the pre-dawn darkness. The only pelagic I got all month was a Kawakawa (Mackerel Tuna). The skunking got bad enough that I made the leap and finally tried my hand at deep dropping for bottom fish in 600-900 feet depths. In a stroke of luck, I actually got my first Hapuupuu (Hawaiian Seabass) the first time trying this new fishing method.

June 2022

I pushed further than I ever had before in search of good deep-dropping grounds. I even purchased a Penn Squall 40 paired with a Shimano Trevala X-heavy to have better line capacity and so I wouldn’t burn out my spinners cranking heavy rigs up from the deep. The deep dropping yielded delicious deep sea species such as Gindai, Opakapaka, and Ehu. On one trip out, I even caught a couple opelu (the first I’d gotten in over a month) and lucked out when two 30-40 lb shibis grabbed them on the way in.

July

Fishing at our usual east side spots was shut down all month due to high winds and choppy seas, so we hit the old stomping grounds on the NW side of the island. Catching live opelu was really hit or miss. Some days we filled the bait tube in minutes and others we struggled to even catch a single one. The pelagic action was also pretty slow, but the few fish that I did catch were some of the best I’ve gotten to date, particularly a chunky ono and a slammer mahimahi. I also made the decision to upgrade my conventional reel to something with better cranking power and chose an Avet MXL 2-speed lever drag (thanks Scott!). The low gear on this reel is just great and made cranking heavy bottom rigs up from 700+ feet so much easier. I was able to get 3 absolutely delicious gindai in one day.

August

Catching bait was a breeze in the first half of the month, and it seemed like smaller (10-15 lb) mahimahi were starting to show up in numbers. However, in the later half of the month, the opelu once again played hard to get and I ended up falling back on deep dropping or vertical jigging to put fish on the yak. Reef fish like Black Trevally and Omilu saved the day some trips. This was really a stark contrast to August 2021, when we seemed to be inundated in opelu schools much of the time.

September

The opelu at my home grounds continued to ghost us, but luckily there were some great breaks in the trade winds and we capitalized by heading to some fertile grounds. The bait were much easier to catch there, and aku, decent shibis, sailfish, and my PB to date ono all came up this month. From what I heard from friends who kept trying the usual grounds, the opelu bite was not great and fishing was tough.

October

I only went a couple times in October, but the mahimahi were pretty active both trips. Inspired by watching Rokkitkit on Youtube, myself and a couple other guys started using Gofish trolling cameras to capture underwater strike footage. I lucked out the first time using it and a decent bull mahi ate my dead opelu on camera and even tried to eat the camera itself!

November

The opelu finally decided to come out in force, and it seemed like we caught way more than we needed every trip out. Nice sized shibis in the 30-50 lb range bit consistently, and we even lost a few that were probably way larger to sharks and pulled hooks. The last fishing session of the month was right after a huge cold front had passed and the shibis and mahimahi were voracious. This month finally felt like the Fall bite we’d been waiting for was turning on…

December

Ended the year strong with shibis ranging from 40 – 55 lbs, Ono 35 – 45 lbs, and some Ehu for New Years dinner! Opelu cooperated on every trip and nice conditions made for a great month.

Holoholo: Offshore Kayak Fishing on Hawaii Island – A Summary of 2021

December 28, 2021 By Scott 2 Comments

Shea has provided us with some great posts this year and we requested he summarize his first year of offshore kayak fishing. The sheer poundage of fish he caught is astounding. He provides tackle tips, a monthly almanac of how the weather changed and what types of fish bit. Check out his YouTube channel, Affordable Wahoo, for action packed, superbly narrated videos.

Shea: After buying a secondhand kayak and watching YouTube videos of guys and gals kayak fishing offshore in Hawaii for pelagic predators like ahi, mahimahi, and ono, I was intrigued but not quite ready to take the leap straight into the blue. I spent all of 2020 fishing within the confines of the Hilo Breakwater for papio, lai, opelu, and akule. In January 2021, I was reunited with a childhood friend who also had a kayak and wanted to get it into action fishing. After a shakedown trip in Hilo Bay catching papio, he suggested we go for it and make the leap into offshore fishing. Eleven months later, I’m still learning something new every trip. However, over the past few months, the catches have been much more consistent. Here’s a monthly summary of the journey thus far:

February:

Got a secondhand Hobie Revolution 13 from a friend on Craigslist. Did a shakedown maiden voyage in Hilo Bay light jigging for papio, then a short offshore trip on the west side catching reef fish.

March:

First dedicated pelagic trip on the NW side. Landed first decent fish offshore, a 15 lb Uku (Green Jobfish), then lost the biggest shibi ahi I’ve hooked to date right at the side of the kayak. Upgraded my gear the next day to a Penn Spinfisher VI 8500 with 65 lb braid and 40lb fluorocarbon topshot. Very next trip out of South Kona, landed first pelagic, a 21 lb shibi ahi at Keahou Bay. Lost a ton of fish to cutoffs (probably ono), so I rigged up 40 lb braided wire stinger rigs for next time. Lucky thing too, because the next trip out of South Kona, I hooked was a 65 lb Sailfish that would certainly have cut fluorocarbon leader with its bill.

April:

The weather and surf finally started looking good on the east side of the island, so we started exploring the grounds. We discovered some reliable opelu grounds and managed to hook into some decent sized Kawakawa (Mackerel Tuna) and smaller shibi (Yellowfin Tuna). At this point, I was still having trouble getting solid hookups on fish once they ate the live opelu. I must have lost twice as many fish as I landed just because I was letting fish swim around with the bait way too long before tightening the drag during the strike.

May:

The big kawakawa continued to bite, along with some nice sized uku. Later in the month, I got my first decent sized shibi, a 30 pounder. I made the change from braided 40 lb wire to single strand stainless brown 44 lb and it seemed to increase strikes on wire, at the cost of having to change the rigs out when they got kinked. At this point, I getting a better idea of when to tighten down on the drag, though I still lost a few strikes from what I think were ono…

June:

Got a mixed bag of large kawakawa and decent sized shibis. Rainbow runners started showing up in large schools and stealing baits as well as sabiki rigs. Finding opelu was difficult at times, with schools being far and few between. Often when we did find them, they wouldn’t bite. We did, however, have some of the calmest waves and wind that I’ve ever seen.

July:

The opelu became very scarce on the east side, so I resorted to vertical jigging for rainbow runner, kahala, and ulua most of the time. I must have lost over $100 worth of jigs to unstoppable reef donkeys. When we could find live bait, sharks and kaku (Great Barracuda) would often take them before a pelagic could. The kawakawa seemed to disappear as well. We did make it out to the leeward side once and I landed my best shibi to date, a 41 pounder.

August:

Shibis continued to bite on the west side, while the onos finally seemed to come out in force on the east. I landed my first ono, my PB uku, and a decent shibi all in a couple hours on one trip. At this point, I began running wire rigs pretty much all the time. With so many ono around, the fluorocarbon leader would get snipped almost immediately. The smaller shibis didn’t seem to care, but the larger ones seemed to shy away from the wire rigs.

One key change to my strategy was to set my drag to ~4 lbs when running a wire stinger. Up to this point, I was setting my drag as light as it could go to let the fish run and hopefully swallow the bait. I ended up losing every ono strike because they’d either swallow the entire wire rig and cut my line, or the hook wouldn’t set in the fish’s bony mouth. The tension on the strike with even just ~4 lbs drag seems to be enough to get a decent hookup. It also helps keep the ono from swallowing and chopping the entire wire rig above the swivel.

September:

Large schools of mahimahi in the 10-15 lb range showed up in force on the west side. Opelu were very plentiful and it wasn’t uncommon to have more than 10 baits within an hour of fishing at dawn. I landed my first mahimahi (three of them) on the same trip. When the weather permitted, we headed out on the east side and akule were easy to find in the dark. These made excellent bait for both ono and shibis. At the end of the month I managed to land my PB 41 lb ono and a few mahimahi on the same trip. The bite was truly on fire no matter where we went it seemed. Bird piles and surface boils were a frequent sight, usually around midday.

October:

The mahimahi continued to bite really well, with large schools offering chances at hooking two or even three in a row at times. The mahis were also getting larger, ranging in size from 15 – 25 lbs. We often saw large schools of flying fish getting struck on the surface, as well as the occasional school of small aku jumping out of the water. Trolling live or dead baits near these schools often yielded mahimahi or ono.

I made the switch to Knot2Kinky titanium wire leader and didn’t regret it. It has the stealthier presentation of single-strand wire, with the benefit of being somewhat kink-resistant. This means you can potentially reuse the same rig after multiple strikes.

November:

The mahimahi bite suddenly slowed down dramatically. Large schools of flying fish and small aku were no longer an everyday occurrence. Instead, large schools of rainbow runner seemed to infest the waters. While the mahi strikes were rare, when they did bite they would either be very small or very large. Shibi and ono continued to bite, though less frequently. Near the end of the month, high winds and rainstorms started becoming more prevalent, and unpredictable thunderstorms started rolling in. The opelu on the NW side also became much more difficult to find and catch at times, making for tough fishing some days.

December:

Heavy rains, big surf, high winds, thunderstorms shut down the windward side of the island most of the month. Even the leeward side had its share of bad weather. We fished in good weather windows on the SW side of the island and managed to have some of the best fishing of the year. I pulled off my first shibi + mahi + ono combo in one trip, and the 37 lb bull mahi was my new PB.

Holoholo: Fishing the Calm Before the Storm

August 24, 2021 By Scott Leave a Comment

Big Island kayak fisher Shea shares their best outing yet, right before a storm was supposed potentially flood the island.

Shea:

The ocean on the windward side of the Big Island was crystal clear and flat as a lake and winds were dead calm through the work week, and the remnants of Hurricane Linda were supposed to pass by on Sunday, so my buddy and I decided to head out on Friday. Even with the full moon and a sub-par fishing forecast, we figured maybe the incoming low-pressure system would turn the fish on. We launched in the dark and immediately noticed that the water had some “morning sickness” as the surfers say. The winds also started blowing onshore 5-10 mph with higher gusts, so going out to the grounds was slower than usual. We got out to the bait zone just as the horizon was lighting up with hues of red and orange.

*The only time I hooked Opelu that day. Hooked 4 but one fell off right at the kayak.*

It wasn’t long before we started passing some massive schools of taape or some other bottom fish. Experience has taught me that sometimes the opelu will be close by. Sure enough, a cloud of bait spanning 25-75 feet deep soon came into view. I was able to hook four on the first drop, but only managed to get three onto the kayak. I decided to take my chances and head out deeper to catch the dawn patrol. I sent my first opelu out on a 44 lb wire stinger rig and slowly pedaled out over the drop-off. As I passed over into deeper water, the fish finder came to life with marks from the surface all the way down to ~150 feet. Some of the marks had the telltale cloud shape of opelu, so I dropped my sabiki rig down hoping to pick up a few more.

*A school of Rainbow Runner destroyed my sabiki right after, but managed to land one just as something took off with my opelu!*

Something much stronger than an opelu immediately started screaming drag in short runs from my bait rod, and as I was fighting what would turn out to be a rainbow runner on my 10 lb test sabiki, something grabbed my live bait and took off on a short run. I tightened the drag on my Penn Spinfisher VI 8500 in an attempt to set the hook, but whatever was on the other end had come off. Thinking either my bait was gone or my line cut, I focused on landing my little rainbow runner, and just as I was brining it onto the kayak, my live bait rod bent over and screamed in its rod holder, listing my kayak over to the right. I guess my bait wasn’t gone after all!

*First time seeing one of these ninjas right next to my kayak.*

Whatever was on the other end put up a decent fight, but it had obviously burned a lot of energy in its initial run. After a few minutes of tug-of-war, the fish was within 20 feet of my kayak, but I still couldn’t see it in the dark water.

*It’s really hard to take a good photo of these long fish on a kayak*.

Suddenly, the fish broke surface right next to me and I realized that for the first time in 7 months of kayak fishing, an ono (wahoo) was within reach of my gaff! I sank a rushed kage shot into the back of the fish’s head, then readjusted and got a decent stab clean through.

**Zoom** in to see the stinger hook caught right in the roof of the mouth.

The ono curse had been lifted, and the stoke was real! My Hobie fishbag was not nearly long enough, so I radioed my buddy and asked if we could stow the fish in his. Turns out he was also hooked into a scrappy shibi ahi (yellowfin tuna). Nice double strike!

*Chunky uku that ate my next bait immediately and really high up in the water column*.

The fish finder screen was still lit up, and my ono would have to wait until my friend was done with his fish, so I decided to quickly tie on another wire stinger rig and get my second bait out. Not even a minute after letting my second opelu swim out, something grabbed it and I was on again! The bait couldn’t have been more than 50 feet down when it got eaten, so I figured it might be a shibi or another ono. After a brief but intense fight, the biggest uku (green jobfish) I had ever hooked broke the surface! My kage actually bounced right off of its skull so it took a few tries, but I was able to get the point to stick and wrestle it aboard.

*Unmistakable two-toned and sickled shibi outline!*

I tied on yet another wire stinger rig and sent out my third and final opelu, then slowly made my way back to where I’d hooked the ono. I had passed over some promising looking bait schools while fighting the uku, so the plan was to try pick up more bait and perhaps give some to my friend. At the time, he was improvising using a live 2 lb rainbow runner and trolling out deep. Before I could even find the bait school, something devoured my last opelu and took off on a screaming run. After a couple decent runs, the fish started coming up easy and I saw the sillhoute of a shibi circling under the kayak.

After a fair amount of struggling, I rushed my kage shot, lost my grip, and watched in disbelief as the fish took off with my spear sticking out of it!

*Luckily, he came back up with the kage still inside!*

Luckily, the shibi came back up quickly and even still had my gaff in it. Nice easy and free lesson to be patient and wait for a clean shot, especially if the fish is hooked well!

*These guys are a plague while trying to catch bait, but great fun on the jig!*

My friend had managed to catch another opelu while I was fighting my shibi, so we decided to give the area another drift. With no baits left in the tube and not much energy left to pedal around and look for more, I decided to drop a 120g Majorcraft Jigpara slow-fall vertical jig into some promising marks on the sounder. After what must have been 7 or 8 missed strikes, I finally got a decent hook set into something. It turned out to be a rainbow runner slightly larger than the one I landed on my sabiki. There must have really been a lot of these guys out there.

After landing it, I looked over and saw that my buddy’s rod was bent and he was battling something. As I pedaled closer, I could see the long silver outline of an ono circling around under his kayak. Double shibis and double onos! Definitely one for the books and I don’t think either of us will be forgetting this day’s action anytime soon.

Here’s the video action of the story you just read:

Holoholo: Live Bait and Vertical Jigs = Mixed Bag

June 11, 2021 By Scott Leave a Comment

Shea started kayak fishing 3 yrs ago, briefly on an Ocean Kayak Scupper Pro, soon after, moving up to an Ocean Kayak Prowler 15. He built his safety awareness in the confines of Hilo Bay, unintentionally flipping the Scupper Pro twice and found the Prowler 15 to be a much more stable fishing platform. He has only been fishing offshore for 3 months, mainly on a 2015 Hobie Revolution 13, but attributes his rapid success to the years of learning how to catch live opelu outside the bay as well as hours of watching kayak fishing videos on YouTube and receiving tips from the kayak fishing community. He fishes on the Big Island with Coach Haru when their schedules match up. I asked Shea if he wouldn’t mind sharing his most recent outing with us. Here’s his recap, with video of the day on the bottom of this post.

Shea: The surf on Hawaii Island’s east side was flat – 1 foot and winds were forecasted light and variable all through Memorial Day, so my friend and I decided to launch at 4:30 AM. We reached the fishing grounds just as the horizon was lighting up and started searching for opelu to use as live bait. It didn’t take long before we started marking large bait balls feeding 25-50 feet down, and I dropped my home made sabiki rig baited with HiPerformance Lures “fish sticks” and managed to pick up 6 baits before the sun was even up. On previous trips, I had only caught 1-2 opelu after hours of trying, so things were off to a much better start than usual! We moved out into deeper water and passed over huge bait balls that weren’t biting, so I decided to drop an 80g jig that Haru had given me on a previous trip. Within the first 10 cranks of the very first drop, I hooked into a fish that doubled my Tsunami Trophy jigging rod and peeled the 40lb braid from my Penn Slammer III 5500 in long, powerful runs. It didn’t take long for what I’m pretty sure was a good sized Ulua to find some structure to cut me off on.

I tied on a 120g Jigpara Slowfall and dropped again, immediately hooking into something that felt much smaller. It turned out to be a 2-3 lb Uku, and I decided to let it go to and put out my first live opelu on a wire stinger rig in the hopes that some predators might be hanging around the bait schools.

I let out ~100 feet of line and set the drag on my Penn Spinfisher VI 8500 as light as it could go to mimic the “liveliner” function on other reels. After 45 minutes or so of no action in spite of many promising marks on the fish finder and a couple drowned baits, I decided to switch to straight 40lb fluorocarbon leader and hooked another live one through the nostrils with a 5/0 Gamakatsu Live Bait hook. I was still free-spooling this bait out when line started flying off way faster than I knew an Opelu could take it. I gave it about 5 seconds before clicking the bail over and tightening the drag down to set the hook. After a few good runs and a heavy pull that made me think I had a shibi, the fish started giving in and spiraled up to the surface. I was surprised to see a chunky 19-lb Kawakawa float up on its side. I sent out another live bait, then dispatched and bled the fish for ~10 minutes.

Just after stowing the fish in my fishbag, I noticed some promising marks on the bottom ~170 feet down, so I dropped the jig and pulled up a 4-5 lb omilu. After taking a couple pictures, I tossed him back to hopefully become a reef donkey someday.

As I was dragging my bait back up to the ledge, I felt the telltale tugs of something grabbing my opelu and quickly flipped the bail open. After a few seconds of letting line fly off the spool, I closed the bail and tightened down again and the first run of this fish was much faster and longer than the kawakawa’s had been. After five minutes or so of tug-of-war, I got my first view of the fish ~50 feet down and briefly saw the sickled outline of a shibi before it took off on a run straight down. Another five minutes of pumping and cranking later, the shibi was exhausted and surfaced, giving me a chance to hit it with my home made kage gaff. Not wanting to take any chances, I sank my handheld hook gaff into the fish as well and pulled it aboard. This was definitely my largest shibi so far, weighing in later at 29-lbs. I brained and bled the fish out and stowed it in a Hobie fishbag behind my seat.

At this point I had what I thought were two live baits left in the tube, so I gave one to my friend who had just lost his last bait to what we believe was an ono. I tied on a wire rig hoping to use my last bait to try for an ono, but the last bait had a busted lip from my damashi and had drowned. I sent it to the bottom on a 4 oz bank sinker, hoping for a shot at a bigger uku instead. After drifting around for a while, my rod bent over slowly as if I was hung up on the bottom. As I pulled the rod out of the holder, line started ripping off the reel and after a seven minute battle, a small ulua came up to the surface. Not the uku I was hoping for, but it was a nice fight. With two fish already in the bag, I decided to release this fish after taking some pictures.

After previously fishing the windward side in 6-foot swell and pouring rain and being unable to catch more than one or two baits, this trip really stands apart and will probably stay with me for some time. It’s not often that the east side is calm as a lake, so I feel super lucky that we got this break in the weather. I gave away most of the fish to my friends and family and made sashimi, tataki, and poke with the remainder over the course of the following week. The kawakawa meat aged especially well and still tasted great even six days later.

-Shea

Check out the video: