I’ve been kayak fishing the Windward side for kau kau fish (goats, lai, nabeta, small uku etc) but wasn’t finding opelu, bigger uku, or pelagics. When the wind and surf dropped on the South side I went back to check my old spots. Those spots were overrun with small fish who pulled my frozen opelu off without getting hooked.

After going through more than 20 pieces (I ended up cutting the opelu in half), I gave up and put a live moana out. 10 mins later the fish got hit and a scrappy 2lb omilu came up, in 70ft of water. I’ve never caught an uku on a live moana despite its reputation as “uku candy”. I let the omilu go (you’re welcome Matt), and went 1 mile downwind to a spot I’ve hooked ulua on jigs, but lost them. Here’s the report when an ulua busted me off.

Squiggly horizontal lines started showing up about 20ft off the bottom so I dropped the pink 60gm tungsten jig down. I didn’t expect a huge fish since the jig is only 2.5″ but it got slammed by a fish at full speed, and the fish pulled tight drag off my reel smoothly. Right as I was reaching to turn the GoPro on, the line when slack. What came up was the curly cue “pig tail” of my 40lb flouro leader where it was attached to the Tactical Angler Power Clip. I had tied a Uni knot to that clip 2 trips ago on the water and maybe I didn’t cinch it down tight enough?

The SW wind picked up and I was now more than a 2 miles downwind from my launch/landing. There were still 4 out of 6 battery levels left on the Bixpy jet motor and I ran it at less than half speed and paddled along. 2 battery levels remained when I touched sand. Whew.

I have one more of those pink tungsten jigs in that prototype shape. This was the last time that particular jig was photographed, landing a lai on an earlier trip. I was working with an established international tungsten company to design affordable compact jigs to sell in the Store. They sent me a small set to try out and the jigs have gotten bit on every trip, from moana, lai, to ulua and kahala, but the company suddenly went MIA. I’m bummed because these were the best jigs I’ve ever fished. I’m now working with a second company to get their jigs in, and hoping they don’t disappear on me.

Thad, our resident JDM expert and whipping technician, suggests I use 8 wraps with the uni knot instead of the 5 I’ve been tying. I’ll definitely give that a shot!