January had at least one day of light wind every week; which was unusual but appreciated. So with the swell down, I returned to my Eastside spot I hit the previous week, hoping 3-day old opelu would entice the big fish to bite. What I found was the big fish were absent again, and the damashi bite was very slow.

I trolled a dead opelu out to 280ft and back into the reef dropoff, for no bites. The baby opakapaka, about 9 inches, did jump on the damashi CHL Minnows but luckily decompressed so all could be sent back down. The normally annoying lizardfish and pesky reef rubbish fish didn’t bite, and I had to drift the opelu in areas I usually don’t fish, only to hook a pinktail hagi, and a huge roi that fell off the hook before I could kill it.

The hagi and roi were on a reef with less current and a higher water temp. Basically dead water with junk fish. The fish that hit the damashi last week were in an area with a lot of moving current and cooler water, but, with the tide being pretty flat, there wasn’t much to get those fish going.

So it appears that winter cold water + calm conditions + slack tide = lousy fishing. This applies to shore fishing also. Predator fish stage in areas of turbulence and current where they can ambush unsuspecting prey. Guess I have to pick a day with a big tidal swing if I want to catch something on these calm Winter days.