Wind was light and the South Shore was the safest bet as a mega North swell was pushing through. To give our main spot a rest, Frank and I checked out an area we hadn’t fished in more than two years.

For 4 hours we dropped damashi rigs, jigged lures and trolled fresh, store -bought opelu. The only action was a small fish that hit the 100gm tungsten jig but unbuttoned on the way up. Out of desperation we baited the damashi hooks with a bit of opelu skin and then it was instant hagi with some moana mixed in.

Frank dropped down a “moose” moana that got pulled off his hooks and so I reluctantly baited up with a smaller moana. I’ve been told that moana is “uku candy” but I’ve never caught any uku on the red and black, chubby goatfish and was just using the moana as a “bonus line”. We were drifting out to deeper water and I was trying to catch better fish on the baited damashi. 5 minutes later, my moana bait got tugged, pulled in short spurts and dropped. A few seconds later it got picked up again and something surged for the bottom, then fought in a jerky, spastic way. The fish pulled hard but was stopped with a pretty tight drag so I began to get hopeful despite the fact that we had never caught any uku in this area before.

A good sized uku surfaced, a bit smaller than the PB uku last time. I netted and spiked it in the brain, so I’d avoid batting my new Garmin 44CV Plus fish finder.

While its heart was still beating, I pulled the gills and hung it over the side to bleed. Frank quickly caught another moana, put it down and began to pedal to where I got my strike but his moana was hit instantly. After a spirited, jerky fight, he landed his first uku ever! When he pulled the gills of his fish, the guts came out so he didn’t have to gut it on land.

The bite was on, and I put a small deep water lizardfish down that got pulled off while I had to take a phone call. Doh… Then we tried frantically to catch more fish to bait up but the offshore winds suddenly picked up and we had to scramble in.

Since Frank kept his opelu on ice instead of using it as bait, he enjoyed a fried opelu lunch following his delicious steamed uku dinner.

My uku ended up measuring 24″ (FL) and weighing 7lb. Interesting that my biggest two uku were caught this winter when uku is supposed most prevalent in the summer.

It had the milky white, creamy stuff that the previous big uku had. Coach Haru said that its semen, and is a delicacy in Japan. Maybe next time an adventurous eater might want to try frying that. I cut up the fish and shared with friends.

I’m stoked to know that uku do eat live reef fish, and will ration the expensive opelu. Frozen opelu gets quickly chipped away by hagi whereas a live fish normally can avoid the piranhas of the reef.