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Deepwater tasty critters on the damashi

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Hadn’t been able to kayak fish for 5 weeks so when the wind forecast dropped I got my gear ready. Surf was too big on the south shore so I headed back to God’s Country, the Windward side of Oahu, land of plenny fish and nice people.

I wanted to catch some fish for some friends who had helped me out, and the most productive kind of fishing I was capable of was using the damashi for tasty critters. The wind was stronger than expected, at 12 to 15 mph, and the water was lumpy from the big south swell. It took a while to get out to the spot I found the last time, but the rudder mounted Bixpy jet motor pushed through the slop with ease.

I made a bunch of drops with two sizes of CHL Minnows, drifting around until I brought up a small nabeta. 1 in the bag! The second one came up soon after and then I drifted off the spot and couldn’t find them again. I went further out, made drops until I felt more resistance on the line than a nabeta could make. Juvenile opakapaka, or “paka pups” as we call ’em! Their swim bladder pops out on the ride up from the depths so even if I deflated the swim bladder I’m not sure they’re gonna survive. There’s no size limit for opakapaka but without a Commercial License I’m only allowed 5 “Deep 7” fish, so I bagged it and went deeper for hopefully larger paka.

Paka pup fell off the top hook and floated helplessly

A double of larger paka pups came up and one fell off the hook and floated away. I motored back to get it and it definitely couldn’t decompress and head back down on its own. I poked its swim bladder with a hook and left it in my footwell. It stayed alive but wasn’t too lively and its swim bladder was still distended.

Another double of paka pups came up so I went shallower to find the nabeta and to avoid catching more pups.

I felt a little wiggling on the line and up came a silver, slender fish? Opelu? Noooo… baby kaku! These guys were cute but still stink like the larger variety. Another came up on the next drop so I moved away from Kaku Kindergarten.

I’m partial to green shades of Minnows when fishing deep but the pink ones worked too

The wind has pushed me shallower and I started catching little boxy porcupine fish so I cranked the Bixpy up and headed past the Kaku Kindergarten. The first drop yielded a nabeta so I was on the spot! Then I got a double nabeta – woohoo! I’m now counting in my head whether I have enough of these deep water golden nuggets to share.

Then I felt a heavier fish fighting back and up came a blunt nosed deepwater lizard fish and a paka pup. Uh oh, I was past my limit and didn’t want to kill anymore of them so I headed in with 5 nabeta and limit of pups.

A really nice guy, camping and boating with his kids, helped me pull my kayak out of the water and gave me a brand new Hayabusa damashi (the expensive kind) when I told him I suck at catching opelu. The folks I meet on this side of the island still live life the old Hawaiian way. It feels like I’m being transported back in time when I’m out here.

The fish were small but my friends were able to get a taste of how good steamed opakapaka and fried nabeta can be. I’m hoping to get more pups when they’re bigger.

Kayak damashi action

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On an epic light wind day last week, Frank and Kelly SUP trolled for papio past the break on the east side and I went deeper on the kayak to try for opelu and hungry predators. The water was so glassy inside that the papio bite was tentative for the SUP crew but they scraped up a few 1 to 3lb omilu to take home.

I couldn’t find any opelu and nothing ate the frozen opelu I put down so I tried to salvage the trip by catching good eating fish on the Ahi USA damashi tipped with CHL Minnows and ika strips. Over the reefy transition to sand, baby kaku and nunu came up. Then 8 inch baby opakapaka began to mob the Minnow.

Finally I struck nabeta gold and even brought up a lai. The CHL Minnow outfished the strip of ika and didn’t attract hagi so I stopped using the ika.

On a calm day with minimal current and wave action, it was so peaceful to bounce the damashi on the bottom and feel the electric action of the rod tip.

I shared the nabeta with friends who hadn’t tasted the fish before, and gave the lai to Frank for grinds and lai skin. Good fun fishing in the deep.

-scott

Holoholo: Late Season 2019 Whipping Report

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Thad, our JDM expert and shoreline whipping enthusiast, provides this report in early October.

Thad: Like many years before, I wasn’t able to fish this season’s peak summer months for oama, halalū, or papio due to other important things going on at home.  Seeing and hearing of all the action my friends were having made me envious but I knew fishing would always be there and the next summer season would be just around the corner. 

Recently, I’ve been able to venture out to do my regular early morning fishing sessions and was expecting the predator action to be slow so I went oio fishing instead.  My friends were able to catch and release some legal sized papio while we targeted the oio so I wondered if the season had truly slowed down.  It was already the middle of September and the bait schools weren’t as plentiful but it seemed like the papio were still hunting inshore. 

The following weekend, I decided to devote my time whipping some CHL grubs Scott had given me to try.  It was a decent morning with five omilu landed and several more that came off.  Nothing big, but all legal sized ranging from 10 to 12 inches.  Were these the last remaining papio of the season?  Only one way to find out.

Two weeks later I decided to try my luck whipping some papio flies my friend Brandon makes for me, which I’ve had much success with in the past.  The result of this morning session was several more hits and misses, with a 10.75 and 15 inch omilu landed. My fishing partners also landed a 13 and another 15 inch omilu on grubs.  Still some pretty good action for October.

This past weekend I went on a solo mission – which is usually when the big ones bite right?  I noticed a small school of tiny baitfish darting around the shoreline as well as a small pile of oama.  The first cast of the morning with Brandon’s “Sparrow” fly produced a 10.5 inch omilu.  Several casts later, something blew up on the fly only a few yards out and took off.  There was no slowing the fish down on the first run.  Then I felt the fish pop off much to my dismay. 

I continued casting but whatever it was, it wasn’t around anymore so I decided to change it up and try a Mark White oama lure.  One the second cast, another solid hook up and short run before the lure popped out of the fish’s mouth again.  I like to change up my lures often so I went with grubs to see if there were any takers but no luck.  It was nearing the end of my fishing time so I switched back to the trusty Sparrow fly to cast as I worked my way back.  Sure enough, I got a few more tugs here there before I landed an 11.5 inch omilu to end the day.

Since I wasn’t able to fish the peak months of the season, I have no way of comparing the recent action to how it may of have been in June – August.  The recent action has been pretty good though, so I have no complaints.