Hawaii Nearshore Fishing

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2nd kayak damashi attempt

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It rained really hard last week and I waited a day before attempting to kayak fish while the storm system was blocking the trade winds  Expecting brown water, I was stunned to see so much debris on the beach.  The brown tint extended a half mile out of the protected bay.

My fishing buddies couldn’t make it but since it was forecast to be the lightest wind day that week, I paddled out for more damashi training.  Taking the advice of friends, I brought 4 to 8 oz lead weights with pre-tied line, short 2-hook damashi rigs and Gulp grups.  The best thing about the gear was that it was stuff I had around the house.  The lead weights were from my grandfather’s pre-1970 shore casting days.

On the previous outings I had marked clouds of bait with my new Garmin Echomap 44CV in the 100 to 125 ft depth range but on this day a bait cloud passed under me at 55 ft.  I dropped a damashi rig with 2 small artificial fish skin hooks weighted by a 4 oz torpedo sinker.  The weight was heavy enough to sink straight down and after the second pull I felt a strong tug on the line.  The fish pulled like I imagined a strong opelu would pull, and assuming it was just a bait fish I was lifted and cranked fairly quickly.  There was a good bend in the rod and about 20 ft from the surface the hook pulled!  The fish had straightened the small damashi hook.  I was playing the 7lb test branch line, not realizing the hooks were so soft.  Both sets of fish skins were pulled off the hooks, just leaving a bead and bare hook.

I put on the heavier rig with the small squid skirts but the bait school had moved on.  Continuing on to 125 ft, I dropped down on small pockets of bait but nothing bit.  Giving up on the deep bait school, I put a Gulp grub on one of the two squid skirted hooks and paddled into the 70ft range.  When I checked the rig, there was a deep water lizardfish head, chomped up, hooked on the Gulp grub hook.  Shucks, missed whatever took that lizardfish.  Got another hit that ripped up that Gulp grub but didn’t stick.  I also diagonally whipped a 60 oz swimming jig unsuccessfully.

By this time I had been out for 2 hrs and hadn’t landed a single fish.  I was a mile from shore and the trade winds began to blow above 10 mph.  There was heavy rain in the valley.  Began to paddle towards the safety of the shallows and the wind really started gusting.  I was paddling directly into the 15 to 20 mph wind and the heavy rain had reached me.  It took 30 mins of hard paddling to cover the half mile distance to a more protected spot in the bay.  In 25 ft of water a small trumpetfish got hooked on the Gulp grub and I hastily unhooked it and resumed my paddle in.  The conditions were so treacherous at times that a boat came by to check on me.  That was comforting to know that some caring boaters watch out for the smaller craft.

The rain let up for about 10 mins and then another squall with strong winds came through and tried blowing me back out to sea.  I pulled my line in and made the paddle of shame back to shore.

Lessons Learned

  • Unstable weather can generate rain squalls, which can generate very strong winds.
  • When wind starts blowing out to sea, don’t stop paddling until you’ve reached safe water.
  • The damashi rig is much more effective when it can be fished straight up and down.
  • Fish the damashi with a light drag since the hooks are soft and two fish could be pulling against each other.
  • Adding scent or bait makes the damashi flies more attractive.

Well, I was stoked to hook something in the bait school even though I didn’t see what it was.  I’ll try tipping the damashi hooks with ika or shrimp next time, and may even drop down a frozen oama. And I’ll keep a more watchful eye on the weather conditions.

Happy New Year!!!

Thanks for reading the blog even though we’re beginning to stretch the boundaries of Nearshore Fishing.

 

Going further and deeper to extend the season

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In the past, our “season” has ended when the water temps cool and the bait leaves the inshore waters.  Knowing this end was near, we prepped the kayaks and SUPs to do some nearshore bottom fishing further out than we had previously attempted.

The first outing yielded our first kayak/SUP uku but we had to paddle in to safety against strong winds and deal with having to keep the kayak straight in following seas.  This was how that outing went.

After that successful but dangerous outing, we tried another deep drop off but the wind came up and was pushing us out to sea. We had to paddle for our lives to get in and were emotionally shook up from the realization that we would have needed to be rescued if we had become incapable of paddling hard for shore.

I had Go Bananas in Kapahulu add a rudder and some convenient bungee “trees” to my Scupper Pro, and I picked up a Garmin EchoMap 44cv fish finder/gps from West Marine on Black Friday.  My hope was that the rudder would make my paddling more efficient, especially in windy conditions, the GPS would take us to nearby artificial reefs and mark hot spots, and the more advanced fish finder would accurately tell us what type of fish were below.  I also got a Thule Hull-A-Port “J” style cradle to securely carry the second kayak on its side.

Our next outing was back to the deep water spot where we had gotten in trouble.  This time we picked a day with almost no wind, and not much swell.  The new fish finder/gps accurately told us the depth we were in, and marked what I think were fish on the bottom and a large bait school suspended from about 50ft to 100ft.  Nothing was biting our jigs and I paddled further out to mark more bait. I heard Frank yell “hanapa’a” but couldn’t see what he was fighting. He tried to talk over the walkie talkie while fighting the fish but I was just getting fragments.  When I paddled back to him, he was getting towed against the wind and current towards me!  The fish didn’t want to tire, and he was battling it on an ancient Penn 440SS which was definitely not made to fight fish of that size.  I shot video of the long fight and the very difficult landing process.

Frank will write up his recollection of the amazing, miraculous experience but here’s a preview of his catch.  We still can’t believe he caught a pelagic on only our 3rd deep water outing.  I jigged near the bait school for a few drops for nada and then we paddled in to take care of the prized fish.

 

On the next light wind day I was dying to return to the opelu / pelagic spot. Frank couldn’t make it but had designed and oversaw the process of fabricating a streamlined transducer rod and plate so I could hang the transducer over the side with as little drag as possible.  This thing is work of art!

I tentatively paddled out solo but was relieved to see so many boats around and helicopters above.  The bait school was deeper on this day, in 125 ft of water but again, nothing bit my jigs.  I even tried trolling jigs and swimming plugs “Frank-style”.

 

Happy enough that all the new equipment was working well, I let the wind blow me in as I steered with the foot controlled rudder.  At 100 ft I had a bite on the jig that came off. I assumed it was a hage but was still glad for that one bite.  At 80ft I hooked something that felt like a small hage and winched it up. I was stunned to see a nabeta hooked on the rear treble of the Live Deception 2 oz jig with its swim bladder popped out through its gill.  I marked the spot on my GPS and returned to it but couldn’t catch another fish.  I’ll have to return with a proper damashi-type of setup.

 

 

 

 

 

My friend and fellow kayak fisher, Haru, told me how to gut the fish but leave the scales on and scrub the slime off with Hawaiian salt, then salt and pepper it before deep frying, taking it out to cool, and then frying it a second time to crisp up.  My wife used a ponzu sauce and chilli pepper water Frank had given us, and that fried nabeta was ono with a non-fishy, sweet, soft texture.

So far the uku, ono and nabeta we’ve caught in deeper water have been much less fishy tasting than the papio we’ve been catching inshore.  Now I understand why boaters often prefer bottom fish to reef fish.

Instead of waiting for the bait fish to return to the shallows, we’re now gearing up to target the bottom fish and pelagics of the winter season.  Chee hoo!!