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3rd time’s the charm for halalu fishing?

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Thad, Frank and Erik wanted another go at the halalu; Kelly couldn’t make it.  This would be Erik’s 2nd attempt and Frank’s and my third attempt.  Thad had done a lot of halalu fishing in the past but only once recently, when he took Frank and me for our 1st lesson.

Since Frank’s CHL Minnow with a red bead worked so well the last time, I purchased those and some other halalu necessities from Charley’s.  This time Ed gave me more halalu pointers and I was beginning to think I could do better with the proper technique and equipment.

The starting tide was a little lower than the last time but would be rising very quickly since we’ve been having so called King Tides for more than a week.  The bite was a lot slower than our previous trips and Thad, our Halalu Hammah, had to work to catch the first fish on his home made flies.  Frank joined him and began hooking up with the purple obake CHL minnows, and actually overtook the Hammah!  I entered the fray and eventually caught one with the purple obake minnow.  Hmmm, maybe this isn’t so hard after all?

Erik started with a combo fly and grub offering and hooked something that pulled drag off his small Shimano budget reel he had just picked up from Nankos this week.  The fish took him through the line up twice but Erik managed to steer it away from us and after a 6 minute scrap with a 2lb leader, skillfully landed a 13 inch white papio!  He tagged and released it to distance himself from second place on the Tag It leader board.

I went back to whipping for halalu as Thad and Frank were hooking up every few minutes.  The tide rose, the bite slowed, and Thad tried different fly patterns and soft plastics.  Frank stuck with what worked for him and kept jigging the CHL minnow with the right-hand-on-the-blank-fast-cranking-with-the-left-hand technique.  I tried to copy his style and was failing badly.  I hadn’t had a nibble in an hr, with only 3 halalu in the bucket. I gave up, walked around, took pictures, drank water and watched the guys jig.  Erik was struggling too so we tried to cheer each other on.  I even had Frank try my rod, and I tried his. His soft, telescopic 6 ft rod had a nice, soft whippy action when jigged high up on the blank. My old, graphite whipping rod didn’t flex at the top of the rod. Aha! That’s my excuse! I stopped fishing again but resumed to try different retrieves that I’ve seen other regulars succeed at. None worked. In the last few hours Erik and I didn’t catch a single halalu.

True Halalu Hammahs can stand on water! Halalu pile circled in red.

The tide got really high where only the two Hammahs continued to fish, with water rushing past their tabis.  The other regulars had given up and gone home, and it was time for even the Hammahs to quit.  Final count for this challenging bite: Frank had 32 (only his 3rd attempt at halalu fishing, what a natural!), Thad had 27, I had 3 and Erik caught the largest fish but no halalu.  Technique definitely matters when the bite gets tough!

This may be my last attempt at Halalu Fishing!  Hope you enjoyed the posts.

 

2nd Halalu attempt – getting better

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After my disastrous first attempt at halalu fishing with a small bait caster, I tried a slightly larger, better bait caster and had a similar disaster.  I guess these reels weren’t meant to throw 4lb test line in windy conditions.  I don’t own a small spinning outfit so I thought I had a way out to avoid any further halalu embarrassment.

But the guys wanted to go again so I asked my dad if he had a small reel and he pulled out a Stradic 1000FH.  My dad’s a dunker, not a whipper, and has an assortment of Penn SS reels so I was stunned that he’d have a light line, early model Stradic. After cleaning it up, it spun smoothly.  The lightest action spinning rod I could find was the 6.5 ft Daiwa graphite rod I used off my surfboard in the 80s.  It had been in storage most of that time. The guides were corroded, and the epoxy wrap finish had peeled.  I couldn’t even make out the model number or see what it was rated for.  But the guide rings looks smooth and it passed the ‘swish’ test so I cleaned it up and mounted the Stradic 1000FH.

 

Loaded the reel with 4lb test mono off the bait caster and the rig felt pretty balanced.  Next, I tied a bunch of 3lb test leaders so I wouldn’t have to make leader at the spot, in the wind.  Lastly, I cut some strips thinner than the pre-cut ones, since that seemed to be that the other regulars were using the previous time we went.  Looks like I was set to go.

Frank and I got to the halalu spot and were thrilled to see a smaller crowd than the first time.  Even though I was using my old spinning rod, it felt strange to cast such light line in a confined space.  Frank starting emulating Thad’s shake-the-rod-with-the-right-hand-above-the-grip-and-crank-with-the-left-hand technique and started catching fish! He caught 5 in rapid succession, and a regular there started asking him what he was using as a lure.

He was using a short stubby soft plastic lure that looked like a bait fish made out of the same material as my strip, but I wasn’t getting bit.  Resigned to copy that rod on the hip, shaking style, I was surprised to actually catch a halalu.  On my next cast a fish broke my hook off and I put on a slightly shorter pre-tied leader.  I couldn’t get bit again so I put Frank’s bait fish lure on.  It was still slow, and Frank was landing fish after fish so I changed to the longest leader I had, maybe 6ft.  With that and Frank’s lure I caught another fish as Erik joined us.  It was Erik’s first time halalu fishing, and he started off with a fly, then a small clear bodied grub and tried various jigging techniques. Erik got a halalu with the rod on the hip style but it was a slow go as the tide rose.  I changed back to strips and maybe caught one fish.  Went back to the bait fish and actually got bit when the lure was just falling to the bottom! Meanwhile, Frank was quietly putting fish in the bucket.  The aha and omilu knew Frank was the high liner of the day and attacked his halalu. He had an omilu on for about 20 seconds before it broke his 3lb leader.

Part of my many problems was I’d hook a fish, and then let the guys know I finally had one on, then admire it in the water and see if something would attack it.  By then it would shake off.  But our second outing was way more enjoyable than our first since we weren’t breaking lines and retying in the wind.  Frank and I had to leave Erik. At that point Frank had 26 halalu, Erik had 3, and I had a whopping 5.  After we left, some old Japanese halalu ringer showed up and Erik learned from the master, using a strip lure and not the bait fish lure. Erik caught 7 more halalu in a short span to end his first day halalu fishing with 10. I can’t blame my equipment this time.  My dad’s old reel on my old whipping rod did the job.  Guess I’m just a slow learner.

 

1st Halalu attempt ever!

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The halalu have been in for a while and Thad invited Frank and me to join him.  Thad hadn’t halalu fished in years, but went a few days prior and the bite was pretty good. Frank and I hadn’t even witnessed halalu fishing, let alone attempted to whip for them. I had been avoiding halalu fishing like the plague after hearing how crowded and tense it could be but we had hoped Thad’s spot wasn’t heavily fished during the week.

Frank and I didn’t have the requisite light gear but he acquired a small old school Shimano rear-drag spinning reel and soft telescopic 6 ft pole.  I didn’t have any light spinning gear so I tried to make do with my smallest bait caster that I only used a couple of times before. I was leery about using a bait caster since they aren’t designed to throw light baits and light line, but this was all I had. I mated it with a lighter bait casting rod that I wade fish.  All my bait casting rods have fast tapers made to whip heavier lures so lobbing a light weight would be challenging.  Put 4lb test on it and loosened the mechanic brakes and tried casting a 3/8 weight in the back yard.  With a lob cast I could get 20 to 30 ft at times so I hoped it would be good enough since the halalu were supposed to be close in.  The one halalu-friendly feature of this small Calcutta 50 was the small retrieval rate of 12 inches per crank.

Layton at Charley’s Fishing Supply set me up with the hooks and soft plastic strips we needed, and gave me some basic halalu fishing pointers.  He explained that I could buy a block of the strips and cut them to the size I wanted, but cutting them cleanly wasn’t an easy process.  I opted for the pre-cut strips and planned to shorten them by cutting them in half with a knife.  The 3 colors he picked out were the popular ones for this phase of the halalu season.

Frank and I got to the spot and Thad was already landing his second, third and fourth halalu for the day.  The small school was positioned in a way where Frank and I couldn’t easily reach it without getting in the way of the small group of fishers so we spent the next hour or so just practicing our casts with our small gear.  Frank was able to dial in his distance and accuracy but I was having trouble casting into the head wind.  In order to get the distance I needed, I had to cast hard but the weight got hung up in the air and my reel overran.  Every 4th cast or so I was having to repack my line on the spool. Not good.  The school eventually swam within range and Frank and I cautiously cast our lures out.

The school was often beyond my reach but once in a while we’d be jigging in an enticing way and feel a weight at the end of our line, and then a pull.  Thad warned us of the fish’s soft lips so we tried to gingerly reel the fish in.  Frank landed the first one and we had a quiet celebration as the other fishers kept their game faces on and cast, jigged and retrieved.  I got my first also, and noticed the other guys were using 1/2 egg weights so I went up to that size.  I could cast a little better but it was still really hard to cast with distance into the wind and not bird nest.

In the meantime the other fishers were catching halalu every few minutes and Thad switched to one of his homemade flies after he landed enough for on the plastic strips to be used as live bait. With his frenetic fast jigging/slow retrieving style, he quickly became the high liner of the day. He even scrapped with a couple papio that took his halalu before his light line parted. I hooked a stronger fish, probably a slightly larger halalu, and my 2lb leader popped at the swivel.

poor little reel will go back into storage scratched up

Tying another leader with the tiny #14 hook in the wind was painfully difficult with my aging eyes!  I tested my knots and broke the leader twice.  And the wind blew the piece of leader out of my hands a few times.  Meanwhile the strong side winds knocked my rod down and my little bait caster slammed hard.   I was on the sidelines for at least half an hr and was seriously considering quitting.  Frank was beginning to add halalu to the bucket and I thought of filming the action but halalu locations are so secretive I decided against that.  I put on a 3/4 oz weight and got back into the action.  With that weight I could reach the school but the half a strip I was using was just catching small halalu that were dumb enough to fall for my faulty presentation.    Frank’s line unspooled in a tangle and he had to start all over again, in the wind.  All told, he and I probably spent half the time tying lines and waiting for the school to come in front of us.

But while I was hating my inability to deal with the fine line, small hooks and inappropriate fishing gear, Frank, true to his ever-positive persona, was embracing this new fishing experience.  Thad had caught enough and let us try his light spinner setup with homemade fly.  I couldn’t get bit but Frank landed a fish on it.

 

 

 

 

 

We ended the day as the bite slowed, with Frank catching about 8, I struggled with 4, and Thad had enough where he was able to add to Frank’s catch and keep enough to feed his family and freeze some for bait.  These are the halalu Frank cleaned, deep fried and sauteed.  He and his wife enjoyed their dinner and they had halalu sashimi the next day.

Thad seasoned his fillets with grated ginger, green onions, lemon and shoyu.  He and his wife ate some and he took a portion over to his parents as a special treat.  He’ll also salt the rest of the halalu and freeze for bait to be used later.  Nothing was wasted, all was enjoyed.

 

 

 

I’m trying to heal my bruised ego and attempt to catch halalu again.  It turned out that the small reel I used was a very poor caster, even with 3/4 oz weight. I’m gonna use a larger, smoother bait caster and a top shot of 4lb test. That reel casts 1/2 oz weights on 15lb test line with ease so I should get the distance I need. It does pull in 25 inches per crank so I may have to slow my retrieve down a bit.   Not sure if the drag and gearing can be forgiving enough for weak line though.  Since 2lb leader got bit but was too fragile for my rough style, and 4lb leader stifled the bite,  I got some 3lb leader, gold hooks and blocks of strips.  The other fishers using strips had custom cut their strips so that they were thinner than the pre-cut ones and about 1.25 inches long.   I’m learning that these little details matter to a fish with excellent eye sight that feeds on small micro organisms at night.

Frank and I have a lot to learn about halalu fishing etiquette and technique, and IF I continue to fish for halalu, I’ll eventually share some how-tos with you all.