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Wade whipping during the Stay At Home Shutdown

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Oahu’s Mayor Caldwell’s 2-week lock down had gone into effect this morning (8/27/20). Thankfully fishing in the water (wade fishing, diving, kayak fishing, boat fishing…) was still considered essential.

I took a drive down the Windward coast and there were a lot less shore fishers, but some were still standing on dry land or sitting in their trucks.

The tide was really high for most of the day, contradicting the steep rise and fall predicted in the Hawaii Fishing News Almanac. Guessing all that water was due to the King Tide phenomenon. On the way back from my scouting trip, it looked like the tide had dropped enough so I waded out to one of my reliable lure testing spots.

Started with a 3.5″ jointed rubber Vudu Mullet that got followed by not attacked. Maybe the kaku wanted a more aggressive swimmer? I put on the IMA Sasuke 120F with the clear body and lime/yellow top and was stoked on how that lure cut through the wind. On the second cast I hooked a kaku, turned the GoPro on, and got footage of the fish imitating a tarpon.

Then it purposefully leaned its head to the left to wind up and throw the lure to the right. Nonchalantly, it slowly swam away. So glad it waited ’til I had the leader firmly in my grip before it shot the lure sporting 3 treble hooks.

I reloaded, cast the Sasuke out again and caught a smaller kaku. Back to back! I let that kaku shake off before it got too close, and after that the bite went dead. There was a guy dunking near me, sleeping in his truck so he effectively cut me off from wading past him.

This was the first time I fished the Sasuke seriously and man was I impressed. The ball bearings roll to the back on the cast, and then roll forward on the retrieve, making it wobble and dart crisply. The 3 stock treble hooks are very sharp, going 2 for 2 on the hard-to-hook kaku, but be careful when you release your fish! The Sasuke dove more than 2 feet on a fast retrieve, but floated back to the surface when the line slacked. All you have to do is wind straight and hang on!

We still have the Sasuke in 3 color patterns in the Store. Sorry it took so long to test it.

Finally got a taggable fish!

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My last few outings have been plagued by rain storms, not enough water on the flats and a backlashed reel (met a guy on the beach that wanted to cast it). In contrast, my friends have been catching omilu and kaku on their JDM (Japanese Domestic Model) sub-surface lures we’ve been testing.  I really needed to get out of this slump and catch a decent fish.

A fairly big rain system was headed our way, and though, lately I haven’t done well fishing before the storms arrive, I was desperate.  I got to the test grounds an hr before peak high tide and there was only a foot of water to fish in. Worse yet, there was that reddish-brownish hairy limu floating throughout the water column.  Every cast brought in limu, on the hooks and even the knot that splices the leader to the main line.

I was carefully guiding my sub-surface lure through the obstacle course of limu and just after it snagged a clump a hungry kaku slammed into it.  The kaku was a little guy but was a very welcome sight.

 

After snagging more limu, I put on one of my favorite top water lures.  It got a boil right away, but snagged limu also so I swapped it out with the trusty black/chrome Shimano Waxwing.  The hooks on the Waxwing ride up so it normally catches less limu but even that got fouled.

The tide was almost at its peak, a little more than a foot high, and the limu was still crowding my normal fishing spots.  I tried a sandy mud spot with less rocks and seaweed just to get a few limu-free casts in.  Nothing hit the Waxwing there so I put on a longer sub-surface lure my cousin had brought back from Japan.  I knew nothing about this lure and just wanted to see how it cast.

Well, it cast very well due to its tungsten weights that release on the cast and roll back to cause the lure to fly tail-first.  The lure hit the water and a kaku instantly jumped out and came down on the lure! I’ve had omilus do that but never kaku.  The fish was large enough to tag so I kept it in the water attached to my line and got my tagging gear out.

 

15.75 inches and healthy.  2 kaku tagged in the summer were caught 3-4 months later and grew 3 inches.  We rarely see kaku over 20 inches inshore and it’s believed they head out to the open ocean and follow the opelu schools around.  Hopefully this one is recaptured with an interesting story to tell.  My next casts with that lure brought in clumps of limu. Turns out it dives to a max of 2 feet deep.  The only way I could catch fish with it was the way it happened. Throw it out and hope a fish pounces on it before I move it!

2 kaku in one day was better than I had done in a while on the flats so with pressure off I tried an odd looking lure I recently bought at half price on eBay.  It cast very well for its weight but did nothing as I reeled it in.  I had to work really hard to make it walk a little.  Despite being thrown where bait was getting attacked, nothing showed an interest.  My bilingual fishing friend, Masa, translated a Japanese web page and informed me that it was a “wake” bait and was supposed to be retrieved smoothly, creating a V-wake behind it. I guess that type of swimming action imitates a bait fish motoring at the top of the water in distress.  I’ll try to remember to try it again where bait fish are being wounded.

While I had been fishing, the guy that tried my bait casting reel the last time came by. He’s become a friend but won’t be casting my reel for awhile.  I ended the day walking back to the car with him.