The forecast was calling for 6 to 8 mph West wind, which really means 8 to 10 mph at least. That’s right at the max we can handle so I planned to kayak fish within 1.5 miles of shore, no deeper than 100ft, and was hoping to find another shallow water uku. The fish in the shallows are generally smaller and manage to pull my opelu off, even biting clean through the body, and still miss the two hooks. I often go through all my baits without hooking anything.

So the primary goal was to determine what was stealing the baits. I was hoping they were small uku that just couldn’t swallow the hooks, but realistically thought they were other smaller snapper type fish like toau and wahanui.

I jury rigged my backup GoPro Session 4 in a $15 waterproof housing, to hopefully slightly point down and not tumble too much in the current. I wouldn’t know if anything meaningful was recorded until I got home and viewed the videos on my computer. Robert was joining me later so I headed out to find spots to video. Because it rained hard the day before, the water looked really murky to 60ft out, and I didn’t know how clear the water was on the bottom, in deeper water. I lowered the camera down in a few spots that had marks on the fish finder and wasn’t expecting much useful footage.

The camera seemed to stay upright without spinning much but dropping and retrieving on my jig rod meant I couldn’t fish at the same time. I soon tired of recording spots and grabbed the damashi rod when I was over what looked like bait suspended near the surface. A shiny 6 inch fish came up but it was a baby uku! This is the second one I caught recently, and Robert later caught one too, so that looks like a great sign for the uku fishery.

I couldn’t hook anything else on the damashi so I dropped down a fresh opelu in about 70 ft of water. I could feel the tell tale taps of hagi but then line got pulled off the reel. Shallow water uku? The fight was really jerky and the fish didn’t take any more line but I was still hoping it was a small uku. Nope, it was the dreaded black hagi with the blue lines, barely hooked on its top lip, that came to the surface with the rest of his gang. With baby uku and hagi coming to the surface, that told me there were no large predators around.

At this point my kayak was being tossed around by the West wind and the rolling South swell. Whenever I looked down to set up my gear I felt queasy, which rarely happens on the kayak. I paddled to the 1.5 mile mark to try to escape the hagi onslaught and try to clear my head . The fish finder lit up with marks near the top and on the bottom. I slowly lowered the camera one last time, to hopefully record bait near the top and reef fish clustered above the rocks. Then I stowed the camera for good and dropped another fresh opelu down. This time I felt a few hard tugs and when I checked the bait, the middle of the opelu was missing. Dropped the sad looking bait down again and something picked it up and ran fast for about 5 seconds before the hooks pulled. I tried to return to that spot after drifting off while rebaiting, and dropped another fresh opelu down. This time I hooked something that ran slower but stronger, and I was on the dreaded Shark Sleigh ride. Feeling queasy really made my arms tired and 7 mins later I got free and found myself in 180ft of water.

Robert called me on the VHF radio while I was battling the shark and was checking bait spots on his way out so I shook out my arms and paddled in to meet up. He’s a master at recognizing opelu marks and dropping down on the moving school and soon enough had 3 in his live well while I continued to strike out. I declined his offer of a livey and he trolled his bait deep while I worked my way into shallower spots to try to get out of the West wind. In 60ft of water my last frozen opelu got yanked a few times, then I hooked a heavy fish that shook its head frantically. I was thinking good sized uku but was stunned to see the biggest, ugliest hagi I’ve ever personally seen.

Robert’s live opelu were attacked by aha immediately and the washing machine conditions out in the deep got him feeling sick also, so we both headed in. He was still able to catch 2 more opelu when he passed over good marks.

At home, I looked up the hagi, thinking I had caught a state record, but it turned out to be a “fine scaled triggerfish” that grows much larger. Then I looked at the video I captured. The visibility was pretty good in the deeper drops and the camera stayed remarkably stable. The bottom structure was much flatter and harder than expected, and didn’t have the boulders and caves I thought the fish needed to congregate. I did see the herbivore reef fish but also saw opelu higher up in the water column, and in the last deep drop, there was a school of large fish (more than 3 feet long!) so astounding I had to pull stills and send out of for confirmation. The plan now is to note what is being shown on the fish finder, then drop the camera down and see what really is down there. That should fine tune our understanding of the fish finder marks.

What’s funny is that the underwater footage didn’t help identify the bait stealers, instead I was lucky enough to hook the culprits. I now think that the light “tap, tap, tap” bites are hagi but when I hook an uku in shallow water, that uku came in and took the bait from the hagi. On the next trip, I plan to drop the camera down where the sharks have been. Hopefully the sharks don’t eat the evidence.