Caught my first shibi ahi ever, and a kawakawa to boot! Totally unexpected.

September 29, 2025 By Scott 10 Comments

It’s been 2 years since I caught a pelagic (migratory fish like tunas, mahi, ono, etc) and I had kinda given up on trying after so many recent attempts where my live opelu were just dog boned (grabbed in the center and eventually let go) by fish not big enough to swallow the 10 inch bait.

I’ve been perfectly happy using my 3-hook damashi (sabiki) rig and dropping jigs when the sabiki rig was broken off by big fish.

But in last week’s short window of light to moderate south wind on the Windward side, I went back to the area I had recently fished, hoping to get more kagami papio and uku. (Here’s the kagami post, and here’s the uku post from the last 2 trips). The tide was flat and the unusual south wind may have put the fish off their feed. Sonar marks weren’t very good and the big damashi strikes were absent. The only good species I caught was a small yellowspot papio that I considered keeping but was really too small to get much meat out of.

I checked some other spots on the slow return to shore and caught an opelu, by accident. I kept it alive in my footwell but it was beginning to weaken so I put it out with a sliding 2 oz tungsten weight to get it down near the bottom. Eventually an aha (needlefish) left pin pricks all over its body and it was near death as I pulled up to a usually productive opelu spot. I was gonna change out that dying opelu with one I had just caught, but figured the opelu would just get finished by another aha.

The opelu weren’t there and neither were the normally present bottom fish but suddenly my reel started screaming like I’ve only heard once before, when an ono hit on the South Shore. Ono had been caught in the last few days within a few miles, but this strong running fish dove deep and out, and took line in surges. Even though I had never caught a shibi (yellowfin tuna under 100lb), I strongly suspected it was one since friends have caught them there in the early hours in the past.

I had my drag set slightly looser than normal because I didn’t want to lose this fish. It pulled me in a semi circle near some structure and stayed down 50ft until I finally broke it’s spirit. After about a 7 min stressful fight, I could see yellow sickles and fins! Spearing it with my kage gaff was a blooper reel as I kept missing the kill shot and ended up inadvertently bleeding it by the throat.

It looked huge to me as I strained to get it on board. I (over) estimated 25lb, and it was a struggle to safely put it in the fish bag behind me, with so much slippery blood all over the place. I have to learn how to do that without sitting side saddle and putting my feet in the water!

The remaining opelu had died because the water in the footwell was thick with the shibi’s blood. Not expecting any more action, I put that out on the weighted rig and 2 minutes later it went off! This fish felt smaller than the first and I fought it with a higher drag setting. It turned out to be a kawakawa that was foul hooked on its belly!

Since it came up upside down, I just grabbed it by the tail and lifted it into my yak. More blood in the deck! The south wind had gone up over 15mph at this point and I didn’t want to risk flipping over as I tried to make room for this fish in the full fish bag, so I paddled in ’til the wind was calmer before bagging it.

I could not believe my good fortune. After trying for years to catch a shibi, which are known to only be fooled in low light and stealthy rigs, I caught one with a perforated opelu on a weight, then followed that up with a kawakawa hooked in the belly. One theory shared by a passing jet skier with live opelu, is that the water clarity was bad in areas these fish were normally caught, and they moved down to where I was, to be able to see the bait. These were the first fish to test the Phenix Black Diamond Rod and Avet MX Raptor combo, and the combo said “is that all ya got?”.

The 18lb 12oz shibi was easier to clean and fillet than the 13lb kawakawa, because the shibi was a little firmer and had more defined sections to quarter. It also had a lot less blood meat to remove. God is good!

The conditions came together for an Epic shallow bottom fishing bite! (Story and video)

June 11, 2024 By Scott Leave a Comment

I’ve been correlating Solar Lunar bite times with my catches and the action has seemed to be much better during those periods. Last week, the New Moon fell on a rare June light wind day and I planned to fish the 12:00pm to 2:30pm major bite time to see how good it could be.

The water was so calm at 9am that the bite was initially slow on the damashi rigged with Completely Hooked Lures Minnows but I landed a chunky toau (blacktail snapper) and some baby uku before getting the rig got busted up. I was surprised to bring up an opelu in the blind and moved up from the 12lb damashi rig to 15lb, and trolled the live opelu with a 2oz weight out to 220ft.

Something took the opelu and pulled line for about 20 seconds before releasing the bait. What came back was from a horror movie; a headless opelu stripped of its skin, hooked on the rear hook.

What could suck the head and skin off and not get hooked? Since the remains looked like a skinned opelu fillet, I dropped it back down and something slurped it up and eventually rocked me.

The frozen akule I put down was ignored, so I dropped the 15lb damashi rig on a good mark in 200ft. It got picked up and busted off so I upgraded to the heaviest rig I had, a 25lb rig. At that point the major bite period was starting so I dropped that 3 hook rig down with high hopes and something heavy and strong for the light jig rod pulled some drag and bent the rod. What came up was a 3.5lb white papio and 2 fat taape (blueline snapper). The bite slowed in the deep and I wanted to see how good the shallow bite at 100ft was, so I made my way back in.

The 25lb damashi rig wasn’t scaring off the fish, and an uku and weke nono aka weke ula came up together on one drop. But even that damashi rig got busted off.

Here’s some highlights of the damashi action.

Since bigger fish were hitting, I tied a 60g green/gold jig to what normally is a damashi setup and dropped it to the bottom. A couple lifts and bam, a spirited weke nono was on. As long as I was dropping on an “active mark” (a sonar mark indicating moving predator fish), the jig got bit. The fish were still biting at 3pm and it was hard to leave the best jig bite I’ve experienced but I still had 2.5 miles to travel so I cranked up my Bixpy motor and headed in.

Here’s some highlights of the jig action. Major bite time on a New Moon is legit!

Holoholo: Epic kayak fishing day

June 23, 2023 By Scott 1 Comment

Oahu Holoholo kayak angler Grant Taura shares his best outing to date. This one just happened to coincide with a kayak tournament.

Grant: Most of the time I have a game plan when I fish. On this particular day, our club Oahu Pelagic Pirates (OPP), which I recently joined, had a mini tournament event. Our club leader, Max Reyes, caught a Kawakawa the week before and it was the only fish that came up. That was the original tournament date. Since it was “merely” a Kawakawa and the only Pelagic that came up that weekend, he graciously gave up the win and the tournament “redo” was planned for the following weekend.

Leading up to any fishing day, there is a fair amount of planning that goes on, starting with weather conditions. Things we factor in are wind speeds, gusts, current, current direction, time current shifts, tides, swell sizes, etc., and more importantly location. Richard Yuen had been doing his research and was stuck on going to this particular location which I wasn’t to thrilled about. The whole week he was pleading his case. He sounded convincing as Richard always does. I reluctantly agreed on the location all the way up to our launch which was at 3:30am. I was still not feeling it. It was a mental struggle for sure.

Our goal is usually to pick up a few Akule (goggle eye) before sun up for live bait just in case we don’t pick any Opelu (scad mackerel), which is our favorite live bait of choice at sunrise. I’ve been finding out that Akule can be just as appealing as a live bait. Three of us, Richard Yuen, Tommy Tran and myself were able to pick up Akule. Game on! At 5am the Akule bite had come to a halt. We started to head to the Opelu “spot”, putting out live akule. Around 5am we heard “hooked up” from Tommy over our radio, which is usually our call out to let each other know that we hooked up to something. Hopefully that something is a fish and not a shark or any other species besides a fish. One thing good when fishing with buddies is that in case you need help, someone is there to help in an emergency or help land a monster fish. Tommy landed a 19lb Shibi after his battle in the dark. What was awesome with this fish was that it was his first Shibi, which is funny because he has landed the elusive Ono and the rare Sailfish from a kayak. Go figure.

Me and Richard, on the other hand made the pedal to the Opelu spot at sun up. Lately the Opelu have been biting prior to sunrise so we like to be on the spot at or before sun up. During this time of the year it can be difficult to pick up Opelu. We have been struggling over the last several weeks. When the Opelu bite time arrived I wasn’t able to grab any in our normal spot. So I headed to a couple of locations where I have seen them before. At one of those spots I was able to pick up a big fat one. Over the last couple of months I have been learning a lot about target areas I should be checking out. Not specifically the location I was fishing but what to look for in the water, under the water, tides, moon etc. Fishing as I have come to know is a lot of luck but you can increase your chances by understanding fish behavior, eating habits, environment etc. It also requires the right equipment, skill and a lot of patience and perseverance.

Taking what I have learned, it was time to test it out on this location. I got out to the area I wanted to try and sure enough at around 7:45am I took a strike. At first I thought it stole my bait, but I could still feel movement in my line like the Opelu was still alive so I set my rod back in my rod holder and then my line took off. I set the hook and the fight was on. I could see the fish on my fish finder but I noticed a mark coming up to it from the bottom, I assumed it was the tax man, I opened my bail and allowed the fish to get away from it. Getting “sharked” or “taxed” can happen from time to time. That seemed to have worked. As I was fighting the fish I could feel tail beats which I learned from watching Devan from his Where’s D-Ahi? YouTube videos. It was likely some sort of Tuna species. I was hoping that it was a Shibi. As I hit my leader and I could see color and it was the target, Shibi. I knew it was probably going to be my biggest Shibi so far by the length of the fight and the weight I could feel when fighting it. I pulled out my pedal drive as it got close. We do that because Shibi and Tuna species tend to go in circles under your kayak and the line can tangle and create havoc and you could possibly end up losing your fish. I got my Kage (spear gaff) ready and when it was in range, I speared, circle gaffed it and pulled into the yak! It ended up being my biggest to date weighing in at 39lbs.

After putting the Shibi on ice, I let out an Akule. Within 10min I took another strike. I brought up a 19lb Shibi. This one only took about 5 min compared to the 16 min for the 39 pounder. It wasn’t as dramatic but still a prize for me. With two Shibis in the bag I decided to start heading towards our launch point slowly trolling a third Akule. After a couple of hours of nothing I decided to start heading in. On the way in I wanted to pass another spot that I thought would have action. By that time I had come closer to Richard and Tommy and within a safe distance where we wouldn’t get tangled. Just as I was pulling nearer to Richard I had seen the signature jump from a Mahi Mahi. Richard was hooked up. I watched him handle that Mahi and watched it do circles around him before landing it. The Mahi Mahi ended up weighing in at 11lbs. Richard was now on the board. Soon after that Richard had landed that Mahi, I took a strike and as I was setting the hook, I heard Tommy say “hooked up” then “double” at the same time Richard “hooked up” The action was insane. I ended up landing my third Shibi weighing in at 25lbs. Unfortunately Tommy had lost both his hook ups and Richard had lost his due to a cut line. The day was over for me as I needed to get the fish on more ice. I only carry 20lbs of ice when I go out.

(L to R) Richard Yuen, Grant Taura, Tommy Tran.

As I was heading I heard Tommy say “hooked up” again. What day we were having. He landed his second Shibi of the day. It weighed in at 12lbs. Epic was the best way to describe the day. Best day on the water fishing for me hands down.

Here’s the video of the 39lb shibi.

It’s better to be lucky than good – doubled up on the pelagics!

June 5, 2021 By Scott Leave a Comment

Late Spring / Early summer is the best time to catch pelagics on live opelu. Problem is catching opelu during this time is really hard because the opelu know the pelagics are hunting them. Best shot at the opelu is at the crack of dawn before the pelagics are on them but I’m not even driving to the launch at that time. Still, I was hoping to catch some hungry, stray opelu and drag them around in the deep.

I decided on the Windward side because the winds were lighter than the South side, and hit the water at 8:40am, 3 hrs after sun rise. Bait was scattered and sure enough they didn’t want to eat my damashi. In fact, the only thing falling for it were the deep water lizardfish. No nabeta, no opakapaka. The conditions were so nice that I decided just to run the Bixpy motor on the lowest speed and drag the damashi out to 300ft just to see what kinds of marks would show up on the fish finder. At 200ft something latched onto my damashi hooks and I was completely astounded to see two small, yet perfectly sized opelu come up. It was after 10am! I put one on my live bait rig and tried to keep the other alive in a juice bottle, head first, changing its water every so often.

I tried catching more opelu but failed so I went out to 300ft (a whopping 3 miles from land) and turned around and let the current push me in while I tried to hook something else with the damashi. Sure enough, with my damashi on the bottom in 280 ft, the opelu was taken and the line was going out fast. It probably took more than a minute to bring in my damashi, so the fish had run out a lot of line. I was really hoping that it was my first shibi (small yellowfin tuna) and it had some frantic head shakes, but when it came up I saw silver and sadly thought it was a kahala. Instead it was a tired kawakawa because I had fought it with so much line out, so when I bled it over the side it actually died a few mins later and the blood stopped flowing.

I had drifted in and was at about 250ft when I dropped the second, now dead, opelu down. It got slammed near the bottom and this fight was a strong up and down battle. I put the Avet SX Raptor in low gear and grinded it up. Because the fight was so short, the kawakawa came up green and took longer to get in position to kage. It stayed alive while being bled over the side, and after 5 mins I got tired of leaving a bloody trail for sharks to follow so I bagged in my my Large Hobie kill bag. There wasn’t room for another big fish so I headed into the shallow drop off to check on the reef fish.

The last time we fished the drop off was in April and the water was a chilly 74 degrees. This time it was 77 degrees and the damashi got hit on every drop until the hooks and lead were broken off. Misc reef fish (lai, moana, hawk fish, etc) were released. Looks like this year’s inshore season is about to go off.

I feel so blessed (and lucky) to have stumbled upon the two opelu the way I did, and be able to put them in front of kawakawa. The kawakawa, being big, bloody fish required a lot more special handling than a 5lb uku. I had to stop to buy ice on the way home to supplement the Arctic Ice in my fish bag, and had to cut all the darker, bloody meat away from the filets to maximize taste and shelf life.

But the recipients of the fish ate ’em within hours of receiving it and said was similar but tastier than yellowfin tuna and less *fishy/bloody* than aku. That was a testament to the instructions Kelly provided (bleed well, ice well, clean all the guts and dark meat out right away, wrap in paper towel and change the towel when it gets bloody).

Live opelu is way better than fresh opelu!

February 7, 2020 By Scott 2 Comments

Old timers have told me that opelu is the “magic bait for pelagics”, like oama is the “magic bait for papio”. Since frozen oama still works when slow trolled for papio, I’ve been buying opelu from the fish market and trolling and bottom fishing that off the kayak. It hasn’t worked that well trolled (one 11lb mahi last spring) but has worked for uku (and a lot of bait stealers) near the bottom.

Boaters and kayakers who catch their own opelu have been telling me to save money and just catch my own but that’s much easier said than done. I’ve been striking on when others have been bringing up multiple opelu and was kind of just going through the motions of dropping the damashi down until I finally caught an opelu on the last trip. That made me realize it was possible to catch one or two for bait, and since fishing is all about confidence and sticking with it, I was determined to catch opelu and hook something good with it. To increase my odds I was using the expensive store bought Hayabusa damashi flies with gold hooks.

You can see the damashi fly springing free

I went out this week on an overcast, slightly drizzly day. It was about 9am when I reached the bait grounds but because the sun was blocked it looked like dawn. My version of dawn patrol. The fish finder marked a lot of small fish near the top of the water column and I dropped down, felt something hit but it was pulling harder than opelu should. Baby aha – ugh. Next drop was another aha. I’ve never caught them on the damashi fly before and was gonna find another bait pile but decided to drop one more time. This time something smaller was on, and because my opelu confidence had dropped due to the aha, I brought it up slowly and when it got to the surface it was a perfect sized 8 inch opelu that popped its head out of the water and shook the hook! Arrgggh…

The school moved and I spent another 45 mins in different spots trying to catch them. Gave up, slow trolled a 9 inch fresh opelu that got taken near the bottom and the hooks pulled once again. So I started fishing the 9 inch fresh opelu cut in half, with two hooks to see what I was missing. Sadly, I landed 2 big taape and a hagi. So that’s probably what has been stealing my dead opelu, not the small uku I was hoping for. Disillusioned, and now fighting a 10mph south wind, I came across a promising bait school in the area where I’ve lost ulua and sharks but hadn’t seen a lot of bait before. The bait stealers had depleted my fresh opelu supply so I decided to try for opelu on the damashi again. To my surprise I got bit on the way down! This one was bigger than I preferred but stayed on the hook and was dropped back down with two hooks in it.

I slow trolled it around and nothing bothered it until I went back to the spot I caught it. It started getting nervous and then something ran with it for a few seconds and ripped a 4 inch wound in its stomach. That was probably the small uku since hagi and taape wouldn’t be able to catch the opelu and leave such a big hole. I dropped the now dead opelu back down and the bait stealers picked it apart.

The south wind had settled down but there was a lumpy west swell that was bobbing me around, enough to come over the side of the kayak at times. The bait ball was still around so I dropped the damashi down and caught another 10 inch opelu. 3 opelu in one day if I count the one that fell off at the surface, my personal best! I put the opelu down, maybe 30 ft off the bottom and went back to opelu fishing.

The opelu got nervous, and the rod began to bounce a little as line was pulled off an inch at a time. This went on for about 10 seconds and I gave the pred time to turn the big opelu around and swallow. Then the pred took off, pulling my rod under water and I had to clear the bow of the kayak. The fish was strong and heavy but I was able to stop it with a strong drag setting, so it wasn’t a shark. The fish was turned and I was short pumping it back so it wouldn’t find the reef like last week, and then about a minute and a half into the fight it felt like the hook slipped and got stuck somewhere else. Then the fight got really jerky like the fish was getting attacked by something and it transitions to the heavy pull of a shark. 15 seconds later, the leader above the first hook was cut fairly clean with a bit of abrasion above the cut. I was running the GoPro on my cap and shared the video of the fight with friends (sorry too many landmarks for general viewing). They think that maybe a big uku ate the big opelu and made its initial strong run, and was coming in when a shark or sharks mauled it.

I like that the bait stealers leave the live opelu alone and only something fairly big will grab it. Also like that you can tell when it’s about to get hit because the opelu starts jerking the rod. So in the end I bolo’d once again, but am getting closer to hooking and landing the prize fish on live opelu.

Wrecked by ulua, bait pulled off by preds but underwater camera may have caught the likely suspects!

January 30, 2020 By Scott 6 Comments

The day started off with calm winds and Frank, Robert and I met on the water. Robert was on the maiden voyage of his Solo Skiff and working out the kinks. Frank, on his Hobie Revo 13, was initially trying to catch opelu, but when we all struck out, turned to bottom fishing, then trolling. The tide was falling to a slack tide, not the best conditions for pelagics. I quickly dropped the GoPro down twice from my Trident Ultra 4.3, in deeper water (between 100 and 130 ft) than the previous two times and trolled a fresh opelu to my first bottom fishing spot.

Something bit it behind the head and missed the 2 hooks. Better to bottom fish where I can watch the rod tip and feed the fish some line.

Wind chop picked up mid-morning and bounced us around a bit but not before I missed what felt like 2 uku that couldn’t quite swallow the head or tail and get hooked. During this time, Frank had a big strike on his trolled dead, fresh opelu that broke his wire leader! The weather conditions were getting worse but I was determined to land at least one fish.

Frank started to make the long pedal back in, and Robert made loops around me with his motorized skiff, as I finally hooked a good sized fish that ran for about 10 seconds, parallel to shore, before shredding the braid main line. That’s never happened to me before. Usually sharks take their time as the head to deeper water, and uku run hard initially but then tire out.

I tied on a swivel to my braid, then a 5 ft – 40lb fluoro leader to the swivel and dropped another fresh opelu down. Got another pick up after a lot of taps and this fish ran for about 5 seconds and cut the leader between the two hooks! I radio’d the guys that I lost two fish to cut line but I don’t think they believed me.

Rigged up again, dropped another fresh opelu down and hooked something strong and fast that took at least 200yds of line because I initially had the reel in freespool to ensure the fish could get hooked without feeling much pressure. With most of the line out, I tightened down the drag and the fish pumped against the pressure and broke the braid main line. This fish was on another level compared to shark battles I’ve had so I assumed it was ulua. At this point I was getting really frustrated with all the gear lost and hooks left in fish (they’ll eventually rust out) and still hadn’t even seen what was biting.

Then I realized we were fishing the slack bottom tide when the lazy sharks and ulua come out to look for an easy meal. I dropped the GoPro down once, hoping a shark or ulua won’t take a swipe at it and resumed bottom fishing with fresh opelu. A shark hit the bait, ran the way sharks do and shredded the braid again. I began to suspect that my braid had been pulled through the reef by the first fish and was now weakened.

The wind and chop were getting hard to combat so I let the current push me into towards shore and had my remaining baits pulled off. Nothing to show for it except for pics of mauled opelu. Or so I thought.

Look what showed up on the deep drop videos. I had to look at the videos frame by frame and then extract a still and optimize it. Felt like a fish detective.

The bigger fish in the back is following two other fish. What do you think they are?

On the last camera drop where all the action was, this uku swam up to the GoPro with the blinking red light and turned away slowly. I think this is circumstantial proof that small uku and papio are taking my opelu and missing the hooks!

For extra credit, what is this fish which was down in 100ft? Hint: Look at the shape of the fish closely.

It took a village to catch my first kayak ono

September 30, 2019 By Scott 9 Comments

Our experienced deep water kayak fishing buddy Robert, who shared his catch reports and tips on this website, had offered to show Frank and me how to catch catch and troll live opelu. Our schedules and good weather didn’t line up for months but we finally got the green light.

Frank and I got out earlier than Robert, and we used our fish finders to look for bait schools but all I could bring up were reef dwelling rubbish fish. We were very relieved when Robert joined us and we meekly followed him to deeper water as he searched for the tell tale opelu marks.

Frank on the far left, Robert on the right

Robert pulled up in an area that has held opelu before and started paddling around in concentric circles. It took a while for Frank and me to catch up to him, given that we’re both old enough to be Robert’s dad! We eventually drifted over the thick bait ball, but these opelu were deep and Frank and my deep water damashi skills are lacking. Robert ended up putting five 12 inch opelu in his live well, while Frank and I just got tired arms pulling up weights that were dropped 300ft down.

After all that travel time, interrupted by rain squalls so heavy we couldn’t see land, we only had about 15 mins to troll the live opelu in the deep before we had to make the long paddle back to shore. Robert gave us each a healthy, hard earned opelu. My VHF radio was on the blink from being soaked in the rain so I stayed near Robert, and Frank gave us some space. With his live opelu out, Robert tried to add more to the live well and I kept within talking distance.

My rod tip dipped a few times as something was playing with the bait, and then the ratchet screamed! The drag was fairly loose and yet it was hard to get the rod out of the rocket launcher in front of me. The speed in which the line was being pulled was unlike anything else I had hooked before, including a small mahi. The fish dove first and then swam away from us. I had a 40lb Seaguar Blue Label fluoro leader on a front and rear hook rig, and since the fish was staying on, I assumed it was a shibi (ahi under 100lb) rather than a razor toothed ono. My main line was 30lb Sufix 832 braid, which Robert felt was a little light, but after catching way too many sharks, I knew it could handle this fish that felt faster but lighter.

I eventually got it within eyesight and we saw a silverly long shape. Ono? When it broached upside down on the surface I could see how lucky I was. The VMC 4X size 4/0 inline single hook I use as the rear hook of a double hook setup was firmly locked in the left corner of the ono’s jaw. That was keeping the line away from the teeth. Robert had stayed with me for the whole fight and was now encouraging me to bring it within range of my kage. Since I had only kage’d an uku and a mahi before, I pulled the spent fish really close, and the kage Frank had made for me found its mark.

Robert passed me his telescopic, floating Promar gaff, and I used that to pull the fish carefully onto my lap.

Click on this to see the rear hook (2) in the corner of the mouth and the front hook (1) dangling free. The grippy **BUFF® Elite gloves** prevented the fish from sliding overboard and my buttery smooth, hi-speed gold **Shimano Trinidad 14** did the job once again.

The ono was still alive but not putting up too much of a fuss. To be safe, I knocked it out with a Promar wooden bat, and yet it was still hard to keep from sliding off the kayak. Robert suggested tail wrapping it before putting it in the 36 inch Hobie fish bag behind me. That was the scariest thing of the whole deal, sitting side saddle with my legs in the bloody water, trying not to capsize the kayak. Felt much safer with Robert and Frank there if things went badly. At this point we were in 700ft of water!!!

With the fish secured, the guys trolled their live opelu in but nothing else obliged. At our landing spot we helped each other get our kayak carts positioned and made our way to the shower. I lagged behind, struggling with my lousy 20 yr old cart, one of the first ones ever sold, and the guys saw that and assisted me. I’m seriously thinking about getting the Wilderness System Heavy Duty Kayak Cart Robert reviewed.

Another kayak guy left his hose connected for us, and gave me his left over ice since he hadn’t caught much. Frank did the same with his ice, so I didn’t have to buy ice on the way home. I just bring reusable Arctic Ice blocks, not cubed ice because I don’t expect to catch anything big!

First fish I was able to measure with the Rapala Retractable Ruler!

The ono measured 48 inches in fork length and my fish bag was only 36 inches long, so that last 12 inches was never chilled. I rushed to clean it as quick as possible and put the chunks on ice in a cooler.

Click to see the **VMC 4X Inline hook size 4/0** locked into the corner of the mouth, and how the cleanly cut pieces of opelu fit back together

In its stomach I found 3 quarter pieces of the opelu bait so cleanly cut I could put them back together like a puzzle. Only the head was missing. How did the ono get hooked on the back hook, yet cut and eat the 3 pieces without cutting the line between the front and back hook? As Robert said, “it was meant to be”. I’m thinking maybe the fish bit the tail piece off and got hooked, and the rest of the bait was still attached to the head hook. It then ate pieces leading up to the front hook and stopped before cutting off that hook. That could be why my rod tip dipped a few times before it bent over.

However it happened I was super blessed to have been given Rober’ts live opelu and then have an ono not sever my fluoro leader. Thank you Jesus! Getting all that help on land from the guys and then being able to reach my wife before she drove home from work, so she could buy more bags of ice, it was like the guy at the shower said, “It takes a village to catch and process a good fish like that“.

We aren’t able to sell Promar products but fully endorse the nets, gaffs and bats we use as well as the great Promar-Ahi USA folks themselves. We’d love to sell the Buff Elite paddling and fishing glove but can’t because we’re not a “brick and mortar” store. Despite that I don’t kayak without that glove and will be buying a backup pair soon.

We do sell the VMC 4X inline hooks and I’ve found them to be strong, effective as a rear hook on bait or a lure, and very reasonably priced. I’ve never had one open up, even when landing big sharks. The guys and I are testing the Rapala Retractable Ruler, and so far, I’ve found it to be easy to deploy, shows up great in photos, and cleans up easily. We have one more in stock and if there’s demand, we’ll order more. Using Sufix 832 braid really should be a no-brainer. Since I’ve switched from the popular brand to Sufix 832 I haven’t had a problem with backlashes or break offs. The 30lb Sufix has proven to be strong enough to land 6 ft sharks, and a 49 inch 25 lb ono. 🙂

Red hot bottom bite on the kayaks!

March 18, 2019 By Scott 1 Comment

Fishing had been slow onshore and nearshore for the past two months due to the drop in water temps. It’s been warmer on land lately, so it was time to check for improved water conditions. My fishing partner Frank invited his friend Christine to fish off his Hobie Revo 13 for her inaugural kayak fishing outing, and Frank tied lines, rigged baits and provided safety support on his fishing SUP.

We couldn’t have picked a better day to take a rookie out to the deep. The waves were small and the wind stayed under 8 mph most of the day, and when the west wind did blow, it was countered by the east current that bumped the water but kept us from drifting much. There even was a small rising tide to stir the fishes’ appetites.

2nd, smaller shark. Photo by Frank, off his SUP.

My first 3 drops in 130 to 170ft of water resulting in instant shark hookups. Well, the first could have been a fish (wishful thinking) because it never stopped running and popped the uni to uni splice of my Sufix 832 about 75 yds in. The other two back breaking battles were confirmed sharks that I brought to color. The 3rd shark was bigger than the 2nd, and popped the line when it saw the kayak. I licked my wounds and paddled shallower, taking Frank and Christine with me.

Bait and small predators showed up on the fish finder at 80 ft so I put a 7 inch frozen opelu down. After some hard non-hage (triggerfish) tugs only the head came back. Next opelu resulted in a wahanui, my first at this spot but Frank has caught them on past trips. You can see why the Hawaiians named the fish wahanui, or big mouth. It’s a jobfish/snapper, related to the uku, or green jobfish, but can swallow much larger prey whole.

Frank changed Christine’s bait from oama to small opelu and the bite was on for her! She added a thick wahanui to the aha (needlefish) she had caught trolling. I dropped down another opelu and patiently waited as my rod tip went “tap, tap, yank, tap…yank” and the ratchet went off. The fish was shaking really spastically, and running but didn’t feel too big. I was thinking it was a small, angry aha but was stoked to see a small uku, hooked in its side, come to the surface. During the frenzy with the other bait stealers, it must have run into one of the hooks.

Meanwhile, Christine was hooking and landing more wahanui and a toau (blacktail snapper). I missed a few more fish that pulled line and missed the hooks. I even fed line in freespool to a fish that eventually was hooked but had swum into a cave. Soon we were out of bait and happily headed in with fish in our cooler bags.

A bunch of kayak fishermen had landed before us and I noticed one of them had an Ocean Kayak Trident 4.7, the big brother of my Trident Ultra 4.3. His name was Robert, and it was only his second outing on his Trident (was my 2nd outing also) but he did a lot better than I did. He caught a few live opelu and fished near the area I was doing shark isometrics, and caught an 8.8 lb uku, his PB. Robert also had a kawalea (deepwater cuda) and some aweoweo. All really good eating fish!

For her first kayak fishing outing, Christine really did well. She and Frank planned to share the catch with friends and family. I did brief Frank on the perceived concern of ciquatera poisoning regarding wahanui and toau, but those two species probably aren’t any “hotter” than papio and uku. The fish weren’t too big, and the consumers weren’t people who ate a lot of reef fish, so they should all be ok.

Sure looks like the Winter Doldrums are over and it’s time to get out and fish hard!

Live oama is still King but frozen halalu got the big strikes

October 5, 2017 By Scott 3 Comments

The early morning forecast was for light winds and small waves on the Eastside so Frank and I launched our watercraft and put out the thick live oama, Kelly and I caught last week. Frank headed down the coast, staying just behind the breaking waves, and I used my fish finder to survey the deeper reef behind the surf line. We kept in touch via waterproof walkie-talkie.

The tide was just beginning to rise so the bite was slow until it reached the bottom third. My line got stuck a few times and I was able to pull out the snag and retain my double hooks but was missing the oama. Finally it felt like a fish was on but the fight felt odd. A 10 inch yellow spot papio was hooked on the front hook and an 11.5 inch omilu was on the back hook. Gotta love the sticky sharp Gamakatsu Live Bait hooks. The yellow spot was probably trying to turn and swallow the big oama when the omilu got hooked trying to steal it from him. They’re doing their best synchronized swimming routine here.

I decided to try to tag them if I could them back in the water in good shape. Tagging one papio in the narrow quarters of my Scupper Pro is hard, two was quite a challenge, but the snag-free floating Promar net helped a lot. While I was tagging the second papio, Frank got a hit that pulled his live oama off.

Frank then landed an omilu on the live oama and a huge roi on frozen halalu, battling him for a long time. Then Frank and I both had our live bait pulled into the rocks or cut off our leader. Kelly paddled out to join us and I gave him the live bait bucket with the 7th live oama. I had one on my line and had used 5 to only catch those 2 papio I tagged. Not a very efficient use of the live bait. Kelly advised me to paddle up the coast towards the channel that’s fed brackish water, and he headed down towards Frank. They can safely fish much closer to the waves on their SUPs than I can, so they often fish together.

Kelly immediately caught an omilu on the outer reef and called Frank over. Frank converted his last 3 live oama to 2 lb plus omilu and then they both used halalu for some omilu caught and missed.

Going towards the stream outflow was the right call for me. There were weird plankton and maybe jellyfish blooms (I got a series of small stings on my ankles) and schools of larger bait fish being boiled on. I free spooled the last oama down and it was picked up before it reached the bottom. The fish felt pretty decent but ended up holing up in the rocks. I could feel it still on but couldn’t free it and eventually broke it off.

I hooked a frozen halalu in the nose and butt and let line out. Something tugged in rapid jerks and pulled it off. I put another on and this time it stuck… line screamed off the reel. You can guess what the fish was before you see it landed in this video. I followed it up with a small omilu on a halalu that I kept for the parents.

Trolling baits near the bottom was working really well so I wanted to see if I could drop a frozen baitfish down on my whipping setup and work it back. This failed miserably. The fish either missed the single, front hook or the bait fell apart after a few casts. At this point I realized I somehow knocked my walkie talkie in the water and it had floated away. I paddled back to the channel we had gone out of and waited for Frank and Kelly to see me since they were probably searching for me. Frank turned the into the channel and hooked and landed his biggest omilu, and Kelly missed two smaller omilu inside the break. Good, safe fishing day with the boys.

Here’s Frank’s catch. Look how big the roi is. With the understanding that roi isn’t that much more of a cig risk than papio, Frank filleted the roi and steamed it Chinese style. Said it was super ono. The omilu he shared with kupuna neighbors who rarely get to eat fresh fish.

Let me know what you think of videos. I’m still learning the basics of video editing, with a lot of help from Erik (@fishoahu) who has some killer action videos on Instagram.

Smaller moon, rising tide = more fish activity

March 1, 2016 By Scott 5 Comments

Last Wednesday, I kayak fished the deep Windward waters and didn’t even register a nibble. The nearshore fishing has been slow this Winter but that skunk really made me feel “kill fight”. Yesterday was forecast to have the lightest wind – best tide combination of the week so I made it a gear testing day, telling myself that the fishing was incidental. I took the old Scupper Pro out, which hadn’t touched water in more than 10 years, and used a heavier weight to keep the live oama down deep.

After the afternoon showers stopped, the wind completely died down. Not a fair comparison with the chop and slop conditions of the Aquaterra Swing’s last outing. I was worried the Scupper Pro would be tippy since it’s a lot narrower than the Swing, but because the seat sits lower to the water, it reminded me of sitting on a surfboard with my legs in the water. The Scupper Pro also paddled much easier due to its longer length and narrower, rounded hull. The Swing, in comparison, has a flat hull that feels like it’s pushing water, not knifing through it. The SP’s cockpit did feel cramped compared to the Swing’s, but I eventually got used to it.

There were a lot more tiny bait fish and suspended reef fish on the fish finder than last time. I braced myself for a strike on the trolled oama but none came. Hmmmppphhh. Well, since this was supposed to be a test of the Scupper Pro, I paddled further out than I had been fishing recently, enjoying the glide of the long, slender craft. The heavier fishing weight seemed to be keeping the oama down better, without getting hung up on the bottom. I slow trolled over numerous little bait collections but no predators felt like eating an oama with a hook in its nasal cartilage.

Finally something pulled the tip of the rod down a couple inches, then pulled drag. The fish seemed to be shaking its head but the vibrations were a little too frequent to be papio head shakes. I pictured an awa awa swimming in such a way that its large tail was slapping the line. Sure enough, after some powerful runs, I was able to short pump the fish to the surface. About a 4lb awa awa with its weird transparent forehead greeted me. I think awa awa pull harder, pound for pound, than omilu and whites, but once you get them boat side they’re pretty tuckered out.

It felt great to land a decent fish again. I dropped down another oama and a few minutes later something pulled some line off the reel. In my peripheral vision I could see a smaller fish leap out of the water. That was the first awa awa that jumped in the deep water, and it was able to shake the hook and gain its freedom.

Fish began to puddle on the surface and I expected more action but alas, the bite stopped. I took advantage of the glassy conditions by trolling through other promising spots, and dropped the flat fall jig down on bait pockets but nothing wanted to eat.

So why was there more bait and predator activity than last week? The moon was smaller, being 7 days after the full moon rather than just 2 days. And I was fishing the first third of the rising tide instead of the last third. The heavier weight was keeping the bait in the zone longer. And the glassy conditions made it much easier to fish. Why do you think it was better this time around?