Matthew is one of the Next Generation anglers who has been learning the ways of the Lawai’a (Hawaiian fisherman) by respectfully watching and learning from the uncles. He’s a very active fish tagger and has a large following on Instagram (@Shorefishing_Oahu_Style). I had communicated with Matthew over social media for almost 2 yrs and thought it was time we should fish together!
Matthew:
It was a good day with light winds, and a favorable tide, so I invited Scott, the owner/editor of this blog, to come out and fish with me at my sardine and halalu spot. The spot that we went to is usually junk unless the bait comes in.
I got to the spot before Scott did and quickly spotted the dark blob in the sandy area that meant there was a school close to the beach. I got my flow-troll and rope and tied it to me as I waded in the clear water. The school was only around 20 yards from shore which was good, but what wasn’t good was that I was barefoot and my feet were getting bust up from the scattered sharp rocks.
There’s a sardine in Matthew’s left hand if you look closely.
I used the smallest size damashi (which is basically a dunking rig with 6 hooked flies on it). Size 4 will work, but size 3 is the best – any larger and they wont bite it. You could also snag them, but they get smart after a while. I was averaging one sardine per 3 casts which isn’t that bad. When Scott arrived, he was whipping with a sardine-colored Shimano Waxwing Boy. The few predators that were busting up on the pile were smart enough to not eat his lures, unfortunately.
After I got enough for bait, I rigged up a live sardine rig, hooked a rather large sardine in the mouth, and cast it right past the pile exactly when an Omilu blew up on the school. Not even 3 seconds after the Sardine hit the water, my rod bent and a good sized 14 inch Omilu was on! It was a rather short but hard fight. I tagged and released the Omilu for it to hopefully get recaptured someday. If any of you are interested in tagging fish, you can visit fishtoday.org/tagit. After multiple attempts to catch more big fish, but to no avail, I switched back to sardine fishing. At around 5:00 P.M., they really started biting. I was getting one or two almost every cast. Then something really big came in and went bananas on the pile. Every minute, the whole pile jumped and there was a huge splash as the either big papio or small ulua busted the pile.
In the end, I caught 54 sardines, 2 halalu, and that Omilu. I ended up catching a decent Oio the day after and then another good sized Omilu.
The sardines are in, the Oama are starting to trickle in, and the Halalu are in if you know where to find them. The predators are often too smart to eat lures. Live bait is always best. It’s summer! Go gettem guys!
Matthew Ikeda
Instagram – @Shorefishing_Oahu_Style
Editor’s note: I’m amazed at Matthew’s ability to become such a successful fisher guy after only fishing for 3 yrs and just being in middle school. His writing is top notch and he even snuck in a bait status report. He might be “angling” for my job. But… he did make one mistake. He caught 53 sardines, not 54, because he insisted I try to catch one with his damashi rig. After I tangled the rig a couple of times because I reeled it through the top guide, I finally caught a dumb sardine that swallowed the hook and Matthew had to yank out the hook.