hobie revo 13

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!

Overloaded Scupper Pro in red, new Hobie Revolution 13 in orange.

Tropical Depression Paul replaced our normal trade wind high pressure system (my dad is a former meteorologist) so Frank and I launched from an eastside beach and threaded the needle through the breaks in the surf. Frank was pedaling his brand new Hobie Revolution 13, and I was struggling to paddle my overloaded Scupper Pro to the deep. The ocean was so calm we could hear the sound of water lapping on surface. I mistakenly thought I was hearing fish tailing! My fresh dead oama didn’t get touched so at 40 ft I put on a live oama and it got hit instantly. I released the 10 inch omilu and put another live oama on.

Frank was trolling a whole, frozen opelu on a wire leader with an egg sinker near the front hook and something big ate it in 90 ft of water. My fish finder was showing bait around there so I marked the spot as I got into GoPro view of Frank. The fish pulled doggedly, and spun him around a couple of times. Frank spotted a long, silver fish that looked like his first ono he got last fall, so he pulled out his homemade, brand new kage and speared it but the point kept bouncing off the gill plate and the fish would jump after each stabbing. Frank and I were both cracking up at his first attempt with the kage. Finally he safely secured his “ono” but on closer examination it turned out to be a kaku, later weighing in at 10.6 lb! Our fish eating experts have advised Frank that kaku is delicious but has been implicated in ciquatera poisonings. Small portions of the filet portion of a kaku this size should carefully consumed.

Seeing Frank’s action on a big bait, I pulled off my live oama, added a 3/4 oz bullet weight to my 1/2 oz bullet weight and put on a frozen halalu. I free spooled it down and because the winds were so light, the 1 1/4 oz weight reached the bottom. Just as I engaged the reel the line took off! The head shakes felt like a good size papio so I was surprised when a kahala, smaller than the papio I was picturing, surfaced. Not wanting to deal with worms and the small chance of cig, I released it. The kahala battled hard from the bottom, up to maybe 50ft, then got sluggish as it tried to depressurize. It swam off strong on release though.

I put on another frozen halalu, and Frank resumed trolling whole opelu as we ventured further out. At 130 ft I added another 3/4 oz bullet weight to my trolling setup, bringing it to 2 oz. The halalu got picked apart by hage so I knew I was getting to the bottom. When we reached 200 ft my bait took off horizontally, caught in a strong deep water current and probably never got close to the bottom. Frank was further out than I was and closer to a loud splash that sounded like a small whale breaching. The large creature did it again and it didn’t look like a whale! Frank said the shark had told us twice to leave his fish alone so we turned around and worked our way in!

The bottom quickly rose from 90 to 50 ft, and the fish finder picked up a lot of fish on those ledges. I dropped a jig down and before I could work it back up my trolling rig with halalu went off. The fish was still on by the time I stowed the jig rod, and I had a fun scrap with what I thought was a 4lb omilu but it only taped out to 15.75 inches at home.

With Frank’s big kaku and this omilu in my fish bag filled with Arctic Ice blocks and frozen bait, the front hatch area of my kayak was top heavy. I was trying to turn side saddle to reach behind me and the fish bag shifted and I came as close to huli-ing as I ever have! Thank God there were no waves to help push me over. I’ve been adding all kinds of stuff to fish the deep and my kayak is bogging down under the weight. Gotta remove unneeded stuff and place some things behind me to even out the weight distribution. Thanks Jon S., early member of the Aquahunters, for the suggestion!

Frank hooked a papio that eventually rocked him, and I had fish hit my trolled baits and pull drag, then take the bait. I’m guessing they were aha. The surf looked bigger and I couldn’t paddle quick enough to navigate the surf channels so I paddled really wide around the surf zone. Frank stayed closer to the waves, nimbly avoiding them with his speedy Revo 13 and patiently waited for me to plod in. By the time we reached shore, after paddling nearly 6 hrs, I was wiped out and cramped up from paddling my bloated kayak.

Frank’s inaugural outing on his Revo 13 was a complete success. His handmade rod and paddle tethers worked well and his custom kage did the job on the kaku. He said the pedaling was much easier than paddling but his legs did feel it the next day.

Propelling himself hands free, he was able to rig lines, drink water, follow the fish and even reverse to give himself space to land his fish. I could barely pull my yak onto the sand but Frank had energy to spare.

I didn’t get the deeper water species I was targeting but learned some new grounds and caught my first kahala via kayak. I also discovered limitations to the way my kayak was rigged and to my mid-50s body. I think a Hobie is in my near future.

Red hot bottom bite on the kayaks!

Finally, we were able to safely fish the deep!