September through October has historically been the best time for me to kayak fish, since there’s breaks in the wind, the opelu are catchable, and the pelagics are still in close. Up ’til last week, the bad weather has kept us off the water but there finally was a break in the weather.

A heavy rain storm was expected to arrive from the South the following day, and while this morning on the Windward side, started off calm, there was a strong current running South to North.

I drifted over a big bait pile and my damashi immediately surged downward, but the wrong specie came up. Unhooking 2 lai (leatherback queenfish) without getting stabbed by the toxic anal fins was very sketchy (see the video below).

The next drop brought up 2 opelu, and the following brought up an opelu and a baby kawakawa! The kawakawa was too cute to keep so I let it go. When I had 5 opelu in the bait tube I put an opelu out on the surface line with wire leader and it got pulled off. Put another out, went out to 220ft and didn’t see anything so I turned around and went back to the bait pile in 120ft and picked up a small opelu.

Decided to check a bottomfish spot that has had the right species but not the right size. Going South against the now strong wind and current was a challenge and I had to use more motor than normal. On the way, brown boobies were diving on bait but nothing hit the opelu I was pulling behind me.

The bottomfish spot had action right away but the first fish was a too-small yellow spot papio. Next fish surged and broke the 15lb damashi clean off. So I put on a 25lb damashi and a small omilu and small weke nono came up. Still too small. It took some effort to paddle back to that Hot Spot, and then something strong hit that gave me hope, but alas it was a 2lb omilu. Released also.

When I got back to the spot again I hooked something in the mid-water column and initially thought it was a juvenile opakapaka but it turned out to be a lehi or rusty jobfish, which like opakapaka, is a Deep 7 deepwater fish. Much less common to catch shallow than the juvie opakapaka, and looks a lot like a wahanui, but in a lighter color.

With my Bixpy Battery more than half depleted, I checked the bait school again and my live opelu got erratically pulled for a while and then yanked off. The large slashing splash on the water led me to believe it was a large aha (houndfish) that attacked.

I turned for home and my Bixpy Battery died 0.7 miles from the launch. Luckily the SE wind blew me in.

A friend fished a wider area a few days later and got a small kawakawa, which is still slow for this time of year. Maybe the conditions are more like Summer still, with the warmer than normal water temps?

Here’s the video that recaps the day’s action.