Hawaii Nearshore Fishing

A community of fishers sharing knowledge and Aloha

You are here: Home / Archives for kayak trolling

Is there a Fall offshore kayak season? If so, I think it started…

By 8 Comments

I’m not sure if the nearshore pelagics like ono, mahi mahi and shibi (ahi under 100lbs) are more common in the fall, or if it’s just that the winds have finally dropped and more folks are fishing, but there have been a lot of reports on social media of kayak fish caught.

I got word that one of the kayakable spots was holding opelu in relatively shallow water, and with the winds light and surf down it was time to go! My partners couldn’t make it so it would be a solo session, under safe conditions.

My opelu catching skills continued to let me down so after more than an hr of searching for them, I put on a fresh, store bought opelu and slow trolled to 400ft. I crossed bait marks but nothing hit the opelu. Turned around and dropped to the bottom at 375 ft, brought the bait up a bit and something grabbed it and headed strongly back down.

With the frequent head shakes and unstoppable runs, I’m pretty sure it was an ulua. I fought it for more than 3 mins before the line parted. It felt lighter in weight than sharks I landed but much stronger and angrier. And while I think I could have eventually landed it, I would have let it go so it could give the shoreline guys some action. If you look at the photo of how my front hook was cut off, you can see that the 40lb fluoro was chewed and the line has a split end. Since this hook is snelled and the rear hook should be behind it, the knot didn’t come undone, which is what I originally thought when I saw the curly end!

I trolled another fresh opelu back to 100ft and finally I got a high speed strike. The fish pulled my rocket launcher rod holder down and the rod knocked my GoPro cap into the water! The Action Hat floatation did its job but by the time I wiped off the GoPro lens and put the cap back on, the fish had swum off with my bait. I’m thinking what hit was a pelagic because the rod holder would have had to be pulled down with a lot of force, and the clicker screamed for a couple of seconds.

More uneventful trolling went by so I dropped down a fresh opelu at one of the uku holes. Sure enough, tap, tap, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. The fish fought spastically all the way to the top and I was thrilled to see what I thought was a PB (personal best) uku.

The rear VMC 4X inline hook had just caught the tip of the uku’s upper lip and popped free when I jiggled it. Super lucky hook set!

I put down another 12″ opelu that immediately got chopped up but maybe the bait was too big for the other uku? Refrozen opelu just got hage bites so I made my way into the shallows and never found the opelu school. I later heard that another kayak fisher put the time in, found the opelu and caught a 25lb ono!

The uku taped out at 21.5″, exactly tied for my PB. I love catching uku cuz they are challenging to hook, fight hard, and fit nicely in my fish bag, unlike long, skinny pelagics.

I’m hoping we have more light wind days and my partners can free up from their responsibilities to help me find those opelu!

Finally, we were able to safely fish the deep!

By 7 Comments

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.