Normally we can’t kayak fish the Windward side in the Summer because of the prevailing Trade Winds. When the winds slow down during the Fall, ono, shibi ahi, mahi and kawakawa can be caught on live opelu. Last Friday, I checked a spot I hadn’t fished since last Fall, while a friend checked our normal Windward spot 5 miles away. Two days after that, friends checked the same spot I had fished on Friday.

Here’s what we experienced: Opelu was spotted but hard to catch. I didn’t catch any, but the two other guys caught 1 each and caught a kawakawa on it. Took more than an hr for their kawakawa to find the live bait.

I checked a 1 square mile area for bait and bottom fish and areas that are normally covered with juvenile fish in the Fall were barren. An area at 250ft that yielded ulua and kahala in the past had 6 inch opakapaka. At 1pm, after the big high tide turned, I stumbled upon active fish in 80ft of water. For more than an hr, ever drop of damashi got bit but the fish were either too small, the wrong species, or broke the line.

The hot bite was at a drop off that started in 50ft and extended past the 80ft mark. Omilu were at the deeper edge and so was a Lehi (Rusty Jobfish), which I thought was a pale wahanui. Another unusual fish that pulled line was a mongoose fish or cigar wrasse. I’ve caught these whipping the flats but had never seen one this big.

Stringers of yellow spot mixed with weke nono / weke ula came up but they were under a pound. When my damashi rig got busted off and an 11 inch weke nono came up alone, I kept it out of spite.

Even toau and taape hit the damashi, on the shallower side of the ledge. I killed the taape and kept the toau.

My neighbor Brian pan fried the toau and found it flaky and mild.

The 11 inch (fork length) weke nono was stuffed with baby fish, which led me to believe the frenzy of fish were attacking a school of baby critters. I filleted the weke nono for sashimi, and sadly didn’t get much yield after the bones were cut out. It was a little soft because I didn’t get a chance to dry age it in paper towels to take out the remaining moisture. Still was non-fishy with a nice, soft texture, one of my favorite fish to eat raw.

My Takeaways:

• The ecosystem that attracts large fish to the nearshore area isn’t developed in the early summer.
• Opelu is hard to catch this time of year.
• Weke nono need to be at least 1.5 lb to yield enough sashimi.