It’s been too windy to fish anywhere else, so a friend and I went back to the Westside on the New Moon, hoping to pull some fish up from the depths. He was paddling without aid of a motor and the unexpected strong winds generated from rain squalls kept him within a safe distance of our launch.

I checked out some recommended grounds 2 miles away but only taape and small moano were interested in the damashi (sabiki) rig. The 120g tungsten knife jig did work as an attractant on my jigging setup, when the teaser lure hooked a small weke ula / weke nono, but nothing hit the jig itself.

The wind and rain increased and my friend decided it was not worth the battering, and went in. I moved closer to the launch but was stubbornly trying to catch something good to take home. In the peak of the downpour, at 150ft, a menpachi came up. They normally only feed at night, but this is the 2nd time I’ve caught one in heavy rain in this area. It was big enough to keep and gave me hope for more.

There was a small area that was marking fish but I couldn’t stay over it in the wind so I eventually gave up and moved within half a mile of shore. I baited one of my hooks and a pink tail triggerfish (hagi) immediately jumped on. After catching and releasing 5 more stinky hagi I decided to drop down the underwater CanFish CamX camera with 2 soft plastic lures, and added some fish skin on the bottom hook.

I was shocked when something actually pulled drag, after not hooking anything that large all day. I was hoping it was an uku (green jobfish) since I was fishing over a reef, but instead of good sized weke ula / weke nono came up. Finally something my family could enjoy!

I dropped the camera rig down again, hoping lightning would strike twice. Nothing else bit and I decided I should be happy with God have given me, so I went in. When I looked at the underwater footage at home, I was stunned to see 2 weke nono and an omilu check out the rig, with one of the weke nono gulping down the lure. On the next camera drop, a blue/gray nabeta swam by. I would so surprised to see such desirable fish a half mile from shore.

Here’s the underwater video, with my in-the-kayak view also.

The weke nono weighed almost 2.5lb and the fillets were so clean. We ate it raw as sashimi and poke, and it was still non-fishy and firm 5 days later. The menpachi, first I’ve ever cleaned, was good shoyu/sugar Japanese style.