The stars aligned and an old kayak fishing partner was able to join me for a very relaxing day 2.5 to 3 miles offshore at a Windward spot I hadn’t checked in almost a year. I hadn’t fished with Guy in almost 2 years. The water was sheet glass for most of the day and the Pre-Eddie Aikau North West swell wasn’t wrapping into this area yet.

Guy pedaled his Hobie Compass with help from a stern mounted Bixpy motor, and I paddled my Trident Ultra with help from my rudder mounted Bixpy. Over flat calm water I was averaging 3.5 mph on the 4th of 12 speeds. I pulled up at a spot where I previously caught a lone opelu that turned into my first ever kayak kawakawa the last time we fished this spot together. You can read about that trip here.

What looked like suspended opelu didn’t bite so we searched around and Guy landed a much coveted nabeta, calling me over. After we both picked up nabeta just off the bottom, my damashi was stopped on the way down by 2 opelu! We couldn’t find any more so we each put one out and headed out to deeper water. Guy’s free swimming bait got taken and I went out deeper to drift my weighted bait in. I hooked something on my 12lb damashi line with a lot of headshakes and 8 mins later a 5lb white papio finally reached the surface. The little gold hook was secured perfectly in its lower jaw. A friend has been asking for papio for years now so I decided to keep it for him and stuffed it in my fish bag filled with ice cubes and Arctic Ice blocks.

A bit later, I saw a few midsized fish flash on the surface and my weighted opelu got pulled for 8 seconds while I was frantically trying to bring in my damashi, and the opelu was pulled off. Just another pulled bait in the “off season” of Winter. I’m telling myself the fish are too small to swallow the opelu and too small to care about but what if they are legit sized pelagics?

Put a twice thawed-and-refrozen opelu out on the weighted rig and resumed damashi fishing while I drifted. Up came what I thought was an orange kumu but a friend Kelly later identified it as a “yellow threaded goatfish“, which is uncommon in Hawaii. It was returned to its home with a hole in its lip.

Then I ran across a big mark attached to the bottom and pulled up an 8 inch weke nono / weke ula. Too small to keep so I moved away from the area.

Stumbled upon another opelu while damashi fishing but nothing substantial hit that when it was put out. Guy was enjoying the damashi fishing with the flies he tied and was weeding through a variety of reef fish in water shallower than I was fishing, keeping the invasive but good to fry taape. I headed to a sandy area to get away from the hoards of hagi (trigger fish) and wasn’t getting any bites on my CHL Minnows until I put a piece of opelu on the damashi hook. Instant nabeta, though small. I got another one that way but then it was time to head in.

We did have to keep alert though. There was a juvenile whale slapping the water with its tail and Guy heard what sounded like a shark attacking something on the surface. So much life in this area. What an enjoyable day experiencing all this just a few miles offshore and bringing home enough fish for our family to eat.

I scaled, gilled & gutted and clipped the fins, scutes and tail off the papio to make it easier for my friend to process. Within 2 hrs of giving it to him, he and his wife ate most as sashimi and made soup out of the head and bones. At 5lbs the risk of having a significant amount of ciguatera in its body was very low.

I decided to cook the nabeta for my wife and dad which I hadn’t done in a couple of years. Following Haru’s recipe, I salt and peppered the gutted and gilled nabeta (left the scales on), then rolled them in corn starch. I fried them outdoors over a propane stove ’til they were golden brown, pulled them out to cool, then fried them til they were a crispy, dark brown. We could crunch through most of the bones and fins, albeit carefully. So ono with a drizzle of ponzu sauce but it’s also so messy to deep fry in a frying pan!

Guy deep fried his nabeta and taape outdoors without any batter, in a wok over a gas stove, using a splash screen to keep the mess down. His family ate all but the center bones and loved it. Hopefully he can free up to fish with me again!