During the winter “off season”, I’ve been fishing the deep water Windward spots.  Haven’t landed a decent fish in the last 3 outings. Each time I had a big strike that either broke off or slipped off.  So I went back to the general area where I got the awa awa a few weeks ago, and fished the slight tidal rise in pure glass conditions. I headed away from the area that had been productive, and paddled around for nada.  Nothing wanted to eat a slightly tired, tub-raised oama.

When I returned to the previously productive area, my fish finder lit up with fish on the bottom and fish breezing near the top.  I slowed to let my oama sink to the bottom and sure enough something pulled against the hard drag for a few seconds. The oama was gone but the two hooks were left intact.  This happened 2 more times even though I made the drag really tight.  I found out what this strong armed Houdini was on the next strike.

I got a hit near the papa (reef) edge and the fish ran faster than a papio normally would.  It fought the tight drag for a while and stayed deep. I could see the oama’s white color but couldn’t see what was under it.  When I finally began to see color, I saw fluorescent blue fins and a tail. A long omilu perhaps?

Arrghh, no, a big crocodile needlefish or aha, nicknamed “blue bone” because it has blue-green bones. These fish have been known to jump out of the water and unintentionally (we hope) spear people in the head and chest, causing a few very unfortunate deaths.

Not sure if you can tell how large the fish was, next to the kayak with the oama still on one of the hooks, but it was somewhere between 3 and 4 feet.  The rear hook is in his jaw but he had bitten off the line connected it to the front hook.

If you look at his top jaw, I think those cuts were from each successful attempt to steal the bait.  So this is the guy responsible for all the hard strikes and lost fish I’ve been getting.  Kill fight yeah?

Well, I had a few more live oama so I lowered one down the side of the kayak and immediately hooked up.  Ugh, another aha since I was right on the papa edge?  But no, this fish pulled a little slower and more steadily; it could even turn the kayak.

I was pleased to see a lightly hooked, 2lb plus awa awa.  I looked at my watch and it turned out that the flurry of action happened right at the peak high tide and ended 30 mins later.  I guess aha and awa awa like the slack high tide so they don’t have to fight the current. Kaku are lazy like that too.

So now I know what’s been ripping drag and stealing baits.  I did have a strong fish cut me off on the reef, and a really heavy creature pull me around for 20 minutes.  Guess I need to go back and solve those mysteries.