Friends from SoCal were in town a few weeks ago and I wanted to take them fishing but the nearshore prospects had been so dismal. I opted to take them torching (reef exploring at night) instead. The conditions were perfect for that: minus tide shortly after dark with very light winds. Ben and his wife Zooey had snorkeled in HI but had never explored the night time reef before, so they were super excited. They happen to own the Promar / Ahi USA company that sells nets, head lamps, gloves and air pumps, as well as the Live Deception jigs and floating landing net mentioned on this site, so torching would be a fun way to test their own gear. I hadn’t torched in a few years and had never gone when the moon was as large as it was. I was hoping we’d at least see critters moving around in the well lit sky but feared they’d be harder to net than when they’re sleeping under a dark moon.
We didn’t take any spears and didn’t plan on keeping anything besides off season oama but they were hoping to at least see the night tako and white eel they had heard so much about.
When we got to the water Ben immediately spotted a 9 inch weke in an area I had just quickly walked past on earlier trips. If the fish was sleeping, we would have tried to place the net on top of the fish, but I had a feeling this one was ready to make its escape. Zooey expertly used a net in each hand and chased the weke into the net with the squared edge. Impressive for her first attempt ever!
Ben spotted a slightly smaller weke shortly after, and netted it before I could video the capture.
I was amazed at their dexterity to net fish under the big moon but this school sized oama was wise enough to slip away.
We were just 30 mins into our expedition and they had already seen more fish than I had ever spotted in the “dead zone”.
Ben is using the Promar 180 lumen headlamp, collapsible net with tangle free mesh, and latex grip gloves.
The moray looked whitish when illuminated, hence the mistaken identity.
I really wanted them to experience the area that normally has the most sea creatures so I explored ahead but turned to see them huddling over something in their net. They thought Ben had cornered a harmless white eel but were a little shaken when I explained that they had netted a sharp fanged moray eel!
We made it to the section that normally holds a greater variety of fish and Zooey gently netted a moorish idol.
She followed that up by coaxing the odd looking saron or marble shrimp into the net.
Ben gently placed it back near its home.
The Toby puffer is the dark oval thing in the bottom right.
Best of all, Zooey found a cute little Toby puffer to replace the one that had been the mascot of this site. We saw a small night tako but no white eels and much less critters after the first 2 hours. Ben and Zooey really appreciated the night life they encountered in the shallows, something most Hawaii visitors don’t get a chance to experience.
Except for the largest weke that got spooked and jumped out of the tub on its second night of captivity, the other fish are alive and doing well as pets in my tub at home. Catching oama by hook during the day is much more efficient than scooping them at night, but it was fun to hunt them that way.
Like his/her predecessor, the new Toby quickly got used to being in captivity and swims to the surface to be fed, spitting water at us.